Page 26

Sometimes the answer is in plain sight. Cameras are everywhere.

M eg had taken Watson out one last time when she’d got home, then she’d crashed. The next morning she wasn’t expected at the bookstore until later, and her assignment for Lilly wasn’t due until Tuesday. She slept in. She even turned off the alarm.

A pounding woke her and Watson up. Barking furiously, Watson jumped off the bed. Meg grabbed her phone to check the time. Seven. In the morning. On a Saturday. It had to be her mother. She needed to move farther away. First Romain, now Mom. “Shut up, Watson.”

Watson looked at her with sad puppy dog eyes. He was trying to save her life. So he ignored her direction and ran to the door to continue his barking. Meg wrapped a robe around her jammies and went to open the door.

“I take it you forgot we were going this morning?” Dalton stood there in shorts and a tank. He held a large cup from A Taste of Magic. “I’ve got cookies in the truck to take with us. Along with some water and sodas in a cooler.”

“Where are we going again?” Meg didn’t bother to try to explain. She had forgotten. So much for planning a fake murder this morning before she went to work. She opened the door wider and took the coffee. “I’m due at the bookstore at three.”

“Which is why we’re going early.” Dalton looked down at Watson. “I take it he needs to be walked.”

“Please. I’ll get ready. What’s the temp?” She eyed his shorts as she sipped her coffee. Dalton wore shorts a lot. She couldn’t always just match what he was wearing.

“Beautiful, but take a jacket. I know you can get chilled, especially on the water.” He put Watson’s leash on the dog’s collar. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Go get ready. I want to be out on the water by eight.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to this,” she called after him as he started down the stairs.

After pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she brushed her teeth.

She leaned closer to the mirror. Her green eyes didn’t look as tired as she felt.

Which was a good thing. At least she was alive and acting like it.

Not sitting around, stewing over Romain.

Of course, it was hard to miss the man, since he’d been on the island to see her twice since he’d come home from Italy.

She decided to split the difference and wore capris and slip-on shoes.

Then she put on a T-shirt and topped the outfit with a zip-up sweat jacket with the Island Books logo.

She and Junior both had a wardrobe filled with branded clothing from the store.

Mom gave it out for birthdays, Christmas, and just because.

Which worked well now that Meg was working at the shop.

Before she felt like a walking billboard for her mom’s business.

Meg walked out of the bedroom, dressed, with a bit of coffee still in her cup. She glanced at the coffee maker, but she knew Dalton probably wanted to leave. He was packing Watson’s tote bag. “So it’s okay if he comes, too?”

“Sure. Emmett has a dog he brings along to lessons. There’s even a life jacket on board for him.” He zipped up the bag. “Ready to go? Do you need to go potty?”

“I hope you’re asking Watson,” Meg responded as she grabbed her wallet. “Should I take a suit?”

“We’ll probably be back before it warms up enough that you’d want to swim.” He had his coffee cup now, too. “Do you want to refill your coffee? We can make a pot.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m good. Unless you need more?”

“I drank a pot before I left the house this morning. I’ve been up since five, waiting for you.

This is going to be a blast. Emmett’s sailboat is sweet.

I’d love to have one like her.” Dalton followed Meg out of the apartment with Watson on his leash.

He waited for her as she locked the door and tucked her keys in Watson’s tote bag.

As they walked, he filled her in on all the things about Emmett’s boat.

When they got to the marina, the parking lot was halfway full. As she climbed out of the truck with Watson, she asked, “Did people stay out last night?”

“No. This is mostly early birds. Kirk lives on his boat now, but don’t tell the marina security.

He says he’s there until he finds a place or Elaina takes him back.

Of course, it’s been six months, and neither of those things have happened.

” Dalton looked back at her and smiled, and Meg’s heart squeezed.

His blond hair sparkled in the light of the sunrise, and his blue eyes were crystal.

Luna was right; he was a good catch. So why hadn’t he married anyone yet?

“Are you coming?” He cocked his head as she stood on the ramp to the dock, watching him. “You’re not chickening out, are you?”

“Admiring the view.” She blushed a little.

