'I'm touching your skin, aren't I?' he demanded. 'I know how you're feeling.'
'You didn't want to take me to bed.'
'I did.'
'Yeah, but you were too honourable. Because of Grant.'
'Not because of Grant.'
'Yes, because of Grant,' she snapped, and she would have sat up, but then thought better of it and thumped herself down again. 'Massage.'
'Only because I wanted it to be different.'
'How could it be anything but different?'
'I've figured that out,' he said ruefully. 'Can I, please, stop massaging you now?'
'No.'
'I'm not being responsible,' he said.
'Good,' she said. 'Neither am I.'
'I've booked a honeymoon suite here,' he said, and she gasped.
'You've what?'
'Only until the morning. Then there's a yacht waiting for us in the Whitsundays.' ‑;
She thought about that for a moment, cautious. 'What sort of yacht?' she asked at last.
'A pink one.'
'A pink yacht.'
'It's called Fluff and Nonsense. It's the most irresponsible yacht I could find. It's got his and hers spa baths.'
'That's...'
'Ridiculous,' he told her. 'Totally irresponsible. All that water when one would do nicely. Save water. Bath with friends.'
'I can't...'
'Bath with friends? What about with a lover?'
'I...'
'By the way, I picked up your engagement ring,' he said. 'That was a very responsible thing you did, putting it in a bank vault. I had a jeweller reset it as a pendant. It cost me an arm and a leg, double because it was a rush job, but it's gorgeous,' He stopped massaging for a moment, fished in his pocket and draped a sliver of golden chain over her head. She gasped and caught it in her hand, The chain was just long enough for her to see—a perfect diamond set in a nest of rough gold. It was the most perfect thing she'd ever seen.
'Giving you this when I intend to give you another ring is probably not very sensible,' Sam said, sounding anxious. 'Irresponsible, would you say?'
'Irredeemable,' she managed.
'Excellent,' he said. 'Would you like to hear what other irresponsible things I've done?'
'I might.'
'I quit my job in the US without even having a contract to work here yet.'
'You know you can get a job here. That's not very irresponsible.'
'I've bought two Labrador puppies. And I've left Effie and Joel and Robbie and Brenda without so much as a can of dog food between them.'
'But I can't...'
'See, there's you being responsible,' he told her. 'You figure if anyone else isn't responsible then you have to pick up the pieces. I've left the breeder full details of the pups. They're going to check on them in a month and if the boys aren't looking after them to their satisfaction—and Joylene and Norris, Labrador breeders extraordinaire, are really particular in the way they want their puppies looked after—the pups will be taken back.'
'You can't...'
'I did. And I closed your pilates clinic until further notice.'
She sat up then. She sat bolt upright, swung round to face him, gasped as she remembered her lack of clothing, tugged her towel close and glared.
'You can't do that.'
'I did. I'm a very irresponsible person. Oh, I did sort of organise a water taxi to take people over to the mainland for the next two months. I did sort of find an exercise physiologist who's willing to take your equipment and run classes for a small fee. I did sort of happen to pay that fee.'
'Because you're responsible,' she whispered, but any anger she was feeling was fast turning into something else. He was looking at her with such a look.. .Tenderness. Desire. Love. All three, rolled into one. How could she ever have doubted it?
'I'll try really hard not to be,' he said humbly. 'I'll do whatever it takes. Because I love you, Susie. Yeah, I worried about Grant. Yeah, I thought I needed to show you I wasn't like him. But, hell, Susie, that you would possibly think I'd love you because of Grant.. .1 love you despite Grant. No, that sounds wrong, too. I just plain love you. I love you, Susie, with all my heart, and I don't know how else I can say it. If it's pink yachts I'll do it. If it's diamonds I'll do it. If it's massaging you for ever...'
'That might work,' she whispered, blinking back tears.
'You've got it,' he said, and he cupped her face with his lovely hands and looked down into her eyes. 'Susie, you're not to cry.'
'I'm not crying.'
'You are crying. Oh, and I let the twins eat a half a dozen doughnuts after dinner on Thursday,' he said, remembering something obviously very important. 'Joel threw up on Brenda's knitting.'
'How.. .how horrible.'
'It was horrible. Even though Brenda's knitting turned out to be a potential scarf for me and it was even more horrible. You see,' he said tenderly. 'Whatever it takes.'
She choked on something between laughter and a sob. 'It doesn't take much,' she managed.
'Name it.'
'Just you,' she whispered. And then... 'Sam?'
'Mmm?'
'Maybe you'd better lock the door,' she said. 'Exercise physiologist making love to her orthopaedic surgeon in the massage room of an exclusive spa resort? How irresponsible is that?'
