Seaview Inn (27 page)

“Then I promise to think about it,” Hannah said.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Kelsey warned her, then grinned. “Now, let’s go get me married so I don’t have this baby on the way down the aisle.”

After a perfect wedding with no mishaps and everyone—Lucy included—on good behavior and with Kelsey and Jeff away on a three-day honeymoon on nearby Sanibel Island, Hannah pitched in to help at the inn. As soon as they were back, she planned to head for New York and another round of tests to be sure that the biopsy results hadn’t been a fluke. While she was there, she also intended to speak to Dave about her job. Though he’d brought it up at every opportunity during the visit to Seaview, there hadn’t been a moment for a serious conversation.

Despite everything Kelsey had said, Hannah was still clinging to the idea that her life was in New York. Maybe the truth was that she simply couldn’t handle a change so huge at this point in her life when there was so much other uncertainty.

Leaving Luke and her family was going to be hard. She recognized that, but the past few months had been
an unexpected gift, a chance to heal a lot of old wounds and spend time with people who meant the world to her. She couldn’t find a label to pin on what she’d found with Luke, who was sitting beside her now as twilight fell.

With most of the guests out for the evening, they had the porch at the inn to themselves. Gran had actually gone off to her quilting circle for the first time in months. Her energy seemed boundless now that she knew the inn was going to stay in the family.

“This is the perfect way to end a day,” Luke murmured contentedly. “Sitting here and unwinding with you.”

“It is,” Hannah agreed, not yet ready to tell him that moments like this would end soon.

When her cell phone rang, it was a jarring interruption to the serenity of the evening. “Sorry,” she murmured to Luke when she saw that it was Dave. “I have to take this.”

“Sure. I’ll go in and pour some more tea.”

“Thanks,” she said as she flipped open the phone. “Hey, Dave. What’s up?”

“That’s what I want to know. I’ve given you months to make up your mind, Hannah. Even when I saw you over the weekend, I tried not to do a full-court press, but the truth is I can’t wait any longer for your decision. We just landed a major account and I need you back here, or I’ll have to replace you. So, this is it. Are you coming back or not?”

“I’m flying up next week,” she told him. “Can we talk about this then?”

“Sorry, no,” he said. “I need to know now. Tonight.”

She frowned at the reply. Obviously Dave was in crisis mode. Dave was always in crisis mode, but tonight she found it annoying. Nothing could possibly be so important that she had to made a decision in the next five seconds. This
was either gamesmanship on his part, or he’d found her replacement and was looking for an excuse to hire the person.

“Who is it?” she asked quietly.

“Who? The new account?”

“No, the person you want to hire.”

“The person I want is you,” he insisted.

“Who is it?” she repeated.

He muttered a curse under his breath. “You know me too darn well. Max Carter’s just become available. He’s good, Hannah. He’d fit in here, but I don’t have a spot for him if you want your job back.”

Hannah gazed across the street at the calm waters glistening under the full moon. She listened to the music coming from inside the inn, an old favorite of Gran’s, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, perhaps. Then Luke came through the door, two glasses of iced tea in hand, as well as some bruschetta he’d magically whipped up from fresh tomatoes and Merilee’s sour dough bread. Suddenly it was no contest. All this stacked against the demands of a man who respected her for her capabilities, but didn’t care about her needs as a human being.

Hannah swallowed hard and decided it was time to take a leap of faith. With Luke’s gaze locked with hers and her heart fluttering as if she were nineteen again, there really wasn’t any choice to make. As long as Seaview Key had Luke, New York had absolutely nothing she really wanted.

“Hire Max,” she told Dave without the slightest hesitation. “You’re right. He will fit in perfectly.”

Dave gasped. “You’re serious?”

“I am,” she said, reaching for Luke’s hand and twining her fingers through his.

“You’re not just saying that because I pressured you
into making a decision, are you? This is really what you want?” Dave asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

Hannah met Luke’s gaze and saw that he’d picked up on enough of the conversation to understand the choice she was making. His lips curved. “This is really what I want,” she said, holding Luke’s gaze.

Dave was still talking when she clicked off the cell phone and tossed it aside.

Luke pulled her into his arms. “You’re sure about this?”

“What is it with you men?” she asked. “You’ve been begging me to make a decision and now that I have, you don’t seem to want to accept it.”

Luke grinned at her feigned annoyance. “Just giving you one last chance to back out,” he said. “Because once you say yes to me, I won’t let you go, Hannah. This is it.”

Her gaze never left his face as her expression sobered. “This is it,” she said emphatically. “You, me, here, for as long as it lasts.”

“Forever,” he corrected. “I won’t settle for anything less.”

She touched his cheek as she had days earlier. “From your lips to God’s ears.”