I flipped over in bed, wrapping the sheets around my shoulders for warmth and to hide the fact I still hadn't gotten dressed from when I lost my bikini to Broadrick. He walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt, forcing me to keep my mouth shut tight so I didn't drool. How did I end up with someone so hot?

"Are you hungry?" Broadrick asked as he covered his delicious man chest with a light blue polo. This one lacked the official Pelican Bay Security logo, so it had to be from his own stock. His arm muscles stretched the material in all the right ways.

I gave him a deep sigh and fluffed the pillow under me. "Where would we obtain this delicious dinner food?"

Broadrick sat on the bed, giving NB an ear scratch from where he'd repositioned himself earlier. "What are you in the mood for?"

"No," I said, throwing up my hands.

He tweaked that left eyebrow of his. "No?"

"No. I'm not playing this game with you. You ask me what I want to eat, and then I hem and haw over it. We go back and forth for the next hour, and eventually we all die from starvation."

"That seems a bit pessimistic."

But not untrue. Honestly, from the way my annoyance at his face grew as he stared at me, I might have been hangry already. Not that I'd admit it. "Don't put this all on me. You decide where we go because eventually one of us has to learn how to cook. Otherwise, we'll get bored with the places to eat here, and then we'll end up starving that way."

We only had eight restaurants on the island. Granted, that was significantly more than we had in Pelican Bay, but we weren't far from other towns in Maine. Here we were stuck on the island. Stranded basically. We'd definitely end up starving.

"Babe, I cooked all the time in Pelican Bay. I'm a great cook." He gave my leg a pat. "Did we already wait too long to eat?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Maybe."

"We can order room service. Once we have a place to live, we won't have that available, so we can overdo it now."

Ugh. I crinkled my nose at the idea. "We had that last night and for breakfast this morning."

I was already sick of the room service menu.

"We can make Dalton cook for us at his apartment or go to the mainland and see what's close."

The pillow squished as I dropped my heavy head into it. How did we end up right where I said I didn't want to be-arguing about food? Dalton rented one of the efficiency apartments available to the SEALs, which meant he had access to a stove and ingredients, but nobody wanted to eat in a boy's apartment. I wanted someone to bring me food, preferably with bread as a first course.

"The look on your face says no," Broadrick said, giving my leg another pat.

"Broadrick..." I stretched out his name in horror. "I'll starve if we must wait forty-five minutes for the boat ride. Do you want me to starve?"

Was that his plan all along? Get me to Florida and then starve me?

"Just toss me a cookie," I said, pointing toward the pink box on the room's dresser. "We'll have to ration them."

"Okay, you obviously need protein. Let's go to the pizza place."

I threw my head back again. "The pizza place?"

"You can't hate it. We've never eaten there."

"Yes, but I looked at the menu online." Did he not research this island at all before bringing us here? I grabbed his container of disgusting grape gum from the nightstand and popped a piece in my mouth. The childhood medicine flavor exploded on my tongue. "It's all fancy gourmet pizzas."

That wasn't normal. If you're going to call yourself a pizza place, you had to have at least a regular pepperoni pizza with regular pizza crust. One of their pizzas had truffles on it. Did rich people not know about regular mushrooms?

It took him another twenty minutes to talk me into eating at the pizza place, get me to roll out of bed, and help me find acceptable clothing. There's no way I'd have survived the ferry ride to the mainland.

Broadrick grabbed my hand as we turned the corner to the Main Street shops, and I made our clasped hands swing between us. The sun's rays flickered off the perfectly smooth streets. Only having golf carts on them probably caused little wear and tear. Not like the yearly road construction we always had in Pelican Bay.

A tall brunette I recognized lingered outside the knitting shop Stitchin' Stories.

"Larken?" I called as we walked closer, but she didn't turn toward us until we were practically next to her.

She startled. "Oh, hey, Vonnie and Broadrick."

"Is everything okay?" The faraway look in her eyes worried me.

She nodded, but I wasn't buying it. "Yes, super. I just... I was walking by and saw the knitting needle display, and it reminded me of Melissa's ear and... it's so weird that she's gone. Right?" Her words grew stilted, and she sniffled.

"It's definitely a crazy freak accident," Broadrick said, and I had to hold myself back from hitting him. We both knew that was no freaking accident. Why wouldn't anyone admit it?

Larken sniffled again. "It is. Melissa was so full of life."

She wasn't talking about Melissa like she saw them as competing enemy realtors. The gossip from the guys at the post office made me expect to find Larken dancing on Melissa's grave. Not almost crying over her on the street.

"Were you two close?" I asked, leaning in to wait for her answer as I nervously chewed on my gum.

She visibly jerked, her face soft, but then, almost as if a light flicked on, she switched. Her eyes narrowed, and she straightened her shoulders. "No. Melissa always thought I was nothing more than a rookie at this job. She hated my success."

Interesting.

"I'm never going to get the image of her on that closet floor out of my brain," she said, sounding forlorn again. If we were in a car, I'd have whiplash.

Still, that I understood. I patted her arm and gave it a squeeze. "Seeing something like that can be disturbing. I've been there."

She whipped her head at me. "How did you get over it?"

Ummm. How did I tell her? Every night when I closed my eyes, I still saw the image of my aunt's victim lying on the morgue table. "It just takes time," I lied.

The door to Stitchin' Stories opened, and a shorter woman with blonde hair walked out holding a canvas tote bag with stitched succulents on the side. She was gorgeous with perfect eyebrows and hair that literally glistened in the sun. The only out-of-place part of her was a small smudge of dirt on her left arm. I considered covering Broadrick's eyes, but now that we lived here, I'd have to live with these pretty and rich women.

I definitely watched him like a hawk to see his response, though. The woman walked past us, and I kept the corner of my gaze on Broadrick. He was staring at his phone. Good man.

"Is that Henrietta who is sleeping with the gardener?" I whisper-asked Larken. Torrid affair gossip would keep her mind off of Melissa's body. I hadn't heard an update on Henrietta for weeks, and it was killing me not to know if her father had discovered the scandalous affair. The knitting girls said her father would cut her off if he ever found out.

Larken shook her head with a slight grin. "No, that's Brenna. The only gardener she's doing is her own. She prides herself on having the best roses on the island."

I laughed. "That stinks. I've been waiting for an update."

Our realtor shrugged. "Last I heard, those two were still going strong. Oh, but seeing Brenna reminds me, Broadrick."

My man lifted his head to hear what Larken had to say, proving he was paying attention, just not to the hot woman. He earned another brownie point. "Huh?"

"I'm handling both sides of the purchase agreement on the condo after Melissa's passing. I think Hadria will accept your offer, but she's on her way home from a Mediterranean cruise. Mrs. Ziff prefers paper copies, so I'm having a dispatcher meet her at the airport."

"Sounds good. If you'd prefer we give her a few more days, it's not a big deal," he said.

Larken shook her head quickly. "No, the family definitely wants the property sold. Mrs. Ziff moved in with Brenna, her daughter, a few months ago on the other side of the island. Since prices are so high on the island, properties can take a while to sell. No one wants to miss this chance."