Kenny pulled the little girl to him. His hands were huge on her narrow back, but she clung to him fiercely. Kenny shot Taryn a "for G.o.d's sake, help me" look, but she turned back to Angel.

"You kept me safe," she told him. "You saved Regan and Chloe and me."

"I know, and it scared me. That I could have lost you. That I was there. When you said..." He paused, aware of their audience. "You know what you said."

"Did you tell him you love him?" Olivia asked. "My mom says men have trouble with that sometimes because they're emotionally immature."

"Gee, thanks," Sam told the girl.

Taryn's mouth twitched. She looked back at Angel. "When I said I loved you, you freaked out."

"I did," he admitted. "I felt guilty and confused. I wanted to be with you, but what if I couldn't keep you safe, either? What if we had kids and something bad happened?"

The girls started whispering.

Taryn's mouth curved up into a smile. "Stop," she said. "No one is pregnant. Are we clear?"

Chloe stepped away from Kenny. "I'd like a little brother or sister. I've told Mom, but she says that isn't going to happen." She turned to Regan. "She would have to get married first."

Angel swore under his breath. When had he lost control of the situation? This was not how he'd planned on telling Taryn how he felt.

He looked at her and realized control was nothing but an illusion. All any of them had was this moment. He'd been blessed with two amazing women in his life. It was about time he recognized that.

He pulled the wreath off his head and put it on Taryn's, then reached for her other hand.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he told her, staring into her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't recognize how lucky I was to have you love me. I'm sorry I disappeared without an explanation. It won't happen again."

"Okay," she said slowly.

"I love you, Taryn. I think I have from the first time I saw you."

Her lower lip began to tremble, but she didn't speak. Tears filled her eyes.

He pulled her into his arms. She went easily, fitting in as if she'd always belonged with him. Her arms came around his body and pulled him close.

"I love you," he whispered, so only she could hear. "For always. Later, I want to do it right. On one knee. But just so you know, I mean to marry you and grow old with you."

"Naked?" she asked softly.

He pulled back a little and stared at her. "You want me naked when I'm old?"

She giggled. "No. During the proposal."

He gave her a slow smile. "I can make that happen."

"What are they saying?" Allison asked. "I can't hear them."

"Probably for the best," Jack said. "All right, you two. That's enough emotion for any afternoon. Break it up. These girls have to be in a parade."

Angel held out his hand to Taryn. "Come with us."

Taryn felt the hole in her heart finally heal. She hadn't been looking for love, but somehow it had found her. Found them. She took Angel's hand and knew, no matter what, she was never letting go.

They stepped into the street and the girls walked with them.

When they reached the end of the parade, Denise Hendrix was waiting. As each girl walked by, she handed her a small wooden bead.

"The family bead," Angel said.

Taryn pulled her leather bracelet out of her pocket. "I'm ready for mine."

Denise saw them and smiled. They each took a bead. Before Taryn could put hers on her bracelet, he drew her close and kissed her.

"You know I agreed to continue with the grove," he told her.

"I hadn't heard."

"I'm going to need an a.s.sistant."

"Yes, you are."

He touched her cheek. "I'd like it to be you."

She sighed happily. "I'm pretty sure that can be arranged."

Read on for an excerpt from THE GIRLS OF MISCHIEF BAY, book one in the Mischief Bay series!

Susan Mallery, the New York Times bestselling author of Three Sisters, is world renowned for her "insightful, funny, and poignant" stories (Booklist). With her Mischief Bay series, she brings vivid color to the story of three friends on the brink of a new life.

The Girls of Mischief Bay Looking for more? With more than a hundred ebooks available, you can enjoy dozens of other memorable t.i.tles from New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery, including her Blackberry Island trilogy: Barefoot Season, Three Sisters and Evening Stars!

Don't miss the charming Fool's Gold series. All t.i.tles available in ebook!

Until We Touch Before We Kiss When We Met Christmas on Fourth Street Three Little Words Two of a Kind Just One Kiss "Halfway There" (ebook novella) A Fool's Gold Christmas All Summer Long Summer Nights Summer Days "Almost Summer" (ebook novella) "Only Us" (ebook novella) Only His Only Yours Only Mine Summer Brides (anthology) "Sister of the Bride" (ebook novella) Finding Perfect Almost Perfect Chasing Perfect Yours For Christmas Chase Me Hold Me Connect with us on www.Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

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One.

"DID TYLER MAKE THAT FOR YOU?"

Nicole Lord turned to look at the picture she'd posted on the wall of Mischief in Motion, her Pilates studio. Three large red hearts covered a piece of pink construction paper. A handprint had been outlined over the hearts. The hearts were wobbly and highly stylized, but still recognizable. Not bad, considering the artist in question was not yet five. The handprint had been traced by one of his teachers.

