The day of Evan and Rachel’s wedding dawned a little cooler than normal, or at least that was Jace’s excuse for staying in bed later than he and Stella should have if they hoped to make it to Duchess Island by the time the ceremony started.

“We can’t be late,” Stella murmured as Jace nosed around in the place where her neck met her shoulder, but then she arched against him with a sexy little mewl, and he was pretty much not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

“They’ll forgive me.”

If Evan and the rest of the team could forgive the fact that Jace had officially sold his share of Aqueous Adventures to Blake, who couldn’t in good faith leave the Navy until his commitment to Uncle Sam was up later that year, then they’d overlook the fact that Jace was physically incapable of being sated by his fiancée. Or she would have that label soon enough, once he popped the question at the reception, an event all the guys were in on. He had Evan and Rachel’s blessing because, as they put it, everyone should be as happy as they were.

If there was ever a guaranteed time for Stella to say yes to being Mrs. Custer, directly after a wedding was it. He hoped. They’d been living together for nearly two bliss-filled months in her apartment above the bar. She’d promoted him to bar manager, and as his first act, he’d hired two refugees from Eye of the Storm, who—it turned out—did not enjoy being hit on by Señor Hipster but did like working for Jace. Between the two new girls and Trish, Jace actually got Stella to take a weekend off, so he’d flown her to Albuquerque to meet his parents. They’d loved her, not that there’d ever been a doubt in his mind.

Honestly, he probably wouldn’t even mind if she said no to his proposal. He had everything he wanted.

Finally they rolled from the bed with just enough time to take a shower if they did it together, and he kept his hands off her. They got dressed and hopped a commuter plane to Abaco where Miles picked them up at the Harbour Town marina, only a ten-minute boat ride from the Duchess Island dock Evan had built near the house he lived in with Rachel. They’d elected to have the ceremony and reception at home. Funny how things circled back around. This small yellow house was the site of Jace’s first date with Stella that wasn’t a date.

“I sincerely hope I get a lot luckier this time around than I did the last time we were here,” he murmured.

“Kind of thought that was already a given,” she shot back with a smirk. “I gave you a place to live after all.”

Among other things. He grinned and looped an arm around her because he could and he wanted everyone to see that she was definitely with him this go-around. Evan and Rachel had opted to have the ceremony outdoors near their little yellow house. Rachel had gone all out with lots of white latticework woven with flowering vines as the backdrop and pots of hibiscus marking the aisle at the head of each row of chairs.

Jace and Stella took seats near the front reserved for family, sliding into chairs between Jack and Thora and Miles and Lale. Dex, acting as the best man, stood at Evan’s elbow as they waited at the front near the minister. Music swelled, and a cute little girl wearing a frothy dress skipped down the makeshift aisle, tossing rose petals. She ran to Evan, hugged him, and then took her place on the right.

“Whose daughter is that?” Stella asked under her breath.

“Evan’s, from his first marriage,” Jace told her.

His ex-wife had vanished with Evan’s daughter, Jordan, sometime between Iraq and the move to Duchess Island. Jace was elated to see that he’d not only found them but forged a relationship with his daughter well enough that she’d been allowed to participate in the wedding.

Emma, the maid of honor, waddled down the aisle looking radiant and simultaneously like her hugely pregnant stomach was about to burst wide open. Rachel followed, wearing a simple white dress and a smile so big that it pretty much eclipsed everything else. The best part was when Stella reached for Jace’s hand and held on even as she let tears flow down her face unchecked when Evan met Rachel in front of the minister.

Yeah. Jace was a little sniffy himself but only because of the gut shot that had blindsided him over the fact that he really wanted to do that with Stella. She’d have to deal with it because she was the only woman he’d ever loved. This was his one shot.

The ceremony was short, to the point and over quickly, probably by design as Evan wasn’t much for talking. That’s when Jace’s palms started to sweat. He cared about Stella’s answer to his proposal a little more than he’d pretended, and the diamond ring he’d bought her with a good chunk of his Aqueous money was burning a hole in his pocket.

At the reception, he let everyone do their thing with toasts and such while he scouted around for a good place to get on one knee. Then it was too much of a thing and he couldn’t quite get enough oxygen into his lungs, so he just went for broke right there in the middle of the reception. Fortunately, he didn’t fall on his face and the guys figured out what was happening pretty quickly, moving in to form a ring around him and Stella. Charlie, Dex, Evan, Jack and Miles; it seemed fitting to be moving into the next phase of his life with them all present.

When he took Stella’s hand into his, the rest of the fascinated onlookers at the reception faded away. “Figured this was as good a time as any to ask you if you’re okay with not doing the Goldie-Hawn-Kurt-Russell thing and marrying me anyway in spite of all my flaws.”

Stella eyed him, her face maddeningly blank. “Is that a proposal?”

Nodding, he held up the ring box and plucked the diamond band from its velvet nest. “It’s okay if you didn’t get me anything.”

“But I did.” She pulled out a piece of paper from her handbag. “Tell you what. I’ll trade you. That ring for our baby’s birth certificate.”

“Our… what?” Mystified, he took the folded paper and opened it without bobbling the ring, a minor feat since his hands were shaking. His name marched across the top of the page next to Stella’s, and it was official. He was the co-owner of the Crow Bar.

“I tried to get them to put Pigheaded as your middle name,” she told him sweetly. “But for some reason they refused.”

He laughed because how could he not? “Stick out your hand, and let me put this on you properly.”

And when he slid the ring on her finger, tears skidded down her face and he had to blink back some of his own as his teammates—friends—clapped him on the back.

She’d said yes. With hardly any fanfare, he and Stella were engaged. The bad case of Stella-itis he’d contracted was only going to get worse, and he couldn’t think of anything that would make him happier than he was right at that moment.

“Oh my god. Dex!” Rachel shouted. “Emma’s water just broke.”

Dex’s face fractured into about a thousand different emotions, the foremost of which was absolute terror. “I’m going to be a father. What the hell was I thinking?”

Instantly Charlie morphed into in-charge mode and pushed Dex toward his wife. “That you can hang with the best of them. Go take Emma to the hospital. You’ve got this.”

“I’ll drive the boat,” Miles said immediately with his usual calmness, and of course he was the best choice. He’d never met a situation that could rile him. “Who’s going with us?”

“Me,” Jack jumped in. “It’s been a while since I delivered a baby, but I’ll figure it out if I have to.”

There was no one better to have on your side in a pinch, especially if you needed a guy who could fix pretty much anything on the fly.

Evan put his hand on Dex’s shoulder and leaned in to murmur something in his best man’s ear. Whatever it was remained a secret, but Dex’s expression softened.

“I’m gonna go have a baby,” Dex said, his voice much steadier. “I’ll send pictures.”

Dex, Miles, and Jack helped Emma to the boat that was conveniently docked a few feet away since Jace and Stella had arrived in it. As it motored away, he turned to his fiancée. “Looks like we’re stuck here for the time being.”

Stella smiled. “That doesn’t make it a date.”

“No. This does though.” And he swept her into his arms for their first kiss as an engaged couple. Funny, it felt like all the other ones—as if he’d found exactly the place he belonged.

Don’t miss the rest of the books in the Duchess Island series:  (Dex's story),  (Evan's story),  (Charlie's prequel story),  (Charlie's story),  (Miles's story) and  (Jack's story).

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