Kelsey’s jaw dropped. “What did you say?”

“I love you,” Brett said. “I know it seems as if there are a million and one reasons why we shouldn’t be together, but I still—”

“No! Don’t you dare say that to me!”

Brett drew back. “Why not?”

“Because it’s just one more crazy, impulsive thing you’re doing that you’re going to be sorry for later. But by then the damage will be done!”

“Damage? What damage?”

She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t want him to know just how messed up she was beyond what he already knew, which was already way more than she wished he did. She didn’t want him to know that in the dark of night sometimes she wanted to hear those words so desperately she ached with it, but she’d never been able to open herself up to anyone long enough even to hope for it.

All at once, the sniffly little tears she’d been on the verge of shedding a moment ago were nothing compared to what she felt coming on. She put her hand over her mouth, trying to hold it all in.

“Kelsey?”

She managed to swallow the tears. Then she lifted her chin and looked him right in the eye, her voice fading to a choked whisper. “Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it.”

Brett looked positively stricken. “Oh, sweetheart. Is that what you think? That I don’t mean it?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“I mean it,” he said gently. “Every word.”

He eased forward and took her in his arms. She tried to turn away, but he persisted, until she finally relaxed against him.

Then the floodgates opened.

For the first time since she was six years old, she cried. She cried for all the times her mother drank too much and forgot she had a daughter, or brought home men she didn't know, or convinced her that she was the problem. She cried for all the times she'd been scared and alone with no one to turn to and no one to teach her how to love, forcing her to grow up with the kind of cynicism that kept good people at arm's length.

Good people like Brett.

Now she knew the truth. In spite of how crazy he seemed, she knew he’d invited her mother tonight because he believed the best about her. He wanted desperately for Kelsey to feel as much joy in life as he did, no matter how many times she wrote it off as fantasy. It wasn’t fantasy. It was Brett’s reality.

She wanted it to be hers, too.

He ran his hand up and down her back, making sweet shushing noises against her ear.

Just then she remembered what she’d been thinking right before everything blew up tonight. She’d wondered if she was in love with Brett. Now she knew the answer. He’d been wrong to invite her mother to that restaurant tonight, but was it possible to love somebody when they did the wrong thing as long as it was for the right reason?

She swallowed hard, hoping she could get the words out. “I…”

Brett eased away and looked at her. “What?”

Suddenly she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. “I think…I think I love you, too.”

“You think?”

“Well, yeah. I think I really do. You know. Love you.”

“You’re thinking again.”

“Hey! I said it, didn’t I?”

“You said you think. Don’t you know?”

“Oh, all right! I love you!” She spit out a breath of irritation. “God, you’re so needy.”

A smile crossed Brett’s face, only to morph into a frown. “Then why do you look like you’re going to be sick?”

“I don’t know. I just—” She shrugged weakly, feeling foolish. “Sometimes I feel like it's hard for me to love anybody. That I just don't know how. Every time I get close to somebody, I get this terrible feeling in my stomach, like something really bad is going to happen.”

He swept her hair away from her face and gave her a gentle kiss. "Kelsey, I promise you that nothing bad will ever happen because you love me.”

Loving Brett made no sense at all. Absolutely none. But she decided not to think about that. Instead, she just let the feeling wash over her. After a moment, that voice inside her head had all but disappeared, the one that told her that life had to be hard and she had to live it alone.

“You weren’t the only one who was wrong tonight,” Kelsey said.

“What do you mean?”

“I found out Eduardo asked Gloria to marry him.”

“That’s great!” Then he frowned. “That’s great, right?”

“Yeah. That’s great.”

“So he’s a good guy after all?”

“Yeah. He’s a good guy.”

Sure, their marriage could go south. Half of them did. But Gloria was making every effort to be happy, and to make her kids happy. In spite of all her bad relationships in her past, she’d kept trying. She’d never lost hope. Now she had a man who loved her and wanted to be part of her life.

Brett had been right. Kelsey hadn’t been looking at Eduardo through the eyes of a cop. The issue wasn’t professional for her. It was personal. Ever since she left home as a teenager, she’d been wary and suspicious and held all men at arm’s length.

Until now.

Brett leaned in to kiss her again, and she kissed him back with everything she had in her. He was offering her a chance at happiness, and for the first time in her life she was willing to risk it. Yeah, he was crazy and impulsive. But everything he did was because he had a heart as big as the moon, and he wanted to share it with her. What kind of fool would she be to turn that down?

“Hey.”

They both spun around to find Edwin looking back and forth between them, eating the Snickers bar Kelsey had seen in his pocket earlier.

“Go away, Edwin,” Brett said.

He looked at Kelsey. “I thought you wanted me to get your key out of the lock.”

Ignoring him, Brett walked over, gave the key a little jiggle, and pulled it right out.

Kelsey blinked. “How did you do that?”

