“I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Carolina Cantrell said to her fiancé, Seamus O’Grady, late on Saturday afternoon as they took a break in the preparations for the party they were hosting later in the day. They’d hired their pilot friend, Slim, to oversee the preparation of an authentic New England clambake, which was currently simmering in a seaweed-filled pit in the backyard.

“Still time to chicken out,” he said in the charming Irish accent that had worked its magic on her for close to a year now.

“I’m not going to chicken out, because that’s exactly what you expect me to do.”

“So that’s the only reason you’re going through with it? To save face with me?”

“Yep. That’s the only reason.”

His green eyes narrowed with displeasure that made her laugh.

“You’re so easy to rile.” Inciting him—in all ways possible to incite a man—had become her favorite pastime, especially since she’d stopped trying to fight the tsunami known as Seamus O’Grady. He’d pursued her with relentless determination and managed to wear her down until her concerns about their eighteen-year age difference seemed silly and insignificant when stacked against the overwhelming love she felt for him.

“I don’t find you funny today,” he said, sounding grumpy. “Not one bit funny.”

“Yes, you do. You always think I’m funny.”

“Normally, I do. Today—not so much.”

Carolina took an assessing look at her handsome fiancé and came to a startling conclusion. “Are you nervous?”

“What? No. Of course I’m not nervous. What in the world do I have to be nervous about?”

“Um, well, I could state the obvious…”

“I’m not nervous, Carolina, so get that right out of your pretty head and get back to work.”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong. If you’re not nervous, then what is it?”

“Nothing is wrong except for you poking at me when we’ve got so much to do to get ready.”

The comment normally would’ve made her mad. Poking at him? She was not poking at him. Although… She crossed the kitchen to where he was sorting plastic utensils and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I swear to you, love, nothing is wrong. Not one single thing.”

“Then why aren’t you yourself today?”

“How am I not myself?”

“You’re prickly, which is usually my thing.”

“Perhaps you’ve rubbed off on me in more ways than one.” The sexual innuendo was much more in keeping with what she expected from him.

“So you’re not going to tell me?” She encouraged him to turn and face her.

He sighed and pushed his fingers through his rich auburn hair, making a mess of it. “I guess you could say I’m feeling a tad bit…” He made an up-and-down motion with his hand. “Over what we’re about to do.”

“Emotional. You’re feeling emotional.”

“Except saying that makes me a first-rate pussy.”

Carolina burst out laughing. Her man had a way with words. “It does not make you a first-rate pussy.” Her mouth twisted around the dreaded word. “It makes you a first-time groom with a perfectly natural case of jitters.” She took him by the hand and led him into the living room, where they sat together on the sofa.

“I don’t have the slightest doubt about us or what we’re about to do,” he said. “You have to know that.”

“I do know that. Because if I thought you were having doubts after the campaign you waged to get to this day, I’d have no choice but to kill you.”

His face lifted into the impish half grin she adored. “And I’d have no choice but to let you.”

“Fortunately, there will be no killing today. Only loving.”

He leaned over to kiss her. “Today and every day.”

Carolina curled her hand around his nape and kept him there for another kiss. She shifted ever so slightly until she was pressed against him.

He responded to her the way he always did—passionately.

They stayed that way, wrapped up in each other, until Carolina heard a door close in the driveway. She drew back from him. “That’ll be Joe and Janey. Are you ready for this?”

“I was born ready, my love.”

Smiling, she fixed his hair and left her hand to rest on his cheek for a moment. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

“Aw, Christ, Caro. Don’t say that. You’ll make a mess of me.”

Touched by the fact that his emotions were hovering close to the surface, she said, “I mean it. You’ve made me so happy—happier than I ever expected to be, and I want you to know that before anything else happens today. I know I gave you a run for your money—”

He grunted out a laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”

“I just want you to know I’m so glad you were relentless. So very, very glad.”

Reaching out to run a finger over her face, he said, “I love you, Caro.”

“I love you, too.” She kissed him again, lingering until she heard the screen door open. Leaving him with a smile, she got up to meet her son and his family.

“We heard something about a party here today,” Joe said. He carried his newborn son, P.J., in an infant car seat that he put on the kitchen table.

