For a minute he wavered. Had he done the right thing by coming here? Was the decision he’d made in the early hours of that morning, while he and his father talked about the preciousness of life, the right one for her?
He knew as he saw her now the answer was yes.
When Elyssa spotted him, she froze, letting the water lap around her ankles. Carole noticed and followed her gaze to where Joe stood at a distance behind them. Simultaneously the women stood.
Carole spoke first. “Joe.” At first he wasn’t sure if it was a welcoming “Joe” or a warning “Joe.” When he saw the stern, sober faces of the others, he knew it was a warning “Joe.”
“Look, I’ve been a jackass and I love her. I’m not giving up.”
“She doesn’t want to see you,” Dana said staunchly.
“Yes, she does,” Carole said quietly.
The women gaped at her. Carole’s eyes narrowed. “But I warn you, Joe, if you hurt her again, you’ll have to deal with us. And we won’t be kind.”
“I’m sure that is true. You have my word,” Joe said with a slight bow toward the women.
“Ladies, let’s excuse ourselves,” Carole said. “We’ll wait for Elyssa on the deck.”
Joe glanced at the house as the women trekked up the beach. So, he’d have an audience when he groveled. Who cared? He’d do this in the middle of Camden Yards baseball field if it would get Elyssa back.
Joe turned his full attention to Elyssa, who’d come out of the water, but stayed close to the shore as if she might have to beat a hasty retreat. As he came near, he saw her skin glowed in the sunlight and her eyes were shining, though he couldn’t read the look in them.
Elyssa watched Joe come toward her. She’d bought him those navy shorts and checked sport shirt at a Ralph Lauren Polo sale one day when they shopped. The Docksiders on his feet squished in the sand but the sound was drowned out by her heart pounding in her chest.
When he was no more than a yard from her he stopped and said simply, “Hello, love.”
She felt tears threaten. She’d never expected to hear that soft endearment again. But she was more than ready to hear it. She wanted to hear it. Badly. “Hi, Joe.”
Hands in his pockets, he looked out to sea. “I’ve had an interesting weekend.”
“You have?”
“Yes, I spent the last thirty-six hours at Memorial Hospital in Maryland.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t your father, is it?” Elyssa’s face filled with alarm.
“No,” he said, turning his full gaze on her. “I had chest pains two nights ago at my father’s cabin.”
Oh, my God. Spontaneously she reached out and grasped his arm. “Are you all right?” She’d never let herself consider something happening to this man. He was always so strong, so indestructible.
“I didn’t have a heart attack. They did about a million tests and said I have the heart of an athlete.”
She breathed a relieved sigh and dropped her hand. “Thank God.” She frowned. He didn’t even look tired, let alone sick. “So what caused the pain?”
Shrugging, he cocked his head. “They’re not sure. Probably stress. I have to make an appointment with my GP this week.”
She tossed her hair back over her shoulders and wrapped her arms around herself. “You need to take it easy, then. For a while. Rest, eat—”
“I can’t rest. I can’t eat. I keep thinking about how I lost you. How I blew it.”
God, she loved him so much. “We both blew it, Joe.”
He reached out to her and touched her cheek gently. Ran wonderfully male knuckles down her cheek. “Think there’s a chance we can put it back together again? This time do it right?”
Her heart caught in her throat. She managed to say, “Do you want to?”
“More than I want anything in the world.” He stepped closer. “I know what’s important in my life.” He ran his fingertips along her shoulder, making her shiver. “It’s you.”
She grasped his hand and kissed it. “I’ve been miserable without you.”
“I made you miserable when you were with me, but I won’t do it again. I promise.”
She scrutinized his face. Up close she could see pure and simple regret in those blue eyes that gave the sky behind him a run for its money. She thought about how hard she’d worked to forget those eyes. And how far she was planning to go to leave the memories of him behind.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” she asked, knowing he was reading her heart and mind.
“Leave me. I want another chance to make you happy. You don’t have to sell Allheart to get away from me.”
She shook her head. “I want to sell Allheart. I want to start over again without all that baggage separating us.”
His shoulders relaxed and he expelled a heavy breath. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized he’d feared she was going to reject him. His hand curled around her nape and his forehead met hers. “I’m so sorry for being pigheaded. For hurting you. I love you, Lyss. I’ll do this any way you want.”
“On any terms?” Though she parroted his taunting words at the office that day, there was a smile in her voice.
“On any terms.”
She moved in closer, her barely clad breasts brushing his chest. “Then I want the whole shebang, big guy. A diamond that could eat Brooklyn.” She raised her arms and circled his neck. “And a beautiful matching wedding band to go with it.” She stood on tiptoes.
His arms vised around her. “You mean it?”
“More than I ever meant anything in my life.”
He just held her; they basked in the sun, in the air, in the bright and beautiful future that suddenly loomed before them.
“I want to touch you,” he whispered against her ear. “Be inside you. I want us to be whole again.” His words were raw. She knew he was thinking of the last time.
“I want that, too.”
She glanced over his shoulder and giggled. “But we have an audience. I’m sure they won’t take it well if we disappear into a sand dune.” She smiled. “They’re all mad at you.”
“Do you blame them?”
She placed her fingers on his mouth. “Shh. No more of that.”
He smiled, the sexiest, most devastating smile he’d ever cast her way. Then he looked out to the water. “Hmm.”
“What?”
“I have an idea.”
Slowly, never letting his arms drop from around her, he backed her up. The water lapped around her ankles first. “Joe, you’re dressed. Shoes, everything.”
The waves reached her knees.
He said, “Once we’re underwater I won’t be.”
The cool, salty Atlantic curled around their waists. When her breasts were submerged, he cupped her in his hands. “I never thought I’d be able to touch you like this again.”
She sighed and reached down to touch him intimately. “Me, neither.”
She looked back at the house and saw that the Allheart crew had disappeared inside. “It looks like we’re alone, Monteigne. Waddya say?” She untied the top of her bikini and pulled him to her.
“I say we begin our life together here and now.” And he kissed her like she’d never been kissed before, like it was the first kiss and the last kiss, the whole of their past and future coming together in one glorious moment in the sun.
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