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  “How did this happen, Molly? I was minding my own business when he came into the office with Cameron, and my whole world turned upside down. How does that just happen?”

  Smiling, Molly said, “The same way it happened to me the day I met Linc and felt like I’d been struck by lightning. It’s the best feeling ever, isn’t it?”

  “I guess…”

  “You guess?” She raised a brow. “What does that mean?”

  “It is the best feeling. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that he’s him, and I’m me, and… I lack the imagination to picture what could happen with him. And he’s so…”

  “Charming? Magnetic? Sexy?”

  Mary stared at her. “Yes, all those things.”

  “Just because I’m crazy about my husband doesn’t mean I can’t see those qualities in another man. I’ve always thought Patrick was incredibly handsome, and in the years since he lost his Ali, I’ve so hoped that he would find someone special. I love the idea of the two of you together. He couldn’t have found anyone better than you.”

  “You’re very sweet to say so, but what can possibly come of it? I’ve never even been to New York where he lives, and he’s been everywhere. He’s in China right now on business. Imagine having business in China!”

  “Have you heard from him since he’s been there?”

  “Every day. And he’s sent presents. Lots of them.” Mary gestured to the pink cashmere sweater that she’d worn to work.

  “That is gorgeous.”

  She pulled back her sleeve to show Molly the elaborate sterling silver bracelet he’d sent two days ago.

  “He’s wooing you.”

  “He’s driving me crazy!”

  Molly laughed. “So I see.”

  “Let me ask you something…”

  “Anything you want.”

  “You know Patrick, and you know me. Where do you see this going?”

  “I don’t know. Only you and he can know that.”

  “That doesn’t help,” Mary said, making a face. “How will we ever make his life fit mine or mine fit his?”

  “That’s another thing I can’t tell you, but I’ll point you in the direction of Will and Cameron and Colton and Lucy as examples of two instances in which separate worlds were melded with great success.”

  “Because Cameron and Lucy moved here, or Lucy is here most of the time, I should say. I can’t, for the life of me, imagine Patrick living here.”

  “Maybe he’ll surprise you. His daughter is here. You’re here. His old pal Linc is here. I’m sure Butler is looking better to him all the time.”

  “Come on, Molly. This is Patrick Murphy we’re talking about. He’d go mad here!”

  “If I could offer one piece of advice where he’s concerned…”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Try not to think of him in terms of who he is to the rest of the world or what he has in the way of wealth. Focus on who he is to you.”

  “He… He says he loves me.”

  “Oh, Mary,” Molly said with a sigh. “That’s amazing. Do you feel the same way?”

  “If the way I’ve missed him since I last saw him is any indication, I think maybe I do.”

  “So, you’ve seen him since the wedding?”

  Mary eyed her guiltily. “Um, maybe?”

  “When?”

  “I might’ve met him at your place in Burlington for a weekend.”

  “No way! I had no idea!”

  “This is mortifying. He worked the whole thing out with Linc, and I had no idea where I was meeting him until I got there. When I found out who owned the house, I flipped out.”

  Molly rocked with laughter. “I would’ve liked to have seen your reaction.”

  “I’m sure you would’ve been highly entertained.”

  “Mary,” she said, grasping Mary’s forearm, “I hope you know that our home is your home. Here or in Burlington. You’re family to Linc and me and the kids. I hope you’d never feel awkward spending time in a house we own.”

  Moved by Molly’s kind words, Mary said, “Now you’re making me feel silly for freaking out.”

  Molly smiled. “This whole thing has you unsure of which end is up.”

  “Yes.” Mary sighed. “It does.”

  “Do you like being with him?”

  “Um, yes?”

  “Do you like the way he treats you?”

  Mary thought of the gifts, the weekend he’d arranged, the driver he’d sent, the meals he’d made for them and the daily phone calls that came without fail. “No man has ever treated me better than he does.”

  “I think you know the answers to your own questions, so it becomes about whether you’re going to allow yourself to give in and enjoy what’s happening between you.”

  “That’s the part I’m struggling with.”

  “I have another question… If you never heard from him again, would you be sad?”

  “Gutted,” she whispered.

  “Mary…”

  Mary blinked back tears. “I’m such a fool.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re a cautious, practical woman who’s taken care of herself her entire adult life and who doesn’t need a man to make her complete. So it’s a big deal to admit that you have real feelings for a man and that those feelings could upend your orderly, practical life.”

  “Thank you for understanding something I don’t get myself.”

  “It’s not all that complicated from the outside looking in. From your perspective, I’m sure it looks extremely complicated.”

  “It does. I just keep getting in deeper, which I never intended to do, but he’s so hard to resist. I feel like I’ve been taken over by aliens or something.”

  “You’ve fallen in love with an extraordinary man, and it sounds like he’s fallen, too. I have no doubt that you’ll figure it out.”

  “What if we don’t and it doesn’t work out? What’ll I do then?” Mary ached from head to toe at the thought of never seeing him again or having something come between them.

