Not only that, he’d finally figured out that it wasn’t Lily he was hell-bent to protect, it was himself. He’d been far more scarred by Rachel leaving than he’d ever let himself believe. He’d always played it off, sticking with the story that she meant nothing to him. In theory, he wasn’t wrong. They hadn’t had a meaningful relationship.
But they’d had a child together and he’d thought that meant something. He’d thought Lily would at least bind them together and they’d co-parent together. Being left alone with Lily—a child he’d had no idea how to raise—was a blow he’d never known how to take. So, instead of handling it, he’d thrown himself in front of Lily and pretended it didn’t affect him.
But it had, and his resulting behavior had eventually pushed away the one person who had seen right through him. Violet wasn’t put off by his short answers or curt tones. Sometimes, the surlier he was, the lighter she became.
She was the yin to his yang, if he believed in something like that.
“You’re going to think yourself to death,” Miles shouted over the roar of the motor.
“If I do, you still can’t ask Violet out. I call dibs until you die.”
He heard Miles’s laugh over the boat’s noise.
“It always did take you a little longer to figure things out.”
Miles wasn’t wrong. It may have taken him a little longer to get it, but now that he did, he knew what he had to do.
He looked down and smiled.
If the rabbit he was about to pull out of his hat didn’t change Violet’s mind, nothing would.
They motored into the bay and he pointed to a dock to the far left of the ferry. There was a small sailboat tied up and he could see Lily and Violet on the deck, both in bathing suits. It didn’t surprise him in the least when Violet got a running start and leaped into the water in a cannonball. He could hear Lily’s laugh in his mind, knowing she’d love that an adult could still cut loose like that.
Lily followed right behind Violet, and this time Gabe heard the whoop of joy as they neared. Her splash wasn’t very impressive but what it lacked in size, it made up for in heart.
They pulled up to the other side of the wooden dock across from their boat.
“Just stay here for a minute,” he told Miles, hoping to keep his trump card out of sight.
Before he could respond, an older man strolled up to the side of Miles’s boat, hands in his pockets, smiling away. Gabe knew from the pictures in Violet’s house that this was her father.
“Mr. Hart,” Gabe said, hand outstretched.
“Mr. Atwood.”
“Gabe.”
“Reed.”
“Miles,” Miles said, bringing himself into the conversation.
“The doctor that sewed up my Violet’s finger?”
“The one and only. It was my pleasure,” he said as he shook hands with Violet’s father.
“Come on,” Mr. Hart instructed as he held out a hand and helped Gabe off the boat.
When he held out a hand to Miles, he took the offering.. “Don’t mind if I do.”
“I told you to stay here,” Gabe grunted, glaring at Miles.
“Is that what I think it is?” Violet’s father asked, turning Gabe’s attention back to the boat.
“A bribe,” Gabe confirmed, unashamed.
“Whatever works,” the older man answered. “Come on then.”
They walked the few steps to the other boat and Gabe felt a bead of sweat drip down his back. He’d planned everything he was going to say to Violet, how he was going to convince her he wasn’t the biggest ass in the world.
He hadn’t, however, planned on doing it in front of an audience.
As they approached her parents’ boat, it was dawning on him that not only was he about to grovel, but he was about to do it on front of his daughter, Violet’s parents, and Miles, of all people.
“She fits right in here, you know?” Mr. Hart said, pointing at the back of the boat.
Flower Girls, it read in flowing script across the back.
“Lily seems a nice addition to my Iris, Heather, Violet, Ivy, and Rose. My flower girls.”
Gabe stopped in his tracks and just stared. How had he missed the coincidence with their names? Not just that, but how had he missed that Lily did fit right in with Violet? Maybe even more than she fit with him.
“I don’t much like seeing my girls upset, Gabe.”
The affable guy that greeted him moments ago was now another man. Someone he recognized immediately. He was now a father, protecting his daughter’s heart.
“I don’t either, sir,” Gabe answered. “I hope to fix that if Violet will let me.”
“I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, considering what I owe your father. He could have tried to talk Iris out of loving me all those years ago. If I were him, it’s what I would have done, but he didn’t. I’ve never met the man but he gave me my life on a silver platter, even if he didn’t do it for me.”
“I’d never heard that story until my dad laid eyes on Violet. Guess she reminded him of your wife.”
“They do bear a bit of a similarity.” Mr. Hart smiled. “Don’t you, Tink?”
Gabe looked up to see a taller version of Violet standing on the deck of the boat, looking affectionately at them both.
