“I’ve been thinking a lot about that and asking around about the best place to go in the dead of winter when everyone will be ready to get off this island. I heard about a place in Turks and Caicos that I want to look into.”

“We need a place that allows kids,” she reminded him.

“That was on my list of criteria.”

“I can’t believe we’re really talking about this.”

“Let’s do more than talk about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Stay there.” He withdrew from her, got up and went to fetch her laptop from the desk and brought it back to bed with him.

“What’re you doing?”

“Looking up the place I heard about.” He typed into the search engine and clicked on the link to the resort. “Oh, look at that.”

Grace sat up for a better look, oblivious to the fact that she was naked. A lot had changed in the last year, and now they were actually making wedding plans.

“I want to get married on the beach at sunset.”

“That sounds perfect,” she said with a sigh of contentment that pleased him.

He glanced at her. “Should we go for it?”

“Right now?”

“Why not?” He began to fill out a destination wedding questionnaire. “How many people? You do the count: my parents, your parents, your brothers, my brothers, my sister, Joe, Abby, Stephanie, Maddie, Thomas, Hailey, P.J. Who am I forgetting?”

“Laura, Owen, Holden, the twins, your Uncle Frank, Shane.”

“I have to invite my Uncle Kevin and his family, too.”

“Aunt Joann?”

“Nah, she never leaves Gansett.”

“Friends?”

“Tiffany, Blaine and Ashleigh. Oh my God, Ned! You have to invite him!”

“Jeez, he should’ve been at the top of the list—along with Francine. Getting to be a lot of people, though.”

“We know a lot of people. Jenny, Syd, Luke.”

Evan laughed as the numbers grew. “What’s the count?”

“I lost count. Fifty adults, six kids?”

Evan typed the numbers into the computer and hit enter. Then he clicked on the “Beach wedding at sunset” option from a pull-down screen, along with the month of January as his preferred month and hit Enter again. “Let’s see what they’ve got.”

They stared at the screen until the date of January eighteenth popped up as available.

“January eighteenth,” Grace said.

“Are we going for it?”

She blew out a deep breath and looked at him. “You’re sure about this?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask me that.”

“Go for it.”

Evan clicked on the link to Book This Date. “I need a credit card. Hand me my wallet, will you?”

Grace reached for it on the bedside table and gave it to him. “How much do we have to put down?”

“Twenty-five hundred to hold the date.”

“That’ll make it official.”

“Certainly will. They’re going to email us tomorrow to talk details.”