The Men of Thorne Island by Cynthia Thomason

wise financial decision. It actually fulfilled a need in her she probably never would have known about if she hadn’t come to the island.
    She loved how—through her efforts alone—shine had replaced grime in the kitchen. She’d returned the pitted and tarnished fixtures on the bathroom sink to their original sparkle. And she’d changed the cold,spectral parlor into a retreat of comfort and understated beauty.
    She considered asking Winkleman to take her back with him today, but there were considerations on the island more pressing than her chores on the mainland. If Winkie had brought the fertilizer she ordered, she needed to identify the most promising vines behind the inn, remove the weeds from around the bases of the trunks and spread a mixture of fertilizer and compost into the soil. April was a crucial month in wine production, and if well fed and tended, the vines could produce ripe grapes as early as the end of August.
    There was so much to do! As she approached the harbor, Sara thought about all the improvements she wanted to make. She couldn’t wait to spruce up the inn with fresh paint and wallpaper and fertilize the neglected gardens. Absorbed in picturing the results of her labors, she came upon the clearing at the dock and her enthusiasm plunged like a January thermometer. Had she really ordered all that fertilizer?
    Dexter, Brody and Nick were already there, looking down at six thirty-pound bags of Sow and Grow, a fertilizer made of organic materials and old-fashioned manure. Sara wrinkled her nose when she caught a whiff of the sacks.
    Nick grinned at her and tipped a box of groceries he’d just unloaded from the boat so she could see the contents. “Look what I got from Captain Winkie, Sara,” he said with a teasing smugness. “I know it’s only frozen dinners, bologna and beer—” he nodded toward the manure “—but it looks pretty good next to what you got.”
    “Very funny, Bass. Actually, our orders are quitesimilar when you consider what they’re made of.” She stopped a few feet from the fertilizer and frowned. How was she going to cart these bags back to the vineyard?
    Captain Winkleman held up a sack of groceries. “I didn’t forget you, Sara. I’ve got the things you wanted.”
    She reached for the sack while Winkie enumerated the contents.
    “I brought your yogurt and whole-wheat bread and thin sliced turkey just like you asked. Had some trouble with no-fat mayo. Hope what I got is okay.”
    Ignoring the sour expressions on the men’s faces, Sara cradled her food protectively. “I’m sure everything’s fine,” she said. “Thank you very much.”
    Brody started back to the pathway with Dexter on his heels. “Come on, boys. Let’s get this stuff to the commissary.” He leveled a smirk at Sara over his shoulder. “Miss Crawford, I expect you’ll want to keep your grub with you so it won’t be contaminated by real food.”
    “That’s fine with me. Besides I wouldn’t want my yogurt to tempt you in the middle of the night.” A solution to her transportation problem suddenly came to mind and she interrupted Brody’s retort mid mumble. “Oh, Mr. Brody, before you go, could I borrow your golf cart for a few minutes? I need to move these bags of fertilizer to the vineyard.”
    Without pausing, he tossed a succinct answer back to her. “Battery’s dead. Won’t be charged until morning.”
    Sara’s temper simmered on the verge of boiling. She’d always been able to tell when someone waslying. Brody and Dexter disappeared into the trees, but Nick stayed behind, his arms laden with groceries.
    “Look, Sara, if you can wait till I take these things to Brody’s…”
    Wonder of wonders, Nick Bass was actually going to offer to help. She was about to express her appreciation when a cry from the pathway diverted her attention.
    “Where in hell are you going with that thing?” Brody hollered.
    “I’m helping Sara,” Ryan replied. The defiant words were immediately