“Positive thinking.” He handed her the key. She looked at it dumbly for a moment, then stuck it in her purse. Brett leaned in for another kiss, only to stop short when he saw Edwin still staring at them.

“So I guess you want me to go now?” Edwin said expectantly.

“As opposed to what?” Brett asked.

Edwin gnawed off a bite of his Snickers bar. “Standing here.”

“You can stand there all night as far as I’m concerned,” Brett said. “But from now on, we’re going to charge you to watch. Let’s say…twenty bucks?”

With a go-to-hell look, Edwin shoved the rest of the Snickers into his mouth, turned around, and walked back to the elevator.

Kelsey smiled. “If only we’d known it was that easy to get rid of him.”

Brett unlocked his apartment door and led Kelsey inside. Boomer leaped up as quickly as his massive bulk would allow, hurried over, and looked up at Brett expectantly.

“He’s trying to tell me something,” Brett said. “Do you want to come along?”

“Sure. Just give me a minute.”

She ran across the hall and opened her apartment door with no trouble at all. She flung the horrible shoes into the trash and slipped on a pair of sneakers. They looked dumb with the dress she wore, and she didn’t even care. Then they headed for the dog park. Along the way, they passed the flower shop. Brett stopped and looked in the window, then tried the door. The shop was still open.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He didn’t respond. He just went inside with Boomer. Kelsey rolled her eyes and followed. Brett got the clerk’s attention and pointed to one of the bouquets, which contained roses and a few other stupid girly flowers, most of them pink. Then he paid the man and handed Kelsey the bouquet.

“You’re kidding, right?” she said. “I’m not carrying these to the dog park.”

Brett leaned down and cocked his ear toward Boomer. “What’s that? Oh, yeah. You’re right. She’s being crabby again. We’ll have to work on that.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes and tucked the flowers into the crook of her arm. “All I need now is a Miss America crown and sash.”

“Ah. Role playing. I like that.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Okay, how about this? I’m a corrupt judge, you’re Miss New York, and you’ll do anything to win.”

“Don’t get any ideas. Now, come on, will you?"

They left the shop and started down the sidewalk. Yeah, she looked like a beauty queen who was heading for Atlantic City and lost her way, but for once in her life she didn’t care how silly she looked. A few minutes later, he turned Boomer loose in the dog park. As he galloped after his friends, Brett and Kelsey sat down on a bench together.

"My mother,” she said. “How did you know how to get in touch with her?"

Brett reached into his wallet and pulled out the piece of paper Carlene had tried to give Kelsey that day in the elevator lobby.

"I dug it out of the trash. I shouldn't have, but I did. There it is.” He held it up. "If you want to yell at me for keeping it, go ahead. I deserve it. If you want me to burn it, I'll set a match to it right now and we'll never talk about it again.” He paused. “Or you can hang onto it and leave the door open just a crack. It’s up to you."

She stared at the paper, then looked away with a sigh.

"Maybe you're right," Brett said. "Maybe she'll never get herself together. Maybe she'll be this way forever. Or maybe…”

“What?”

“Maybe she just needs to know if she goes through hell to get clean, she has somebody on the other side waiting for her."

Kelsey looked at the piece of paper again, wishing she could feel more charitable toward her mother. But she couldn’t. Not now. Not yet.

“I know it’s up to your mother to fix herself,” Brett said. “But I think she came to you looking for a reason to get better. There’s no way for her to walk through the door if you don’t unlock it first.”

“I know. But I never know what’s going to be on the other side when I do.”

“Trust me. It won’t feel so insurmountable next time.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ll be right there with you.”

In the past month, Kelsey’s outlook on life had shifted considerably, until miracles didn’t seem so impossible after all. Finally she took the paper and slipped it into her pocket. Maybe she’d leave that door open after all. Just a crack. Just in case.

She couldn’t fix her mother. But she could fix what her mother had forced her to become. And she could do it by being around Brett. A love of life emanated from him in a way she never could have fathomed. She only hoped that by being with him, it would always rub off on her.

There was still so much to learn about each other. But--oh, God--he was the one, and he’d been right under her nose all the time. Even now as she stared at Brett, she tried to find that man she used to think she hated, but all she saw was a man she'd fallen crazy in love with. Suddenly the flowers she held seemed like the most beautiful things in the world. Brett made her feel just like one of them, like a tight little bud exploding into vibrant color, and every moment she spent with him made her feel as if she was blooming a little bit more.

She touched one of the petals. “I love them,” she whispered.

“See, it wasn't the flowers. It was the man sending the flowers. You're crazy about them because you’re crazy about me.”

“Crazy because of you.”

“Tomato, tomahto.” Brett draped his arm around Kelsey, and she rested her head against his shoulder. “Look at the moon,” he whispered.

She glanced up at the sky. The breeze was cool. The night was clear.