  “I’m going to predict that you aren’t going to have to worry about it ending. If you ask me, your much bigger issue is going to be what to do about it not ending.”

  Chapter 8

  “There are two great days in a person’s life—the day we are born and the day we discover why.”

  —William Barclay

  Early the next week, Mary sat at her desk sorting through the deluge of mail that came into the office every day. The crew had returned from the Caribbean with the huge news that Ella and Gavin were engaged. Mary had never seen Ella so happy or excited. Hearing how hard Ella had fought for love left Mary feeling anxious about her own situation. Would she and Patrick ever have the kind of happiness that Ella and Gavin now had?

  Thankfully, the mail arrived after lunch, when she welcomed a more “mindless” task so she could let her mind wander. She couldn’t wait to get home to check her own mail, to see if anything special had arrived in her absence. And yes, she wasn’t proud that she’d gotten so used to the daily gifts from Patrick that she’d begun to actively look forward to them and had given up on trying to get him to stop sending them.

  Yesterday, she’d received the most incredible pair of boots made of the softest leather she’d ever felt. The note inside had said, “Yes, I picked these out all by myself in Tokyo. So there. Miss you like crazy. Love, Patrick.” When she wore them to work, Cameron, Ella and Charley had gone crazy over them, asking where she’d gotten them. “They, ah, were a gift from a friend.”

  “Must be some kind of friend,” Cameron had said. Her knowing smile had Mary wondering if she suspected something was up between Mary and her father. She would have to ask Patrick if he’d talked to his daughter about her when he called later.

  Speaking of Cameron, she came up the stairs from the store carrying her camera and a napkin that contained two of the cider doughnuts they served in the store, one of which she gave to Mary. The smell made her mouth water. “You are evil, but thank
you.”

  “I feel less guilty if I don’t eat alone.”

  A loud roar overhead rocked the building and had both women looking up. The only other time she’d heard a roar quite like that—

  “Oh my God!” Cameron said. “That’s my dad! What’s he doing here?” She ran for the stairs while Mary remained riveted to her desk chair.

  What was he doing here? He wasn’t supposed to be home for days yet. What did it mean that he had come without telling her? Was he here to see her or Cameron? She took a deep breath and was letting it out when Linc came out of his office.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked.

  “Cameron seems to believe it was her father arriving in the chopper.”

  “That’s a nice surprise for her.”

  “Yes,” Mary said, swallowing hard. She didn’t know what to do. Did she go out to see him or wait to see if he came to her? And if he did come to her, how would she hide how happy she was to see him from Cameron and Linc? She waited a long time, but Cameron never returned to the office, and there was no sign of Patrick either.

  Mary left the office at six and did a few errands on the way home, making sure to drive past the open town green where Patrick’s big black Sikorski helicopter with the PME initials on the side was still parked. Where was he, and why did her heart beat so frantically at the thought of seeing him?

  She went home, made dinner, cleaned up, took a shower and got into her pajamas, another flannel pair, this one with Christmas trees all over them. And still she waited…

  In bed just after nine o’clock, she heard the helicopter take off, and her heart fell. He’d left without seeing her? Mary had no idea what to make of that. How could Patrick be in her town and not see her after weeks of phone calls and gifts and…

  The disappointment crippled her, bringing tears to her eyes that enraged her. Mary Larkin did not cry over men, and she wasn’t about to start now. She’d taken her book to bed and was forcing herself to concentrate on the story when a knock on the door had her flying out of bed.

  She threw open the door, and there he was. Wearing a navy-blue jacket over a light blue dress shirt and faded jeans, no one had ever looked better to her than he did.

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her into a tight hug. “Ahhh, there you are. Now I can breathe again.”

  Mary held on just as tightly to him, thrilled and relieved to see him after hours of uncertainty. “Where’ve you been all this time? I heard the chopper leave. I thought—”

  “You thought I’d left without seeing you? Really?”

  “What was I supposed to think when the chopper left?”

  “How about that I sent the chopper away tonight so everyone would think I left after a nice visit with my daughter and son-in-law.”

  “Oh,” she said on a long exhale.

  He released her and framed her face with his hands, seeming to drink her in. “I assume you still don’t want Cameron, Linc or the others to know about us?”

  “I… I don’t know what I want.”

  “I know what I want,” he said meaningfully, kicking the door closed and bringing his lips down on hers for the softest, sweetest kiss of her life. “As much as I love any chance to see Cam and Will, it was pure torture being so close to you and having to wait to see you.”

  “It was pure torture knowing you were here and not being sure I would see you.”

  “Let me set your mind at ease, Sweet Mary. Any time I’m here, you will see me.” He waggled his brows. “You’ll see all of me. If you want to, that is.”

  “I want to.” She rubbed shamelessly against him. “I really want to.”

  Groaning, he cupped her ass and said, “Hold on to me,” as he lifted her in a move right out of the best romantic movies. “Where’s your room?” he asked as his lips left a trail of fire on her neck.

