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ROBIN’S WORDS SHOT THROUGH Isla like a bullet. Her face paled, her heart seemed to stop. She nearly fell from her seat on the bar stool.

“Garrett Thorne came home yesterday.”

“Don’t play with me, Robin,” Isla warned, her eyes wide. She stood, folding her arms across her chest, suddenly feeling exposed.

Cold.

Robin shook her head with a sigh. “I’m serious, Isla. I just found out this morning. Everyone in town is all abuzz about it. He came back and reporters have been desperate to get his story. We don’t get this much excitement, and to have a war hero from our town return is huge.”

Isla’s lips parted. She felt as if she’d faint, so she held onto the dark granite countertop. She couldn’t breathe. “What?”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was impossible.

“He’s apparently a war hero,” Robin said, eating another green veggie chip. “I don’t know the details, but I think he was injured or something.”

“Dear God,” Isla murmured. Her mind spun.

What was happening? Was the universe playing a trick on her? Hours after dumping her boyfriend, the man she’d thought was dead—the only man she’d truly loved—returned out of the blue. Things like this only happened in movies.

They didn’t happen to Isla Maxwell.

“You okay?” Robin asked, her eyes narrowing. “Maybe you should sit down. You don’t look so good.”

Robin stood and reached for Isla to help her to the sofa in the spacious living room behind them that faced the beach.

“No,” Isla said, holding a hand up. “I just need some fresh air.” She poured herself a glass of wine.

“Okay,” Robin said with a sigh. She watched Isla. “How about you take a walk and I’ll make us some cocktails and salmon for dinner. We can have a girl’s night and catch up.”

Isla nodded, only half hearing her as she walked out the side door that led to a stone walkway that took her to the back where the beach awaited.

She covered her mouth, fresh tears gushing as she tried to process what she’d just heard. She walked the quiet beach, her dark hair lifting and flying around her face with the warm breeze thick with mist and the scent of sea salt.

Her mind was a torrent of thoughts that didn’t make sense. She wasn’t supposed to be crying so much, not after finally leaving the man behind who treated her like dirt, like he resented her for having money and was determined to put her in her place beneath him.

These tears were different. They weren’t bitter but overwhelmingly grateful. Even if Garrett would never be hers again, he was alive.

He is alive. She couldn’t get over those words and kept repeating them to herself.

She looked ahead, realizing something. Their favorite spot on the beach was near.

Isla held her glass of wine to her lips, breathing in the aroma as the air began to cool. She wished that she hadn’t been essentially driven away from her favorite place in the world.

The beach.

She looked ahead, seeing a man sitting on in the sand, just at the shore, his wavy brown hair rustling with the breeze. She wiped her face of tears and tried to clear her vision.

Her face paled as she recognized his tattoos on his arms and neck.

Her heart raced.

Garrett? She tensed. No way.

He was shirtless, revealing tan skin, tight abs, and strong tattooed arms. He looked out at the horizon.

Isla folded her arms across her chest and chewed her bottom lip. She felt as though a hand clutched her throat. She wanted to touch him, hold him tight, and kiss his soft lips once again.

Shame filled her veins with the guilt of giving up on his memory.

How could this be? She waited a year for him to come home.

The sun began to set and Isla turned to walk the other way. She’d purged him once before. There was no use going back and risking that pain again.

“Isla?” Garrett called.

She squeezed her eyes closed and drew in a sharp breath.

Torn between continuing forward and turning around.

Hearing his voice say her name all but tore her apart.

She turned, her heart thumping in her chest as Garrett walked through the sand toward her.

His green eyes locked with hers and a flood of memories nearly knocked her off her feet.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said, raking a hand through short wavy brown hair as a grin came to his lips. “Dear God, I’ve missed you.”

She couldn’t help but close the distance by running to him. She tossed her wine glass to the sand and leaped into his arms. When he caught her, she breathed him in, her heart swelling with a mixture of joy and relief.

“Garrett,” she cried into his shoulder.

He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, holding onto him for dear life. She’d never let go. He’d have to pry her arms from him.

But, from the way he held onto her, his warm breath on her neck, she felt within her soul that he didn’t want to let go either.

“Look at me, love,” he said, his deep voice giving her chills that made her heart skip a beat.

It should be a crime for a man to have a voice that sexy, and an accent that could make her do whatever he’d ask.

She lifted her head from cradling his neck and shoulder to look him straight on in the face. She drew in a deep breath as his green eyes searched hers.

There was so much in them that was foreign to her. Garrett had seen things, things she knew she wouldn’t understand, but still...there was love within them.

For her.

“I was a fool for not telling you what happened to me. Please believe that I had my reasons,” he said. “But not a day went by that I didn’t think of you, look at your pictures, and wish that you were by my side.”

Isla chewed her lip, nodding. Words wouldn’t come to her, not with the way he was looking at her.

“I know you’ve heard about what happened by now, but I am here to tell you that I love you, Isla. I can’t imagine ever not loving you.”

“Didn’t I tell you that I’d love you forever?” Isla asked.

She held onto his face with both hands. She kissed him, no longer caring about the past or the future. The present was all that mattered.

“I may have been called many things, but no one has ever called me a liar.”

Garrett kissed her, pressing her body tighter to his sculpted frame. He devoured her mouth, his tongue caressing hers.

Breathless, she felt dizzy when he set her back on the sand.

She looked up at him, her chest heaving, wanting more than kisses.

He took her hand. “Back to my place? So we can talk.”

Was he being serious? Isla clutched his hand and leaned up to kiss him again, warmth filling her as he cupped her cheek.

Isla nodded, not one shred of hesitation in her heart. “I’ll go anywhere you want, Garrett. Just promise not to let me go.”