by Lily Everett
“Or I can go with you,” Marcus offered.
When Ron visibly deflated at the sheriff’s stern tone, Johnny Alexander grinned and clapped Marcus on the back with his free hand. “Nah, I’ve got this. And you, my friend, have other things to take care of here.”
With that, he frog-marched the unfortunate and still bleeding relationship expert away. They disappeared around the side of the house and were gone, leaving behind a shell-shocked crowd staring at the Harper family and wondering what the heck was going to happen next.
As Paul held his wife securely in his arms, he had to admit, he had no idea.
*
From her vantage point by the stone circle, Quinn looked out over the assembled crowd of well-wishers and wished, with all her heart, that they would leave. This day she’d fought so hard to give to her parents, this day she’d planned and hoped for—it was ruined. And it was all her fault.
But maybe it was time to face the music. Marcus was here, after all. He hadn’t left. Maybe that meant he’d listen to what she had to say.
First order of business … no more lying.
“It’s true,” she said into the quiet that settled after Ron was finally out of their yard and their lives, hopefully for good. “I mean, Ron was a liar and a schemer, but he was also telling the truth. About Marcus and me.”
She met Marcus’s gaze across the crowd and was startled to see pain and uncertainty flicker across his handsome features. Replaying exactly what Ron had accused them of, Quinn felt her own eyes widen.
“I mean about the engagement! That wasn’t real.”
Her parents gazed up at her, shock all over their faces, and Quinn’s cheeks burned with shame. “I’m sorry for deceiving you. All of you. This town deserved better from me, after all you’ve given me throughout my life. But I was worried about my parents’ marriage, and I would’ve done anything I could to help them.”
Most people around the garden were nodding, clearly understanding her motives, although a few looked disappointed in her. Quinn bore up under it; she’d done wrong and she knew it, but if the end result was her parents once again happily married? She couldn’t regret her choices.
Especially since those choices had led her here to this second chance with Marcus. Or was this her third chance? Fourth? She wasn’t keeping track, but maybe she should be. No one had an infinite number of chances to get it right.
Part of her wished she and Marcus could have worked things out alone, just the two of them—but a bigger part of Quinn understood what her parents had been trying to accomplish with this vow-renewal ceremony. There was something about saying it out loud, witnessed by family and friends and everyone who was dear to her. Something that brought home to Quinn exactly how real, and important, this moment was.
If she said it now, here in front of everyone, that was it. No take-backs. And if it didn’t end happily ever after, that was it, too. No more chances.
But at least she’d know that she’d put everything on the line and committed herself all the way, holding nothing back. She could live with that, even if she didn’t get to live with Marcus. Maybe she wouldn’t be happy, or as happy as she could have been, but she could move on.
Holding her head high, Quinn Harper, free spirit (or flibbertigibbet, depending on who you asked) said the words that would tie her to one man, one life, for the rest of her days.
She hoped.
“Not everything between Marcus and me was a lie,” Quinn announced, scanning his face for any reaction. “The first time we were together, and broke up—that was all real. The second time around, it started out as a plan to get my parents back together, and to convince all of you that Marcus wasn’t Satan incarnate so you’d try his bar. You should keep going there, by the way, no matter how this turns out. I appreciate the loyalty, so much, but I don’t deserve it. I’ve made mistakes, more than my share.”
She paused to swallow down her fears. Marcus was a statue, unmoving and unblinking. She’d never been able to tell what he was thinking, and today wasn’t going to be the day she cracked the code. With a deep breath in, she shoved herself over the cliff.
“But the biggest mistake I made was to break off my fake engagement. See, over the weeks of our little arrangement, we’d started to grow closer again. I was falling for Marcus all over again, or maybe I never stopped falling. One or the other. But I was terrified that being forced into setting a date for our fake wedding would push Marcus to run in the other direction. So I ran first. I panicked. And I’m sorry for that, Marcus.”
Every head swiveled to catch Marcus’s reaction. And for the first time since he’d arrived, ready to kick Ron Burkey’s butt out of town, Marcus showed a reaction.
He crossed the garden in long, ground-eating strides, the breadth of his shoulders stretching the cotton of his dark gray shirt and parting the people between them like Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea. Quinn watched him come for her with her heart in her throat and her entire future in his hands, but she still didn’t know whether he was more likely to kiss her or throttle her.
When he was a foot away from her, he stopped as if he’d hit a wall. “Don’t apologize,” he said, his voice as roughly hewn as the limestones they’d used to build the standing stone circle. “Not about that. I overreacted and misinterpreted what you were saying. And maybe I did a little running away, myself. That wasn’t fair to you, and it wasn’t the mature way to handle things.”