And the moon was full.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Brett said.

“Imagine that,” Kelsey said, her voice full of wonder. “Kiki was right.”

“Who's Kiki?”

“The smartest woman in the world.”

Then all at once she remembered the pact she’d made with Liz that night on the beach, when Kiki had predicted they would both find true love. At the end of the month, they were to send a simple text message: YES if Kiki had been right, and NO if she hadn’t.

Kelsey grabbed her phone, set up a text message to Liz, then typed YES. And even though she’d never been an exclamation-point kind of person, she added three of them. Then she decided that wasn’t strong enough and added a couple more for good measure. No doubt about it—her punctuation was completely out of control. If this kept up she was going to be dotting her i’s with little hearts.

She sent the text message, then snuggled against Brett as she waited for Liz’s response, the night wind swirling around them. “You never told me what's in that pinky‑blue drink."

“It’s a love potion. You fall head over heels for the first man you see after drinking it.” He gave her a gentle smile. “See? It worked.”

“That doesn’t happen to be an old Jamaican recipe, does it?”

“Jamaican?”

Kelsey smiled. “Do you remember a month ago, when I was a bridesmaid at a wedding?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, there’s a little more to the story…”

As Kelsey told Brett about the wedding and the full moon and Kiki’s prediction, it still seemed so crazy it couldn’t possibly be real. She thought surely she was going to wake up any minute on that beach in Montego Bay and realize she'd nodded off and dreamed every bit of this. That would make sense. But this?

Then she remembered how she’d looked up at that moon a month ago and made a wish.

Let it be true…let it be true…let it be true…

And sure enough, it was. Brett was real, she was in his arms, and he loved her, just as Kiki had predicted. Now she knew for a fact that wishing on a moon over Montego Bay wasn't so crazy after all.

* * *

Liz Prescott came to the conclusion nothing caused more chaos than a bride dumping her fiancé at the altar and falling into another man’s arms. Unless, of course, that other man was her fiance’s brother, who’d flown fifteen hundred miles to stop the wedding and steal the bride.

Now, that was pandemonium.

Liz didn’t care that she was out the cost of a bridesmaid’s dress and a trip to Jamaica for a wedding that never happened. True love had finally prevailed, and wasn’t that the most important thing?

Now, hours after the wedding that wasn’t, she sat with Kelsey Morrison, Sarah's other bridesmaid, at the edge of the Caribbean Sea, sipping a tropical drink and watching a full moon rise over the ocean. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, savoring her last night in paradise before returning to her regularly scheduled life in Miami.

“Sarah's so lucky,” Liz said. “Nick is crazy about her. I’d kill to have a man fly thousands of miles to stop my wedding and get me back."

"Please," Kelsey said. "Sarah barely knows him. Wait till she finds out he watches TV in his underwear and clips his toenails in bed. There goes the romance."

Liz frowned. ”Well, that's heartwarming."

"It’s realistic.”

"It was love at first sight when she met Nick year ago,” Liz said. “Don’t you think that means something?”

“So why didn’t she stay with him instead of getting engaged to his brother?”

“It took her a while to come to her senses. I’m just glad she did.”

Kelsey continued to frown disapprovingly, as if true love was a concept only the most starry-eyed idiots would believe in. Maybe it was because she was a cop, which meant she probably broke up a lot of domestic disputes. That would give just about anyone a bad attitude about love and marriage, wouldn’t it?

Sarah had actually tried to send a little luck Kelsey’s way by throwing her bridal bouquet directly at her so she had no choice but to catch it. Then that horrible woman had come out of nowhere and snagged it before Kelsey could, giving her an elbow to the eye at the same time.

Kelsey pulled the nearly-melted ice pack away from her face, where a multicolored bruise was forming beneath her eye.

“Yep,” Liz said. “There it is. You definitely have a black eye.”

“Of course I do,” Kelsey muttered. “That woman was lethal.”

“You're a cop, and she was lethal?”

“You have to watch out for the crazy ones. Sometimes they have superhuman strength.” Kelsey shook her head. "I can't believe Sarah threw the damned thing in the first place. Don't you have to say 'I do' before it counts?”

Liz grinned. "She thinks you should get married, so she figured it was worth a shot. If only you'd caught it—"

“That’s nothing but superstition. Why does every woman on earth believe that stuff?"

"Because most women want to get married.”

"I don't. Half of all marriages end in divorce."

"And half don't."

"Is it really worth all that trouble for a fifty-fifty shot?"

"That's kinda cynical, isn’t it?” Liz said.

Kelsey just shrugged and drained her glass.

Okay, so it appeared that not only did Kelsey not believe in love at first sight, she didn’t believe in love at all. Liz couldn’t fathom that. She hadn’t had the best luck in the world herself when it came to men, but she was never without hope. She had no doubt that someday she’d have the same kind of happiness Sarah had found with Nick. She only hoped it happened before she was too old to enjoy it.

