Rafe blew out a breath. “I know. I know. Alright, get along with you.” He rubbed his jaw. “I’ve got some planning to do.”
“I’d ask what kind of plans, but I’m scared to know.”
Rafe shot me a look, then darted a glance at Mason. “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough, Fenn Reardon, don’t you worry. Enjoy your tour.”
“I think that man has finally lost his last marble,” I said, watching Rafe’s back as he retreated up the dock. “What the heck is he planningnow?”
Mason stepped closer. “I think he and Gloria have a romance going on.”
“Gloria?” I snorted. “GloriaGloria? No. No way. They’ve known each other for decades. She was friends with my aunt Mary.”
Mason made a noncommittal noise. “On this island, everyone is somebody’s friend. Pretty sure that doesn’t preclude people from having sex, Fenn. Or caring about each other.”
“Okay, I never want to hear you talking about Rafe and sex at the same time,” I warned him. “Besides, if they’re together, why wouldn’t she tell him if she was sick?”
Mason opened his mouth, then shut it again. He laughed shortly. “Right. Because people who aretogetheralways talk about hard things?”
I frowned. “So thereissomething wrong with Gloria?”
“I—” Mason shook his head. “You know, I have never had this problem before.”
“What problem?”
“Having to struggle not to share confidential information. In the past, my patients and my personal life never intersected.” He thumped me lightly in the abs. “But I’m not sliding down that slippery slope, so we’re changing the subject.” He took a step back and spread his hands. “You know, I boarded this vessel thinking I was going for a tour, but we haven’t even… kicked off, or whatever you call it. What am I paying you for?”
I folded my arms over my chest.Shit. I never got tired of looking at him, especially when he looked back at me like that.
“I wasn’t aware you were paying me at all?”
“Pfft. Not with that attitude.” He set his hands on his hips and waved a hand imperiously, looking just like the guy I’d picked up from the airport back in April. “I want my ghost stories.”
I grabbed Mason roughly by the front of his red polo shirt, dragged him a couple paces to the tiny cockpit, and pushed him against the back wall. His green eyes flared wide, and his mouth parted in surprise, but he didn’t object at all to the manhandling. In fact, the way his gaze kept darting to my mouth said he was very much into it.
“Who’s the captain of this boat, Loafers?”
He arched an eyebrow and bit his lip. “Oooh. Are we playing captain and naughty quartermaster now?I promise I didn’t mean to steal the treasure, Captain Godfrey. I’ll be good and share.”
I made a vomiting noise and pushed away from him while he cackled. “Why would you do that, when I have to tell that story six times a week?Why?”
Mason sat in the side chair looking all prim and proper in his ironed shorts and polo… until you saw his eyes, which were still filled with laughter.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d liked someone this much. When I thought about it too much, it scared the shit out of me.
“Alright, troublemaker. I’m casting off.”
Mason sat there, mostly quiet, until I’d steered us out into the water just south of the island. He propped his feet underneath the front window and leaned back in his chair, his eyes roaming over the boats and the island with undisguised curiosity that made me try to see things through his eyes, just the way he had since the day we met. It made my heart melt, and—
Okay. Seriously. I needed to stop.
“Right, so!” I began.
His eyes swung to me. “Oh! Treasure story time?”
“Uh-huh. During the dark and quiet of a summer evening in 1803, a merchant ship called theEsmerelda,laden with goods from Belize, having passed between Cancún and the island of Cuba made its way across the Gulf of Mexico…”
Mason watched me intently as I recounted the story of the hurricane and the shipwreck, most of which he already knew.
“They were injured and weary, half-drowned when they washed up here, on the rocky point at the southern tip of the key.” I pointed to the island, where we could see the Five Star Resort and the walkway to the beach over the sand dunes. “Resolute Goodman had a badly broken leg and Jacob Godfrey, his dutiful captain, refused to leave his quartermaster.”