"He did," Nicole said with a smile. "I promised him I would bring it to work and show everyone."

Her client, a thirtysomething fighting her way back from a forty-five-pound pregnancy weight gain, wiped sweat from her face and smiled. "He sounds adorable. I look forward to when my daughter can do more than eat, p.o.o.p and keep me up all night."

"It gets better," Nicole promised.

"I hope so. I'd always a.s.sumed once I started having kids, I'd want six." The woman grimaced. "Now one is looking like more than enough." She waved and walked toward the exit. "See you next week."

"Have a good weekend."

Nicole spoke without looking, her attention already back on her computer. She had her noon cla.s.s, then a three-hour break before her late-afternoon cla.s.ses. Which sounded nice until she thought about all she had to get done. Grocery shopping for sure-they were out of everything. Her car needed gas, there was dry cleaning to pick up and somewhere in the middle of all that, she should eat lunch.

She glanced at the clock, wondering if she should text Eric to remind him to pick up Tyler from day care at four. She reached for her phone, then shook her head and sagged back in her chair. No, she shouldn't, she told herself. He'd only forgotten once and he'd felt awful about it. She had to trust him not to forget again.

Which she would, she told herself. Only these days he was forgetting a lot of things. And helping less around the house.

Marriage, she thought ruefully. It all sounded so romantic until you realized that hey, you not only had to live with someone else, but there would also be days when they actually thought you were wrong about things.

She was still trying to figure out in which order she was going to run her errands when the door to her studio opened and Pam Eiland strolled in.

"Hey, you," Pam called cheerfully, an oversize tote hanging off one shoulder.

Anyone who didn't know Pam would a.s.sume she had a clutter problem if she needed to haul around that much stuff in her bag. Those who did know Pam were privy to the fact that her actual handbag was fairly small and that most of the s.p.a.ce in the tote was taken up by a soft blanket and a very weird-looking dog.

Right on cue, Lulu poked her head out of the tote and whined softly.

Nicole stood and approached them both. After giving Pam a hug, she reached for Lulu. The dog leaped into her arms and snuggled close.

"I see you're in pink today," she said, stroking Lulu's cheek, then rubbing the top of her head.

"We both felt it was a pink kind of day," Pam told her.

Lulu, a purebred Chinese crested, had white hair on the top of her head, by her ears and on her tail and lower legs. The rest of her spotted body was pretty much naked and an unexpected shade of grayish pink with brown spots. Her health issues were legendary and what with having no fur, she was chronically cold. Which meant Lulu had a collection of sweaters, jackets and T-shirts. Today's selection was a lightweight, sleeveless pink sweater trimmed with shiny gray ribbon. With money tight and her own clothes threadbare, Nicole found herself in the embarra.s.sing situation of envying a dog's wardrobe.

Lulu gave her a quick puppy-kiss on the chin. Nicole held onto the warm dog for a few seconds more. Her relationship with Lulu was the least emotionally charged moment in her day thus far, and she was determined to enjoy it.

Pam, a pretty brunette with an easy smile, wore a loose short-sleeved dress over her leggings and workout tank. Unlike the other clients who came in for the noon cla.s.s, Pam didn't walk over from an office. Nicole knew the other woman had held a job at her husband's company years ago. She understood how a small business worked and often gave Nicole sound advice. Aside from that, Pam seemed to have her days to herself. Right now that sounded like a dream come true.

"Who's coming today?" Pam asked as she pulled the blanket out of the tote and folded it before setting it in a corner of the room. Lulu obligingly curled up, with her long legs tucked gracefully under her body. Nicole knew the dog wouldn't budge until cla.s.s was over. She supposed the sweet temperament and excellent manners made up for Lulu's odd and faintly sci-fi appearance.

"Just you and Shannon," Nicole said, clicking on her computer's scheduling program to confirm. She was actually relieved to have a smaller cla.s.s. Lately she was so d.a.m.ned tired all the time. Pam and Shannon could have run the workout themselves, so there wouldn't be pressure to stay on top of every move.

Even better, all three dropouts had come in early that morning. The studio had a strict twenty-four-hour cancellation policy, which meant she was going to be paid for five students regardless. She accepted her momentary pleasure even though the thought made her a bad person, and vowed she would work on her character just as soon as she figured out how to fix what was going on with her marriage and got more than four hours of sleep on any given night.

Pam had slipped off her sandals in preparation for cla.s.s. But instead of putting on her Pilates socks, she turned to Nicole and grinned.