“Are we the first ones here?” Janey asked.

“You are.” Caro greeted them both with hugs before she turned her full attention to her adorable grandson. Born by emergency C-section several weeks premature, he’d spent more than a month in the hospital until he’d finally been released to come home to Gansett. “How’s my baby today?”

“He’s doing great.” Joe unbuckled the straps and freed the baby, handing him right over to his grandmother. “He’s eating well and sleeping a lot.”

Carolina gazed down at the tiny face, the feathery brows, the miniature lips, the light dusting of blond hair. He was the most gorgeous thing she’d seen since she held his father in her arms. “That’s exactly what he should be doing.”

Seamus appeared at her shoulder, leaning in to kiss P.J.’s forehead. “There’s my new best mate.” The lilting tone of Ireland in his voice had become music to her ears over the last ten months.

“Is there anything we can do to help get ready for the party?” Janey asked, helping herself to a pickle from an open jar on the counter.

Carolina exchanged glances with Seamus. He nodded, encouraging her to share their news with the two most important people in their lives. “There is one thing you could do for us today.”

“What’s that?” Joe asked, still focused almost entirely on the baby.

“You could stand up for us.”

That got her son’s attention. “Stand up for you?” Joe’s gaze shifted from his mother to Seamus and then back to her. “You wanna run that by me one more time?”

“The party today,” Seamus said, “is actually a wedding. We didn’t want to make a big thing of it—”

Janey let out a shriek that startled her son. “Oh my God! Are you serious? You’re getting married?”

“We’re getting married,” Carolina said. “And we’d like the two of you to be our witnesses. If you’re willing, that is.”

Joe and Janey looked at each other, and for a brief moment, Carolina couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Waiting for them to say something made her feel nervous for the first time that day. Then she felt Seamus’s hand on her back, and the simple gesture calmed and centered her. No matter what, he was right there with her, and they were in this together.

“Of course we’ll be your witnesses,” Joe said as Janey nodded in agreement.

“We’d love to.” Janey hugged them both. “Thank you so much for asking us.”

Seamus shook hands with Joe. “Who else would we ask?”

“Wow, I can’t believe this,” Joe said. “A surprise wedding. Everyone will be blown away.”

“We didn’t want the fuss and the gifts and the months of planning,” Seamus said. “We just want to be married.”

“What about your family?” Janey asked.

“Shannon will represent them,” Seamus said of his cousin who’d come to Gansett earlier in the summer with Seamus’s mother and then decided to stay for a while. “We talked to my parents in Ireland yesterday, and they’re over the moon. My mum loves Caro and couldn’t be happier for us. And speaking of my family, I could use a week off at the end of the season so I can take my new wife home to meet them.”

“Done,” Joe said. “I’m jealous. I’d love to go to Ireland someday.”

“I’d be happy to take you,” Seamus replied. “If we can find someone to cover the ferries for both of us.”

Joe glanced at P.J. “I’m going to be a little busy for the next few years, but I’ll take you up on that at some point.”

“Any time.”

“There’s one other thing,” Seamus said to Joe. “I’ve been trying to convince your mum to sign a piece of paper that Dan Torrington drew up for me.”

“Seamus,” Carolina said.

“What kind of paper?” Joe asked.

“A prenuptial agreement,” Seamus said.

“Which I told him is completely unnecessary,” Carolina said with a glower for her fiancé. “And it’s borderline insulting that he would think about money at a time like this.”

“I’m an Irish immigrant who makes a decent living, love, but I don’t have what you have. I want you protected.”

“Are you planning to leave me and run off with my money?”

“Of course not, but—”

“Then why are we ruining this day having a conversation I thought we put to rest weeks ago?”

“We’re not ruining anything, and you put it to rest. I didn’t.” He turned his attention to Joe. “What do you think?”

Joe thought about it for a moment. “I think you should sign it, Mom.”

“Joe!” Janey said.

Joe held up a hand to stop her protest and his mother’s. “I think you should sign it, but not because I believe you’ll ever need it.”

“Then why?” Carolina asked.

“Because it seems important to Seamus.”

“It is,” Seamus said. “It’s very important to me.”

