When Piper woke up the following morning, she wondered whether the events of the previous evening were simply a prank pulled by her overactive imagination. What if it had all been a mistake? Or some sort of misunderstanding. She glanced around the room and located her clothes on the sofa near the window. Should she get dressed and sneak back to her own room? Or wait until Mal returned and try to talk to him about what happened? The sight of Mal walking into the bedroom, clad in just his boxer shorts and carrying a tray with breakfast on it, soon put her straight. As he placed the tray on the bed, he leaned over and gave her a kiss.

“Morning, sleepyhead.” He smiled. “Did you sleep well?”

Piper reached for one of the mugs of coffee and nodded. “Like a baby; I haven’t slept that well in ages.”

It was, Piper reflected, a total surprise to her that she had slept at all. The previous evening seemed like a dream and had she not woken up in Mal’s bed, she would have consigned it to being just that.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Mal. He got back into bed and tucked into one of the freshly baked pastries, leaving crumbs all over the sheets.

“We do?”

“If we’re going to pull off this gig idea of yours, we need to get started today.” Mal held the pastry towards her. “Want a bite?”

“Mmm, please.” Piper leaned forward, making sure the sheet didn’t fall away from her body. She was still a little shy of Mal seeing her practically naked. “We should speak to Becki Lindstrom, the town events planner. She should be able to help too.”

“I didn’t even know Fortune’s Bay had an events planner.”

“You’ve been living in your rock-star bubble for too long,” teased Piper.

Mal took the mug out of her hand and placed it on the side. “I’m quite enjoying being in this bubble right now though…”

Piper sighed as he pulled her toward him and kissed her deeply. They’d never get anything done at this rate. Reluctantly, she wriggled out from his embrace.

“There will be plenty of time for that later. I guess you’ll have to speak to Boyd? What we’re thinking of doing doesn’t contravene any contract you have, does it?”

Mal shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think I already broke several parts of the contract by choosing to come home. I’ll give him a call later though, just to make sure.”

Piper wrapped the sheet around her, leaving Mal sitting on the bed, and picked up her clothes. “I need to shower and get dressed. Then we should get to work.”

“There’s a shower here…” Mal looked hopefully at her.

She placed a kiss on his cheek. “There’s one in my room too. I’ll see you downstairs later.”

With, what she hoped was a cheeky sashay through the door, Piper escaped to her own room. Once safely inside, she leaned against the door and exhaled loudly. Several minutes later, she was humming even louder as she showered and washed her hair. There was a definite spring in her step that morning and she knew exactly who had put it there. She headed down to the study to grab her notebook to begin making plans for the concert. As she entered, the sight of the box with all the tools that Mal had bought her made her smile. She picked up the sketches and ran her fingers over the lines. It wasn’t perfect, but she definitely knew what she needed to do to make sure it was. She sat down at the desk, distracted from what she was really meant to be doing, and picked up a pencil.

Lost in her own world, Piper didn’t hear the door open sometime later. When strong hands touched her shoulders, she jumped about eight feet in the air.

“Geez, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Mal stood behind her, a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I just get so caught up in what I’m doing that I barely know I’m in the room, let alone know if there’s someone else there.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure I make more noise next time I disturb you,” said Mal, his eyes glinting. He leaned down and placed a featherlight kiss on her neck, causing her to shiver. He gently worked his way along her collarbone, his fingers pushing her hair out of the way.

“Mmm, that’s nice…” Piper closed her eyes, letting Mal work his magic on her.

He stopped abruptly. “Nice? Is that it?”

“No, it’s…” Piper stopped, searching for the right words. “Inspiring.”

Mal’s eyebrows knotted together.

“Here.” She picked up the sheet of paper with her design on it. “I drew this last night, after you gave me the toolbox.” It wasn’t like her to show her work to people so easily; usually she was extremely protective of it. She had no idea if Mal appreciated jewelry, particularly pieces that were designed with women in mind.

“That’s beautiful. You could sell hundreds of these. It’s exactly the sort of thing that a man should buy for the woman in his life.” He handed it back to her, his fingers brushing against hers. “You could make it a centerpiece of a collection.”

“My first collection,” breathed Piper, wistfully.

“Come on, you’ve got the tools and you definitely have the talent. Who says you can’t make it into a collection?”

Piper thought back to the gentleman in the souvenir shop who had dismissed her without a second thought. “A lot of people.”

“Have you really tried? I mean, I know you said that the people in your old job were going to give you a chance, but you can do it without them, right?”

“I need more tools though.”

“Then we’ll get them.” Mal’s eyes lit up. “Why don’t we debut your work at the charity gig?”

“That’s a crazy idea.” Piper’s heart skipped a little. Just the thought that she could pull off something like that made the butterflies in her stomach wake up—different butterflies to the ones that Mal gave her.

“Why? You’ve already got the ideas.”

“But I can’t just pull something together that quickly!” protested Piper.

“We don’t have a date for the gig yet. You can work out how long it would take you to create the pieces, and we can talk to Becki to make it work for you.”

All of a sudden, Piper’s mind went into overdrive. Mal was right; she hadn’t tried to do anything like this before. And if she really put the effort in, it would be possible. The prospect of actually achieving her dream was getting closer and closer. Impulsively, she reached up and pulled Mal toward her, kissing him full on the lips. She broke away. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

Mal’s mouth turned up at one corner. “I could say the same about you.”