Gretchen walked beside Janey, not sure what to say.

“I’m sorry,” Janey blurted as they passed the fence and crossed from the Loveland Farm to the one Drew had been fixing up for the past month.

“I’m not mad,” Gretchen said. “Well, I was.” She looked up into the sky and tried to sort through her confusing feelings. “I think I just felt…I don’t know. Naïve or something. I mean, how out of it am I to not even notice that my own daughter had been staining a deck and painting baseboards?”

Janey giggled and looped her arm through Gretchen’s, but Gretchen didn’t see anything funny about the situation.

“Drew swore us all to secrecy.”

“Who else helped?”

“Oh, everyone. Adam, Trent, Russ, all the guys they could spare from the EMT service. The kids. Me. His parents.” Janey sighed. “He really loves you.”

“I know he does,” Gretchen whispered. She could feel Drew’s love all the way down into her soul.

“I didn’t want to lie to you. I told him that if you asked, I would tell you the truth.”

Gretchen smiled and kept her focus on the gravel at their feet. “Thank you, Janey. You’ve always been such a great friend to me.”

“I am pretty great.” She laughed, the sound fading quickly. “Now I just need to find my roadside hero the way you did.”

Gretchen giggled too. “Well, he does have a brother…”

Janey scoffed and waved her free hand. “Adam Herrin? Nah. I’ve known him my whole life, and there’s just no spark there, you know?”

“You think there was a spark between me and Drew when he delivered Dixie on the side of the road?” Gretchen stopped walking and looked at Janey. She saw pain at the same time she saw hope.

“Of course not.”

“No. But this time, there was. Things change. People change.” She couldn’t believe she was the one saying so, but she was right. She reached out and brushed Janey’s hair off her face. “So maybe Russ. He’s an EMT. Could be your roadside hero.”

Janey rolled her eyes, but Gretchen pressed on. “Hey, he’s single. Good-looking. And he’s only been in town for what? A few years?”

“Five years,” Janey said. “I think.” She drew in a breath and blew it out. “I don’t know, Gretchen. Dixie’s more easy-going than Jess. He’s been moody lately, and I’m worried about him.”

“He’s a great kid. And he likes Drew.”

“Yeah, but Drew’s yours.” Janey gave her a sad smile. “I’m happy for you, Gretchen.” She stopped walking and hugged her friend. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me.”

“Nothing to be mad about.” They turned around and headed back to the farmhouse in silence. But Gretchen started thinking through all the eligible bachelors in Hawthorn Harbor. After all, Janey deserved a happily-ever-after too.

Friday afternoon, Gretchen bustled around the house, looking in cupboards and under the sink for the sunscreen. She couldn’t find it. “Dix! Do you have sunscreen in your bathroom?”

“No,” she called back. “We’re out, remember?” She entered the kitchen wearing a bright pink tank top and a pair of plaid shorts Donna had bought her. “We ran out last time we went to the beach.”

Gretchen groaned and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.” She lifted her phone from the counter and tapped on Drew’s name. She hesitated, as she’d already asked him to stop and get drinks and ice for the cooler.

But he’d already be at the store…

She dropped her thumb onto the call button and said, “Hey, are you still at the store?” when he picked up.

“Yeah, headed to check out now.”

“So we’re out of sunscreen.”

“I can grab some. Just a sec.” A few seconds later, he said, “Oh-kay, there’s like a million different kinds. What do you want?”

“A spray, at least thirty SPF. Fifty is good for Dixie. She’s so fair.”

“Thirty…fifty. Got it.” A beat of silence passed. “Anything else while I’m still here?”

Gretchen chuckled, and said, “I certainly hope not. We’re almost ready here.” She hung up, and gazed at his face on her screen for an extra moment. School started on Monday, and they were headed to the beach for the weekend—their first trip together. Gretchen’s nerves fired strangely from time to time.

She wasn’t sure why she was nervous, probably because she and Drew had been talking a lot about marriage, when they should have the wedding, and if she should invite her parents or not. He wanted to. She didn’t.

And he hadn’t even proposed yet. Until he did, she wasn’t making any plans.

She took a big breath. So this was just another trip to the beach with the people she loved. She’d booked a beachfront cottage on Whidbey Island, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and she did not want to make any adult decisions this weekend.

Drew knocked at the same time he entered the front door, plastic shopping bags in his hands. “Sunscreen and drinks.”

Gretchen went to help him, and told Dixie to unload the drink pouches into the cooler. Working together, she caught a glimpse of what family life would be like once she and Drew did get married.

She paused, drinking in the moment and committing it to memory. She hadn’t done much of that with Aaron, and like Dixie, she’d started to forget.

Drew dumped ice over the drinks and Gretchen put the cold cuts and cheese on top so it wouldn’t get waterlogged. He caught her eye, and she saw something in his. Something that said he wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

“Dix, go grab your beach bag. It’s on your bed.” Gretchen smiled at her daughter. “And make sure you have your inhaler.”

Once she’d flounced away, Gretchen leaned into Drew and kissed him. “Tell me what you’re thinking about.”

His hands snaked around her waist and he leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m glad you called and asked me to get the stuff at the store.”

Gretchen hadn’t known what he was going to say, but that wasn’t it. “Oh.”

He inched back and looked into her eyes. “I like it when you need help. I like that you’re relying on me to provide that help.”

“It was a sugary drink and some ice.”

“And before, you’d have had to go get it yourself.” He released her and stepped back to resume packing the cooler. “I’ll put this in the back of the truck and come help with the bags.”

“We can get those,” Gretchen said, unsure of why she couldn’t just let go and rely on him to do the heavy lifting, the errands, all of it. She took the bags out to the driveway, and she let Drew lift them into the bed. Maybe that was all she needed. Someone to meet her halfway.

By the time they arrived at their cottage and checked in, the afternoon was fading into evening. Dixie changed into her swimming suit anyway and went running across the patio, down a few steps and onto the sand. Gretchen watched her go, the joy flying off of her so infectious that Gretchen had to smile.

Drew wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his body. “Chief and Blue would’ve loved this beach.”

“Next time we’ll book somewhere that’s pet friendly.”

Several beats of perfection passed, and Gretchen couldn’t believe that she was standing here, with Drew. It seemed surreal almost.

“So I stopped by Engagements the other day,” he said, and Gretchen flinched.

“No.” She shook her head. “We agreed that this weekend—the last weekend before Dixie has to go back to school—would be non-serious.”

He chuckled and swept his lips across her temple. “Right. No talking about weddings, or parents, or venues.”

“Or engagement rings.” She nudged him with her hip. “It’s nothing but two days of sand castles and sleeping in and eating dessert for breakfast.”

“All right,” he said in a higher voice than normal. “If that’s what you want.”

“It’s what I need,” she said. “Remember how I have five weddings in the next six weeks?”

“I remember,” he murmured. “No ladders, okay?”

She laughed and snuggled closer to him. “Oh, I don’t know. The last time I used a ladder, you came to my rescue. Again. Without that, maybe we wouldn’t be here now.”

“Oh, we’d be here,” he said.

Surprise shot through Gretchen. “You think so?”

He gazed at her with the same golden warmth that the sun was casting over the water. “Do you even know how much your spare tire was?”

She blinked, his conversation topics full of surprises today. “Well, no.”

He grinned and lightly touched his mouth to hers. “That’s because I paid for it. I was doing everything I could to make sure I’d see you again.”

She wrapped her arms around him and laid her cheek against his chest, happier than she thought she could ever be in a world without her first husband.