Swept Away Read Online Free PDF Page B

need done? I can’t seem to find Mr. Banks.”
    “Oh, he’s probably down at the dock fishing. He’s put in an hour or so of work, time to play.” The woman wiped her brow with a handkerchief. “I suppose as long as you belong, I can get inside. I can’t handle this heat. You may as well relax and have a look around the island. Murray will put you to work when he feels like it.”
    With that, the door slammed, and she was gone.
    Tucker made his way back to his cottage. He’d ask Josie if there was a password. He knocked on her door. She didn’t answer. Looking in the window, he could see her in her kitchen. He knocked again. She ignored him. “Josie?” he shouted through the door. Still no answer.
    He turned to leave when he heard her door open.
    “Uh, hi,” she said, blushing.
    Afraid she’d lose her nerve and slam the door, Tucker asked quickly, “Hey, I was trying to get on the internet. Didn’t know if there was a password?”
    “Sorry. No internet.”
    “No internet?”
    Josie shrugged. “Nope. Hetty says it’s a luxury.”
    “I just met her, and I’m not shocked she said that,” he said, trying to make conversation.
    “Hetty?” Josie grinned. “She was that nice, huh?”
    “If by nice, you mean rude and bitchy, then she was a total sweetheart.”
    Josie laughed. Her shoulders rolled forward with the effort, and she covered her mouth with her hand. “She’s crusty, but sweet in her own way.”
    “I can see that. She made it clear she wouldn’t tolerate any bull from me. Says she fired the last guy?”
    The color washed from Josie’s face. “Yeah, he didn’t work out.”
    Tucker nodded. “Well, I’m glad for my sake he didn’t. I’ll have to keep my nose clean.”
    “Oh, I have a feeling you’ll do fine. You have the look of good people.”
    Tucker nodded. A smile twitched at his lips. “That’s a plus.  I like to think I’m good people.”
    “Hetty is good people too. She’s grumpy, and you never know what she’ll say. But she’s very kind, she and Murray both.”
    “It’s not Aunt Hetty and Uncle Murray?”
    Josie’s eyes widened. “I didn’t meet them until I was sixteen. Calling them aunt and uncle feels awkward. It’s like consciously, I know they’re my family, but they don’t feel like my family.” She leaned back against the doorframe.
    “I understand that,” Tucker said.  “I grew up never knowing my real dad. If he was in my life starting now, I wouldn’t call him dad either.”
    Josie nodded. “I never met mine either. To be honest, my mother wasn’t ever really sure who to blame. She had a few guesses…there was her high school gym teacher, her senior prom date—“ Josie stopped mid-sentence and bit her lip. “I’m sorry, I don’t usually admit that. I’m not sure what came over me.”
    “It’s all right. My mother told me my father was sperm donor eleven-one-five my whole life. Turns out, it was an old boyfriend of hers.”
    “Did you ever find him?”
    “Yeah, right before I came here. He had a stroke and is in a nursing home. It was a waste of time.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry. That must have been very disappointing.”
    “It was, a little.” Tucker stuffed his hands in his pockets. The tiniest twitch of guilt told him it was wrong to use his dad to get her sympathy, but it worked so well, he had no intention of stopping. Should he add in the long-lost sister?
    “So, what brings you here?” Josie asked.
    “Just got back from Iraq and needed….wanted something different.”
    Josie nodded slowly.
    A quick internal debate nixed the idea of telling her about Maddy. If the Mad Mags clue was a dead end, she’d expect him to move on, to keep looking for his sister. But standing here, looking into a set of eyes he could only describe as hypnotic; in a place he could only call perfect—he knew—he wasn’t going anywhere else.
    “This is the perfect place for different,” she said. “There’s so much history and beauty. And when the