“Aw, jeez,” she said with a sigh. “That had to hurt.”

“It was awful. But I managed to drag her kicking and screaming to the doctor on the mainland who confirmed the diagnosis and put her on medication that slowed the progression, for a while anyway. We lived in a perpetual state of battle for about a year before I called Alex and begged him to come home to help me. I hated making that call. He had a good life in DC, a job he loved and a girlfriend who dumped him when he told her he was moving home.”

“It worked out pretty well for him here.”

“Eventually, but at first he was freaking miserable, and even though he knew he needed to be here, it was tough to see him so unhappy. He hated living here when we were kids. Couldn’t wait to get the hell off this island. So to ask him to come back…”

“You did the only thing you could at the time. He knows that.”

“Yeah, he does, but it still sucked until he met Jenny and then became the happiest SOB you ever met.”

“That he is,” Hope said with a laugh.

“I’m glad for him. No one deserves it more than he does.”

“You do, too.”

Paul had no idea how to respond to that statement. Was she referring to the kiss or was he reading far too much into an innocuous statement? Probably the latter.

“Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to make things more awkward.”

“You didn’t.”

“Yes, I really did. I keep thinking about what happened the other night, and how ridiculously out of line I was. It’s so embarrassing!”

Maybe it was the four beers he’d had that gave him the liquid courage to put his arm around her.

Her body went rigid next to him.

“No need to be embarrassed. You’re not the only one who’s thought about that kiss a few thousand times.”

“Oh,” she said, exhaling and relaxing ever so slightly. “I’m not?”

“Definitely not.”

“A few thousand times?”

“At least. Might be even more than that.”

“Oh. Well…” After a long pause, she said, “Is it possible that we’re only thinking about it because we’re convenient to each other?”

Paul laughed at her use of the word convenient. “This, whatever it is, is hardly convenient. All I can think about is that my father would skin me alive for kissing one of our employees, let alone wanting to do it again. In that way, it’s incredibly inconvenient.”

“You… You want to do it again?”

“Yeah, and not at all because you’re convenient. It’s because you’re you, and you’re gorgeous and amazing and a great mom and…”

“And what?” she asked, sounding breathless.

He wished he could see her face more clearly, but it was too dark. “Sexy. Really, really sexy.”

“Paul…”