by Andre, Bella
“Hi.” Dylan studied her for a long moment. She could see that he was concerned about her—she hadn’t been able to sleep last night, either—but all he said was, “I’m glad you’re here.”
She knew better than to try to say anything more than the two-letter word she’d barely managed without sobbing, so she simply nodded.
“I would have gotten the boat ready for us,” he told her, “but I figured you’d want to be hands-on with as much as possible today.”
Knowing she needed to pull herself together—and fast—she took a deep breath. “Yes, that would be great.” The five extra words weren’t much, but they were progress, at least.
Grace already knew most of the basic vocabulary of a sailboat from her research—starboard instead of right, bow instead of front of the boat—but within less than sixty seconds, she realized that learning about sailing from books or the Internet could never take the place of actual experience. And as Dylan talked her through performing a detailed visual check of the lines that raised and controlled the sails to make sure they weren’t wrapped around each other; as he showed her how to make sure that they all had a figure-eight knot on the free end so they wouldn’t pull through the pulleys or sheaves; as he taught her how to determine the direction of the wind by using the indicator at the top of the mast, she was glad to be able to sink into learning mode…rather than about-to-break-into-tears-at-any-moment mode.
Dylan talked her through maneuvering out of the harbor and into the Sound. There was a fresh breeze and a light chop, enough to make way at a fairly good clip. Grace didn’t realize she was smiling until Dylan smiled back.
“It’s good, isn’t it?”
Her chest squeezed tight as she stared back at him—so tight that she actually couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. “It’s great.”
You’re great, was what she really wanted to tell him. I’m sorry I pushed you away, but I had to. I have to be smart this time, have to be prepared for everything, instead of just being swept away again.
But since she was here to learn to sail for her story, not to make things even worse between them, she said instead, “When you’re on land all the time, even in a city with as much water around it as Seattle, you never realize just how amazing it is to actually be out on the water.”
She loved the taste of the salt water on her lips. Loved seeing the billowing sails on the other boats around them on the Sound. There were powerboats and fishing vessels, too, but the sailboats were what caught her fancy and imagination.
As they scooted over the water and he showed her how to man the tiller, he said, “You’re a natural. Just like I knew you’d be. How about we hoist the spinnaker so that you can see what this baby can do?”
Being out on the Sound with Dylan was already a rush, but just as she always wanted more when she was in his arms, now that she was in his sailboat, she wanted more speed, more spray flying over them, more of the rush that she could so easily become addicted to.
“Tell me what to do to get it up.”
He smiled at her, a warm and appreciative smile that made her heart skip a beat or two. “We’ll do it together.”
The procedure to hoist the spinnaker didn’t seem all that easy to Grace, but with Dylan patiently talking her through each step, they soon had the brightly colored third sail up, and then they really started to fly. So fast that she couldn’t contain her laughter or the joy that bubbled up out of her regardless of all that she’d tried so hard to suppress since yesterday.
No wonder she’d read that the spinnaker was often called a kite. For a few beautiful minutes, she felt she was flying with it, billowing and unrestrained in the wind. She felt his hand on hers a beat before he spun her to face him.
“You love it,” he said over the sound of the water crashing beneath the boat. “You love the speed. You love the thrill. And you’re meant to love it, Grace. I’ve seen it in you from the start—it’s why Mason loves learning new things, loves being pushed so high on the swings and racing his toy cars so fast. It’s in your blood.” With one hand on the tiller, he put the other on her shoulder to make her stay to hear him out, even as he had to raise his voice to be heard over the rising wind. “I’m in your blood. Just like you’re in mine.”
His mouth was on hers then, hard and hot and even more exciting than their speed as they flew over the water. She didn’t know how long they kissed, but when the deck tilted beneath their feet, she thought at first that it must be from the way Dylan’s kisses made her head spin and how desperately she wanted to never have to stop kissing him back. But when he suddenly pulled away, then looked out over the water and cursed, she realized the boat was tilting because the weather had turned.
Somewhere during their passionate kiss, the light breeze had shifted around to the north and became an extremely stiff wind. “We’re starting to roll hard to leeward,” Dylan called out to her as he guided the bow directly under the center seam of the spinnaker. For a moment, they seemed to teeter back to balance, but then another blast of wind knocked them over again.
He was still busy at the tiller when the spinnaker started to dip into the ocean, tilting and dragging the boat hard. Over the crashing waves and howling wind, she could just barely hear him yell, “We need to release the sheet to dump the water out of the sail, then lower the halyard on my cue!”
Dylan had talked about a sailor’s instinct several times during their interviews, and now Grace knew exactly what it felt like to have instinct take over. She’d only read about this situation before and barely had enough experience to know how to sail on easy waters, but somehow her hands knew exactly how to release the spinnaker.
The moment the water was out and the sail had gone limp, Dylan was up gathering it and pulling the wet sail back into the boat. He called for her to release the halyard, and he pulled the spinnaker down from the mast.
