Page 55 of Third Time's the Charm

She sat back in her seat, examining me. “I like that you left him. He needed leaving. But you’ve both changed. If you’re choosing to be together again, knowing what you know now, why wait? Life here on the island can be silly sometimes. It’s why I like living here. But real life can be very hard. When you find happiness, enjoy it.”

I felt properly chastised. I bet she’d give anything for one more day with Jack’s dad. “You’ve known him longer than anyone else. You think he can keep up with me?”

She beamed. “Part of what I love about the two of you is watching what happens next.”

Her words were lovely but I didn’t have time to respond because I was too busy trying to figure out why I could hear Doug barking. I stood up. “That’s Doug.”

Cynthia popped up beside me. “You’re right. It’s coming from your house.”

And just then, Doug, followed by Rattlesnake and Skeeter, came tearing through town square with Larry, the Pirate King’s parrot, chasing after them.

“Larry!” Cynthia shrieked.

“Larry the Parrot!” the bird said.

Doug ran into the dining area, under some tables, upended a few chairs, and crashed into me. I, of course, went backwards on my ass. I’m not completely sure of what happened next because I had a dog on top of me and two cats meowing in my ears, but I gathered that Cynthia got Larry to behave because when I was finally able to sit up, she was marching toward home with Larry.

“Oh dear! Are you okay?” Bernice crouched beside me.

“I think I’m fine. I’m getting used to men flattening me,” I laughed while also scowling at Doug.

“Well at least you can joke about it,” Conchita smirked.

* * *

Later that nightJack came home and wrapped himself around me.

“You’re back,” I yawned. I wasn’t expecting him until tomorrow.

“I couldn’t wait.”

I sat up, brushing sleep from my eyes, and touched his forehead. “You willingly left the team early? Are you feeling well?”

He tried to rewrap his body around mine. “I’m feeling better than ever.”

“Jack!”

“Berlin.” He squeezed me tight.

“What is going on?” I tried to squirm away but he was twice my size, so I really don’t know where I thought I was going.

“Let’s go skinny dipping.”

I stopped fighting. “The water is freezing.”

“So? It’ll be fun, and then we’ll take a hot shower to warm up.”

I was sure he had other ideas for getting warm, too. “What time is it?”

He kissed his way up my body to my lips. “Two in the morning. No one will be out there but us.”

“Is the tide up?” I yawned, but I was actually thinking of saying yes to this.

“It is. Let’s go.”

I let him pull me out of my comfy bed and downstairs. He already had towels and robes waiting. New ones. These were not from the house. I didn’t question the forward planning. I was too excited to do something ridiculous. It felt like my adrenaline hadn’t pumped like this ages.

We climbed down to the cove, shed the robes, and ran into the water. It was every bit as freezing as I thought it would be. But I forgot about some of it when Jack wrapped his big, warm body around mine and plunged us even deeper into the cold water.

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