Quinn’s mouth trembled with the urge to smile, but she wasn’t sure where they stood yet. “So maybe we’re not so badly matched, after all. I mean, even with our ten-year age difference.”
To her immense surprise, Marcus threw back his head and actually laughed. When he caught his breath, he looked right at her and said, “God, I love you. There’s no one like you in the entire world. You deserve better than a cranky old bastard like me, but I’m starting to think you might be a better judge of what you want and need out of life than I am.”
“Well, amen to that. And it’s about damn time!” Hope and gladness lit Quinn up from the inside, warming her chest and fizzing through her blood. “So what are you going to do about it?”
She expected him to swoop her up and kiss her, maybe, and she was looking forward to it. Looking forward to him twirling her around in the sunlit splendor of her mother’s garden, and showing all their friends and neighbors that this relationship and their feelings for each other were as real as real could be.
She didn’t expect him to kneel down.
So of course, that’s exactly what he did.
Quinn’s hands flew to cover her mouth as Marcus sank gracefully to one knee, his eyes never leaving hers. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. Her heart battered at the inside of her rib cage like it was trying to get out and leap across the space that separated her from Marcus.
“We never managed to buy a fake engagement ring,” he said quietly. “But even then, I thought of this one. I just never thought I’d be able to offer it to you—or that you would, or should, accept.”
He flicked open the worn black velvet box with his thumb and gazed at its contents for a moment before he turned the box around and showed it to Quinn. The slender, white gold band branched to cup a single, brilliantly faceted emerald. The shock of recognition ran from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers. She knew that ring.
As a little girl, she’d been fascinated by the fact that Mrs. Beckett wore her engagement ring on a chain around her neck instead of on her finger. She’d asked to see it almost every time she saw Mrs. Beckett, who would laugh and fish the chain out from the neckline of her nursing scrubs to dangle, flashing green fire, above Quinn’s entranced eyes.
“Your mother’s ring,” she whispered through her fingers. “Oh, Marcus. You went home.”
He blinked, like that wasn’t what he thought she’d take away from this moment, but it was all Quinn could think of. “I did. Finally. I should have listened to you.”
Quinn had a tho
usand questions—had Marcus seen his father’s drawings and stories? Had he talked to him about the real estate deal? Did they finally make up?
Although, looking at the beautiful emerald winking up at her from Marcus’s outstretched palm, Quinn knew father and son must have reconciled. That ring had to be one of Dr. Will Beckett’s most cherished mementos of the woman he had loved and lost.
For him to give it to Marcus, to give to Quinn, meant more than Quinn could begin to express. Although she realized in that moment that she had yet to actually take the ring.
“What’s it going to be?” Marcus asked. “Let’s make this thing real, Quinn. Marry me, and I’ll spend the rest of my life working to deserve you.”
Quinn grabbed for the ring with one hand and slung the other one around the back of Marcus’s neck, her fingers sliding on warm skin. She bent down to kiss him, unable to wait another second to have her mouth on his. That kiss felt like coming home, like the first day of the rest of her life.
“You deserve to be happy, Marcus Beckett.” She pulled back just far enough to speak the words against his cheek while their assembled audience sent up a deafening round of applause and cheers. “And if you truly think I can help to make you happy, I’ll marry you.”
His gaze searched hers, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “But are you ready to settle down? I can wait, Quinn. God knows, I’m not going anywhere. I can wait for you to finish your certification and start full-time at the therapy riding center, or however long. I’d wait for you for as long as it takes.”
Heart brimming so full, it nearly overflowed in happy tears, Quinn perched herself on Marcus’s bent knee to try on the emerald ring. It slipped onto her finger as smoothly as if it had been designed for her, and she sent up a quick, silent prayer of thanks and love to Elizabeth Beckett.
“Marcus, you told me once not to let love tie me up in knots. You said the world was full of people who thought that because they loved you, they knew what was best for you. You told me to make my own choices—and this is my choice. I choose you. I choose a life of love and laughter and fighting and amazing sex and happiness and sadness and whatever else comes our way. Love isn’t going to tie me up in knots, Marcus. I’ve never felt more free.”
The last lines of worry smoothed from Marcus’s strong forehead, and with a burst of pleasure, Quinn realized that she could read his mood better than she’d thought.
“I don’t want to hold you back,” he said gruffly, his broad palms settling on her back and making her feel as if she could fly. “You can go far, do whatever you want. Your life can be what you make it.”
“And I want to make that life with you,” Quinn said, looping her arms around his neck in a way that allowed her to still admire the sparkle of green on her ring finger. “We won’t tie each other down or hold each other back, if we’re determined not to. With you at my side, I feel like I can do anything. You give me the confidence to try things I never thought I could do. Like the new job, and the certification—which, thank you for that, by the way—and, I don’t know. Growing up, maybe.”