“So we’ve heard. I’m Iris. You must be Gabe.”
“Yes, ma’am, though I think Violet looks a lot like her father, as well,” he said, taking the few step to the boat and reaching his hand up to her to shake. It really was uncanny, the resemblance between Violet and her mother.
“I agree.” Her smile was warm. “Thank you for letting Lily stay with us last night. We all had a great time.”
“Thank you for looking out for her. She just about gave me a heart attack pulling a stunt like that.”
“Don’t be too hard on her,” Iris said, her eyes soft. “She’s got a big heart and was brave enough to go after what she wanted. That takes guts.”
Just then, Violet and Lily came into view, both wrapped in towels on the deck of the boat after their swim in the bay.
Lily looked terrified and Violet looked like she was about to walk the plank.
Just seeing his daughter, after the scare she’d given him the day before, made him choke up.
Without a word, he held his hands out to her and when she came to him, he pulled her off the boat and wrapped her in his arms.
In that moment, he didn’t care who was watching them or saw. It didn’t matter that there were tears in his eyes when he held her or if he could barely breathe he was so relieved.
“God, Lily. I love you so much. Please don’t ever scare me like that again.”
She seemed to be content in letting him hold her, and her arms were wrapped around his waist.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“I know you didn’t. I know what you were doing, Lil, but that’s not how we do things. You’ve got to talk to me.”
“But you don’t listen,” she mumbled. “Sometimes, you don’t listen.”
“I know that, too. I’m going to get better at that.”
He looked up and saw Violet watching them, leaned into her mother, the older woman’s arm wrapped around her daughter’s shoulders.
Still holding on to Lily, he spoke directly to Violet.
“I’m going to get better at listening and I’m going to get better at trusting, Violet.”
“Gabe…”
“I know I screwed up. I should have known when I saw you packing your stuff that you weren’t leaving. I should have known you were packing things up and doing something totally selfless with them, because that’s who you are.”
“You were pissed when you showed up that day,” she pointed out, crossing her arms. “The boxes were the icing on the cake.”
“I was mad that Lily talks to you and not me. That didn’t have anything to do with you. That had to do with me.” He looked down at his daughter. “I took it personally
that you talked to Violet about how you felt, but not to me. I was being selfish because I want you all to myself.” He shrugged and looked back to Violet. “And I’m scared you’ll change your mind, like Rachel did. Maybe it’s me that made her leave. Maybe co-parenting with me was what she didn’t want to do.”
“Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with you,” Violet pointed out. “Either of you.”
Gabe looked at the people gathered around them and back to Violet who was watching him with her guard up so high it nearly broke his heart. He hated doing this in front of a crowd. Baring his personal problems wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned happening when he’d come to win Violet back, but hiding hadn’t done him any good either. It was time to put himself out there and let the chips fall where they may.
“I used that as an excuse to keep my distance from you, not that I did a very good job of it. I told myself I was protecting Lily, but I was trying to protect myself.” He turned to Lily. “All this time, I did what I thought was best for you. Then we met Violet and everything changed.”
Gabe stepped up to the Flower Girls and held out his hand and waited for Violet to take it. At first, he thought she might refuse. She studied him closely, and though he didn’t know what she was looking for, she must have found something redeemable because in the end, she placed her hand in his. On a sigh of relief, he helped her off the boat, his hands moving to her waist as he slid her body down his.
Now that he had her, he had no intention of letting her go.
“You changed everything when you came into our lives. I don’t like change.”
“Change can be a good thing,” she pointed out.
Gabe shook his head. “Change can be the best thing. That’s what you are, Violet. The best thing. For me and for Lily. I know I always say the wrong thing.”
“You seem to be doing fine just now,” she whispered.
“Here’s the bottom line: I love you.” Her eyes widened and he felt a little jolt of pride that he could surprise her. “Everything I thought I wanted for our future, everything I thought I was looking for, doesn’t even make sense anymore. I want you.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” Violet commented.
“I thought I wanted someone who worked nine-to-five and had a nice normal job. Turns out, I want someone creative who can roll with the punches and make something out of nothing. I thought I wanted someone who could be a stable mother-figure for Lily, but it turns out, having someone be a rock-solid friend is the same damn thing. You’re everything I want, Vi, I was just too thick to notice.”
“I’m marking this down on the calendar,” Miles called from behind him. “Gabe admits he’s thick-headed.”
“No one asked you! And you were supposed to stay on the boat!” Gabe yelled back, his eyes never leaving Violet’s. “I had to bring him, I had no choice.”
