Hands on hips, ball cap perched on her head, she gave him a look of annoyance that any mother would respect. It occurred to him right in that moment that she would be a wonderful mother someday. “What are you doing here, Torrington?”

“I was missing you.”

“How’d you get here?”

“Grant and Mac.”

Kara sat next to him on the bench, taking a perusing inventory of his features. “Are you in pain?”

“A little.”

“Did you take your pills?”

“Earlier.”

“So they’re wearing off.”

“Maybe.”

“Dan! What’re you doing here when you should be home on the sofa?”

“It sort of happened like this…” Dan told her about Grant coming to visit, going with him to his parents’ home and the emotional discovery of what had really happened after the accident. “I was right up the hill from you, and I wanted to see you. I needed to see you.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, cupping his face with her hand as she contended with a flood of tears. “It must’ve been so shocking to hear all that.”

“It was upsetting, to say the least, and then to have to face Steve’s mom, knowing how it had gone down. Poor Grant was a mess. I knew it was bad for him out there, but I had no idea how bad.”

She hugged him, and Dan sagged into her embrace. Her fingers curled around his nape, cradling him. Resting against her, any doubt that he’d fallen in love evaporated into the soft spring air. They stayed that way for a long time; all the while, Dan prayed for her customers to stay away.

“Kara?”

“Hmm?”

“I want to tell you something right here on the dock where you and I began.”

“Is this where we began? Or was it in Luke Harris’s kitchen when I took one look at you and knew you were going to be big trouble for me.”

He pulled back from her, grinning like a loon. “Big trouble, huh?”

“Very big trouble.”

“I love you.”

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted ever so slightly, making him want to take full advantage of the invitation. “You do?”

On pins and needles waiting for her to say she loved him, too, he studied her expressive face, looking for a sign that she felt the same way he did. Any sign would do.

“Is that okay?” he finally asked after a very long pause.

“I think so.”

“You think so? What does that mean?”

“You haven’t met any of my sisters yet. There’re still a few single ones—”