“Just a few more steps…”

I bite my lip as his hand squeezes mine. “No, please, Koa—”

“Keep those eyes closed, Summer.” The pop of gravel stops as he parks the truck. “Only a minute longer and then you can look.” I hear the sound of his door opening, then shutting, followed by the crunch of gravel under his shoes. I turn to my right as humid air hits my skin. Koa’s arms glide around my shoulders as he guides me out of the car. “Step down…that’s right. Now this way…”

I dig in my heels and open my eyes, blinking a few times in the dying sunlight. “Wait!”

Koa scowls at me. “You weren’t supposed to open your eyes.”

“I don’t care,” I say, throwing up a hand. “I need to talk to you.”

“Can I show you my surprise first?”

“This—” I clear my throat as my voice hitches. “This is important.”

“So is this, I promise.” His deep voice sends a slick swath of heat searing through my limbs.

I toss my hair back from my face and groan. “I’d really rather get my part over with first.”

He reaches for my hand. “Humor me this once, baby.”

I fight the urge to cry as his fingers lace with mine, pulling my hand firmly into his rough palm. I know there’s no point in arguing when I meet his eyes.

“Okay.” I close my eyes and start forward. “Lead the way. But then, you’re all mine.”

“I hope so,” he murmurs, sending that heat deep into my belly.

I stumble forward as Koa pulls me toward the workshop. I would’ve known where we were even if I hadn’t opened my eyes. The cloying scent of dewy fields mingled with the sharp hint of sawdust is unmistakable. Its seductive scent wafts over me, pulling me back to the hours I’ve spent here helping Koa, playing with Koa, making love to Koa. It smells wonderful and familiar and like…

Home.

The grating sound of metal on metal screeches out across the still afternoon air, but I feel only relief. Sweat droplets are already popping up on my brow and sliding down my cheek from the short walk to the barn. It’s a hot and humid late summer day, the sun still lingering low over the horizon, unwilling to give up the sky to the cooling moon.

Koa grunts as the second barn door slides on its metal track. I picture his pecs straining against his shirt, his veins popping on his biceps from the effort, as the doors inch apart. I stifle a groan. I shouldn’t think about things like that. Not now when I’m about to walk away from the purest love I’ve ever known.

I catch my breath as Koa’s palms slip over my eyes. “Are you ready?” he asks, his breath steamy in my ear. I bite my lip and give a feeble nod, knowing I’m not ready for anything that’s about to happen. Whatever he’s about to show me will only hurt us both when I’ve had my say.

“Then open your eyes.” His hands glide away, leaving me blinking in the bright light of the workshop. I gasp when they focus on the sailboat resting in the middle of the floor. It was still a work in progress when I left for New York, but now it’s finished. Now it’s painted. Now it has a name.

Koa steps up behind me. “Do you like my choice?”

“Summer…Catch?” I squeak out, my eyes going wide as I read the name scrawled across the bow.

He nods. “I named it after the lady in my life.”

My hands flies to my mouth, forcing back the sob rising in my chest. “You shouldn’t have.”

“Why, Summer?”

“Because this only makes what I’m about to do harder!”

I flinch as Koa’s hand reaches for my cheek. He pulls it back with a deep frown. “Then don’t do it.”

“What?”

“Don’t break up with me.”

“But how did you…?”

“Gran. She was worried about you. That her granddaughter would make the mistake of a lifetime to protect the man she loves.”

I duck my head as the first tear glides down my cheek. “Then you know why I have to.”

“No.”

“I won’t let you make the wrong choice.”

Koa shakes his head savagely. “You’re wrong about my choice. I want to stay in Portland and I want to be with you.”

I stare at him. “You want to stay here?”

“I want to be wherever you are.”

“What about traveling the world?”

“We’ll do it together.”

“But when?” I cry. “What if we never do?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he says quietly, stepping toward me, “because I choose you.”

I inch back. “You don’t want me. You want freedom and adventure and…and a challenge.”

“You’re my freedom from loneliness and unhappiness. You’re my adventure, the adventure of a lifetime. And you’re the most challenging woman I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.”

“See? I knew I drove you crazy.”

“Maybe, but I’m used it. Or…maybe I just like it.”

“You don’t know what you’re getting into. What you’re giving up.”

He narrows his eyes. “I know I love you, deeper than the dark, dangerous depths of the ocean, more than the sea wind on my back and the hot sun on my face. You’re my everything, Summer. You’re my sun and moon and stars…” He takes another step forward. “Am I nothing to you?”

I stamp my foot. “Of course not! How could you say that?”

“Then what? What am I to you?”

“You’re…you’re my dream. My anchor. I never knew my direction, my purpose, until I met you.”

“Then why fight it?” he cries. “Why walk away from something great, something incredible?”

“Because…because I…”

It was all so clear before I walked in here: remove yourself from this equation and give Koa back his freedom, his life. How did the black and white of before turn into hazy gray of indecision?

