“Be right back,” she said as she followed Oliver over to see their friend. Oliver had been working with Jared to learn the investing business and was now doing that full time from the island and having great success with it.
“Alone at last,” Linc said as he put his arm around her.
Monique rested against him, warning herself to slow her roll, to be careful, to not risk more than she could afford to lose. She ought to pull back, to keep her distance, but that was the last thing she wanted to do after missing him so much.
“It means a lot that you came today.”
“I was hoping it would be a good surprise.”
“It was the best. I was feeling really low about it, and you made me feel better.”
“I’m glad.”
“How long can you stay?”
She gave a little shrug. “My stay is open-ended.”
“I love open ends.”
She laughed at the dirty way he said that.
“What about work?”
“I’m off for a bit.” She’d taken a leave of absence from her job as the branch manager of a bank in a Boston suburb. The job bored her, and since she’d received a decent settlement from her ex-husband, she’d decided to take a few months off to figure out her life.
“Is that right? So you’re kind of footloose and fancy-free at the moment?”
“I suppose I am.”
“That works out really well.”
“How so?”
“I’m off for a couple of weeks myself after working around the clock during the storm and extra hours for months since then. My commanding officer told me to get lost for at least two weeks and to not check in or else he’d write me up for being a workaholic.”
“What do you intend to do with this unplanned vacation?”
“I had no idea until about five minutes ago when you mentioned the footloose situation.”
“I believe you’re the one who called it that.”
“Are your feet loose, or are they not?”
“They are,” she said with a chuckle.
“As are mine. What do you say we be footloose together?”
“I’d consider that.”
He pulled her in closer to him. “I’m really glad you came today. The minute I saw you, I felt better.”
“In that case, I’m very glad I came, too.”
* * *
Oliver nudged Dara. “Look.”
“Where?”
