Lured In Read Free

anything. And maybe it was, but that didn’t make it any easier for Jessie to get over it.
    “You don’t know what it’s like, Kate. When people find out you have a fear or phobia, they generally fall into one of two camps. In Camp A are the people who think you need to be protected from that fear, so they smother you with kindness, doing everything they can to shelter you and keep you as far away from it as possible. The people in Camp B insist they can cure you of it; they’re the ones who get up in your face and start pushing you to do things you’re not ready to do.”
    “Not everybody’s like that.”
    “No,” Jessie conceded with a smile. “Not all, but outside of you guys here, everyone else who knows has fallen into one of those categories.”
    “Which camp did you think Sam would fall into?”
    “I had no idea, and that’s what worried me. One more reason I didn’t tell him.”
    “So how did you leave it when you moved back here, then? What excuse did you give for not wanting to see him anymore?”
    Jessie pulled her feet up onto the chair and tucked her knees under her chin.
    “I told him I needed to put all my energy and focus into getting this place up and running again, and he was heading down to the Gulf to scout out locations anyway, so we just sort of…left it.”
    “But—hang on—before you started to say something about how you would have ended it anyway. Why?”
    Jessie lifted her hands a little, then let them fall to the armrests. “Maybe I just hadn’t given it enough time, but it never felt like I was falling hard for him, you know? I liked him, but when I look at you and Liam, I know I never felt that way with Sam.”
    “But surely you and he…?” Kate’s brow lifted, but she didn’t finish her question. She didn’t have to.
    “Eventually, sure,” Jessie said, shrugging slowly. “But it took me a while to get there with him.”
    “Hmm. Are you still friendly with him?”
    “Yeah, I still hear from him once in a while.”
    “Define ‘once in a while.’ When was the last time you heard from him?”
    “I don’t know, two or three weeks ago, I guess.” Jessie couldn’t help but smile. “He sent me a picture of him with this huge leatherback turtle he and his crew came across. I think I still have it if you want to see it.”
    “Two or three weeks,” Kate repeated, completely ignoring any mention of the turtle. “Okay. So not stalker-ish, but it’s possible that he’s still got a thing for you. Were you upset when it ended?”
    “Honestly?” Jessie cringed a little. “Not as much as I thought I should be, if that makes any sense. I mean, we had a pretty good time together, but it was only a few months, Kate; it wasn’t like we were the love of each other’s lives or anything.”
    “That doesn’t always happen overnight, Jessie; sometimes it takes time. And if he’s kept in touch, maybe he’d been hoping that’s where you were headed. Has he ever said he’s still interested?”
    “No, and I’m sure that once he gets here and finds out what a lunatic I am, it won’t really matter anymore, will it?” A quick rush of panic washed over her. “Oh my God, you don’t think it’ll ruin things for the Buoys, do you?”
    “How could it ruin anything? So he finds out that you don’t go in the water—big deal. What’s the worst that can happen?”
    Jessie snorted quietly, hoping Kate couldn’t tell how many ridiculous and unlikely reasons were now streaking through her brain.
    “Look,” Kate said, shaking her head. “The producer I spoke to told me Sam had already asked her to feel us out about filming here, but I called her before she had time to call us. I just assumed he was keen to get out on the boat with the fish whisperer, but I guess it’s
you
he’s keen on seeing, not Finn.”
    “Well, I don’t know about that. You know how guys are about fishing—they’d give up a kidney for a good day out on the water. And if that day includes going