“I’m glad you approve,” Paul said sincerely. “But it’s too soon for the kind of grand gestures you’re suggesting.”

“Is it? You’re thirty-four, and I’ve never seen you like this over a woman before. She’s wise enough to know that you’re a catch. I assume the sex was hot, because you looked like a new man when you came home. So what’s the hang-up? What’s another six months going to tell you that you don’t already know?”

Paul didn’t have a good answer for that, so he stayed quiet.

“The sex was hot, wasn’t it?”

“Shut up. I’m not talking to you about that.”

“Which means it was. If it hadn’t been, you wouldn’t have been moping the last couple of days like a little boy who lost his puppy.”

“I have not been doing that.”

“If you say so.”

“Happy, married Alex is a huge pain in my ass.”

He grunted with laughter. “Single Alex was a pain in your ass, too.”

“That he was, but I like happy Alex better.”

“So do I, and I want the same for you. Go for what you want, Paul. Worst thing, she says no, but at least you’ll know you tried. Think about it.”

As Paul drove them to the party at McCarthy’s Marina, he wondered how he would think about anything else.

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The party that Sydney and the girls threw for Jenny was fabulous and over the top. It seemed as if every woman on Gansett was there, and everyone was thrilled that Jenny was finally getting her long-delayed happily ever after. Hope wondered what they would think if they knew Alex and Jenny were already married. She loved being in on the secret that only Sydney and Erin knew, too.

She loved being a part of this group of women. They’d made her feel so welcome from the first time she met Jenny, who’d assured her there’d be no lack of fun things to do if she and her son moved to Gansett Island.

That had proven very true, and this group was a big part of the reason why. Unlike the women she’d known back at home, these women didn’t thrive on gossip. They built each other up rather than tearing each other down. They thrived on being happy and productive. They were also some of the funniest women Hope had ever met.

Take Tiffany, for example, who was relaying the fact that her husband, the police chief, had wanted to do background checks on the male strippers the women had hired for Jenny’s party.

“Wait,” Jenny said. “You guys got strippers?”

Hope wasn’t sure if Jenny was intrigued or appalled. Probably some of both.

“No!” Tiffany screamed with laughter that drew the others in, too. “We’ve been telling them that all week. They’re out of their minds over it.”