“Will you ladies be needin' anything else?”

Liz turned to see a waitress walking through the sand toward them. She wore a tropical print shirt and a black skirt, the uniform of the resort staff. She wasn't the petite waitress who'd taken their original order. This woman was tall and statuesque with heavy black dreadlocks spilling down her back. According to the tag she wore, her name was “Kiki.”

“Nothing more for me,” Kelsey said.

Liz said she’d had enough, too, but instead of walking away, Kiki said, “You ladies looked lovely at the wedding today."

"You mean the wedding that never happened?” Kelsey said.

Kiki gave them a knowing smile. "There'll be one soon enough. It's just a shame you ladies are alone in this romantic place without your own men to share it with.”

“I don't have a man,” Liz said. “I haven't had much luck in the relationship department lately.”

“I can do without a relationship altogether,” Kelsey said. “Men are just too much trouble.”

“Oh, no!” Kiki said. “You should never give up on love! Wonderful men are out there just waitin’ for you.”

Kelsey gave her a suspicious look. “Yeah? So where are we supposed to meet these wonderful men?”

Kiki laughed softly, those long dreadlocks swaying in the Caribbean breeze. “Oh, there's no meetin' anybody, sweetness. You know 'em already.”

Kelsey made a scoffing noise. “Well, that does it. If it has to be a man I already know, I’m going to be alone forever.”

“Men we already know?” Liz said. “How would you know that?”

Kiki gave her a sly smile. “I know a lot of things, milady.”

"I'm a bartender, so I do know a lot of men. But most of them aren't my type." She considered that for a moment. "Actually, none of them are my type."

She wasn’t joking about that. Most of the men who came into Simon’s Bar and Grill were Wall Street types who had high-stress jobs, drove Beemers and Jags, and were looking for woman who spent more every month on makeup and clothes than Liz did on her apartment rent.

“The only single men I know are cops,” Kelsey said, “and I'm not going there.”

“Are you sure they’re going to be men we already know?” Liz said.

Kiki gave her that sly smile again. “Whatever Fate decides.”

Fate? Liz sighed. If Fate thought she was going to hook her up with one of the stressed-out, Scotch-drinking, suit-wearing men who never missed happy hour at Simon’s, she needed to think again.

“Keep your eyes open, ladies,” Kiki said, looking up at the sky. “You see the full moon tonight? By the time the next one rises, you'll be in the arms of those wonderful men who’ll love you with all their hearts.”

A little tingle of excitement ran down Liz’s spine. Just as quickly, though, she brushed it off, telling herself it was nothing more than her natural optimism oozing out. Nobody in their right mind would believe what this woman was saying.

“That’s right,” Kiki said. “The next full moon belongs to both of you. This one,” she said, nodding toward the sky, “is Sarah’s.”

Liz felt another tingle, one she just couldn’t quell. After all, Kiki was right. Tonight of all nights, there was a full moon, the very night when Sarah was finally in the arms of the man who really loved her. So that meant that next month—

No! That was crazy. All that natural optimism of hers that was oozing out? She needed to stuff it back in. She was definitely a positive person, but even she wasn’t buying this.

“Walk good, sweeties,” Kiki said as she swished away, her dreadlocks swaying in the night breeze. “Walk good, now.”

Walk good. Jamaican slang for Take care. Be happy. Have a nice life.

“Okay, she was kinda weird,” Liz said.

Kelsey made a scoffing noise. “No kidding.”

“But what if she's right? What if our soul mates are right under our noses?”

“Not a chance,” Kelsey said.

Liz finished the last of her drink, then checked the time. It was still early. Maybe one more after all? She turned toward the beach bar, intending to call out to Kiki.

She wasn’t there.

Confused, Liz looked left and right to see if she was serving other customers on the beach, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Hmm. Very weird.

Finally Liz decided the two drinks she’d had must have been stronger than she realized, so more time had passed than she thought before she looked toward the beach bar. And if her mind was already that messed up, the last thing she needed was one more drink.

“I have an idea,” she said. “The night of the next full moon, we’ll text each other. Just one word. If Kiki was right and you found the love of your life, text YES. If she was wrong, text NO.”

Kelsey played along and exchanged phone numbers, even as Liz knew she thought it was pointless. And maybe it was. Liz thought about Sarah and Nick and felt a bittersweet tug of envy. When was it going to be her turn?

According to Kiki, before the next full moon.

For a moment Liz gave in to the dreamy, optimistic feeling that overcame her as she imagined what it would feel like to turn around and find the man of her dreams standing right behind her. In her heart she knew the likelihood of meeting that perfect man in the next thirty days when it hadn’t happened in the past ten years was almost nonexistent.

But still a girl could hope, couldn’t she?

* * *

* * *