“Because I can’t hold you back! I won’t hold you back.”

His brows draw together for a moment, and then his face sets in sudden decision. He wraps his arms around me and presses me tight against himself as he brings my face close. “Alright,” he mutters, “then I’ll just have to show you.” He glares into my eyes for a moment before kissing me with a hard ferocity. I push back at first, but he holds me firmly with his steely arms, pulling me to him until my feet are lifted off the ground.

With my arms pressed against me, I quit fighting, helpless to do anything to stop this embrace. Instead, I let my body go stiff and hard in silent resistance, holding my lips firm and unmoving as Koa sieges them with his own. But it doesn’t last. How could it? My resolve dissolves into passion as his lips explore mine. As his tongue darts past my teeth and mingles with my own. As my heart bursts out of its prison and lets my deepest longing wash away my unfeeling logic.

Koa finally moves his lips off mine, still holding me tightly against him, and very slowly bends his head, his cheek cool next to mine. His body isn’t cool at all, though. His searing heat leaches through my thin shirt to my flushed skin.

“I won’t let you go,” he says feverishly, his breath hot and tickling my ear. “Will I have to hold you here forever until you agree not to leave?”

I shake my head, my hair grazing against the thin line of his pressed lips. I’m lightheaded from the rush of adrenaline and take a deep breath to steady my pounding heart. I draw back a little and tilt my head up toward his. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re not?”

I press my lips against his stubbly chin as my body melts into his, knowing that it’s finally home. My path is brightly lit and the way easy and clear, because I know where I’m meant to be.

“No,” I whisper, placing a hand over his racing heart. “My heart is here with you.”

“And what if my dream takes me across the ocean?”

“Then that’s where I’ll go, too.”

His hard chest relaxes under mine with a long sigh. “Really?”

“You’re not getting rid of me anytime soon, Koa Rendell.”

His heartbeat slows as his eyes meet my own, pools of crystal blue that send my head swimming. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way, my beautiful, sweet, fiery Summer…” He rests his forehead against mine as his fingertips trace the hollows of my neck. “My summer catch.”

Epilogue - Summer - One Year Later

“I’ll hire you as my first mate under one condition.”

I add the box of chicken-flavored ramen to the dozens of boxes littering the deck and turn to Koa. “And what’s that?”

He smirks at me. “You never stop challenging my orders.”

“No problem. Any other terms before I’m hired for this trip around the world?”

He nods, earning an eye roll from me. “It’s okay, though,” he says quickly, “because it’s already on your finger.”

I glance down at my left hand as the engagement ring catches the sunlight. A hundred pricks of light dance across the watery blue aquamarine gracing my ring finger. It’s hard to believe Koa proposed three months ago. It feels like just yesterday when he got down on one knee, took out a little black velvet box, and asked me to be his wife…

“I have something to ask you, Summer.”

I look over at Koa, the outline of his tall form silhouetted in moonlight against the dark backdrop of the crashing waves. We were out celebrating my newly minted status as a Maine high school teacher. When I’d come home from the testing center with the good news, Koa whisked me away to the beach. We had it all to ourselves this late in the year, just how we liked it.

“What’s that?” I ask, wrapping my coat a little tighter around my shoulders. I fill my lungs with the bracing sea air, hold it there for a moment, then let it out slowly.

Koa pulls us to a stop and turns to face me. He lets go of my hand, slips off his gloves, and reaches into his coat pocket. “I have a very particular question to ask you.”

I gasp as he gets down on one knee, his jeans sinking into the wet, pebbly sand. He pulls his hand out of his pocket and holds it in the air between us. His fingers uncurl to reveal a black velvet box lying on his palm. “My loveliest Summer…”

My hand flies to my mouth as he pushes a button and the box springs open. A brilliant aquamarine engagement ring is nestled between the velvet, the platinum band studded with sparkling white sapphires. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and Koa’s offering it to me.

“This is the sailor’s stone,” Koa says softly, his eyes lingering on my face. “It symbolizes protection, trust, fearlessness, and harmony. It symbolizes the love I have for you, a bond that will not be broken, no matter how far apart we are. So I ask you now…” his sea-blue eyes hold mine captive as he gazes up at me “…will you marry me?”

I stare down at him for a long moment before sinking down onto the sand in front of him. I reach out and cup his hands in my mine. They’re warm under the woolly fibers of my gloves, the brisk wind not dampening their fiery heat.

“Yes.” A tear escapes my eye as I meet his loving eyes, rolling down my cheek for only a moment before being carried away from the icy wind. I lean down and kiss his warm fingertips with my cold lips. “I will, my love…”

I look up from the sweet memory with a faraway smile. Koa’s watching me with a serene look of his own. “Is your last condition that we’re married before we set sail?”

“No, though we’re about to take care of that tomorrow.”

