“It makes no sense at all. None,” I say as I continue to skim through the file of lies. “I’m still going to take it down to Old Man Thorn to have him look it over.”

Pace chuckles. “That bastard is the only person still making money on this island.”

“That’s because Warren has bled everyone dry and run them out of business.”

“Pace should go back to school and put him out of business,” Mom says with a smile.

“I agree. This seems too good to be true. I think we should walk away. My retirement account is big enough to buy a house for the three of you.”

“You know we won’t allow that.” Mom reaches over slowly, her hand shaking. I push mine closer so I don’t have to see her struggle.

“Mom, I’m going to insist.” I look down at the paperwork, sure that I am missing something big.

I look up at Mom when I feel her trembling.

I see Vincent hand her a tissue from across the table. I have no idea what has gotten into him. This isn’t the uptight brute, better than everyone else man I have known for years. I almost laugh out loud when I think it may possibly have to do with a finger, or two.

My emotions are all over the place since coming home. One second I’m crying, and the next, I’m angry. Then the next nearing murderous, and the next, completely and utterly turned on that Vincent came here for me. Even if it is just my ass he’s after. I expect it isn’t, and any other time, maybe he and I could have actually gotten to know one another, but now all my covers are blown, everything about me is exposed. Years ago, I would have been mortified. Now, the way he looks at me, it feels good. And honestly, if all he wants is my ass, he can have it.

I pry my lustful eyes away from him and turn to Mom. “You and Dad have given us everything we ever wanted.”

“You wanted more,” she says sweetly, but it feels like a knife being thrust in my chest.

“I had more.” I lean in and whisper, “It wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.”

She slowly shakes her head, and I nod.

“I didn’t take a vacation in nine years, Mom. I will admit to you and only you that I felt like maybe I was better than others, because I was insanely career driven and hardworking, like my family. But when I look at my friends, and look at you all, I realize what I have missed out on. I’m going to find that bastard”—I grab the file in search of his name—“and I’m going to tell him that he can sell me our house, and I’m not taking no for an answer. You know why, Mom?”

She giggles. “Because you’re a Viking warrior princess.”

“Who only became one because I have a sword, because of you.”

I hug my mom, and only when her sobbing slows down, do I sit back and look at Vincent, who looks like he’s either confused or ready to head for the hills.

I lean in, give my mom a kiss, and tell her, “My friend over here is being patient and sitting through one heck of a lot of family drama. I think maybe I should give him a few minutes to tell me why he stopped in on our little corner of the world.” I look at Vincent. “Would you like to take a walk?”

He nods his head, but doesn’t get up. “I bought that boat out there, planning to run the coast, toss a few lines, and not have to look over my shoulder, or watch anyone else’s back.” He shrugs. “I knew you lived here and thought I’d stop and see if maybe you’d like to join me, since you yourself are on an extended vacation.”

I smile. “That’s one heck of a first date.”

“It would have been.” He returns my smile as his eyes soften and he searches my face.

“What’s your name again?” Pace asks.

“Vincent. Vincent Stratos.” Vincent and Pace stare at each other for a few seconds, and then Pace looks down at the file now in front of him.

Pace then clasps his hands behind his head and smirks. “This is gonna be good.”

“I’m hoping so.” Vincent looks down and takes a deep breath before reaching across the table and grabbing my hand. “Paige, do you trust me?”

I’m confused, completely confused, but answer truthfully, “Yes.”

“Why?” He smirks, eyes dancing. For the first time, I swear I see stars in them.

I look at our hands and know it should feel awkward, especially in front of my brother, my mom, and a sleeping Babička who thinks he’s Dědeček.

“Because Laney, Mel, Valentina, Nikki, the Steel family—all of them trust you.”

He doesn’t seem displeased by my response, but it doesn’t make stars dance in his eyes either.

“That’s good.” He releases my hand and pats it before leaning back and looking at Pace.

Pace chuckles. “Don’t be a pussy now, man.”

“I need to ask you something,” he says.

Oh, my God, did he tell Pace that he was going to ask me to marry him? I mean, of course not. That would be totally and utterly insane. Then again, the way Pace is acting … the way Vincent is acting … Oh, my God, he’s lost his mind over two fingers in his ass.

I shake my head.

“No?” he asks.

“No. The answer is no. I know that you think … well, I know you and I have some …” I pause and stand up, deciding to stop dancing around the obvious. “I won’t marry you.”

Pace starts laughing when Vincent’s eyebrows shoot up and his jaw drops.

My face immediately is on fire with embarrassment because I was clearly wrong. Absolutely and totally wrong.

I turn to walk out the door when I hear Vincent’s deep demand.

“Stop.”

