Island Promises. Leanne Banks

None of them wanted to be bothered with us. You, on the other hand, already care about Grace and Sarah, and they like you.” He’d figured out that much, hearing them talk about the wedding. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

      She leaned her head on his shoulder again for just a moment before rising to her feet. “In the interest of saving my sanity and my nerves, I’m going to choose to believe you about that. I love Nick too much to back out now. Thank you. A bunch of us are going to dinner later, if you’re interested. Around eight.”

      “I might be. I’ll let you know.”

      After she left, he took another drink from his beer, listening to the light music of the girls’ laughter on the trade winds.

      They were having the time of their lives playing in the waves, and he suddenly wanted to be out there with them.

      So why wasn’t he?

      He battled indecision for another minute before he hurried into the cabana for his board shorts.

      * * *

      “IT’S SO WARM!” Sarah exclaimed, trailing fingers through sea water. “Remember how cold Lake Michigan was last summer?”

      Megan shivered at the memory, which seemed a distant lifetime ago. “Yes. I think my teeth only stopped chattering last week.”

      Sarah giggled, bouncing a little on a wave that rolled past them. They were in only about eighteen inches of water, barely to the girls’ chests when they were sitting on the sandy bottom.

      “What about you, Gracie?” she asked.

      “I love it,” she declared, beaming and wiggling her legs. In the water, Grace enjoyed a freedom of movement she didn’t have elsewhere. She had more control over her muscles, somehow able to countermand the disrupted neural pathways created by the hypoxic brain bleed that had caused her cerebral palsy shortly after birth.

      “I think a fish just nibbled my toe!” Sarah exclaimed.

      She flopped onto her stomach and stuck her face straight into the water, emerging a moment later with wide-eyed delight on her dripping features.

      “It did! I saw four little fish! They’re silver and orange. Can you see, Grace? Can you?”

      Grace might have been able to move better in the water, but she’d never mastered her fear of submerging her face.

      She peered a few inches above the softly rippling water, straining hard to see into the depths. “I can’t see anything but water,” she complained.

      “They’re right there. Try harder.”

      “What are we looking at?” a male voice called out and Megan jerked up from her own scrutiny of the depths to discover Shane wading toward them, a pair of board shorts hanging low on his hips.

      His shoulders were broad and muscled, and her toes suddenly tingled as if a whole school had started nipping them.

      “There are fish down there,” Grace announced, with all the wide-eyed glee of someone declaring the clouds had suddenly turned rainbow colors.

      He smiled down at her with a soft tenderness, and Megan’s stomach fluttered. “Is that so?”

      “Yes. Sarah felt one bite her toe. They didn’t bite mine, though.”

      “Lucky.”

      “I wanted one to bite me. I don’t like to put my face in the water, so I can’t see them, but Sarah said they’re there.”

      “I saw them,” Sarah declared. “Look, there’s another one.”

      Shane obediently lowered his face to the water. “Oh, I see him. You’re right.”

      He lifted his head, only inches away from Megan’s. That fluttering went into double time.

      “You know, there are boogie boards with snorkel windows on them,” he informed her. “Grace could lie on the board and look right down into the water.”

      Sarah snickered. “You said boogie.”

      Grace giggled, too, and Megan had to hide a smile as Shane rolled his eyes at her.

      He pulled the board out from under his arm. “For your information, missy, this is called a boogie board. It helps you ride the waves.”

      He turned to Grace. “Want to try it?”

      Grace gave a little nod, though she looked apprehensive.

      He held the wide board steady in the small waves while Megan helped Grace stabilize on it.

      “Hold on to the sides. That’s it,” Shane said. He supported the board and angled it to take best advantage of the waves. A slightly bigger one rolled to shore and she laughed when she rode up and down on it.

      “That made my tummy tickle like the airplane!” she said.

      He grinned. “It can do that.”

      Megan really tried not to notice how sweet he was to entertain her daughter—or how gorgeous he looked doing it.

      All the headaches of traveling with children, especially one with special needs, seemed to float away on the tide as she watched her daughter’s joy at riding the waves.

      “Go Gracie!” Sarah yelled, clapping her hands. After a minute she turned to Megan. “Do you think I could have a turn when Grace is done?”

      “You’ll have to ask Shane.”

      He overheard. “Sure you can. Just give us a minute.”

      After a few more waves, he tugged Grace back to Megan, lifted her off, then helped Sarah onto the board.

      While Megan and Grace sat in the warm, shallow water, he tugged adventurous Sarah out to where the waves were slightly bigger.

      Grace, in Megan’s arms now, gave a little yawn that for just an instant made her look like a fragile baby bird.

      When Shane returned Sarah to Megan, he held out the board to her. “Do you want a turn now?”

      She ordered her stupid hormones to calm down.

      “No. Thank you, though. I need to get these little mermaids onto dry land for dinner and bed. We’re still on Chicago time, I think. It’s been a long day today, with more fun planned tomorrow.”

      “If you take the board, I can carry Grace up to the house for you.”

      He knelt down in the water, offering his broad, comforting back. “Hop on, Ariel,” he said over his shoulder.

      Grace and Sarah both giggled, clearly infatuated with him. Grace threw her arms around his neck and he stood easily, wading through the waves and sand toward their cabana.

      “Outdoor shower first, girls,” Megan said, following along with Sarah’s hand in hers. “We need to wash all this sand off out here.”

      He lowered Grace to the little bench beside the shower. “Thanks for the boogie boarding,” Megan said, trying not to stare at all those gleaming chest muscles, or the small, puckered red scar on his biceps from the gunshot wound.

      “No problem. I’ll see you all later.”

      His fingers brushed hers as he grabbed the board. His smile encompassed her and her daughters, then he turned around and headed back into the waves. He waded a little ways, then dove in with quick, sure movements, heading for deeper water.

      “Mommy?”

      Sarah’s tone indicated that wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get her attention, and Megan jerked her focus away from Shane and back to her daughters, where it rightfully belonged.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      SHE SLEPT WITH the windows open and the sound of the sea lulling her to a deep and dreamless state...and awoke