Ethan closed his eyes a moment as his own half-formed daydream shattered. She would want more children. Deserve them. Life wasn’t all pretty sails on the Bay.

‘‘I need to trim the sails,’’ he told her. ‘‘Do you want to take the wheel?’’

‘‘I’ll trim them.’’ She grinned at him as she ducked under his arm to move to port. ‘‘I haven’t forgotten how to handle lines, Cap’n.’’

No, he thought, she hadn’t forgotten. She was a good sailor, as at home on deck as she was in her own kitchen. She ran the rigging with the same skill that she showed when she served drinks to a crowd at the pub.

‘‘There’s not much you can’t do, Grace.’’

‘‘What?’’ She glanced up, then laughed. ‘‘It’s not hard to know how to use the wind when you grow up with it.’’

‘‘You’re a natural sailor,’’ he corrected. ‘‘A wonderful mother, a fine cook. You know how to make people easy around you.’’

Her pulse went from calm to frantic. Would he ask her now, after all, before she had the chance to ask him? ‘‘Those are all things I enjoy,’’ she said, watching him watch her. ‘‘Making a home here in St. Chris contents me. You do the same, Ethan, because it contents you.’’

‘‘I’ve got a need for this place,’’ he said softly. ‘‘It’s what saved me,’’ he added, but he’d turned away and she didn’t hear.

Grace waited another moment, willing him to speak, to tell her, to ask her. Then with a shake of her head, she crossed the deck again.

The sun was sinking, coming close, so close to that long nightly kiss of the shore. The water was calm, littlewavelets waltzing against the hull. The sails were full and white.

The moment, she thought with a leap of heart, was now.

‘‘Ethan, I love you so much.’’

He lifted an arm to bring her against his side. ‘‘I love you, Grace.’’

‘‘I’ve always loved you. I always will.’’

He looked down at her then, and she saw the emotion come into his eyes, deepening the blue. She lifted a hand to his cheek, held it there as she drew in the next breath.

‘‘Will you marry me?’’ She saw the surprise, as she’d expected, but she didn’t notice the way his body went stiff as she rushed on. ‘‘I want us to be a family. I want to live my life with you. To give you children. To make you happy. Haven’t we waited long enough?’’

And she waited now, but she didn’t see the slow smile slip across his face, into his eyes. He only continued to stare at her, with something she thought might be horror. Bony wings of panic fluttered in her stomach.