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waved before she seemed to be able to stop herself. When she realized what she’d done, she quickly glanced back at Joss, stowing her bounce and lowering her hands to her side.
    Joss caught site of Natalie moments later. Her head was down, and she was walking alone toward the front entrance. She studied the girl as she moved. She was cute. She looked a lot like her father. She was a little overweight, but she was tall enough to pull it off and look more athletic than anything. She was certainly far taller than Harper was, hell she was taller than Joss by an inch or two. Her hair was dark brown just like her father’s, and as she glanced up, Joss saw the same hazel green eyes too.
    Her glance moved back to the ground as her attention caught on something she obviously preferred not to acknowledge, and when Joss craned her neck to see, her heart pounded. It was Harper, Lena, and Jen. Both Lena and Jen were glaring at Natalie, and Harper was motioning them to follow her into the school, very obviously trying to distract Lena and Jen. But the two other girls were hard to dissuade, and as they continued to glare at poor Natalie, Joss stepped from her car.
    There was no denying she was livid at the other two. She was livid they’d been cruel to Harper the year prior, she was livid they were cruel to Natalie now, and she was livid they had any sort of influence on her daughter. Joss leaned back against the hood of her car casually, but her crossed arms and glare were all business. She leveled that glare at Jen and Lena. Neither girl had ever been rude to Joss, but Joss was certainly done playing nice with them. She studied them until they noticed her. The moment they did, their heads bobbled nervously, and they finally followed Harper into the building.
    As Joss pushed herself from the hood of her car, Natalie walked by, and Joss threw out a quick “hi” to her. Natalie glanced around, shocked that someone had spoken to her for a moment, but when she caught site of Joss, she stopped.
    “Hi.” Her voice was quiet but polite. “You were talking to my dad in the parking lot yesterday. You’re Harper’s mom?”
    “Yes. I’m Joss. You’re Natalie. New to Bristol Island this year, huh?”
    Natalie nodded, smiling politely.
    “Well, I’m glad you’re here. Bristol’s beautiful, and it’s nice to have new folks in town.”
    “Thanks.” She seemed almost leery of Joss. As she turned to leave, she tossed out quickly over her shoulder, “Bye.”
    When Joss turned to climb back in her car, her gaze stopped dead on Isaiah three cars away. He was standing at his driver’s door watching her intently. His stare was unreadable, and she had no idea if he was upset with her or not. As she watched, he climbed back in his SUV and drove off, leaving her staring after him completely and utterly confused.
    He may or may not have been upset with her on that day, but it took her little more than a week to test his limits again.

Chapter Four
    “Sorry, folks. Shouldn’t be more’n an hour, and we’ll be underway.” The man’s hands were held up as he made the announcement to the fifteen or so odd ferry goers.
    It was a mistake to wait so late to catch the last ferry back before Isaiah needed to pick Nat up from practice, but he’d be damned if it wasn’t exactly what he’d done.
    He’d spent the day on the mainland. He needed stuff. Just stuff. He could have likely gotten said stuff at a few different mom and pop type places on the island, but he’d opted instead to pad the pockets of the corporate tycoons by visiting a massive discount stuff store where he could buy everything under one roof. That’d teach him. What was so impressive about having everything under one roof anyway?
    When he dialed Nat to let her know he was going to be running late, it went straight to her voice mail. He hung up with an exasperated sigh. Of course she couldn’t answer. She was in practice. He tried again a few minutes later, and this time when