Free Island Hearts (Jenny's Turn and Stray Lady) by Vanessa Grant

you’ll call me again. Tell me you’ve arrived safely.”
    She nodded, promising him, but drawing her reserve around her, avoiding his eyes and trying not to look out the window as they banked to land.
    “And— Jennifer?”
    She refused to turn back, but he said it anyway. “If you do change your mind, please don’t hesitate to come back. Any time.”
    When the plane landed, he stayed in his seat, watching her make her way up the aisle, her bag slung over one shoulder. She didn’t look back, and he tried to tell himself it didn’t matter.
    He flew back to Vancouver on the same flight, earning a curious, laughing look from the stewardess.
    Jennifer called the next day, ringing through when he was just coming out of his morning shower.
    “Radio on line,” the automated voice announced.
    “Jennifer? Where are you?” he stood, dripping on the carpet, listening to her voice tangled with a noise like a boat’s engine.
    “Ketchikan,” she said, sounding happy and excited. “We’re just leaving Ketchikan.”

    They were overdue. She should have called him yesterday, reported their safe arrival on the Queen Charlottes. Just a day.
    Where were they?
    Jake swung away from the television, losing patience waiting for the weather broadcast, picking up his telephone and dialing the Coast Guard weather station.
    “Why don’t I take a taxi home?” Monica picked up her purse from the table, dropping in her cigarettes and snapping it closed.
    Good idea , he almost said, quickly changing it to, “I’ll drive you.” How was he going to find Jennifer?
    Monica threw him an angry glance and insisted, “No, stay here. You’re already dialing that number, whatever it is. I’ll take a taxi home and we’ll try this evening again when you’re in a better mood.”
    He saw her clearly suddenly, saw the hurt in her eyes. “Monica, I don’t think—” he began, but stopped, realizing he was in no state to do a decent job of telling her their affair was over. If he admitted the unpleasant truth to himself, Monica’s main appeal had been a futile hope of getting a reaction out of Jennifer by dating her roommate. Futile was right! Jennifer hadn’t even blinked when he’d said he was probably going to marry Monica.
    She was smiling when she left, but he knew she was angry, and she had reason. He should have gone after her, insisted on taking her home, kissed her and— and told her goodbye.
    But Jennifer Winslow was somewhere out on the water, in a flimsy fiberglass sailboat, somewhere between Ketchikan and Masset.
    And he was in Vancouver, almost helpless.
    The man at the Rescue Coordination Center was very efficient about taking down the details of the Lady Harriet , overdue on a trip from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Masset on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Two people on board.
    There was nothing more he could do from this far away. He dialed Hans and unknowingly interrupted a passionate interlude with a girl Hans had been pursuing for over a month. The girl got her blouse buttoned up and her coat on while Jake recited a long list of instructions to Hans, then hung up without saying where he was going, merely, “I’ll be back in a few days. I’ll call you.”
    As he had expected, the next flight to Sandspit airport on the Queen Charlottes was not fully booked.

Chapter 5

    They had a tremendous sail across Dixon Entrance. The wind was on their beam, sending Lady Harriet scurrying across the whitecaps. Jenny spent most of the trip on deck, with the hood to her cruiser suit tied tightly around her face and her hands deep in the suit’s pockets. Bundled up like that, only her face felt the spray as it flew over the boat.
    It made her feel like an adventurer, a seafaring explorer, at one with the wind and the waves. When George leaned out of the cockpit and shouted something, Jenny pulled back her hood and leaned closer to listen.
    “What did you say?” she shouted.
    “Jenny, is that boat coming our way? I keep altering course, but