"I can't believe we're really talking about this."

"Let's do more than talk about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Stay there." He withdrew from her, got up and went to fetch her laptop from the desk and brought it back to bed with him.

"What're you doing?"

"Looking up the place I heard about." He typed into the search engine and clicked on the link to the resort. "Oh, look at that."

Grace sat up for a better look, oblivious to the fact that she was naked. A lot had changed in the last year, and now they were actually making wedding plans.

"I want to get married on the beach at sunset."

"That sounds perfect," she said with a sigh of contentment that pleased him.

He glanced at her. "Should we go for it?"

"Right now?"

"Why not?" He began to fill out a destination wedding questionnaire. "How many people? You do the count: my parents, your parents, your brothers, my brothers, my sister, Joe, Abby, Stephanie, Maddie, Thomas, Hailey, P.J. Who am I forgetting?"

"Laura, Owen, Holden, the twins, your Uncle Frank, Shane."

"I have to invite my Uncle Kevin and his family, too."

"Aunt Joann?"

"Nah, she never leaves Gansett."

"Friends?"

"Tiffany, Blaine and Ashleigh. Oh my God, Ned! You have to invite him!"

"Jeez, he should've been at the top of the list-along with Francine. Getting to be a lot of people, though."

"We know a lot of people. Jenny, Syd, Luke."

Evan laughed as the numbers grew. "What's the count?"

"I lost count. Fifty adults, six kids?"

Evan typed the numbers into the computer and hit enter. Then he clicked on the "Beach wedding at sunset" option from a pull-down screen, along with the month of January as his preferred month and hit Enter again. "Let's see what they've got."

They stared at the screen until the date of January eighteenth popped up as available.

"January eighteenth," Grace said.

"Are we going for it?"

She blew out a deep breath and looked at him. "You're sure about this?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask me that."

"Go for it."

Evan clicked on the link to Book This Date. "I need a credit card. Hand me my wallet, will you?"

Grace reached for it on the bedside table and gave it to him. "How much do we have to put down?"

"Twenty-five hundred to hold the date."

"That'll make it official."

"Certainly will. They're going to email us tomorrow to talk details."

"I can't believe we just did that," she said as he returned the laptop to the desk and got back in bed.

"What will your parents say?" he asked, accustomed now to how unsupportive they could be of their only daughter when she didn't fall in line with their idea of how her life should unfold.

"They won't approve, but who cares? It's not their wedding."

"Will they come?"

"I hope so."

"And if they don't?"

"Then they'll miss the best day of my life. Their loss."

"I wouldn't want anything to spoil it for you, Gracie."

"I'll be marrying you, right?"

"Damn straight."

"Then nothing, and I do mean nothing, could spoil it for me."

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I can't wait to put another ring on your finger and make it official."

"I can't wait either. January eighteenth."

"Be there or be square."

"I wouldn't be anywhere else."

Evan stifled a yawn. He didn't want to sleep yet. Running two thriving businesses, they got so little time to spend together, especially this time of year when the island was so busy. He hated to waste a minute of their time sleeping, especially now that they'd taken this huge step toward the next stage in their life together.

"You can't get out of it now that we've got it booked," she said in a teasing tone.

"Getting out of it isn't the goal."

"I really can't wait." Her arms tightened around him, keeping him close as she drifted off to sleep.

"Me either, baby." Evan lay awake for a long time, thinking about the news Jack had relayed earlier. What the hell was he going to do about that?

Before six o'clock the next morning, Alex was back at work, driving one of the company trucks to the new home of Island Breeze Studios. The idea of a recording studio on Gansett Island had struck Alex as odd at first, until he heard his old friend Evan McCarthy was behind it. From the time they were in middle school, Evan had been obsessed with music, and Alex firmly believed the studio would be a huge success in Evan's hands.

Evan had called the office weeks ago asking for someone to come deal with the overgrown vegetation on both sides of the driveway that led to the studio. As he pulled up to the address Evan had given them, Alex groaned at the sight of the jungle that needed to be tamed.

"That'll take all damned day," he muttered, sending a text to Paul to let him know that the job was bigger than they'd thought.

Sorry, Paul replied. I'm already fucking roasting.

