She refused to think about him. Not today. She’d much rather focus on the man who’d taken her home to his parents’ house, put her up for the night and paid for her ferry ticket home to Connecticut the next day. The single best thing she’d ever done in her entire life was return to the island the following week to reimburse Evan for the ferry ticket. He hadn’t wanted her money, but much to her surprise, the handsome, sexy, ridiculously talented musician who could’ve had any woman in the world had wanted her. They’d been together pretty much ever since, and she’d ended up giving her virginity to a man who truly loved her and always would—her first and only boyfriend, the love of her life.

A knock on the door drew her out of the trip down memory lane. “Come in.”

The door opened, and in came Linda McCarthy. She shut the door behind her and crossed the room to Grace. “Oh, honey,” Linda said, her hand over her heart. “You’re stunning. Evan won’t know what hit him when he sees you.”

“Thank you,” Grace said, fortified by her soon-to-be mother-in-law’s reaction. Her hair was long and shiny thanks to the efforts of the resort’s salon. She wore the same makeup she wore most days, which wasn’t much, and her dress, which her friend Tiffany had helped her to special order, was a simple white, floor-length gown with a beaded bodice and a long, flowing skirt. The bicep curls Grace had been doing every day for six months had brought new definition to her arms that she was damned proud of.

She would carry a bouquet of red and hot pink tropical flowers and had a red hibiscus bloom tucked behind her right ear.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Linda asked.

“I think I’m good. You can send the girls in if they’re ready.”

“They’re outside. I’ll get them for you, but before I do… I just wanted to say, Mac and I are so thrilled to welcome you into our family. If we could’ve handpicked the perfect partner for Evan, we couldn’t have found anyone better suited to him than you are. Thank you for making him happier than he’s ever been.”

“Oh, Linda, don’t make me cry.” Grace reached for her hand. “Your son is the finest man I’ve ever known, except for maybe your husband, and it’s the greatest honor of my life to become a McCarthy. All this time, in the back of my mind, I think I’ve been waiting for something to go wrong. Something always goes wrong.”

“Not today, sweetheart. Today will be perfect, and at the end of it, you’ll be Evan’s wife and he’ll be your husband. Just the way it was always supposed to be.”