“Not yet. He’s still chattering in his crib.”

“So will you come?”

“Okay.”

Mac loaded them into the truck and headed to the south end of the island, past Dominic’s and the Hydrangea House Bed & Breakfast, taking a right onto Sweet Meadow Farm Road.

Sitting between them in his backward-facing car seat, Thomas gripped Mac’s finger so tightly that Mac wondered if the baby was afraid to let go.

“Where are we going?” Maddie asked.

“You’ll see.” The paved road changed to gravel about halfway down. I’ll need to get a plow for the truck before it snows, Mac thought. He took the final turn, and the house came into view. “What do you think?”

“Oh, it’s beautiful! Whose is it?”

“Ours.”

She gasped. “It is not! Don’t make jokes like that, Mac!”

“Who’s joking?” He laughed at her as he parked. “Come check it out.” Before he got out, he reached under the seat for an envelope that he stashed in his back pocket.

Maddie got Thomas out of his car seat and met Mac in front of the truck.

As he wrapped his hand around hers, he felt a tremble go through her.

“What do you think?”

“You can’t be serious. This isn’t a house. It’s a mansion!”

“It’s got everything I wanted—lots of land, a good view and room for our family to grow.” He appreciated the dazzling glow the sunset had cast upon the property. “All that matters now is if it has everything you want.”

She looked at him as if he had three heads.

“What?”

“Are you seriously asking me that? Does it have two bedrooms?”

“Um, five actually.”

“Then I’m sold.”

“You haven’t even seen the inside yet.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “We’re really going to live here?”

Mac put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. “We really are.”

“It’s a palace,” she whispered. “I just never imagined. . .” She looked up at him. “You can afford something like this?”

“My father’s friend Ned gave me a sweet deal.”

“Still, it has to be a fortune.”

“I can handle it, honey. My business in Miami does really well. They’ll have to buy me out, and I have a condo to sell there.”

“I can’t imagine having that kind of money.”

“Well, you do now.”

She shook her head. “It’s yours.”

“Everything I have is ours. Everything.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her while Thomas squirmed between them. “You got that?”

“It’ll take some getting used to.”

“We’ve got nothing but time. Want to see the inside?”

She nodded, her eyes sparkling now with excitement, and Mac had never loved her more.

When he took her inside and gave her the tour, there were more tears.

“I was thinking,” he said, directing her to the deck that overlooked the ocean, “that the yard would be the perfect place to tie the knot. What do you say?”

“Oh yes! Absolutely.”

“I want to do it as soon as we can, okay?”