"What's he got in his mouth? I can't tell from this far away."

Leaning forward, she squinted and was able to make out a miniature shopping bag, the kind made of heavy stock with a braided rope handle.

"Logan, I think he took that from someone."

There were some people picnicking near the trees where Steve had been. She shaded her eyes, trying to tell whether they were stirring, perhaps missing something.

Steve loped up. Instead of heading for Rylee as usual, he paused at Logan's feet. Oh, dear. The top of the bag was wet with saliva and rather chewed up.

"Don't bring that to me," Logan was saying. He waved the dog toward Rylee. "It belongs to her."

"What's he got?" she asked slowly.

Steve edged alongside her leg, dropping his wet package beside her. Logan ruffled his head. "Good boy."

"What is it?"

"Open it up and see."

She pulled the top of the bag apart, reaching inside with her fingertips. She touched a hard, felted surface, round at the edges. Her hand pulled back.

"Open it," he said.

Before she'd drawn the small black jewelry box out of the bag, Logan was already shifting on the blanket, rising, settling himself on one knee.

The box trembled in her fingers. It took two tries to get the lid open.

When she did, a ray of light caught the faceted stone.

"Will you marry me, Rylee?"

She looked up. His warm brown eyes were earnest and filled with hope.

"Yes!" she cried. "Of course. Yes!"

He slipped the ring on her finger, then pulled her to him. Before he could seal his proposal with a kiss, a long, sandpapery tongue swiped between them, catching them both on the lips.

Logan reared back, dragging a hand across his mouth over and over.

Laughing, she wiped her own lips, then threw the Frisbee. Steve charged after it.

She grabbed Logan's shirtfront and pulled him toward her. "You wanna try that again, Woods?"

"I do, but for the record, I'm gonna have a real problem with a wife who gives her kisses out so freely. From now on, all your kisses belong to me. You got that?"

She slipped her arms around his neck. "Yeah. I got it."

Authors' Note.

Deeanne sprung the idea of collaborating on Mark, fully expecting him to resist. Instead of putting up a fight, though, he saw the beauty of the plan at once. Even though neither of us had ever collaborated with another author, even though our writing styles and work flow couldn't be more different, we decided to give it a try.

"Let's do it," we agreed.

That was the easy part. Figuring out the story we wanted to tell-and more importantly, how to tell it-took more time. Mark wanted to write about Charleston. Deeanne wanted the heroine to be a dogwalker. (In which case, Mark said, the hero will be terrified of dogs!) Little by little, the novel took shape. Then we wrote it. And rewrote it. And rewrote it again.

At first, we figured having two authors work on one story would cut the work in half. Wrong. If anything, it doubled the amount of writing! We both went over every line, every detail, getting everything just right. The result is Beguiled, a book neither of us could have written without the other.

Don't try sneaking into Washington Park after midnight, but apart from that, you can walk the streets of Charleston with Beguiled in hand, retracing Rylee's routes, experiencing the rendezvous sites for yourself. Even before we put the first words on paper, we knew that Charleston would loom large in the story. If you're inclined, you can sip coffee at City Lights, attend a service at First Scots Presbyterian, or have a meal at Slightly North of Broad. Afterward, stroll down East Battery and try to figure out which house was Grant Sebastian's. To look right for the occasion, you can drop in on Ben Silver, where Logan buys his suit and picks out a dress for Rylee.

And if you're athletic and a little bit crazy, you can attempt to replicate Logan's feat of jumping onto the Confederate Memorial at White Point Gardens. But we don't recommend it.

Confession time: When the story insisted, we tampered with the landscape a bit. Logan finds parking spaces in the historic district a lot easier than you will, and Rylee navigates a few paths on rollerblades that might require exceptional skill in real life. But for the most part the Charleston of Beguiled will be recognizable to residents and visitors alike.

Books by Deeanne Gist.

A Bride Most Begrudging.

The Measure of a Lady.

Courting Trouble.

Deep in the Heart of Trouble.

A Bride in the Bargain.