  “That way.” She pointed to the hallway off the living room. “Last door on the left.”

  He put her on the bed and came down on top of her, gazing at her for the longest time.

  Mary raised her hands to comb her fingers through his hair and caress his face. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too, although that’s not a big enough word to describe it. I was desperately lonely without you.”

  “Me, too,” she said. “Except for the hour I got to talk to you every day.”

  “The highlight of long, boring days without you. Next time, you have to come with me.”

  “Next time, I might let you talk me into that.”

  “Did you apply for a passport?”

  “Yesterday.”

  His big smile made his handsome face so much more so. Mary could look at that smile—and that face—for hours and never get enough. “You have me thinking about all sorts of things that it’s far too soon to think about.”

  “Like what?” He made her breathless with more kisses to her neck.

  “Like how I can convince you to move to New York to live with me and sleep with me every night and travel the world with me.”

  Mary shuddered, as much from his words as the emotion she heard behind them. The thought of such a life overwhelmed—and intrigued—her. If he were there, showing her how to navigate his world, it might not be as daunting as it seemed. “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It could be. If we both want the same things.”

  “You’re right about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s far too soon to be talking about any of this.”

  “I know, but being away from you for ten long days gave me far too much time to think about you and how I can have more of you.”

  Her heart beat fast, adding to the breathlessness his kisses had caused. And then he began to unbutton her pajama top, and she stopped breathing altogether. When he had her unbuttoned, he took the time to remove his jacket and toss it on the floor before he opened the front of her top to reveal her breasts.

  “Mmm,” he said, “even prettier than I remembered.”

  Mary couldn’t breathe or speak or do anything other than wait to see what he’d do next. She wanted to unbutton his shirt and get her hands on his muscular chest, but she couldn’t seem to make her hands—or anything else—move.

  He bent his head and tugged her left nipple into his mouth, sucking and licking and drawing a keening moan from her. That was all it took to set her body on fire for him. “Imagine,” he whispered against the tight tip of her breast, “this any time we want it. Morning, noon or night, or all of the above. If I had you, Sweet Mary, I’d have everything.”

  Swept away by his words and his lips and his gentle caresses, Mary still couldn’t believe that this extraordinary man felt that way about her.

  “Tell me how you feel,” he said.

  “Amazed.”

  “By?”

  “You. This. Us.”

  “I’m right there with you. I never expected to come to my daughter’s wedding and find you, but I’m so glad I did. Tell me you’re glad, too, Mary.”

  “I am. Of course I am.”

  He drew her pajama pants and panties down her legs and discarded them, looking his fill at her naked body while he dealt with his own clothes. And then he was on top of her, surrounding her with his appealing scent as well as the heat of his body joining with hers.

  “I want to kiss you everywhere, but more than anything, I need to be inside you.” He pressed his fingers to her core. “Are you ready for me, Mary?”

  “I’ve been ready since the day I last saw you.”

  “God, you make me crazy.” He took his cock in hand and worked it into her, giving her a little at a time, letting her body adjust before giving her more.

  Mary clung to him, her hips rising to meet him.

  “Yes,” he whispered against her neck. “Just like that. God, I love being inside you.”

  She loved it, too. She loved the closeness, the tight fit, the heat they created together, and more than anything, she loved the way he looked at her
when he made love to her.

  He picked up the pace, his fingers digging into her bottom cheeks as he moved in her, his chest hair abrading her nipples and adding to the sensory overload.

  “Mary,” he said, sounding tense. “Tell me what you need.”

  “Harder,” she said without hesitation.

  And he gave it to her, sparking the orgasm that had hovered just out of reach.

  He shouted as he came with her, driving into her over and over again until his body went slack above her.

  Mary wrapped her arms and legs around him, wanting to keep him close for as long as she could.

  “Tomorrow morning,” he said after a long silence, “you’re going to drive me to a place outside of town to meet the chopper, and then on Friday, I’m going to pick you up there after work and bring you to New York for the weekend. This is where you say, ‘Yes, Patrick, that sounds like a fine idea.’”

  Mary smiled against his shoulder. “You’re very bossy. You know that?”

  “I’ve been told that a time or two.” He raised his head to look down at her. “Now tell me what I want to hear.”

  “Yes, Patrick, you bossy pain in the butt. I’ll drive you to meet your fancy chopper in the morning, and I’ll meet you there on Friday, too.”

  He gave her a light pinch to the bum that made her startle.

  “What was that for?”

  “If you’re going to call me a pain in the butt, I figured I ought to be a pain in the butt.”

  “You were a pain in the butt long before that.”

  “You love me. You’re just not yet ready to admit it to yourself—or me. But you will.”

  “You’re very confident.”

  “I’ve been told that, too. In this case, I’m not confident so much as certain that we have a great thing here, and it’s only going to get better. I can’t wait to show you my home and my city.”