"Let me do your back."

"Only if I can do yours."

"I have a shirt on."

"You won't for long."

"Oh, so it's going to be that kind of field trip, is it?"

"Of course it is. Have you met me?"

"My delicates can't handle this sun."

"I'll keep you covered so the sun won't find your delicates."

She raised her hands to his face and brought him down for a kiss that blew the top off his head.

He dropped the can of sunscreen and wrapped an arm around her.

"I love you, too," she said. "Thank you so much for this."

"While my approval ratings are at an all-time high, I've got something I need to ask you."

"What's that?"

"When are you going to marry me?" The words were out of his mouth before his brain had time to catch up. But when his brain joined the party, he discovered he had absolutely no regrets about blurting out a somewhat major question without having given it his usual deliberation. Who was he kidding? He'd been deliberating on how to make her a permanent part of his life for as long as he'd known her. "Your mouth is hanging open. Not that I mind that, because it gives me all kinds of ideas, but I was sort of hoping you might say something at this juncture."

"What am I supposed to say when you throw that out there like a live grenade?"

"How about yes?"

"You didn't ask me a yes-or-no question."

"Pardon the error." He fell gracelessly to his knees before her, grimacing at the flash of pain that radiated through ribs that refused to fucking heal. "Kara Ballard, center of my universe, love of my life, future mother of my children, will you do me the humongous and probably undeserved honor of being my wife?"

Once again she stared at him with the flabbergasted look on her face that only made him love her more, if that was possible. "That was a yes-or-no question, in case you didn't notice."

"I noticed."

"And? Are you planning to make me suffer?"

Apparently she wasn't, because she dropped to her knees in front of him, wrapped her arms around him and held him. "Yes. But-"

He had no interest in any buts, so he kissed the words right off her sweet lips.

Kara, being Kara, turned away from the kiss, determined to be heard despite his intense desire to avoid anything that sounded like a qualification of her acceptance. "Tell me you're not asking me because of Kelly and Matt showing up here."

"That's not why I'm asking you."

"The timing is a bit curious."

"Perhaps, but that's not why."

"Then why?"

"Um, other than the fact that I love you to the point of madness, and the thought of you leaving me gives me nightmares?"

"Other than that."

Damn, she was a worthy adversary for a man who prided himself on out-arguing just about anyone. "My mom laid into me about when I planned to marry you."

"I knew it!"

"There's only one other woman who scares me more than my mom does."

"Who is she?"

"You, stupid," he said, kissing her nose and then her lips. "It scares the hell out of me when I consider all the many ways I'm capable of messing up the best thing to ever happen to me. It's in my best interests to get a ring on your finger before you wise up and figure me out."

"I've got you figured out, Torrington, and you're not getting rid of me that easily."

"I'll get you a ring, as soon as we can get to the mainland. You can pick any ring you want. Sky's the limit."

"I don't need the sky when I've already got the sun and the moon."

Didn't she know exactly how to stop his heart? "You know what the best day of my life was?" he asked.

"The day you met me?"

"That was second best. You know what the first one was?"

"The day I let you sleep with me?"

"That's tied for second."

"Second?"

"Stay with me here, and remember my propensity for messing things up. The very best day of my entire life was the day I caught my fiancee in bed with my best man."

Kara's brows furrowed with confusion. "That was the best day of your life?"

"It certainly was. If that hadn't happened, I might've married the wrong woman, and that would've ruined my life, because I never would've met you on the second-best day of my life."

"Your logic needs some work, Counselor, but your point is well taken. I guess the best day of my life was the day I found out that Kelly and Matt had been fooling around behind my back, because it sent me out here, where I found you-or where you found me and drove me crazy until I had mercy on you and went out with you."

"Is that the story our grandchildren are going to hear?"

"Is there any other version of that story?"

"I guess there isn't. Luckily, my persistence is as legendary as my argumentativeness."

"How lucky for me."

"So if your sister and her husband did you a favor by stabbing you in the back, maybe we should return to the dock so you can introduce them to your extremely handsome and very, very successful-as well as famous, did I mention I'm famous?-fiance, and you can have the last laugh."

Kara's silent laughter filled him with unreasonable joy. "You are so freaking full of yourself."

"Is anything I said a lie? Am I handsome?"

"You're not ugly."

"Am I successful?"

"You're not a total loser."

"Am I famous?"

"In your own mind, for sure."

He cupped her bottom and pulled her in tight against him. "Let's go face them and show them they've got no power over you anymore."