He and Carolina engaged in a visual standoff that ended when she blinked. “Fine. If it’s that big of a deal to you, I’ll sign it. But let it be said that I’m doing this for you. Not for me.”

“So noted, love.” He went to retrieve the form in the other room.

When he returned, Carolina took it from him, signed it and gave it back to him. “I don’t want to talk about it ever again.”

As he hugged her, some of the starch seemed to leave her spine. “I can’t imagine there’ll ever come a day when we’ll need to discuss that paper or what it says, but it makes me feel better to know you’re protected.”

“From you? Now you care about protecting me? Who was protecting me when you were pursuing me like a madman and chasing me around the kitchen table?”

“Oh my God,” Joe said with a groan as Janey giggled madly. “I so don’t need that visual in my mind.”

“Not in front of the children, love,” Seamus said with a smile and a kiss.

She shook her head with amusement and love and dismay.

“Now I’d like a turn with my grandson,” Seamus said, reaching for P.J.

While Seamus held the baby, Caro turned to her son, who was only two years younger than the man she was about to marry. “I’m sorry about him. I keep hoping he’s going to learn to behave himself, but I’m beginning to give up on that.”

Laughing, Joe hugged her. “I’m happy for you, Mom. How could I not be when I see how happy he makes you and how great you guys are together?”

Carolina closed her eyes against the flood of tears that filled them. It had been just the two of them for a long lonely time after his father died in an accident when Joe was only seven. Now they were both happily in love and had so much to look forward to. “Thank you, Joseph.”

He kissed her temple. “Do I get to give away the bride, too?”

“Absolutely.”

---

By five o’clock, Seamus and Carolina’s yard was full of friends enjoying the chowder and clam cakes Slim had made. Everyone was teasing the dashing pilot about keeping his other talents hidden from them.

“You should see what else I can do,” he said to laughter.

Seamus approached Carolina. “Is everyone here?”

“Except for Mac and Linda. I can’t imagine what’s keeping them.”

“Did you ask Janey?”

“I was just about to do that.”

“I’ll go with you.”

They found Janey inside the house, nursing P.J. in the living room. “Hey, guys. Is it time?”

“Not quite yet,” Caro said. “Your parents aren’t here yet.”

“I wonder what’s keeping them.”

“Do you mind giving them a call?”

“Of course not. My phone is in my purse in the kitchen.”

“I’ll get it.” Seamus was thankful to have something to do with the energy zinging around inside of him. They were so close… So damned close to having what he’d wanted for what felt like forever, even if it was only a couple of years. He could still recall the first time he saw Carolina, shortly after he started working for Joe. She’d come to take her son to lunch and left him completely bowled over.

Right away he’d realized he faced an uphill battle in winning her heart. First of all, he worked for her son. Second of all, he was only a couple of years older than Joe. The third challenge had turned out to be the most complex, though—convincing her she had a right to be happy and to hell with what anyone else thought of them or the years that separated them. He didn’t care about any of that, and he’d finally gotten her to the point where she didn’t either.

He found Janey’s phone and brought it to her, waiting alongside Caro while she made the call. His lovely bride had worn a gorgeous yellow dress that showed off her late-summer tan. A week or so ago, she’d had her hair cut and colored, and to look at her, you’d never know she was a day over forty.

“That’s weird,” Janey said. “Neither of them is answering.”

“I swear to God,” Caro said, “if I find out they were getting busy when I want to be getting married, they’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Thank you for that visual,” Janey said. “Brain scrub commencing.” Her phone rang. “It’s my mom.”

“Thank goodness,” Caro said.

“Where are you guys?” Janey paused to listen. “Caro is waiting on you to serve dinner. Okay. See you soon.” She ended the call and looked up at them. “They’re ‘running late’ but on the way. She did sound somewhat out of breath.”

“I knew it!”

Seamus cracked up laughing. “You’ve no room to talk about spending too much time in bed, love.”

“I heard that,” Joe said as he joined them. “And I never want to hear it again.”

“My apologies,” Seamus said with a grin. “Not in front of the children.”

“That’s right,” Joe said, “and don’t forget it. Are we doing this or what?”

