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her stomach and her face buried against them as sobs wracked her body. He didn’t know where to touch her, how to hold her. He was out of practice on knowing how to take care of anyone but himself.
    Luke finally knelt down in the rising water and picked her up to pull her onto his lap. He wasn’t expecting the wild cat that greeted him. Fists and elbows came at him followed by cries so wounded he couldn’t even imagine that sort of pain.
    “Ssh, baby. I’ve got you.” He held her tight and waited her out until he felt her strength begin to wane. “God, Jess. Tell me what to do. Tell me how to fix it.”
    She didn’t answer him but finally lay limp against his chest, her tears mixing with the rain. He felt her heart pounding and noticed the scrapes on her hands that were bleeding sluggishly.
    “Let me go.” He could barely hear the words her voice was so hoarse.
    “Not until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
    She pushed against his chest but she was as weak as a kitten so she didn’t budge from his grasp.
    “Let me help you, Jess. I’m not an idiot. I’ve obviously missed something that happened. Missed the real reason you left. Talk to me.”
    Her head tilted back and she looked at him out of the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “I’m fine. I just needed to get rid of some stress.”
    Disappointment speared through him that she didn’t want to confide in him, and he couldn’t exactly say he blamed her. But she needed someone to be there when she was ready, and he decided he was going to be that person. They’d both made mistakes in how they’d handled life apart, and it was obvious from the moment she walked back into his life that he couldn’t let her go again. She was his heart, and she’d been missing for much too long.
    “You can’t stay here,” he said.
    She hiccupped out a small laugh. “No kidding. I’m going to get a room at the inn until I find a place of my own.”
    “You’ll be lucky to find an empty closet. It’s high season and every cabin and hotel room is booked solid. Seeker’s Island is a lot more popular than it used to be. They featured the springs on one of those Travel Channel shows and we’ve been overrun with people ever since.”
    “Good for business,” she said, pushing out of his arms.
    Luke helped her to her feet and they stood facing each other while she pretended nothing had just happened.
    “Yeah,” he sighed. “Good for business. Lousy for privacy. You can stay with me until you find your own place.”
    “I don’t think so,” she said, making her way back to the golf cart.
    “The other option is for you to ferry over from the mainland every day. Seems like a waste of time to me. Especially now that you have a business to help run.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him and he knew he’d won. At least this round. “Do you have an extra bedroom?”
    “One or two. We’ll barely see each other. I pretty much work all the time.”
    “I’m here to stay, Luke.” The seriousness in her voice made him look closer, to see if he could read her moods and feelings like he used to. But it was no use. This Jessie James was a stranger in some ways, while in others she was as familiar as his own hands.
    “I believe you, Jess.”

Chapter Four
    ‡
    M ore than two weeks went by without a mention of what had happened her first day back on the island. She and Luke had managed to coexist with only minor bumps along the way. The biggest bumps were that they’d been dancing around each other in the confines of Luke’s home, pretending the tension wasn’t growing hotter and thicker between them with every passing day.
    The kiss had been a mistake, and it’s all she’d thought about since it had happened. And she recognized the signs that he’d been thinking about it too. The way his eyes lowered to her mouth whenever they were talking. The way he shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t touch her.
    Not that she hadn’t been having fun teasing him whenever