I giggle, a bit giddy at the thought of leaving behind my title as fiancée for wife in twenty-four hours. “Then what is it?”

“That you stop calling me Captain.”

“What? But why?”

Koa shifts the box of apples in his arms. “Because we’re more than that. I’m your partner, your companion…your husband.”

“Not quite yet.”

“Summer.”

“Alright, Captain.”

“Summer!”

“What? You told me to talk back!”

“Uh, I’m not sure that’s exactly what I said—”

“Too bad,” I cry, flashing him a puckish grin. “That’s my interpretation.”

A devilish smile grows on his lips as he slowly puts down the box in his hands. I start inching away as he comes toward me. “What are you doing?”

“Putting my first mate in her place,” he growls, skirting around the boxes and crates littering the deck.

Summer Catch is packed to the gills with everything we’d need for the journey ahead of us, the food being the final addition. Our destination is the Virgin Islands, someplace warm and tropical and fitting for a honeymoon. The world’s our oyster after that, though I have my eye on seeing the beautiful coastline of Brazil next…

“So I got the job?”

“That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“I want to make sure I have a—” I yelp as he lunges for me “—job!”

He sweeps me up into his arms and presses me to his chest, grunting as my elbow jabs him in the ribs. “Stop squirming or you’ll throw us both over the side!”

“Stop groping your first mate and I won’t squirm!”

His eyes flash as they meet mine. “You’re impossible.”

I snake my hands around his neck and kiss the tip of his nose. “And you’re sexy as hell.”

He cocks his head. “Are you buttering me up again, Rae?”

“Of course. How else am I going to get the job?”

Koa laughs and bends over, setting me gently on my feet. “You’ve got the job, babe.”

“Really?”

“Do you really think I’d leave you behind?”

“No…but I like to know I have a place on board.”

He takes my hand softly and places it over his heart. “You have a place here, always.”

I stare into his eyes for moment before resting my cheek against his chest. I sigh in complete and utter happiness. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he murmurs, resting his chin atop my head. We stay like that for a moment before he draws a deep breath. “We should probably finish up here so we can get to the rehearsal on time.”

The wedding festivities kick off tonight now that everyone’s arrived in Portland. We’re rehearsing on the beach this evening, the beach where Koa and I realized that maybe we didn’t hate each other all those months ago, before heading over to Kenny’s newly completed house for the rehearsal dinner. The renovations had taken twice as long as predicted, but the Victorian had been beautifully restored, with a chef’s kitchen to boot. Now all Kenny had to do was learn how to cook.

“Yeah, we should probably go…” But I don’t let Koa go. I press him close, gliding my hands up and down his back, as I remember the long and often taxing road we took to get our families together for this most happy occasion.

I had gone back to New York to pack my things for my move to Portland when my mom came over. She’d just gotten off the phone with Gran and wanted to have a “chat” about my future.

It had started off as they normally do, with her telling me exactly why I was ruining my life, before I’d finally had enough. I was halfway out the door before she promised to let me speak. It had taken hours of me saying that she needed to respect my decisions or risk never hearing from me again to drive my point home. I was done being her doormat. I had found the man of my dreams and wasn’t about to let him slip through my fingers just because my mom thought I would look better on the arm of some doctor.

I also had the help of a surprising ally: my sister. Nora was there that day to help me pack, and when the shit hit the fan, she sat next to me and held my hand as I had the first honest conversation with my mom in…ever.

I’m also pretty sure Nora did a lot of soothing and cajoling on my behalf behind closed doors, because it only took a few days for my mom to “inform me” that she “approved” of my decision. And when she could help me decorate my new place. I politely declined. But hey, it’s the thought that counts.

I squeeze Koa tighter as happiness and relief floods my limbs. I can’t believe it all worked out. I can’t believe our families are here to support us as we take this next step in our lives; even the newest addition to the family, Theodore, but we all call him Teddy for short. I’m an auntie now, and my Lord, is that little boy going to be one spoiled nephew.

“It’s great having all our family and friends with us, isn’t it?” I murmur into Koa’s chest.

I feel the faint tilt of his chin on my head as he nods. “It is. Though this is nice, too.”

“What is?”

“Having you all to myself.”

I lean back and gaze up at Koa, so strong and handsome as he holds tight me in his arms. “You’re the love of my life, Koa Rendell.”

“And you’re the love of my life, soon-to-be Summer Rendell.”

I smile in pure bliss as he brings his warm lips to mine. He holds me there in a soft, captivating kiss, just us and the quiet murmur of lapping waves against the hull.

We have an adventure ahead of us, though I know it’s only the beginning of a lifelong adventure of love and happiness. And a few arguments, for old times’ sake. Who really knows what we’ll find as we head out to the open sea?

But I do know one thing as we join our hearts tomorrow at sunset. We’ll do it together, as sure and constant as the endless horizon, and as eternal as the bottomless depths of our love.