Page 68 of Just One Summer with the Grumpy

“At agirlfriend’s house,” I finished for him. “My best friend from high school. Ty isn’t from here, and he isn’t a part of my life any longer. I’m not sure why he was ever in my life to begin with. Maybe I didn’t believe I deserved anything better.”

Chase stood just inches away now, his voice gruff. “And what do you believe now?”

“That this is all a dream. That you’re not really here, and I’ll wake up and find myself plastered on a dirt road.”

He chuckled and tenderly wiped a wayward hair out of my face, sweeping it behind my ear. “I mean, about us.”

I let my face drop, staring at my feet. “IbelieveI said I’m in love with you, and you didn’t say anything back.”

A moment passed. Then his thumb hooked beneath my chin and lifted my face to look upward at his. “I didn’t want to say goodbye,” he drawled. “And now that you’re in my arms again, I’m not saying goodbye to you. Not now, not ever. Now, I won’t say you’re mine, because that’s up to you. But darlin’, I am utterly and completely yours.”

I was a puddle on the ground. More melted than a puddle—like groundwater. Completely and utterly helpless at the sincerity I saw in his eyes.

“Look,” I said. “I know you said you wouldn’t kiss me without permission, but—”

He brought my face to his and kissed me so fiercely I felt my feet leave the ground and the cottony clouds encircle us in fuzzy, glorious happiness.

A few more moments, and we pulled away, breathless.

“What were we talking about again?” I managed.

“You were taking me home to meet your parents,” he said.

“Right. And you were staying overnight while we worked out travel details.”

He cocked his head. “Travel details?”

I shrugged. “We have a company to save, right? Wedding season isn’t over. Your island needs you.”

“It needs us,” he corrected.

I couldn’t love that more. I felt dizzy at the thought, my body barely able to contain its giddy happiness. “There’s only one little problem.”

“What’s that?”

I pointed at my horse, who had trotted off to join a herd of cows in the pasture. “I don’t think she’ll fit in your car.”

We laughed, and everything was exactly as it should be.

THIRTY

Turnsout I did see Ty again.

That autumn, after a glorious summer full of each other, we returned to Manhattan triumphant. Chase’s company had managed to turn a profit and we were scheduled out for at least four full dry seasons with a long waiting list. Some of the islanders even wanted to add on to the resort, extending it by another fifty rooms. Chase wouldn’t hear of it.

As we walked through Four Seasons Park one cool fall evening, hand-in-hand, Chase stopped in his tracks. “Is that…?”

I peered ahead of us, where a couple stood arguing. I would know that form anywhere. “Yep.”

“—don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ty was saying.

“You’re telling me I don’t know about my own life?” a woman shouted at him. It definitely wasn’t Veronica. This woman seemed about ten years younger, barely twenty. She stood on the grass with her arms folded, her face turned away.

“I’m saying your life would go better if you listened to me,” Ty said, standing stubbornly on the sidewalk. “I know all about this stuff.” Then he froze, finally seeing us on the path, and his shoulders slouched.

I lifted a hand to wave. “Hello, Ty.”

The girl perked up and hurried over. “Chase Everett! I didn’t think you went on walks. I figured you had limos to take you everywhere.”

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