Laughing through her tears, she said, “I love it. We’re not returning it.” She was filled with every kind of emotion possible, including one she’d never expected to experience so fully again—joy. “Who’d have thought that spraining my ankle and getting a flat tire on a dark road would turn out to be the best thing that ever happened?”

“I did. I knew from that first night that you were going to ruin me in the best way possible.”

“You did not know then!”

“Yes, I did. I really did. And you know how I knew?”

“How?”

“Me, who made a career out of never, ever spending a night with a woman, slept in that uncomfortable chair in your living room so I could be there if you needed me during the night. That was the first sign of trouble where you were concerned.”

“Trouble, ha! I haven’t been any trouble to you.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve been nothing but trouble to me, disturbing my focus, plaguing my dreams, keeping me awake at night, forcing me to jack off in the shower more than I have since I was a kid. If that’s not trouble, what is it?”

Laughing at his recitation, she said, “It’s love.”

“Yes, it is, and I want all the trouble you can dole out for the rest of our lives.”

“You got it. Thank you so much for taking on all my issues and helping me find a way to be happy.”

“Baby, being happy with you is like breathing—the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

Epilogue

There had been a time, not that long ago, when Grace Ryan had been convinced she’d never have a boyfriend, let alone a husband. Lap-band surgery had transformed her body, but Evan McCarthy’s love had transformed her soul. Seeing herself through his eyes, she felt beautiful for the first time in her life, and standing before the full-length mirror in the resort’s bridal suite, she took in the sight of herself in her wedding dress and could see for herself, for once, that she was indeed beautiful on the most important day of her life.

From one of the most embarrassing incidents ever had come the love of a lifetime. Sometimes it seemed like minutes rather than more than a year since the night she’d been abandoned by a date on Gansett Island and rescued by Evan, who’d been playing a gig with Owen at the McCarthy’s marina.

Evan had taken the time to find out why she was sitting by herself, crying. The guy she’d come to the island with had taken off on his boat with her purse, her phone, her money and her clothes, all because she’d refused to have sex with him after finding out their “relationship” had been yet another in a series of jokes about the “fat” girl.