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“I’m Dan.” He smiled.
Her heart fizzed. Good-looking guys always made her feel tongue-tied, like she was still the pale ugly duckling she’d been years ago in high school. “Uh…” She swallowed against the squeakiness. “I’m sorry.”
His mouth curled up one side. “Well, hello, Sorry.”
She blinked. “I meant I’m sorry for scratching you.” She motioned to his gouged hands. “I didn’t know what was happening.”
He shrugged, his gaze dropping to study her knees. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’ll be right.”
“As long as the sharks don’t get a whiff of it, we’ll be okay.”
“Sharks?” Her eyes widened.“There aren’t any sharks around here.” Were there?
“Hey, I need an excuse for the lack of bites today. Not everyone will believe a mermaid chased them all away.” He turned to reel in a line.
Her cheeks heated. There was a limit to how much apologizing one person should do per lifetime. “I was just trying to get to the buoy.”
“Did you say boy? What boy?” He frowned and moved closer to the front of the boat, stripping off his shirt as he scanned the water. “Why didn’t you say so?”
She blinked. The man’s torso screamed muscle definition.
“Hey!”
Her eyes snapped back up to his face—his frowning face.
“Where’d you see him?”
“Who?”
He muttered something under his breath and shook his head. “The boy!”
“What boy? I meant that buoy!” She pointed to the red-and-white floating structure.
“Huh?” He blinked. “You mean the boo-ey?”
She nodded.
He stared for a moment, then cracked up, his laughter echoing around her.
She stiffened, his mirth layering new ice around her heart. Laughing off tease was like worship leading—she couldn’t do either anymore. She studied the lake’s far shore until a huge shiver betrayed her self-control.
“Hey.”
She looked back, and he gently lobbed a blue towel at her. “Get dry, then you can show me where you belong.”
Sarah wrapped the towel around her shoulders, huddling into its soft warmth as his words pierced her soul. Where she belonged? How about back home in Sydney, or maybe in PNG. Better yet, next to Stephen—that was where she really belonged. Grasping the ring on her left finger, she blinked away the hot sting in her eyes.
Be brave.
Dan started the engine, then glanced at her, amusement still sketched on his face. “Now, where shall I take you?”
Throat clogged, she pointed to the jetty belonging to the big house next door.
He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She tilted her chin at his odd look, then nodded before glancing away.