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was a memorable day in the life of Ocean Spray.
First there was the official opening of the new bridge. There were politicians, dignitaries from all over, men and women in suits trying to give the impression that they'd made it happen, that politics was at work here, that the council was doing its job.
Everyone was quite happy to let them have their say. They'd helped, of course.
But it was Carly Hammond who cut the ribbon to the bridge on the mainland side. It was Pete Hammond, still with his arm in a sling but otherwise miraculously whole, who cut the ribbon in the other direction. And then the entire population of Ocean Spray walked from the island to the mainland and then walked back.
Of course, with an aging population there were people who couldn't manage the whole thing on foot. They were catered for with wheelchairs, but for such a demographic there were remarkably few. Maybe that was related to the vast banner fluttering over the bridge—Walk Made Possible By Susie's Exercise Rehabilitation Centre, the sign said, even though Susie herself hadn't contributed monetarily. But the islanders had put the sign up and ignored her protests.
When they were all back on the island it was time for Pete's technology display. His system was designed to sense fog or darkness. Lights flickered across the bridge, flashing in vivid reds, picturesque even in daylight. At night they'd be spectacular.
In really thick fog an intermittent horn sounded, like a ship's fog horn, sounding mournfully out over the bay.
'And I promise never to skipper a boat again,' Pete said, to general laughter, and the occasion was over and it was time to move on to the next ceremony.
Which was even more important in the life of this island. For it was the wedding of Dr Sam Renaldo to the island's beloved Susie.
There were too many people to fit into the island's tiny church, so the ceremony was held on the beach just down from Susie's house.
It might get a bit busy here as the bridge carried traffic, Sam thought as he waited for his bride. They might be forced to move a little further round the island. But he'd already checked out land on a certain gorgeous cove. He hadn't told Susie yet, but the deeds were in their honeymoon baggage.
Maybe that was irresponsible.
She wouldn't care.
Susie had watched the bridge opening and then had disappeared to change. Sam waited for her on the beach, standing on the sand, feeling the sun on his face, knowing he was surrounded by friends, knowing he'd found his place on earth.
For today the bridge was closed to anyone but pedestrians. This was their last day of isolation. Pete and Carly were staying in Doris's spare room, but they were already thinking
that they'd be the first of the incomers. There was a caveat on the island preventing development but there was room for a chosen few.
And this was the best place on earth.
They were all here. All these people that Sam had learned to love. This was his island.
Effie was being 'best man'. She was standing beside him, beaming, looking important. Effie was their newest islander. She'd already opened a little family medical clinic, horoscopes given on the side.
The twins were turning cartwheels on the sand, waiting for their mother. They were dressed in hired suits, suits they'd chosen as being suitable. Suits that threatened to split before the bride arrived, but they didn't care. They were supposed to be ready to hold Susie's train, and they'd be responsible when the time came, but for now.. .their puppies were tumbling with them. Responsibility was for the future.
As it was for him, Sam thought. Responsibility came naturally with loving, but it didn't seem like responsibility. It just seemed like an extension of that love.
He loved Susie with all his heart.
And here she came. She was wearing the full bridal ensemble. 'You have to, Mum,' the boys had told her, and she'd grinned and agreed.
Anything for a quiet life.'
But she'd loved the planning. Sam had listened with quiet satisfaction to her tales of days spent with Donna and Brenda and Effie, choosing a wedding gown, trying out wedding cakes, having hen nights, having fun.
This was the start of the rest of her life. She stood on the veranda steps, waiting for her boys to whoop up to her and take her train, and she smiled down at him and he thought his heart might break.
Susie.
Brenda was walking before her, tossing petals with gay abandon. Brenda in a truly awesome creation of pink chiffon and blue ribbons. Brenda for the first time in the history of the island without curlers.
Brenda in a hat that enveloped her head and stretched out almost to arm's length on either side.
And Susie.
She was exquisite. Yes, this was the full bridal ensemble, a white gown, a veil, a train. But she'd opted for simplicity and pure loveliness. Her scooped, sweetheart neckline and cinched waist showed her figure to perfection. The raw silk shimmered and shone in the morning sunlight. Her veil seemed to add to her loveliness, and when she walked down the beach to him, when Brenda giggled and helped lift her veil back, her loveliness took his breath away.
'That's the lot, Doc,' Brenda said, still giggling. 'You want to marry her now?'
'I intend to marry her,' Sam said, smiling deep into Susie's eyes. 'And Susie.. .do you intend to marry me?'
'Of course I do,' the bride whispered without a moment's hesitation. 'Let's get on with it. Haven't we booked the pink boat again for our honeymoon? Irresponsibility and happiness, here we come.'
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