Marcus shifted and hooked an arm under her legs. He rose to standing with Quinn cradled against his chest, as if she weighed no more than an armful of her mother’s roses. “I can’t wait to see what we do with this life of ours.”
Across the crowd, Quinn met her mother’s tear-filled, happy eyes, and nodded once. “We’ll hold on to it, and we’ll hold on to each other. No matter what happens.”
“I want to be here for you. For everything that matters, all the important moments.” Marcus was fierce with it, his voice low and throbbing with emotion. “But I’m not going to change overnight and turn into some modern touchy-feely guy who wants to talk about his emotions all the time.”
Quinn laughed. “I don’t want you to change. Not a thing. I love you exactly the way you are. You might be a cranky old bastard, but you’re my cranky old bastard.”
“And you’re the light of my life.”
All the breath left Quinn’s lungs in a whoosh. “You’re not so bad at the touchy-feely stuff, tough guy.”
Marcus grinned, a wickedly appealing expression she’d never seen on him before. Quinn hoped to see it many more times in the course of their long, happy life together. “Only with you. Don’t tell anyone.”
Around them, their friends were still talking and cheering and celebrating. The whole thing had turned into an impromptu party.
“Your secret is safe with me,” Quinn said into his ear, and smiled when he laughed.
Like the rest of their secrets, she had a feeling that this one was public knowledge already. But that was okay. No couple was an island, after all, even if they were lucky enough to live on one.
Blushing and beaming, Quinn waved at their friends and thought about how lucky they all were, to have this place and each other. To know that they lived in a place where their neighbors were their friends and family—and to know that no matter what life threw at them, they’d be able to face it, together.
Thank you, Sanctuary Island. Thank you for bringing him back to me, Quinn thought, leaning in to steal another kiss as the spring sun struck sparks from her new ring and warmed the smiling faces of everyone she cared about, all gathered together in this beautiful place.
Thank you.
Don’t miss these other novels from the world of Sanctuary Island
SANCTUARY ISLAND
SHORELINE DRIVE
HEARTBREAK COVE
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
CLOSE TO HOME
… and the novella collections
HOMECOMING
THREE PROMISES
Available from St. Martin’s Paperbacks
ALSO BY LILY EVERETT
Sanctuary Island
Shoreline Drive
Homecoming
Heartbreak Cove
Home for Christmas
Three Promises
Close to Home
Praise for the novels in Lily Everett’s Sanctuary Island series
“Sanctuary Island is a novel to curl up with and enjoy by a crackling fire or on a sunny beach. It’s a beautifully told story of hope and forgiveness, celebrating the healing power of love.”
—Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“I didn’t read this book, I inhaled it. An incredible story of love, forgiveness, healing, and joy.”
—Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A heartwarming, emotional, extremely romantic story that I couldn’t read fast enough! Enjoy your trip to Sanctuary Island! I guarantee you won’t want to leave.”
—Bella Andre, New York Times bestselling author of the Sullivan series
“Well-written and emotionally satisfying. I loved it! A rare find.”
—Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling author
“Fall in love with Sanctuary Island. Lily Everett brings tears, laughter and a happy-ever-after smile to your face while you’re experiencing her well-written, compassionate novel. I highly recommend this book, which hits home with true-to-life characters.”
—Romance Junkies
“Redemption, reconciliation, and, of course, romance—Everett’s novel has it all.”
—Booklist
“Richly nuanced characters and able plotting … Everett’s sweet contemporary debut illustrates the power of forgiveness and the strength of relationships that may falter but never fail.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Lily has a talent for metaphors that make me melt … and I love the way she ties the story together. I’m so looking forward to the next book in the series.”
—USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog
“I loved learning about Sanctuary Island and I felt as if I was there seeing and feeling everything first hand. A wonderful book to get lost in for a few hours. I definitely recommend it to other readers.”
—Night Owl Reviews
“I couldn’t help but fall in love with Sanctuary
Island and want to move there myself. An enchanting romance that swept me away!”
—Books N Kisses
“There is little more satisfying for a fan of contemporary romance than an Everett novel.”
—RT Book Reviews
“With strong, independent people, each with a different story to tell, Lily’s smooth writing easily sucks you in to experience island life with them. I love the setting and the descriptions Lily gives us of Sanctuary Island and the people there! She makes it a place I’d love to visit.”
—Harlequin Junkie
About the Author
Lily Everett grew up in a small town in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. She has loved romance her whole life, and is thrilled to share the world of her beautiful imaginary Sanctuary Island with all her readers. She and her family currently live in Austin, Texas, where she writes full-time. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
