“He doesn’t look good.”

“What do you mean?” Although she asked, she already knew the answer. She’d felt the same thing during the past few days. Gramps was aging right before her eyes.

“I think you know.”

“I do,” she admitted reluctantly.

“Furthermore I’m worried about you.”

“Me?” she asked, her voice rising. “Whatever for?”

“If, God forbid, anything should happen to Anton,” Zach said, drawing in a ragged breath, “what will happen to you? You don’t have any other family, do you?”

“No,” she told him, her chest tightening at the thought. “But I’m not worried about it. There are several friends who are very close to the family, Burt Coleman for one, so I wouldn’t be cast into the streets like an orphan. I’ll have the house and more than enough money to live on. There’s no need for you to be concerned. I’m not.”

“I see.” Zach frowned as he walked to the farthest end of the pier, seeming to fix his gaze on the snow-capped peaks of the Olympic mountains far in the distance.

Janine hurried to catch up with him. “Why do you ask?” she demanded.

“He’s always said he was concerned about your not having any other family. But it wasn’t until recently that I really understood his motivation in trying to arrange a marriage between us.”

“Good, then you can explain it to me, because frankly, I’m at a loss. He admitted he was wrong, but I don’t think he’s given up on the idea. He’d do just about anything to see the two of us together.”

“I know he hasn’t given up on us.”

“What did he do? Up the ante?”

Zach chuckled and his features relaxed into a smile as he met her eyes. “Nothing so explicit. He simply told me that he’s getting on in years and hates the thought of you being left so alone when he dies.”

“I’ll adjust. I’m not a child,” she said, although her heart filled with dread at the thought of life without her cantankerous, generous, good-hearted grandfather.

“I don’t doubt you would.” Zach hesitated, then resumed strolling, apparently taking it for granted that she’d continue to follow him.

“I have plenty of friends.”

Zach nodded, although Janine wasn’t certain he’d heard her. He stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. “What I’m about to say is going to shock you.”

Janine stared up at him, not knowing what to expect.

“When you think about it, our getting married does make an odd kind of sense.”

“What?” Janine couldn’t believe he was saying this.

“From a practical point of view,” he added quickly. “Since the business is in both our names, and we’re both alone. I realize I’m not exactly Prince Charming…” Zach paused as if waiting for her to contradict him. When she didn’t, he frowned but went on. “The problem has more to do with whether we can get along. I don’t even know if we’re capable of going an entire day without arguing.”