“Ignore him,” she said. “I’m still reveling in this declaration of love you’ve got going on.”
“Violet!” Iris laughed. “Put the poor boy out of his misery.”
“Please,” Gabe murmured. “Put me out of my misery, babe.”
“I can’t be the person you squeeze into those tiny boxes you made in your head. I can’t be nine-to-five lady or tea-party-mom lady. I can only be me. I need that to be enough for you.”
“It’s more than enough,” Gabe insisted. “I didn’t know that’s what I was looking for so it took me a second to find you but now that I have, I don’t think I can let go. Ever.”
Finally, a smile spread across Violet’s face and her arms wrapped around his neck.
“I can live with that,” she whispered before pulling Gabe’s lips to meet her own.
His chest swelled and he wrapped her in his arms, lifting her off her feet. Holding Violet again made everything click back into place, made everything feel right in his world. He didn’t care that her parents were watching, or Lily. They’d all have to get used to it.
Miles on the other hand? He’d brought the guy for a reason.
“I brought you a bribe but I didn’t need to use it,” he whispered to Violet.
“A bribe?” she laughed.
“Just something to sweeten the pot, if you were wavering in your decision to stay.”
“You think there’s something other than you and Lily that would get me to change my mind?”
Gabe, still holding Violet in his arms, turned and shouted to Miles, “Come on, Miles. Let’s show her.”
Violet waited as Miles jogged over to his boat. She turned to Gabe, unable to wipe the smile from her face.
He’d surprised her, that was for sure. Not only by showing up and making a declaration like he did, but telling her the truth about how he was feeling. For a guy like Gabe, exploring feelings didn’t always come easy. She was proud of him for admitting to those things and not letting them stand in the way of what he wanted.
Thankfully, it was her that he wanted.
“I love you, too, you know,” she told him.
“I know,” he said, pressing his lips against hers. “But you can tell me as many times as you want.”
“I’d expect it fairly regularly if I were you,” she said.
“Fairly regularly?” He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I plan to tell you every night when I have you—”
Just then Miles jumped off his boat onto the dock and Violet let out a squeal.
“What is that?” she pointed, her eyes wide.
“Your bribe,” Gabe explained, hurrying over and taking the little dog from Miles’s arms. “See, Lily told me all about how you never got to have a dog growing up because you moved around too much. She said if you got a dog, that meant you were planning to stay in Fortune’s Bay.”
“I got a book from the library,” she whispered, her heart racing as she looked between the scruffy little dog and Gabe.
“I heard that too.” He reached behind him and handed her the papers that had been in his back pocket. “Here are his adoption papers. They have both of our names on them. Turns out, this guy has been at the shelter a while and because he’s a little older, no one wanted to take him home.”
Violet felt a whimper come out of her throat as a knot formed there. Without hesitation, she hurried to Gabe, grabbing Lily’s hand on the way and dragging her to the dog.
Together, they introduced themselves; the little dog shook but wagged his tail.
“His name is Chance, or so they say,” Gabe continued, though Violet barely heard him.
A dog! She’d always wanted a dog. Somehow, having a dog meant having a home, in her eyes.
She looked up at Gabe, tears swimming in her eyes.
“You didn’t need the bribe,” she said.
“But he didn’t hurt.” He laughed with a wink.
“Two boys and two girls,” Lily said, taking the dog right out of Gabe’s arms and holding him like a baby. “Now we’re even.”
Violet wrapped her arms around Gabe’s middle, her head on his chest. His heart beat under her and she let her eyes slide closed, the perfection of the moment washing over her.
They’d come a long way since Gabe had glared into the food truck at her and she’d cut off the tip of her finger.
A laugh bubbled in her throat and she looked up at him.
“What?” he asked, smiling at her goofy expression.
“We’ve come a long way,” she said with a shrug and held out her fist. “Knuckles, bro.”
His carefree chuckle warmed her to her soul.
“How many times do I have to tell you, I’m not your damn bro?”
He swept her off her feet, ran to the end of the dock, and with a great leap, they bounded into the water and into their future together in Fortune’s Bay.
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Love Sparkles in Fortune’s Bay - by Julia Archer
A Brush with Love in Fortune’s Bay - by Roberta Capizzi
Secrets of the Heart in Fortune’s Bay - Sidney Valentine
Love Letters in Fortune’s Bay - Maria Luis
Lovestruck in Fortune’s Bay - Joslyn Westbrook
A Map to Destiny in Fortune’s Bay - Nicole Ellis
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