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Bo could hear the scowl in her voice when she said, “I don’t trust Bastian. There’s something seriously wrong with him.”
Shockingly, Ismay was able to gather her things and get out of the cottage without incident. The TV was still on in the master bedroom, which came in handy because it covered the noise of their movements. Ismay guessed Bastian needed it to make him feel less alone. She never wanted to see him again.
Bo stood in the hall, watching her pack. Jack came in and grabbed some of the clothes she’d stuck in the drawers to make it quicker. While they were there, she motioned them to the closet and showed them the hole behind the board where the duffel bag had been. Jack gave her a perplexed look. He didn’t understand why it was there, but she indicated she’d tell him later.
Then she went into the bathroom and gathered her toiletries while Jack carried her suitcase out of the house.
Bo stayed, though, waiting for her.
When she had everything else, she whispered, “Let’s get out of here.”
But he didn’t move. He leaned in and lifted her chin with one finger before he kissed her, and when he broke off the kiss, she grabbed him by the shirt so she could pull him back for another.
He grinned when she finally let him go—seemed tempted to laugh—but sobered as he cast a glance at Bastian’s door and motioned her ahead of him.
They didn’t talk until they were outside with Jack, well away from the cottage.
“Will Bastian be mad when he sees that all your stuff is gone?” Jack asked. There were wheels on her suitcase, but the ground was so uneven he had to carry it.
Ismay looked back at what she could see of the cottage through the trees. “Who knows? He’s been all up in my business from the beginning.”
Jack switched her suitcase to his other hand. “Have you heard from Remy?”
Ismay hadn’t had anything to put the last of her toiletries in, since she’d already taken her smaller bag to Bo’s. She hugged her deodorant, face cleanser, and razor to her body while getting her phone from her back pocket. “Nothing yet this morning. But he sends random little messages.”
“Like...” Jack prodded.
“I love you... I could never live without you... I could never replace you...”
He gave her a funny look. “I could never replace you? That’s kind of a weird thing to say, isn’t it? What happened to, ‘I miss you’?”
Remy had good reason to be so conciliatory, but Jack didn’t know she’d caught him cheating. She’d only told him that she and Remy were taking a break, that she was starting to have second thoughts about marrying him because he was so aloof and hard to reach on a deep level. “He’s...different.”
“It’s a good thing he’s got a big exam,” Jack said, letting Bo take a turn with her suitcase. “That’ll keep him busy until you’re back on your feet emotionally.”
She wanted to ask him if he’d heard from Ashleigh, but was afraid that would only reopen the wound. “That’d be nice.”
They reached Bo’s bungalow and piled what they’d brought from the cottage in the back of Bo’s truck. “I don’t think Mom and Dad’ll be too upset when you tell them that you broke it off with Remy,” Jack said.
It certainly wouldn’t hit them the way the split between Jack and Ashleigh had. “Probably not. They’ve never even met him,” she said dryly, and Jack went inside to get his suitcase so they could haul everything over to Honey’s.
Jack took a seat by the large window in the living room and pulled Clementine into his lap. The cat started to purr the moment he began stroking her soft fur as if she was more than content to settle in with him, even though he was mostly a stranger to her. As vulnerable as he was feeling, that quick acceptance meant far more than it should have.
He’d enjoyed his stay with Bo. Bo was easy to get along with and the work had kept him busy during his toughest days. But even though Ismay was here with him, having Honey’s house gave him his own space again, and that put him at ease, made it seem as though he could slow down, take a deep breath, and simply recuperate.
With the sun streaming in—and not a cloud in the sky—he felt warmer, even on the inside, than he had since Ashleigh left, almost human again.
Although he’d doubted it at first, coming to Mariners was going to be a good thing. He was already changing, didn’t have to stay quite so busy all the time. It was as if Ashleigh had made him short circuit, but he was slowly rebooting and his systems were coming back up, one after another. Not being back home amid the gossip came as a relief. Ismay had yanked him out of that situation and given him a retreat.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back on the chair so the sun could hit his face more directly. In a little while, Bo was coming to get them for lunch. He was taking them to a little dive off the beaten path, which he said was the best-kept secret in town.
Hanging out with him and Ismay, having some good food, and decompressing even more sounded cathartic. And after lunch, Bo said he’d show them the library, since Ismay still had to return a book Bo had loaned her. Then they were going back to the beach. Jack hadn’t felt like swimming when he’d been there before, but today he was looking forward to barreling into the waves and being completely engulfed by all that churning energy. He knew he’d feel one with the anger of it as he swam—as hard as he could—against the current.
The bedroom door opened, and Ismay came into the living room. “What’re you doing?” she asked. “You didn’t take a nap?”
He lifted his head as he continued to stroke Clementine. “Didn’t need a nap. Unlike you, I wasn’t trying to escape Bastian in the middle of the night.”
She rubbed her face. “Lucky you.”
