“It does, but not at the pool.”
“Oh God, not the ocean again,” I said with genuine trepidation.
Brock gave a crooked smile. “No, not the ocean.”
Jessie opened an eye again. “Just think what she’ll do when she finds out that more than seventy percent of the planet is covered by oceans.”
This time, I shoved him. Then I looked back at Brock as I sat up and balanced on one elbow. “What’s the plan?”
“Well, I really liked that lagoon you and I went to yesterday.”
“Me too.” It was a lovely place.
“So I figured we could go exploring, see if there’s anything else like that on the island. But we can only do that if our resident cartographer would get his ass out of bed.” This time he was the one who gave Jessie a shove, and it was far more powerful than mine. Jessie had to fling his hands out to keep from ending up on the floor. “All right, I’m up, dammit.”
He sounded so much like a disgruntled teenager that Brock and I laughed.
Jessie sat up and stretched his arms over his head, displaying an impressive array of muscles. “Since you asked so nicely, I can tell you that there’s a waterfall a mile or two away. I circled it on the map, which I think is in my suitcase.”
“Can we get there by boat?” Brock asked.
“No, it’s toward the center of the island. There’s a path that leads there.”
“It’s probably covered with downed trees,” Kincade said. I hadn’t thought he was awake at all.
“I can’t imagine it’ll be all that hard,” Brock said. “But we can take our axes just in case.”
“Your axes?” I echoed. “You guys have axes?” Had I been sleeping with axe murders?
“We borrowed them from the lodge. Little by little, we’ve been tackling that pile of trees that you almost ran into that first day. We’ve almost got it cleared.”
“We wanted to do our part to help out since there was so much storm damage,” Brock explained as he saw the confusion on my face.
Wow. These men were strong and considerate. “Do I get an axe?”
“No,” three voices said. Boy, you almost crash a golf cart once, and no one trusts you with dangerous equipment ever again.
“What’s on your agenda, Maddie? Do you have time for a hike?” Jessie asked.
“Sure. All I’ve got scheduled is a fitting with Gina.”
“A fitting?” Brock asked.
“To make sure everything’s okay with her wedding dress.”
“Do you need to take your sewing machine for that?” Kincade asked. “I can drive you, if the big guy’ll lend me the keys to his golf cart.”
“No, I’ll just need some pins and stuff, but thanks.” Since last night, he really seemed to understand more about me—why I wore what I wore, why I sewed things, and all that.
“What time are you meeting her?” Brock asked.
“I told her after breakfast because I figured we’d start the morning at the pool. But I can go over before breakfast and see if she has time.”
“Better knock first to make sure the groom-to-be isn’t in there,” Kincade said with a snicker.
I giggled. “If he is, I can’t say much, seeing as I’m in a bed with three men right now.”
Jessie laughed, but Brock just looked sad again.
Concern filled me as I looked at him. I hated to see him left out all the time. Something had to be done about it—I just didn’t know what.
But all I said was, “I’m going to get dressed and head over there. And then, let’s hike.”
A nice hike, a scenic waterfall, and three hot-as-hell men. It sounded like a damn good plan to me.
20
Maddie
“God, this is beautiful,” I said as we hiked through an endless array of palm trees.
“It sure is,” Kincade said from behind me.
I turned around and raised my sunglasses as I stared at him. “Were you looking at my ass when you said that?”
He grinned. “You know me so well.”
“Some of us wish we didn’t,” Jessie said from behind him.
I lowered my sunglasses into place. Actually, they were Brock’s sunglasses. He’d lent them to me when I realized I’d forgotten mine. They were fun to wear. Maybe I’d have to buy myself some mirrored ones sometime. But probably they didn’t look as hot on me as they did on him. “Be good,” I mouthed to Kincade and then I started walking again, trying to catch up with Brock and his long-legged stride.
Jessie and his map had helped us find the trailhead, but after that, no map was needed. The path was fairly flat, and yes, there were some downed trees, but most of them were easy to climb over. And for the few that weren’t, Brock would go first, then Kincade would pick me up and hand me over to Brock’s waiting arms. I liked that part. I wasn’t used to men being able to pick me up so easily. It made me wonder how often they worked out. I needed to start doing that.