Sailing at Sunset - Cindi Madsen Page 0,55

was just so I could breathe. Those things were tight.”

Danae laughed, imagining a teenage Josh wearing a candy necklace and playing with his little sister. Seriously, how could she not swoon over that? “Does she live in Newport, too?”

“Basically—my entire family relocated to the suburbs, so they’re not too far. I met with her the night before leaving for this trip, and she informed me I’m gonna be an uncle.”

“Aww. Congratulations.”

“As you saw with my marshmallow, patience isn’t my strong suit. Seeing the baby will be cool and all, but I’m counting down the months until he or she is old enough to go sailing. It’ll be nice to have a co-captain, so when I’m old, I can doze while they do all the work.”

She was already psyched for how much fun that kid was going to have with their uncle. Being on this trip reminded her of the skills Dad had taught her on the boat: patience, and being able to react under pressure, and preparing for every scenario—at sea anyway—and gratitude filled her that Dad had taken her along.

Josh shifted into tour-guide mode, telling her about the tabernacle that had been built in the mid-1800s. People would come with tents so they could immerse themselves in a week of preaching and religion. Eventually, they erected the tiny cottages.

“A lot of these houses have been in their families for centuries,” Josh said, “and most of the lanterns are handmade. Some are a decade or two old.”

Danae paused to study an illuminated blue umbrella with painted-on cherry blossoms. The couple on the porch greeted them from their rocking chairs, and Danae lifted her hand in a wave. “Your home and the lanterns are lovely.” She stepped a bit closer so she wouldn’t be in the way of people who wanted to continue down the sidewalk. “Do you get tired of lighting everything?”

“It’s really just the summer and early fall,” the woman said. “I look forward to it, actually—it’s like a celebration every night. We get to connect with our neighbors and meet the tourists and newcomers to the island. It’s always been a tight-knit community, and it draws us even closer together.”

The cheeriness in the woman’s voice transferred to Danae and settled in her soul. She wished the friendly couple a goodnight and strolled on, basking in the glow of the lights.

As they reached the end of the loop, she couldn’t help taking one last glance. “I was thinking how nice it’d be if every community had something like this to bond them. Then it hit me that that’s exactly what Mr. Barton wanted—it was all part of his grand scheme, or whatever. He was in the Navy and he said there was nothing like being in close quarters on a ship to learn about people and how to work with them.”

“True. Even when I charter trips that are only a few days, I always discover interesting facts about the people onboard. Once you learn more about people and what makes them tick, it becomes easier to get along with them.” He nudged her to the far edge of the sidewalk to avoid a group of boisterous college kids. “I still spend most of my days and nights alone on my own ship, though.”

“And look how well you get along with yourself,” Danae teased, and his laugh vibrated through the air and settled squarely in her solar plexus.

Josh ran his fingertips across his whiskered jaw. “I meant more that I’m not sure I could do it for months and months. I need my space and alone time.”

She nodded, wondering how to take that. Was he hinting that he wasn’t interested in a relationship? If that was the case, she needed to stifle the crush she was developing on him before it got out of control.

Logic had gone on a bit of a vacation, caught up as she was in the fairytale outing. As it reawakened, it dawned on her that she should be shutting those types of feelings down anyway. This was a business trip. Her entire marketing strategy needed tweaking and unanimous approval. She had big milestones to hit, such as keeping her job title and launching a new campaign, and that was only the tip of the iceberg as far as her goals for the year.

As it was, she had way too much to do in the next four days, and flirting with an unavailable sailor was so not in the plans.

Chapter Fifteen

Danae studied the half-made sailboat on