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with me when I go there for the first time as the rightful owner. Will you come?”
      Her lips moved to the side as she thought about his offer. After a long moment in which Mac died a thousand deaths waiting for her to reply, she said, “I won’t stay there overnight.”  
    “I’ll bring you back on the last boat tomorrow night. You have my word.”
    “Okay. I’ll go, then.”
    Mac blew out a deep breath. Two round trips to the island weren’t in the budget, but he’d find the money if it meant he got to show her his dream. “Thank you. Will you do one other thing for me?”
    “Depends on what it is.”
    “Don’t go out with anyone else.”
    “You mean between now and tomorrow when I’m going to Gansett Island with you?”
    “I mean ever. Don’t go out with anyone but me ever again.”
    She started to laugh, but it died on her lips when she seemed to get that he meant it.  
    Because he couldn’t wait another second to touch her, he raised his hand to her face and laid it flat against her cheek. Then he ran his thumb over her full bottom lip, loving the sound of her breath catching in her throat. “You’re so incredibly beautiful, Linda.”
    “You’re a rather handsome devil yourself, but of course you know that.”
    “As long as you think so, that’s all that matters.”’
    “Are you always so insistent when it comes to women?”
    “I’m never insistent, because I’ve never cared enough to be. You’re different.”
    “How do you know that?” she asked in a small voice that had his heart doing that leaping thing again.  
    “Do you believe in fate? In things that are meant to be?”
    “I never have before.”
    He leaned in to replace his thumb with his lips, a soft fleeting caress that only confirmed what he already knew—she was his. “It might be time to start believing.”

    With the hindsight of four decades, Big Mac had to acknowledge that he was damned lucky she hadn’t run from him, screaming for the police.
    His low chuckle had her stirring next to him.  
    “What’re you laughing about first thing in the morning?” she asked in the husky, sleepy morning voice he adored.  
    “I’m thinking about the day we met and how lucky I was that you didn’t call the police on me with the way I came on so strong with you.”
    “You are lucky. The thought crossed my mind. You were awfully forward.”
    “It was the seventies, babe. Forward was in vogue.”
    “You took it to a whole other level.”
    Big Mac turned over, put his arm around her and drew her in snug against him, loving how she fit so perfectly in his arms. “Happy anniversary, my love. I’m so glad you didn’t call the cops.”
    “Me, too, and happy anniversary to you as well.”
    “Forty years,” he said with a sigh. “How’s that possible?”
    “Went by in the blink of an eye.”
    “You ever wish you’d called the cops on me that day at Frankie’s?”
    “Not for one second, as you well know.”
    “Ever wish you’d finished college?”
    “Nope. I would’ve been so distracted thinking about you that I would’ve flunked out anyway.”
    “Sometimes I feel bad about talking you into dropping out to come live with me on my island. I thought your folks would never forgive me for that.”
    “They loved you as much as I did.”
    “Not at first. They thought you were shackling yourself to a lunatic.”
    “They never used that word,” she said, making him laugh. “They admired your ambition.”
    “But they wished I’d been ambitious on the mainland rather than out here.”
    “They understood why we wanted to be here. They loved coming out in the summers to spend a few weeks every year.”
    “I miss that.”
    “Me too.”
    “And now here we are, the grandparents all of a sudden,” he said.
    “It wasn’t all of a sudden, but it did happen fast when they started dropping like flies, one after the other. And Laura and Shane, too.”
    “They all found their ideal mates. I couldn’t be any happier