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“Thank you. I’m flattered. But we can’t—” I had never been in a situation like this. I had no idea what to do, much less what to say. “I mean, you’re... and I’m—”

“After all that bragging,” he said, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against his seat, a small smile playing across his lips, “you’re the one at a loss for words.”

He was right. I was sputtering. I made a concerted effort to control myself.

But it was hard, because I still felt all melty inside, and my knees were like Jell-O.

I slid back onto the co-captain’s seat and tried to pull myself together.

“Look,” I said. “I’m sorry. I honestly don’t make a habit of going around doing that.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” He still had that little smile on his face, as if he thought I were the funniest thing in the world. “Because I found it very enjoyable.”

“Well, it’s not going to happen again,” I blundered on. “Because this is a book festival and I’m pretty sure I just violated about a million of your sexual harassment policies.”

He actually laughed at that. Laughed!

And then he said the thing that astonished me most of all, even more than my having kissed him, which had been very astonishing indeed:

“Jo, you can kiss me anytime.” He reached out to take my hand in his. “I—”

But before Will could get out whatever it was he wanted to say—or pull me toward him to plant another one of those spine-melting kisses on me, which I had to admit was what I was hoping for, even though I still hated him, I one hundred percent definitely did—a man’s voice called out from below, “Look!”

Unfortunately, I turned my head to look.

Garrett was pointing over the side of the boat at something he really wanted us to see. Something sleek and shining thatwas arcing through the surface of the water just besideThe Moment. Not just a single something, either, but dozens of them, each glistening and leaping in the bright sun, splashing through the water, having a grand old time.

It took me a second or two to register what I was seeing because I’d never seen them in the wild before. Or anywhere, really, except on screens.

“Are those...dolphins?” My voice came out a little throatier than I’d intended, mainly because Will was still holding on to my hand, and I could still feel the heat radiating from his body, and my heart was still banging against my ribs like a mallet thanks to his proximity.

“Yes,” Will said. He didn’t sound amused anymore. “Yes, that’s what I wanted to bring you out here to see. There’s a wild pod of dolphins that swims around here. I can’t always find them, but we got lucky today, I guess. I thought you might like to see them—”

“Jo!” Garrett’s voice cut through the moment—or whatever it was Will and I were having—like a rusty saw blade. “Get down here! You don’t want to miss this!”

That’s when Will seemed to realize what he was doing, and unfortunately—very unfortunately—dropped my hand.

“He’s right,” he said. “Why don’t you head down and take a look? You ought to be able to get a lot of nice photos for your social media.”

Chapter Twenty

What is wrong with you?” Bernadette demanded.

“Nothing.” I was standing in my hotel bathroom, attempting to apply a new layer of black eyeliner. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, for starters, because you were making out with Will Price on his boat this afternoon.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“I saw you with my own two eyes. Is sucking his face all part of the making-him-regret-his-life-choices plan, or have you decided to forgive him?”

“Hmph! Not likely, since I’ve yet to hear any sort of explanation from him for what he did that makes any sense. For a bestselling writer, the guy has a really hard time formulating words with his mouth.”

Although, to be honest, it turned out his mouth was capable of doing a whole range of other, much more interesting things.

“Whoareyou?” Bernadette asked. “And what have you done with my friend, Jo Wright?”

For a second I was worried she was reading my mind aboutthe things Will had done to me with his mouth, but no. She was sitting on the fluffy armchair in my hotel room, her feet up, thumbing through my copy ofThe Momentwhile waiting for me to get ready for dinner.