For the next fifteen minutes, they sailed fast back toward the harbor, trying to outrun the dangerous storm that had come from absolutely nowhere. In just the same way, Grace thought, that Dylan had come into her and Mason’s lives from out of the blue—dangerously sexy and addictive...and exactly what they’d needed to shake them out of their safe little rut, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Jesus, Grace.” They were still some way out of the harbor when the winds died down as suddenly as they’d come up. Floating easily again now, Dylan finally moved away from the tiller and put his hands on either side of her face. “I’ve never seen the wind whip up so fast on the Sound. I never would have taken you out into this kind of swell for your first sail if I had known. I planned to woo you today on my boat, to show you that I could be everything you needed me to be—but then I couldn’t stop kissing you, couldn’t keep from getting too lost in you even to notice the weather changing.” With deep concern, his eyes moved over her face. “Are you okay?”
Maybe she should have been shaky. Maybe anyone else would have hated the ocean, and sailboats, after this. But Grace felt more alive than ever. And clearer, too, inside and out—as if the thick, hard waves of salt water crashing over the decks had washed her doubts, and her fears, away.
It was just as Dylan had said during one of their interviews: It was right when you were trying to hold everything tightly under control that the wind and waves decided it was high time to show you not only how vulnerable you really were, but also how precious every single moment was.
But it was more than just the ocean and its breathtaking power that had changed her. Grace and Dylan had been a perfect team when those winds had kicked up and tried to topple them over. And it hadn’t mattered how long they’d known each other—or how long they hadn’t—because when push came to shove, there was no one she would rather have had beside her to face the storm.
“I love you.”
His hands stilled on her arms where he’d been running them over her to make sure that she wasn’t hurt. “Grace?”
“I love you,” she said again, already planning to say it t
o Dylan at least a million times over the next seventy years. “I love you so much, have loved you from the first moment you held Mason in your arms, but I was afraid to tell you. Afraid to even let myself feel that love, because I thought the only way to keep myself and Mason safe from potential danger was to be cautious. To keep my guard up. To think everything through from every possible angle. And to always stay in control.” She slid her hands through his soaking wet hair, sending salt water flying. “But you were right that going sailing with you would make everything clear. So incredibly clear that I can finally see that I’ll never be able to control everything. I’ll never be able to stop nature from rearing up, I’ll never be able to stop the waves from crashing on the shore, and I wouldn’t ever want to. Wouldn’t ever want to turn my back again on what truly matters just so that I can stay in a holding pattern that feels safer. And I don’t ever want to try to stop what I feel for you again, or settle for anything less than the truest love because risking my heart seems too frightening. Can you forgive me for hurting you?”
“I would forgive you anything, Grace. But there’s nothing to forgive. Yesterday all your biggest fears came crashing down on you at once. Anyone would have reacted the way you did. Anyone would have needed breathing room.”
“I hadn’t thought I’d let the Bentleys make me feel like I wasn’t good enough. But now I’m realizing that the way they treated me when they learned I was pregnant spoke straight to all the fears I hadn’t wanted to admit to over the years.”
“Everyone has the same fear that we’re not enough.”
“You don’t.”
He smiled, one of his beautiful smiles that always made her stomach flip-flop. “I have three older brothers who pretty much rule the world between them. And what they can’t do, my cousins can. Sometimes I think the real reason I picked up sailing was because it was all that was left. I should have built my family a boat before now, but I couldn’t. Because it turns out that I needed thirty years to realize that I could share my love of sailing with all of them without giving up who I am and what makes me special.”
Did he have any idea how much it moved her to hear him admit to being scared, too? And that he wasn’t afraid to show her his flaws? The Bentleys were so utterly consumed with being and looking perfect that they were also utterly inauthentic. Whereas life—real life the way the Sullivans lived it—was beautiful and wondrous…and sometimes messy and raw.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be this much in love with anyone, or give up this much control. I don’t know if something will happen to you on a boat one day, if you’ll sail away and another storm will take you away from me. But I’m not going to let that stop me from asking you to marry me. Be my husband. Be Mason’s father. And let us give you all of our love. Forever.”
She’d expected him to look at least as surprised by her marriage proposal as he had when she’d told him she loved him, but there wasn’t room on his face for anything but pure joy.
“There’s nothing I want more than to marry you and be Mason’s dad.” He drew her against him, and his mouth was nearly on hers when he amended that to, “Actually, there is one more thing I want.”
But she already knew what it was, could read his mind now that the storm had passed just as well as she’d been able to read it when the waves had been crashing over them. “Let’s start today, Dylan. Let’s grow our family right here. Let’s give Mason a brother or sister right now.”
As quickly as they could, they steered the boat into the lee of an island, tossed the anchor, then stripped each other’s wet clothes off. Gently, he laid her down on the wooden decking, warm and drying now from the sunshine that had emerged as soon as the storm had blown away.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he stared down at her. “I’ve fantasized about making love with you on my boat a million times.”
