“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?”

“About that. . .” She glanced up at him, her expression wary. “My mother is due home in a couple of weeks. I’d like to wait for her, if that’s all right with you.”

“Of course it is. Whatever you want.”

“Will you always be such an accommodating husband?”

“Maybe not always, but it’ll always matter to me that you’re happy.”

She bent to put Thomas down on the carpet and linked her arms around Mac’s neck. “I feel like I’m dreaming,” she said, drawing him into a kiss. “I missed you so much.”

“Me, too. I thought I’d go crazy without you.” Mac wanted to lose himself in the kiss, but he held back. “Hold that thought for a second, will you?”

Moaning in protest, Maddie released him.

“So, um, there’s something I have to tell you, and you might get mad at me for not telling you sooner, but I had a really good reason—”

“What’ve you done now?”

Mac withdrew the envelope from his back pocket and handed it to her.

“What’s this?”