He turned and watched the sun rise over Seattle. “We’re lucky. We live in a place where we get to view this beauty all the time. You have to take the time to enjoy it.”

After boarding Emmett’s boat and adjusting the doggy life jacket on Watson, they eased out of the marina and into Eagle Harbor as she watched a ferry come in to dock. Watson sat next to her, his body shaking. She reached down and rubbed his back. “It’s all right, buddy. Just a new adventure.”

After a while, Dalton eased the boat into a cove at the top of the island and dropped the sails so they would move slowly through the water. After taking out a water bottle, he came over and sat next to her, then offered it to her. “What do you think?”

“It’s so quiet out here.” Meg nodded to Watson, who had decided he was safe in the life jacket and had lain down to nap. “He was a little nervous, but I think the jacket calmed him down.”

“He’s less anxious than he was when we took him to the first bonfire.

Of course, this is a bigger boat.” He leaned back against the seat cushion and lifted his face to the sun.

“I could spend days out here hanging. It’s always changing, always different, yet somehow the same, if that makes sense.

I can imagine the local Native American tribe in their homemade canoes out here fishing and enjoying the sound.

Of course, it was probably a lot cleaner back then. ”

Dalton jumped up and grabbed a net from the side of the cockpit.

Then he skimmed the top of the water for a plastic bottle that was floating next to the boat.

“People throw all kinds of things out into the water, like it’s a trash can.

Not everything sinks. And some things do affect the local water creatures. ”

Meg thought about the night at the bonfire. Nate had been throwing his empties out into the waves. “Your bonfire buddies are bad about that.”

“A bunch of us take the time to clean up after the rowdies leave or pass out. We don’t want to be banned from the beaches.” Dalton took the bottle and put it in a trash bag. “We all do our part, right?”

“It’s too bad everyone doesn’t feel that way.

” She hadn’t liked Nate, and since she worked for Lilly, the feeling was mutual.

But she didn’t want to think about him today.

This was beautiful. She could see houses lining the edges of the island and wondered what Lilly was doing that day.

Jolene would be taking Sarah back to the ferry, and Lilly was probably leaving the island, as well, to grab a flight to Los Angeles.

She wondered if her uncle worried that she wouldn’t come back.

That she might try to skip out of the country.

“Penny for your thoughts. Please tell me you’re not thinking about him.” Dalton was watching her.

“No, I was thinking about Lilly and her book tour. But what was that about with Romain last night? I think he assumed I would be alone in the bookstore. He can’t imagine I’d take him back, right? You’re a guy. What’s going on in his head?”

Dalton shook his head. “I might be a guy, but what Romain did doesn’t make sense to me, so I can’t be your Romain whisperer.” He paused. “Do you miss him?”

Meg thought about her answer before she responded.

“No. Which is weird. I was so brokenhearted I destroyed my wedding dress. Now I’m too busy to even take a few minutes for his apology.

I guess being here has cleared my mind. I thought he was the one, but maybe I was jumping into something I thought would work out.

I had our entire life planned, but now that I look at it, I’m not sure he was the right man for what I want in life.

I was fitting myself into his life. Not creating one together. ”

“I think that’s smart.” He was watching Watson sleep now.

“I’m sitting here, boring you with my problems. Sorry. This morning’s sail was amazing. I’ve never been on the water this early, unless I was on my way to Seattle for something.”

“I always volunteered for the early shifts when I was in the Coast Guard. It’s like being at the beginning of the world when you watch the sunrise in the morning.

” He stared out at the water, then glanced at his watch.

“If we’re grabbing some food before you head to work, we better be making our way back. This has been fun.”

Meg watched Dalton turn the boat to port and hoist the mainsail for their return to Eagle Harbor, then she realized she hadn’t offered Watson water since they’d left the house. “Are you thirsty, buddy?”

Watson’s reaction when she pulled out his collapsible bowl told the story. After he’d finished, there was water all over the deck. “Hey, do you have a towel? I guess I took Watson’s out of the bag sometime yesterday.”

“In that compartment near the wheel.” Dalton pointed toward the back of the cockpit. “The water will dry.”

“We clean up our mess, right?” Meg didn’t want Emmett to notice a problem with his wooden deck and think it was Watson’s fault.