“We’re waiting on your in-laws,” Janey said, “who apparently got sidetracked on their way out of the house.”

“You don’t say,” Joe said with a smile. “The old guy’s still got it, huh?”

“Eww,” Janey said. “Please make it stop.”

“And who are you calling old?” Caro asked her son.

The comical exchange went a long way toward ridding Seamus of the last of the nerves that had plagued him all day. These people would soon be his new family, and he couldn’t wait.

Frank McCarthy came into the house, looking rested and relaxed after spending much of the summer on Gansett. “What’s the holdup, kids?” the judge asked.

“Waiting on your brother and his wife to get out of bed and come to our party,” Carolina said.

Frank’s eyes widened with surprise.

“I know, Uncle Frank,” Janey said. “It’s extremely gross.”

Frank laughed at his niece’s distress. “I don’t know if gross is the word I’d use. I was going to go with surprising.”

“They’re like a couple of teenagers lately,” Caro said.

“Good for them,” Seamus said. “That’s the way we’re going to be, too, love, so you’d better get ready.”

“Oh Jesus,” Joe muttered. “I so didn’t need to hear that either.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Caro patted Joe’s arm. “I’ve tried to get him under control, but I’m afraid there’s no controlling him.”

“And she likes me that way, not that she wants you to know it,” Seamus said to Joe’s profound mortification.

“If you don’t stop talking right now, there isn’t going to be a wedding,” Carolina said.

Seamus smiled at her. Nothing could get him down on the day he was set to marry the love of his life.

Twenty minutes later, Mac and Linda McCarthy came rushing into the house, looking red-faced and flustered.

“So sorry to be late,” Linda said. “We had an appointment that ran late and…”

“The jig is up, Mom,” Janey said. “We know what you’ve been doing.”

Big Mac snorted, which earned him an elbow to the midsection from his wife.

“Let’s get this show on the road now that everyone is here,” Frank said.

“What show?” Linda asked.

“Shall I tell them, Mom?” Joe asked.

“Please do.”

“The Carolina and Seamus show,” Joe said. “They’re getting married today.”

Linda let out a piercing shriek. “What?”

“You heard him,” Caro said, clearly amused by her longtime friend’s reaction to their news.

“You sneaky devils!” Linda hugged Carolina and then him. “Congratulations! What a fun idea—a surprise wedding.” Linda’s face turned bright red. “Sorry if we held things up.”

“No problem,” Caro said with a warm smile for the woman who had been family to her since Joe met Linda’s son Mac in kindergarten. “You’re here now, so…” She looked at him. “Shall we do this?”

“Oh yes, please, love.”

“Excellent,” Frank said. “You two get ready, and leave the rest to me. Mac, come help me get everyone where they need to be.”

As he followed his brother to the sliding door that led to the deck and yard, Big Mac stopped to shake hands with Seamus. “You’re marrying one of the finest women I know. Take good care of her.”

“I will. You have my word on it.”

Big Mac nodded in approval and continued to the yard.

Seamus stood with Carolina, Joe, Janey and Linda and listened to the McCarthy brothers corral their friends and family into a group.

“Folks,” Frank said, “we have a bit of a surprise for you today. Where’s Seamus?”

“That’d be my cue.” Seamus kissed and hugged Carolina. Whispering in her ear, he said, “You and me forever, love. We got this.”

She sniffled as she nodded.

“See you out there. Don’t get lost on the way.”

“I won’t,” she said with a laugh as she mopped up her tears with tissues that Linda provided.

Seamus emerged into the yard, where a buzz of curiosity had their guests riveted to what was going on. They’d decided to let their actions speak for them, so he walked over to Frank and shook his hand as everyone watched him with puzzled looks on their faces.

Janey, carrying P.J., walked with her mother to the front of the group that stood around them.

“Give it up, Janey,” her brother Mac said. “What’s going on?”

“Shush,” she said. “You’ll see in a minute.”

After a long pause that had everyone straining for a better view of the house, Carolina emerged on the arm of her son. She carried a bouquet of daisies that Seamus had picked for her from their garden.

“Oh my God,” Adam McCarthy said. “They’re getting married!”