I take a deep breath and turn around, saying, “I need to eat, sleep, drink my face off, and you should really just take off. I obviously have lost my ever-loving mind.”

“Pea, you just turned from red to green.” Pace stands up and grabs my elbow. “Sit down for just a few minutes.”

I rip my elbow from his loose grip. “I can’t deal with him and Warren, and—”

“I’m not fucking Warren.” Vincent slams his fist on the table, and I look back.

“Well, good! That makes two of us!”

“But you would have … to save this business.” Vincent stands and begins pacing, running his hand through his thick, black, wavy locks. “You went to him, not your friends, not me. You went to him, a man you despise and …” He stops, places both hands on the table, and glares at me. “Do you think I would let that happen?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I gasp as I look at my mom, mortified, then quickly look back at him.

He reaches across the table and grabs the file, flips to the back page, and then pushes it to where I was sitting.

Pace chuckles. “Pea, I think you should have a seat.”

Vincent points to a barely legible signature that I have probably looked at several times and then it hits me.

“You bought my family’s business!” I grip the edge of the table, holding myself back from climbing over it and possibly strangling him.

“Oh dear,” Mom whispers.

“You bought my family’s fucking business, Vincent”—I look at the paper to see his last name again—“Stratos?”

“Watch your mouth,” he hisses.

“Screw you,” I snap.

“The thought has—”

“Shut up, Vincent, just shut up!” I sit down in my chair, cover my ears, and close my eyes.

“When you’ve calmed down enough to discuss this like an adult, I’ll be on my boat.”

That does it! I’m seething!

“Like adults? This coming from a man who bought a company because he was afraid I was going to bang Warren Black.”

“So what if I did? You’re not his!”

When Vincent hurries around the table toward me, all my anger turns into heat … emotion … I want him to leave, to just go.

He grabs my chin in his hand. “You deserve better than any men you’ve dated over the past nine years I’ve known you. Better than that slimy piece of shit Warren Black. And believe it or not, I’m the better man. I’m also possibly the only one who can see past your shit and be stupid enough to still want you, even though you are the epitome of trouble.”

He stops and releases me as he steps back. Then he turns and looks at my mother. “I apologize for the outburst. I hope you understand there was no ill will in me purchasing your business, and whether she”—he pauses and clears his throat—“likes it or not, I’m not willing to let it fail.”

Mom nods, and then he hurries to the door.

I let my head fall on to the table. The same table I would like to hide under.

“Pea,” Pace says as he laughs and stands up.

When I look up at him, he just shakes his head and laughs more.

“I’m going after him. Might drag him back in here and tie his ass to the table so he can’t leave.” He muses up my hair. “I think he likes you, Pea.”

I know my already red face deepened in color as soon as he said tie him. I quickly hide it under my arms again.

“What are you going to do, sweet pea?” Mom asks.

I turn my head to the side so I can look at her. “I have no idea.”

“I don’t see how you have any more of a choice as you gave me moments ago.”

I force myself to stand up. “Let’s get back to the house so I can make dinner before Babička forgets she’s hungry.” It’s true. So many times my grandmother, my partner in crime when I was younger and needed to act outlandishly, sleeps more, eats less, and is becoming more confused by the day.

I help Mom up, even though she is capable, and then we walk at her pace to Babička.

“Let me wake her. You go say goodbye to your brother. Maybe invite that …” she pauses and whispers, “beautiful man to dinner.”

“He is, right?” I say sadly, and she nods. “Too good-looking, too independent, too stubborn—”

“Too much like you?”

Her words make me think. I shrug.

“Go, Pea. Invite him to dinner.” Mom kisses my cheek. “Go or I will.”

Because I’m stubborn and don’t really like being told what to do, or maybe because I’m afraid to talk to him, I help Mom wake Babička.

As we walk out, I see Vincent and Pace at the end of the dock. Pace is laughing, while Vincent is standing stone-faced and expressionless. That’s the Vincent I have known for years, the one at Queens House, in the car to the airport, on the phone. I can accept slight changes. However, the man who is here on Tybee Island, the one who just blew my mind inside the marina, the one I’m not sure if I’m angry at or hugely turned on by, or will allow myself to think there are possibilities of something more, something long-term … well, I have no clue what to do about him.

Truth be told, even the strongest girl dreams of a handsome knight riding in to save the day when she has done everything she could and failed, even the younger me who always loved the way my parents looked at one another, how they complemented each other perfectly, could accept this. But the college me, the one shattered by a self-absorbed asshole, who isn’t nearly half as handsome as Vincent, gave up on the idea and took to accepting that any man prettier than me will not be allowed in my heart. And Vincent, well, he’s not even seeking permission to enter that delicate and guarded area. He’s just taking it.

“Paige, do it,” Mom softly demands.

