grinned despite herself. “I thought the object was to relax, that actually catching a fish didn’t really matter.”
“It doesn’t to me,” he said indifferently, then winked. “But you seem to need immediate gratification.”
“Is that an insult?”
He laughed. “Nope, just an observation. We’re going to work on that.”
“What if I don’t want to change?” she asked curiously.
“Then it will be more of a struggle than I’m expecting,” he said easily. “Go, put on a swimsuit under your clothes. Maybe I’ll let you race me to the dock later.”
“Will you let me win?”
“Not a chance.”
Ashley laughed. “Now you’ve really made it interesting. I’ll be right back.”
Upstairs, she pulled on her prim, one-piece bathing suit, then added a T-shirt, shorts and a pair of dingy sneakers she hadn’t worn since college. She grabbed her cap from the day before and a bottle of suntan lotion. She hesitated in the bedroom doorway as if she were forgetting something, then realized that going fishing didn’t require a tenth of the paraphernalia she took with her to work each day. It was actually a relief to go downstairs without a purse or briefcase weighing her down.
She took the keys from a peg on the wall, then announced, “I’m ready.”
Josh grinned. “Love the shoes. They make a statement.”
She glanced pointedly at his faded and misshapen boat shoes. “It’s not as if you just stepped out of a designer shoe showroom.”
“Hey, don’t you dare insult these old things. They’re just getting comfortable.”
They’d barely stepped out the back door, still bantering, when Melanie and Maggie rounded the corner of the house. Ashley’s good humor vanished in a heartbeat. She muttered a curse, ruing the day she’d ever interfered in her sisters’ lives, since they now seemed to feel totally free to butt into hers.
“We heard that,” Maggie scolded. “Is that any way to welcome your loving sisters who’ve come to check on you?”
“As if that’s why you’re here,” she retorted. “You’re here to spy.”
“Which would hardly matter if you have nothing to hide,” Melanie commented, her gaze on Josh. “Been here long?” she asked him.
“A few minutes,” Ashley responded emphatically.
“Then this is like a second date or something,” Maggie said. “Fascinating.”
“It’s not a date,” Ashley said automatically. “We’re going fishing.”
“Oh, yes, fishing,” Maggie repeated, amusement threading through her voice. “I forgot that doesn’t count. If it did, that would actually make this the third date, since you went fishing yesterday, too, isn’t that right, Josh?”
He regarded her with undisguised reluctance. “Don’t ask me. I’m staying out of this one. You ladies work it out. Me, I’m not much on labels. I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.”
Ashley frowned at him. “You are not. Otherwise—”
He interrupted, grinning at her. “Do you really want to go there?”
Ashley sighed and shut up.
“Smart and handsome,” Melanie said with approval.
“A dead man,” Ashley commented, scowling at him. “You were supposed to back me up. We’re not dating.”
“Oh, I must have missed that memo.” He dutifully turned to her sisters. “We’re not dating.”
“Then what are you doing?” Maggie inquired sweetly. “Besides kissing, that is?”
“Kissing?” Ashley asked. “Where would you get an idea like that?”
“The clues are everywhere,” Maggie said blithely. “Those telltale traces of lipstick on Josh’s face, for instance, and the fact that your lipstick is the exact same shade… What’s left of it, anyway.”
Ashley felt her cheeks flaming. She turned to Josh. “Have I mentioned that my sisters are a couple of obnoxious meddlers?”
“I think it’s sweet,” he said.
“Sweet?” she echoed incredulously. “What’s sweet about them barging in here and making you uncomfort able?”
“I’m not uncomfortable.”
She stared at him. He did seem perfectly at ease. She was the only one about to jump out of her skin. “Oh, forget it. I’m going fishing. The rest of you can do whatever the hell you want to do.”
“Sorry, ladies,” Josh said. “I think that’s my cue. Have a nice day.”
They were in the boat before Ashley finally risked a look into his eyes. They were sparkling with amusement.
“You thought that was funny, didn’t you?” she demanded irritably.
“I don’t know about funny, but it wasn’t quite the big deal you want to turn it into.”
“Just wait,” she muttered direly. “Just you wait.”
She was going to take a certain amount of perverse pleasure in watching Josh squirm when her sisters decided he was exactly the right catch and set out to reel him in for her.
Josh recalled Ashley’s warning when he was sitting in a booth at a café later that afternoon with a cappuccino and the Richmond paper and he spotted Maggie and Melanie about to descend on him. They looked as thrilled as if they’d just noticed an especially plump turkey for their Thanksgiving dinner.
“Hello again,” Maggie said, sliding into the booth opposite him.
Melanie slipped in beside him, so there would be no escape. “Where’s Ashley?”
“I dropped her back at Rose Cottage about an hour ago.”
“Catch any fish today?” Maggie asked.
“Not a one,” he admitted, recalling just how frustrating that had been to Ashley. She hadn’t quite gotten the knack of appreciating the process more than the outcome. She’d been very irritable when he’d left her at Rose Cottage.
Melanie laughed. “Uh-oh, that must have driven Ashley up a wall. She probably took it as a personal affront.”
“Pretty much,” he agreed. In fact, she’d made such a commotion, it was little wonder the fish had taken off. He hadn’t had the nerve to point out to her that fish tended to flee when humans made too much racket.
Maggie’s gaze narrowed. “Did that make you run for cover?”
“No, it made me run home to change into clean clothes so I could meet her here for coffee.”
“Oh,” Maggie said, obviously deflated.
“Do you honestly want to be here cross-examining me when she gets here?” he inquired.
The two women exchanged a look. “Probably a bad idea,” Melanie admitted.
“She’ll think we’re spying again,” Maggie agreed. “But we have our eyes on you, Madison. Don’t forget that.”
Josh laughed. “Not for a minute,” he promised.
Maggie gave him one last considering look. “You could be good for her.”
“Thank you.”
“Has she told you why she’s hiding out down here?”
“No.”
“Make her tell you,” she urged. “She needs to talk about