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Contents ( 66)
  1. Cover
  2. Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Map of Florida
  8. one
  9. two
  10. three
  11. four
  12. five
  13. six
  14. seven
  15. eight
  16. nine
  17. ten
  18. eleven
  19. twelve
  20. thirteen
  21. fourteen
  22. fifteen
  23. sixteen
  24. seventeen
  25. eighteen
  26. nineteen
  27. twenty
  28. twenty-one
  29. twenty-two
  30. twenty-three
  31. twenty-four
  32. twenty-five
  33. twenty-six
  34. twenty-seven
  35. twenty-eight
  36. twenty-nine
  37. thirty
  38. thirty-one
  39. thirty-two
  40. thirty-three
  41. thirty-four
  42. thirty-five
  43. thirty-six
  44. thirty-seven
  45. thirty-eight
  46. thirty-nine
  47. forty
  48. forty-one
  49. forty-two
  50. forty-three
  51. forty-four
  52. forty-five
  53. forty-six
  54. forty-seven
  55. forty-eight
  56. forty-nine
  57. fifty
  58. fifty-one
  59. Epilogue
  60. Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
  61. Prologue
  62. one
  63. Acknowledgments
  64. About the Author
  65. Back Ads
  66. Back Cover

“That’s St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers,” Peyton said. He took off Gina’s medal, which was smaller than Mama Eva’s, and put it around Lisa’s neck, letting his fingers linger against her neck as he lifted her hair and slipped the silver chain over her head. “There,” he said, looking into her eyes, “now you’re protected too.”

Lisa was smiling, but something about her seemed apprehensive, as if she couldn’t shake the image of those sailors who had scared her away from her aunt’s house. Peyton remembered something Gina had told him—something he believed Lisa needed right now. “Tell me, Miss Lisa Wallace, what would make you the happiest girl in the world right this second—besides getting back to Savannah, I mean? That’s a given. But what else?”

She looked out at the rain, which was beginning to slacken. “Can I only pick one?”

“Pick as many as you like.”

“Well . . . I’d like to see Key West with you, I’d like to take a boat ride, and I’d like to go dancing.”

“Any particular order?”

“Doesn’t matter. Also, I’m starving.”

“Me too. How ’bout we start with lunch and take it from there?”

“Deal.”

Peyton helped her off the chaise and began closing windows and shutters as the rain slowed to a drizzle, then joined her on the porch, where she was watching seabirds fly over the water and alight in the mangroves. He reached out and took her hand. “Everything’s gonna be okay, Lisa. I promise.”

“Peyton,” she said, taking a timid step closer to him, “I want you to know—I’ve missed you. I mean I’ve really missed you, and—and—”

He took Lisa’s face in his hands and kissed her the way he had dreamed of kissing her for months now, pulling her close and holding her in his arms as he felt her breath on his face and her hands against his back. Her hair felt like silk, she smelled like gardenias, and she tasted like a cool rain in the summertime. She wasn’t afraid anymore. Peyton could feel it. And there was something else, something he knew as surely as he had ever known anything in his life. He looked into those blue eyes and said it out loud: “I love you.”

thirty-nine

Peyton, look—what’s that?” Lisa was pointing at what appeared to be a canvas tarp splayed against the mangroves at the water’s edge.

He closed the last of the shutters. “I don’t know. It wasn’t there before. Maybe the wind blew it off of whatever it was covering. Want to have a look?”

They held hands as they made their way down the stairs, which glistened with sunlit rainwater puddled on the old boards, and crossed the small yard. Peyton pulled the tarp out of the trees.

“I’ll bet it was covering that boat,” Lisa said.

He followed her gaze to a small sailboat sheltered under the house. “I didn’t even notice that when I came here by myself!”

“Well, that’s because it was covered up. Let’s put the tarp back on it.”