After Michelle left, Casey took a minute to compose herself, touching up her powder and reapplying her lip gloss. Then, she joined her family and friends on the veranda. Torches flickered in the early evening light, casting pretty shadows across the deck and the sandy beach mere feet away. She found her place card, and a waiter pulled out a chair for her. Her stepmother would be sitting next to her.

She scanned the group for Nate, but didn’t see him anywhere. Reaching for her glass of water, she took a sip and waited patiently, peering at the other place cards to find where he was seated. Across from her, two chairs down. She’d have to grab a private moment with him as soon as she could. She’d talk to him without tears or agenda, and simply speak the full truth. All this time of saying less than what she felt wasn’t helping anyone.

A minute later, her spine straightened and goosebumps rose on her arms as his mouthwatering scent drifted by. He took the chair next to her. “Michelle just told me the seating had changed. I hope you don’t mind,” he said, moving in next to her.

She didn’t wait a second longer. “I’m so sorry,” she said softly, because there was no time like the present. She went for the truth, and she hoped those three words could begin to convey how contrite she was. But they were only the beginning. “I shouldn’t have said any of those things. When I saw you with that woman, it made me so incredibly jealous.”

A flicker of a smile appeared on his lips, those gorgeous, delicious lips she loved to kiss. “Like that night I was in Miami and you thought I went to a club,” he said, speaking in a hushed whisper.

“Yes. I was so jealous then. And now I feel that way ten times, fifty times, a thousand times more. I can’t stand the thought of anyone else with you. Except me.”

He parted his lips, and a sexy sigh escaped. “Casey,” he said, breathing her name like she was precious to him. “I feel the same. I completely feel the same.”

But there was no more time for any conversation, because Jack and Casey’s father stood up, clinked a glass, and thanked everyone for coming to the other side of the world to celebrate the wedding of his son. After that, their father’s wife commandeered Nate’s attention. Seated on the other side of him, she peppered Nate with all sorts of questions about the resort, asking about the scuba diving, where she might see turtles underwater, and if there was a way to swim with the dolphins.

When the appetizers cleared, Jack rose and cleared his throat. Quickly the noise died down, and the only sound was that of waves gently lapping the shore.

“Thank you so much for joining us here. We hope it wasn’t too much of a hardship to come to the Maldives,” he said with a smirk.