Summer on Lovers' Island by Donna Alward

uptight?”
    â€œA little. Listen, I have no complaints about your work, other than you can relax a little. Time moves a bit slower around here. Stop and smell the roses.” He paused. “Or look at the stars.”
    She did, for the space of ten long breaths. The weird thing was that neither of them said anything and she didn’t find the silence awkward, either.
    A falling star streaked across the sky, leaving a whispery trail behind it. “Whoa, did you see that?” Josh asked.
    â€œYeah, I did.” She searched the sky for more. “Where my condo is, there’s too much light pollution to really see the stars much. This is cool.”
    â€œWhen I was deployed, I used to love looking at the stars. It kind of linked me to back home, you know? Because I’d look up into the darkness and know that back here, the people I loved could see the stars, too. It doesn’t make much sense, with time and hemisphere differences, but there you go.”
    She imagined him doing that and once more realized that there was far more to Josh than met the eye. “Josh?”
    â€œHmmm?”
    â€œWhen I’m nervous or unsure I tend to get … officious. That morning when I first arrived, and I thought you were the janitor? I was embarrassed. I know sometimes people think I’m stuck-up. I’m really not.”
    Josh turned his head and looked at her. “A few weeks here has started to thaw you out,” he replied, and it was hard to tell in the darkness, but she thought he winked at her. “I’m glad you’re here, Lizzie. Now, are you ready to go home?”
    â€œI think so.” She sat up, pulled her knees into her chest. “This was really nice, though. Maybe I have been wound a little too tight.”
    â€œYa think?” he joked, hopping down from the tailgate. He extended his hand to help her, but she sent him a grin instead and jumped down herself.
    They were soon back in the truck, slowly descending the hill. Lizzie looked closer at Abby’s house and shook her head. “Wow, that really is a showpiece, isn’t it?”
    â€œYup. Years ago, her great-aunt Marian ran a home for unwed mothers there. She left it to Abby when she died, but it needed a lot of work. Last year, we had our Fourth of July celebrations there, a real garden party with servants in period dress and everything.”
    â€œShe seems nice.”
    â€œShe is.”
    Lizzie looked over, and a shadow had come over Josh’s face. “Hmm. Bit of a story there?”
    He perked up. “A long story, and a fairly convoluted one. The most important thing is that she and Tom are really happy. “
    And Josh wasn’t. He didn’t have to say the words for her to know. This whole side trip tonight hadn’t just been for her, she realized. He’d needed the space, too. Josh was more complicated than she had originally thought. Maybe it was the death of his wife. That had to be a terrible thing to try to get over, but she wasn’t going to ask him. That would be prying into something incredibly personal. Even if they were becoming friends, they’d bared enough of their souls for one night.
    She could still barely believe that she’d told him about the baby … but then, he’d already known, hadn’t he?
    He turned back onto the main road, and it was only a few minutes and they were at her cottage. It was dark inside and out, as she’d never thought to turn on the outside light before she left this morning. For a quick moment she considered asking him in for a drink, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea and they’d already spent a fair bit of time together tonight. “Thanks for the lift,” she said, injecting her voice with false enthusiasm.
    â€œAnytime,” he replied, leaving the truck running. “I’ll see you at work.”
    â€œYes, boss,” she joked, but the silence turned