She jerked free of his hold. “I didn’t say—”
“You didn’t have to,” he said, slipping his arm through hers and tugging her toward the back door. “Come on, Jamie boy.”
With the dog at their side, Jack opened the door and let the soft spring night weave its magic around the woman he’d come to care for in such a short time. He didn’t dare think about just how much he cared…not yet. There was time to mull that over later tonight after she’d gone.
“The moon’s waxing.” When she didn’t respond, he added, “Did you ever go for a sail on a moonlit night? Just ghosting along with the evening breeze?”
This time when their eyes met, hers were dry. “No. But Peggy and I borrowed her dad’s rowboat one night and lost the oars in the middle of the pond and had to jump in and drag the boat back to shore.”
He fought against the need to laugh. “I’m sure Mr. McCormack wasn’t too happy about that.”
“He never found out.”
“He liked to go fishing in that boat. Did you have enough money saved up between the two of you to buy him a new set of oars?”
She shook her head. “I made them.”
“Oars?” She’d certainly surprised him. “That must have taken weeks.”
“Actually only one. I learned from the best how to use my grandfather’s woodworking tools. Once Peggy and I confessed to her mom what happened, she helped keep Mr. McCormack busy so that he didn’t have time to go fishing until I’d finished the oars.”
“And he never knew?”
“Well…we were a lot younger then and were so worried about getting caught that when he never said anything, we figured we’d dodged getting in trouble big time. I never really thought about it until a few years ago.”
Her smile had him asking, “What happened?”
“Her dad stopped by our house one night and asked if I’d be willing to make another set of oars for his cousin—like the one’s I’d replaced his with!”
“He wasn’t mad?”
“No.” Her eyes sparkled with life and laughter as she told him, “Apparently, the grips on his old oars weren’t as smooth and didn’t fit his hands as well as the ones I’d made.” She shrugged. “Who knew?”
“Apparently everyone but you and Peggy.” When she fell silent, he slipped his arm free so he could wrap it around her waist and lead her toward the woods. “How long have you wanted to be a carpenter?”
“Half my life,” she said, then pulled to a stop. “You weren’t supposed to ask me that.”
“Because?”
“I don’t want my dad to worry that I’ll stop working for the family business the way Grace plans to.”
“But you’ve thought about it.”
She sighed and began walking again. “Yeah. Does that make me disloyal?”
“To want to be able to do something other than work in the family business?” He tightened his hold on her and answered, “No.” Seeing the worry on her face, he reassured her, “I don’t gossip like your friends down at the diner. Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Did you ever think about doing something besides following in your father’s footsteps?”
He looked up at the stars and smiled. “Yeah…but I got to do it.”
“Oh?” she asked. “What was that?”
“Do you see that star over there?”
She turned to look in the direction he pointed. “Yes…isn’t that Polaris?”
“Brightest star in the northern sky. You can navigate by it.”
“You really wanted to enlist in the navy?”
“I wanted to sail the seven seas, learn to navigate the way ancient mariners did.”
“I thought you were just following along with the Gannon tradition of seafaring navy men.”
“There was that,” he admitted. “But even as a kid, I’d sneak outside with my sleeping bag and sleep out under the stars, wondering what it’d be like to use them to find my way out on the sea.”
“And did you?”
“Yes, and it was everything I’d imagined and more than I’d bargained for.” Before she could ask him to explain, he turned her into his embrace. Her gentle curves pressed against the hard planes of his body, setting off sparks that threatened to ignite. He didn’t have the will to step back or let her go.
“Will you kiss me in the moonlight, Cait?”
Every fiber of his being urged her to say yes. He didn’t know if he’d survive the night because in his imagination, he’d already sampled the honeyed sweetness of her lips.