First Time in Forever (Puffin Island 1)

Emily finished her wine. “Lisa could run it at lunchtimes and weekends when the island is at its busiest. I’ve been going through the numbers, and her quietest time here in the store is lunchtime—I guess because people are either already on the beach or they’re in one of the restaurants or cafés. If we get the go-ahead with the license, we’re going to try it for a month. See what happens.”

“Leave it with me.” Ryan put the papers back on the table, and Lisa passed the wine across to him.

“Drink. You’ve earned it. You’re now officially part of the rescue team. I’m especially grateful since I know we’re in competition.”

“I can stand a little competition.”

“In that case, next time you hold a lobster picnic on the beach, Lisa is going to provide the ice cream.” Emily pushed the laptop toward him. “Take a look at these numbers, and tell me if you can see anything I’ve missed.”

He couldn’t see anything except those smoky green eyes and that soft mouth, but he forced himself to look at the screen. “Seems to me you’ve pretty much covered everything.” Up until now he’d only ever seen her out of her depth, literally and figuratively. It was interesting seeing her comfortable and confident. “Where’s Lizzy tonight?”

“Snuggled in the twins’ bedroom.” Lisa topped up all the glasses. “Hard to know which of them is more excited. Lizzy looks so much like them, they could be triplets.”

“She’s staying the night?”

“No, I’ll scoop her up when we’re ready to go home.” Emily shut down the spreadsheet and closed the laptop. “Which I guess is now.”

“You could leave her here and pick he

r up in the morning.” Lisa said it casually, but Emily shook her head.

“We’re taking this a step at a time.”

“You mean you’re taking it a step at a time.”

She smiled. “You’re right, that’s what I mean. Letting Lizzy sleep over is a step I haven’t reached yet.”

“Think what you’d be able to do with a whole night off.” Lisa grinned at her. “Adult company. Sleeping in.”

“I have to go.” Trying not to think of what he’d do with Emily if he had her in his bed for a night, Ryan stood up. “I need to work late to make sure you’re not going to put me out of business.”

Lisa laughed and walked him to the door.

*

“IT’S A CRIME that a man with a body like that should be allowed to wear clothes.” Lisa sat back down at the table. “That’s the worst thing about being a widow. No sex. Actually, it’s not the worst thing. The worst thing are the rules you don’t even know exist.”

Emily slid her laptop back into her bag. Having Ryan there had seriously disturbed her concentration. “Rules?”

“I call them Rules for Widows. Society has unwritten rules about when it’s decent to start seeing other men. The problem is that none of those rules take into account the quality of the relationship.”

“You were unhappy?”

Lisa stood up and walked to the bottom of the stairs, checking there was no sound from the bedroom. Then she closed the kitchen door carefully so there was no chance they could be overheard. “Miserable. My husband had three affairs that I know about, one when I was pregnant with the twins. There were plenty of times when I could have killed the bastard myself, so it makes no sense that I got lumbered with all this guilt when he died. Why should I feel guilty? I want to smack it out of myself.”

“Oh, Lisa—”

“Hey, life doesn’t always send us what we want, as we both know.”

A month ago Emily would have agreed wholeheartedly. Now she didn’t even know what she wanted. The feeling of panic that had been her constant companion when she’d first arrived had receded to manageable levels. She and Lizzy had found an easy rhythm that was unexpected. But most unexpected of all was how much she enjoyed her swimming lessons with Ryan. Not just being with him, but the actual swimming. It gave her a feeling of strength to have overcome a fear that had been part of her life for so long.

“Why did you choose Puffin Island?”

“Because it had happy memories for me.” A dreamy look crossed Lisa’s face. “My parents brought me every summer. Dad was a marine biologist, and he worked at the university, so we used to come for the whole vacation. We hired a cottage near South Beach and did all the usual beach-based things. Poking around in tide pools, kayaking—I loved it. I spent a couple of summers at Camp Puffin, but the happiest one was when I turned seventeen.”

“You met someone?”

“Took me five minutes to fall in love.” She reached for her wine. “Do you remember that exciting feeling of discovering your own sexuality as a teenager?”