The air was cool, but Dylan’s warm hands and lips against her skin heated her up all over. “Even making love with you a million times,” she whispered against his lips as he came into her and she wrapped herself all around him, “wouldn’t be enough for me.”
“I’ll never get enough of loving you, Grace.”
And…oh my…did she ever love how he loved her.
* * *
The next afternoon, Grace was so immersed in her writing that she didn’t realize Dylan had walked into her living room carrying Mason until they were right beside her.
“Hi!” She lifted her lips to Mason’s for a smooch and was very pleased to end up with one from Dylan, too. “How was the park?”
“We had an awesome time.” Dylan looked down at Mason. “Didn’t we?”
Mason answered in the affirmative with a cute little high five, then squirmed to get down to play with his toy cars.
“Looks like you’re on a roll with your writing.” He moved behind her to massage her shoulders, and it felt amazing.
“I am,” she confirmed. “Finally.”
“Do you need me to take Mason back out so that you can have more quiet?”
“No.” It was the last thing she wanted. “I want you to stay.”
They smiled at each other, both of them knowing just how much the word stay really meant. His request for her to stay for Mia and Ford’s wedding at his parents’ house and then her request for him to stay that night with her for the first time a week later had been their first important steps toward forever.
All along, as she’d worked on this cover story, she’d thought she needed to hide her feelings for Dylan. She hadn’t been ready for anyone to see how much she loved him, because she hadn’t been ready to admit it to herself yet, either.
But the truth was that everything she knew about the heart of a sailor had come from being loved by—and loving—him. So this cover story wasn’t only about Dylan. It was about her, too.
Which meant that to create the most honest, most powerful piece of writing possible, she had to strip away all of the layers and lay her own heart bare.
She’d been utterly vulnerable on the sailboat during the storm and had come away feeling stronger and more hopeful than ever. And when she’d been vulnerable with Dylan, she’d come away with more love than she’d ever dreamed of. Now, she was just as vulnerable on the page while she wrote her love story for the man, the ocean, and the sailboats that had done so much to shape him—and she was finally loving every single word she wrote.
And every single moment with her beautiful sailor, too.
EPILOGUE
Two weeks later...
Adam Sullivan raised his glass of champagne for a toast to celebrate the marriage vows Dylan and Grace had just shared. They were in Dylan’s boathouse—empty now as he got ready to begin his new commission for a custom thirty-eight-foot sailboat—and the sun was shining down on them all through the open panels on the roof. When Adam had designed the boathouse for his brother, he’d never envisioned a wedding taking place in the space, but it had worked out great, with more than enough room for family and close friends to witness their vows and have a little party afterward.
Dylan and Grace held Mason together as the three of them smiled for Mia, who was taking pictures as their unofficial wedding photographer. A short while later, when it was time for everyone to wave the three of them off on their sailing honeymoon to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, Adam—and everyone else—was surprised to see the brand-new sailboat tied up to the dock just outside the boathouse.
Adam knew something was up even before his brother said, “It was a perfect day to marry the love of my life in front of the people who mean the most to us.” Dylan paused to kiss both Grace and Mason, both of whom he was holding close. “And it’s also the perfect day for us to give you all this boat.”
Mia shot Adam an incredulous look before turning back to Dylan. “Are you saying that you made this amazing sailboat for us?”
Dylan wasn’t able to do more than grin and nod before Mia was launching herself into his arms
. Within seconds, Brooke and Tatiana and his mom were there—with all the men in the family soon joining in on the big Sullivan group hug, too. Little Mason was in his element, whooping it up with the big family that had so happily adopted him from that first Friday night dinner.
Everyone was on cloud nine, and Adam was extremely happy for them all. Only Dylan would make a killer sailboat like this to give away to his family. They were a lucky bunch. Adam had always appreciated that.
The only thing he didn’t love just then was being the last single Sullivan in Seattle. Because if he knew anything about his family—and he could usually read each of them like an open book—they wouldn’t rest until they’d seen him happily paired off, too.
After everyone had taken some time to admire their brand-new sailboat, Rafe intercepted Adam as he headed back into the boathouse to flirt with a pretty woman in a short black skirt who was serving champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
“You’re a dog,” Rafe said. “You know that, right?”
Adam barked once, making Rafe laugh.
“What’s your schedule like Wednesday afternoon?” Rafe asked.
“I can open it up if you need me to.” That was an easy one for Adam. Family always came first. “What’s up?”
“Brooke needs to be at the lake to make extra truffle deliveries this week to some new accounts, and I’ve got a big case I need to head to Portland to wrap up, but we’ve got an appointment we really can’t put off any longer.”
“Who are you meeting with?”
“The wedding planner. And don’t blame Brooke for this request,” Rafe said as he lifted a hand to head Adam off at the pass. “When it turned out everyone else had a conflict on that day, she told me not to ask you and said she’d figure something out. But I know how heartbroken she’d be if we screwed things up with the wedding planner by canceling on her again because we haven’t been able to coordinate our schedules lately.”
