Free Windswept by Anna Lowe Page B

never damaged it.”
    “They did come close, though,” Meredith murmured.
    Mia ignored her, gathering steam. “Seth and Julie sailed it all the way here, against the wind!” She jabbed a finger at his chest. “All the way here and nothing ever happened. I am not letting anything happen to this boat!”
    He looked to Meredith for support, but she just nodded at Mia and said, “You’re right.”
    Great. He had not one but two stubbornly suicidal sailor chicks on his hands.
    A dull buzzing noise sounded in the distance, and they all looked up. A low white light crept slowly across the bay. No, two lights, shining from a small motorboat, swinging to inspect one boat after another. Searching.
    The boat was a good mile away and moving slowly, but that didn’t stop his heart from thumping against his chest. If that was who he thought it might be, it was only a question of time before they honed in on
Serendipity.
    “Um… Anchors aweigh?” He looked at Mia.
    She gave him a firm nod. “Anchors aweigh.”

Chapter Twelve

    Ryan watched the sisters jump into action. For a couple of stubbornly suicidal sailors, they sure seemed to know what they were doing.
    “What can I do?” he asked.
    Mia pointed to the corner of the cockpit. “Sit. We got this. You keep an eye on that motorboat.”
    He sat and steamed.
Sit?
You didn’t tell an officer of the NYPD to sit!
    Of course, she just had. And that was Mia. She’d had him from day one with that combination of tough and capable, humble and sweet. So he sat, damn it. What choice did he have?
    Mia and Meredith moved around the deck like a couple of long-legged gazelles, preparing to get underway.
    “Backup mooring line off,” Mia said, tossing a coiled line into the cockpit.
    “Wheel unlocked,” Meredith replied.
    They were going through a checklist, he realized. One they had down pat. What was it Mia had said about her grandfather and thirty years?
    “Mainsheet free,” Meredith called softly.
    Mia stood by the mast and sniffed the wind like an old sea dog. Then she started hauling on a halyard, hoisting the mainsail up in creaky stages.
    He jerked his head toward the motorboat, but the sound hadn’t seemed to carry. Clouds still obscured the moon, so the white sail wasn’t reflecting much light. Good. He glanced back at the sisters scurrying around the little sailboat.
    From the looks of it, they’d spent a lot of time on the boat from the time they could walk. Maybe even before. Even Meredith, with her wary, cautious air became a different person as she moved expertly around the boat. She secured a little inflatable kayak on deck, then stood by the wheel with the mainsheet in her hand.
    “Ready?” Mia called.
    The sisters looked at each other for a long minute.
    “Ready,” Meredith whispered.
    Mia slipped one end of the mooring line free, hauled it in, and raised a fist in some kind of signal.
    “Underway,” Meredith murmured, tightening the mainsheet.
    A gentle southeast breeze filled the sail and just like that, they were ghosting away. No engine, no shouting, no fuss.
    Ryan nodded. Even the oldest, crankiest Navy man would heartily approve of this crew. The tidy lines, the clean decks, the perfect teamwork. Everything but the apparent lack of hierarchy, because just when he’d decided Mia was the captain, Meredith would spin the wheel and scan the water like she was the one in charge. And somehow it worked. Seamlessly.
    “Nav lights?” Meredith asked as Mia headed below to check the chart.
    Mia gave her a grim shake of the head. “No nav lights. Course north by northwest.”
    “North by northwest,” Meredith echoed, glancing down at the illuminated compass in front of the wheel. She steered with small, easy movements as her eyes flicked from the compass to the horizon and back.
    If he’d given the two sisters a couple of beards and striped shirts, they’d be ready to star in an action movie — the kind with swords and buccaneers. He could imagine Mia