the crew at Holley Hall to take up to the main lodge in their carts.
JT’s smile tripled, if there was such a thing. “Yes.” His chest puffed out slightly. “Twins. They just had their first birthday last month.” He laughed. “Who would have thought…” He whipped out his phone and showed her a picture of two sleeping babies.
“A boy and girl.” She took his phone and looked at the kids closer. “She looks like you.”
“Sophia and Liam,” he added with a smile.
“Sophia looks like you, Liam takes after Emma. How is she doing by the way?” Bella asked.
“Great,” he answered when she handed him back his phone. “Enjoying having me working the ferry again and out of the house two days a week.” He chuckled.
“Getting underfoot?” she asked.
“No. Apparently, I keep waking the kids up. Checking on them too much.” He shrugged.
“Well, I for one am glad you were here to greet me and take me to the island.” She touched his arm.
“Had enough of your brother and sister-in-law?” he asked.
“No, I’m planning on telling them I’m in town later tonight,” she admitted.
That stopped him. “They don’t know yet?” JT’s tone turned worried and he glanced around.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s just… last time I knew something before Sarah…” Bella remembered that JT had known Sarah his entire life. “She about skinned me.” He wiped the sweat from the back of his neck. Since Bella had known him, JT had kept his blond hair long, but now it was cut shorter, and she wondered if it was because of the kids or the summer heat.
“Then don’t tell her you know,” she joked as she touched his arm. She walked off the dock just as a golf cart came rolling up to the end of the dock.
She squinted behind her sunglasses and shielded her face from the sun with her free hand to get a better look at who was driving. Then she stopped.
“What’s he doing here?” she asked quietly. JT shifted her bags under his arms and glanced up. She hadn’t let him take her guitar case from her, since his hands had been full with her other luggage.
“Oh, that’s Calvin. He runs the place now.” JT continued down the dock.
She’d known Calvin Winters for what seemed like her entire life. The man was her brother’s best friend. She’d only met him personally a handful of times back in her preteen years, when Ben and he had been going to the same boarding school. Back when she’d been an awkward teen with pimples, uncontrollable hair, and skinny legs that were too long for her body.
She’d had a crush on him from the moment she’d laid eyes on the picture Ben had sent of the pair of them at school.
The first time she’d met him was the year he’d tagged along with Ben on their summer vacation, when his parents had had something to deal with and hadn’t wanted their son around. Calvin had gone along with their family to Cancun for two weeks. He’d been a broody thirteen-year-old and Bella’s nine-year-old heart had been lost instantly. The entire trip, he’d barely said two words to her, but she’d lost her heart all the same.
She watched now as Calvin easily helped JT load her luggage into the back of the golf cart. The two men chatted casually as they went along.
She had felt the pull of sexual desire from plenty of men over the years, but none like what she’d experienced for Calvin.
Squaring her shoulders, she made her way slowly to the foot of the dock. She tried to focus on the dragonflies buzzing the water near the shoreline instead of the man watching her as if she were walking down a catwalk instead of the old dock.
“Hi.” She stopped and removed her glasses as he took her smaller bag from her hands.
“Miss Rothschild.” He nodded. “When I noticed your name on the registration, I thought it best to greet you myself.” He glanced back at the boat. “Your brother didn’t come with you?” He was treating her as if he’d never met her before. Did he even remember her? Maybe he didn’t? After all, it had been over six years since she’d last seen him.
He hadn’t changed much except for the slight dusting of dark hair over his chin and those new muscles she could see through his dress shirt. And he looked taller than he had before.
“No.” She frowned. “Why would he?”
He shook his head quickly. “No reason.” He reached for