"Yes, let's do that, but not until she's had a few hours to broil in the hot sun."

"What about the baby?"

"She'll keep him in the shade with Matt while she paces the dock waiting for me to return after someone tells her we're out on the boat. If I know Kelly, she won't be satisfied until she gets her moment of drama."

"What do you propose we do in the meantime?"

She gave him a gentle nudge toward the pads he'd put on the floor of the boat. "Lie down."

Intrigued by the sexy glimmer in her eye, he did as he was told. Never let it be said that he couldn't be trained.

Still kneeling, Kara took her shirt off and then her shorts before she stretched out next to him, wearing only her bra and panties. "We're going to celebrate our engagement."

He turned on his side to face her and put his arm around her. "That's the best idea you've ever had."

Chapter 15.

Still processing the phone call he'd received right before leaving the studio, Evan turned the motorcycle into the pharmacy parking lot at one o'clock as planned. He stashed the bike under the stairs and sat to wait for Grace.

Running his fingers through his hair, Evan tried to stop his mind from repeatedly racing through the conversation he'd had with Buddy Longstreet. The king of country music had called him to celebrate the freeing of his album from the Starlight Records bankruptcy proceedings. Buddy had plans for him-big plans that were in sharp conflict with the plans Evan had been making for himself lately.

After the tremendous amount of time and attention he'd poured into the studio-not to mention the huge investment Ned Saunders had made to get the place off the ground-how in the world would Evan walk away from that to pursue the performing and recording career he'd once thought he wanted?

And then he thought of Josh Harrelson, the sound engineer he'd wooed to Gansett and Island Breeze Records with the promise of a steady paycheck. Didn't he owe it to Josh to follow through on the plans they'd made?

Finally, he thought of Grace and their amazing life together, which would be totally turned upside down if he went out on tour for God only knew how long. To hear Buddy talk, he'd be on tour for the rest of his natural life if things went according to the grand plan. And things mostly went according to Buddy's plans. He was a star maker. There was no denying that.

At one time, not all that long ago, Evan had wanted the kind of stardom Buddy had promised him today. He wanted the big time, and nothing else would do. But now he knew a different kind of life, a simpler life that suited him far more than life as a performer ever had.

Never once, in all the gigs he'd played on Gansett Island with Owen and on his own, had Evan ever experienced the crippling stage fright that plagued him at almost every other venue he'd played. The stage fright was one of the reasons he'd been secretly relieved to hear that his record had been taken down by Starlight's bankruptcy.

That news had forced him to go in a different direction, and that direction had been far more satisfying than anything else ever had. Buddy had put up a lot of money to bail him out of the bankruptcy. Evan didn't know just how much, but his manager, Jack, had inferred it was no small amount. So Buddy would be looking for some return on that investment, which would require months on the road promoting the album Evan had worked so hard on.

Recording the album now seemed like it'd happened in another lifetime. That was how far removed he was from the years he'd spent in Nashville chasing the dream, only to watch it all go to shit when his record company went bankrupt. He'd had reason to think in the last year that the bankruptcy was actually the luckiest thing that had happened to him in show business.

What the hell am I going to do?

He'd no sooner had the thought when Grace stepped out of the pharmacy, looking pretty and put together in her work clothes, which today consisted of a lightweight dress and a sweater she immediately shed when she encountered the blast of heat in the parking lot.

Evan got up to meet her.

As she studied him, her smile faded. "What's wrong?"

"How can you take one look at me and know something is wrong?"

"Because your hair is standing on end, and that only happens when you run your fingers through it over and over, which you only do when something is wrong."

He stared at her, amazed. Had anyone ever known him better or paid closer attention to his every mood, want and need? No, never. "It's nothing that won't keep until after lunch. Are you ready?"

They were meeting his parents for lunch at the Oar Bar at the Gansett Boat Works Marina, or, as his father had said, "Lunch with the enemy." Not that Big Mac McCarthy had enemies. No, he had competitors who were as much his friends as anyone on the island. Evan had chosen the so-called enemy over lunch at their own marina, because he didn't want interruptions while he and Grace shared their wedding plans with his parents.

Evan took her keys and held the passenger door to her car until she was settled. He got in the driver's side and adjusted the seat to his much longer legs.

"You're not going to tell me?"

He blew out a deep breath. "I don't want to."

"Great," she said with a testy edge to her voice.

"Buddy Longstreet called me."

"As in he called you himself or one of his people called you?"

"He called me himself."

"Wow."

"Yeah. He's got some pretty big plans for me now that he's gotten me free of Starlight."