“Dad will never go for this, Mom. What if it makes things worse?”

“Stop being concerned with his heart; I have that covered. Worry about how yours would feel if that man got on that ship.”

“It’s a boat,” I correct.

“No, that’s a boat.” She points to our fishing boat, and I laugh at the irony in our exchange.

I kiss her cheek then look around her at Babička.

She is shielding her eyes from the sun as she looks down the dock.

“Is that …?”

“Stephan?” I ask.

She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Sweet pea, Dědeček passed.” She looks at Mom. “Has she been drinking?”

Mom laughs, and so do I. Now she looks at us both like we are mad.

“That’s Vincent, a friend of Paige’s,” Mom explains.

“Well, he is a beautiful man. Your Dědeček looked an awful lot like him when we were younger. I’d make him more than just a friend if I were you.”

Mom laughs. “He’s trying, and she’s fighting it.”

“He’s not—”

“Paige, go,” Mom insists.

Babička chuckles. “If she won’t, I certainly will.”

I look back toward the end of the dock when I hear footsteps. Pace is coming toward me. When he gets to me, he laughs.

“Least you can do is go talk to the guy, Pea.”

I make a quick excuse. “I have to take them home.”

He gives a quicker solution, handing me the keys. “Lock up when you leave. Use the truck to get home. I’ll take them.”

“Pace—”

“Deal with it, Pea,” he says, wrapping his arm around Babička. “Walk with me?”

Babička looks at him, smiling from ear to ear and nods.

Minutes later, I am standing alone on the dock, watching him, watching me. I think of how Nikki was put off by Abe’s demanding and domineering ways, but now she sees how perfect they are for each other. How Laney pushed away Dominic in her quest to “do it on her own without a man” after a horrible relationship with a cheating manwhore. Then Mel—I hold back a laugh—she was all about finding someone who “did it for her” after several attempts to find a man she was willing to “give it up to.”

I feel so stupid that I thought he was going to ask me to marry him. I blame them. I soooo blame them and their almost unbelievable, near-perfect relationships. Out of all of us, I have always been the one who was the most confident, but he cracks my confidence. Hell, he shatters it.

I have no clue what I’m going to do. But I know he’s still standing there, and I’m still standing here.

I want to tell him he’s a pussy for not walking to me, but I’m also being a pussy, and I’ll be damned if I let that insecurity paralyze me.

I look down at myself and inwardly frown. Overall shorts and flip flops are not Wang and Choos, and yes, they carry my confidence high when it starts to fall. I wish I had them now, but I don’t. Regardless, I hold my head high and walk toward him.

His shoulders square and his back straightens, like he’s preparing for a fight.

“You should consider yourself lucky that I’m tired and have no interest in fighting with you at this moment.”

“That’s a bit of a letdown,” he says matter-of-factly.

“What did you expect, Vincent? That I’d be happy you bought my family’s business? Why didn’t you talk to me about how I may feel about it first?”

“What I expected, Paige, was maybe a fucking thank you for”—he scrubs his hand over a few days’ worth of stubble—“helping?” He ends it like a question.

“Why?”

“Did you not hear me inside? Do you need me to say it again? That fucker doesn’t get to have you. You don’t get to be with any man who drives you to be so fucking insecure that you bullshit your way through being some dominatrix.”

“I’m not insecure,” I defend.

“Fuck.” He runs his hand through his hair. “You really think someone like me, who has spent the past seventeen years of his life protecting and ensuring the safety of others, can’t read a person?”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I ask, “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

He clenches his hands then releases them at his sides repeatedly, his jaw taut. “Even the most secure person fears something, feels vulnerable sometimes, and stays the hell away from what could expose both.”

“So, what do you fear, Vincent? What makes you vulnerable?” I ask, pushing buttons yet still desperately wanting to know, frantically needing to know.

When he pulls his sunglasses down, shielding his dark eyes, I reach up and grab his button-up and shake him slightly.

He groans and breathes harder, shallower.

In seconds, he swoops me up and stomps toward his ship, easily stepping across the distance between the dock and the ship with his long legs.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I squeal. Yes, squeal when he maneuvers us before taking us down the stairs and instantly drops me on a very impressive bed.

“You want to know me, Paige?”

I nod as he starts to take off his shirt.

“You, Vincent.” I try to sound convincing. “Not your dick.”

A small smile dusts his face as he shrugs it off.

“I know you, Paige, because I’m not much different”—he stretches his neck—“I have hidden fears and vulnerabilities, as well. I’ve never let them stop me. In fact, I pretend they don’t exist, and in doing so, my life becomes so much better.”

He turns around, and I see his bare back where light scars crisscross against a great deal of it.

I cover my mouth as a sob erupts, and then I feel like I’m going to get sick.