"Want to go to lunch?"

Pam's smile was infectious. Her hazel-green eyes crinkled at the corners and her mouth curved up.

"Come on," Pam teased. "You know you want to."

"Want to what?" Shannon Rigg asked as she walked into the studio. "I've had a horrible morning dealing with a misogynistic idiot from the bank who insisted on continually asking to speak to my supervisor. When I explained I was the CFO of the company, I think he had a seizure." She paused, her blue eyes dancing with amus.e.m.e.nt. "I offered to send him a scanned copy of my business card, but he declined. Then I told him that if he didn't get his act together, I would be moving the company's four-hundred-milliondollar account to another bank." She paused for dramatic effect. "I think I made him cry."

Pam held out her arm, hand raised, for a high five. "You both constantly impress me. Nicole juggles her husband, her five-year-old son and her growing business. You're busy frightening men who really should know better. I, on the other hand, will pick out my dog's wardrobe for tomorrow and make biscuits from scratch. It's sad."

"I don't even know what you put in the bowl to make a biscuit," Shannon admitted as she gave her friend a high five, then turned to Nicole. "Do you?"

"Flour, water, something else."

Shannon laughed. "Yeah, that's where I would get lost, too. It's the something else that always gets you."

Nicole thought about how Pam had described her. Juggling sounded so perky and positive. Unfortunately most days she found herself cleaning up what had fallen and shattered rather than keeping her plates spinning in the air.

Okay, that was a confused and slightly depressing a.n.a.logy. She really needed to think more positively. And maybe learn how to make biscuits.

Shannon had on a tailored sleeveless dress and three-inch pumps. Her legs were bare and tanned, her hair a glorious tumbling ma.s.s of auburn waves that fell past her shoulders. She wore expensive watches and elegant jewelry. She drove a BMW convertible. If Nicole could pick, she would want Pam for her mother and to be Shannon when she grew up. Only at thirty, Nicole had a feeling she was about as grownup as she was going to get.

"Wait," Pam said as Shannon headed for the small dressing room next to the restroom. "I thought we'd go to lunch instead of working out."

Shannon already had her exercise clothes out of her gym bag. She turned back to Pam. "Not exercise?"

"Sure. We're the only two today. It's Friday, my friend. Live a little. Have a gla.s.s of wine, mock your uninformed banking friend and unwind."

Shannon looked at Nicole and raised her eyebrows. "I'm in," she said. "What about you?"

Nicole thought about her to-do list and the fact that she was behind on the laundry and had a stack of bills to pay and a husband who had walked away from a successful career in computer software to write a screenplay. She thought of the spinning and falling plates and how she spent her life exhausted.

She pulled the tie from her blond ponytail, shook her hair loose, grabbed her keys and her handbag and stood. "Let's go."

McGrath's Pub had been around nearly as long as the Mischief Bay pier and boardwalk. Shannon remembered coming here when she'd been a teenager. The drive in from Riverside had taken about an hour, if there wasn't any traffic. She and her girlfriends had spent the whole time talking and laughing, imagining the cute boys they were going to meet. Boys who lived by the ocean and surfed and had sunbleached hair. Boys not like those they knew in high school.

Because back then all it took to get her heart beating faster had been sun-bleached hair and a retro convertible. She liked to think that in the past twenty-plus years she'd matured.

As she followed her friends into the pub, her gaze strayed to the sand and the ocean beyond. It was midday and low tide. No surfers out there now. As it was also a weekday in February, there weren't any people playing volleyball. Despite the fact that it was probably seventy degrees.

McGrath's was a three-story building with outdoor dining on the main level. Inside there was a big, open bar. Pam led the way directly to the stairs. They bypa.s.sed the secondf loor dining room and went up to the top-f loor eating area.

"By the window?" Pam asked, already heading in that direction.

The big windows offered a view of the Pacific. Today they were partially open, allowing in some fresh air. When temperatures dropped to anything below sixty-five they could be closed and in the summer, they were removed completely.

Shannon sat across from Nicole. Pam settled next to Nicole and put her tote on the f loor next to her chair. The perfectly trained Lulu would stay hidden until they left.

The first time the three of them had played hooky and gone to lunch, Shannon had spent the entire time freaking out about Lulu. Now she saw the strange creature as the mascot for their friendship-odd, unexpected and over time, very comforting.

She turned her attention from thoughts of a Chinese crested to the restaurant location. The view should have captured their attention and left them speechless. Taupecolored sand led the way to midnight blue water. A couple of sailboats leaned in to capture the light breeze, and in the distance container ships chugged toward the horizon and the exotic ports beyond.