The heat was as killer as it had been the day before, beating down on him with vicious intensity. Today Alex had actually worn sunscreen, which he normally didn't bother with as his complexion was so dark he rarely had to worry about burning. But this heat wave was something else altogether, thus the sunscreen. Before he started on the bushes, he also applied a healthy dose of bug spray.

"Here goes nothing," he said as he got busy with a chain saw. He was working out months of frustration on Evan's brush when the man himself appeared on an old Honda motorcycle that looked like it had seen better days.

"Am I hallucinating?" Evan said after Alex cut the motor to greet his friend.

"I know I deserve that, but it's probably not wise to harass a man with a chain saw, especially in this heat."

Evan held up his hands and laughed. "Stand down. I come in peace."

"Sorry it took so long to get here. Things have been...complicated."

"How's your mom?"

Alex was prepared for the question, as he answered it often enough in the course of each day. "She's declined rapidly, but we're coping, thanks to the generosity of a lot of people."

"If there's anything we can do, please don't hesitate to ask. I mean it, Al. Anything."

"Thanks. Your mom and the other ladies from church have been incredible. They're propping us up."

"If you can bust loose tonight, Owen and I are playing at the Tiki. Everyone's coming, so it should be a good time."

"I'll have to see what the situation is at home, but if I can get there, I will."

"Call me if I can help."

"I will. Appreciate it." Alex eyed the brush. "Better get back to it. This is going to take a while."

"My family and friends will be grateful for your efforts. Lots of bitching about scratched cars and trucks when they come to visit."

"I'll get you fixed up."

"Thanks, man. Come up to the studio if you need to cool off."

"I might take you up on that."

"See you later." Evan started the bike and took off down the lane toward the studio.

Alex fired up the chain saw and got back to work. The mindless task gave him plenty of time to think about what had happened the night before with Jenny. He'd spent a lot of hours staring up at the ceiling when he got home, reliving every exquisite minute he'd spent wrapped up in her.

She'd claimed she didn't do things like what they'd done together, but he'd known that before she told him. She might as well have the words "Good Girl" tattooed on her forehead. Despite her reservations, she'd responded to him like a bad girl-a very bad girl-and he'd loved it.

He'd responded to her, too. In fact, he hadn't responded to anyone the way he had with her in a long time. Even Aimee, the woman he'd dated for two years in DC, hadn't stirred him the way Jenny had. She was an intriguing paradox-part innocent, part vixen-and he couldn't wait to see her again. Even though she'd told him theirs was a one-time interlude, he didn't believe for a minute that she'd honestly meant it. She'd been embarrassed by how far she'd let him go and had been reacting to that.

How could she not be curious when they'd ignited like a powder keg together? He was pretty damned curious about what it would be like to actually have sex with her, but he couldn't think about that right now, because a raging boner would only add to his extreme discomfort in the heat.

Frustrated, roasting and exhausted after the sleepless night, Alex turned off the chain saw and went to the truck to grab one of the bottles of water he'd frozen in anticipation of another scorcher. He'd left them to melt in the truck while he worked. As he chugged the cold water and dumped another bottle over his head, Alex knew with absolute certainty that he'd be visiting the lighthouse again-as soon as he possibly could.

Chapter 6.

Arriving home after another twelve-hour day, Alex wanted a shower, a cold beer and some food-in that order. What he found, however, was a gathering of employees outside the greenhouses, where his brother was arguing with their mother, who was naked as a jaybird.

Standing before her, Paul held her bathrobe in his hands and had obviously been trying to get her to put it on.

"Oh my God," Alex whispered as he exited the truck and took off at a run to help Paul, who brightened when he saw Alex heading toward them.

Marion's back was turned, so she didn't see Alex approach, but he could hear her sobs.

"I want you to get your father right now and bring him to me, do you understand?"

"I can't do that," Paul said, looking imploringly at Alex.

"I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. You'll do what you're told."

Ignoring the crowd of employees that watched their sad drama unfold, Alex approached his mother and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I'm here, Marion," Alex said gently in a voice not all that different from his father's. "I'm right here, and I've got you."

She reached up to grasp his hands. "Oh, George. I've been waiting for you to get home. The boys have been unmanageable this afternoon."

Paul approached them tentatively.

"I'm here now." Alex took the robe from Paul and put it around their mother's shoulders.

"Why are we outside?" she asked Paul, anger replaced now with confusion.