Gabriella was carving a pumpkin on the front porch when Blake pulled up in his big black truck. She’d managed to get pulp all over her blouse, and there were currently several seeds sticking to her carving arm.

“Morning, sugar,” Blake said as he came up the steps and flashed a devastatingly charming grin.

She groaned mentally. What had God’s purpose been when he created the Morrison men? To invent drool?

“How are things going in there?” He hitched his head toward the house.

“Well, I’m no expert on home remodeling, but if creating a gaping hole in the back of my house was part of the plan, then I’d say we’re good.” She held her thumb up in the air and clicked her tongue.

“That’s what I like to hear.” He winked and then angled his head to study her handiwork.

“It’s a jack-o’-lantern, for Halloween,” she told him when he furrowed his brow.

He grimaced. “Oh.”

“Well,” she said defensively, studying her pumpkin’s face. One eye was twice the size of the other. They were too close together, and if she tried to make the other one any bigger, she’d end up with a cyclops—a big triangular—sort of—eyed cyclops. Its nose was almost nonexistent, and she’d carved the mouth too high up so she didn’t have room to amend that part of its visage, either.

The mouth was also crooked. She’d tried to get fancy and carve teeth, but most of them had broken off, which left only one tooth on the far right side of the mouth. The single tooth looked bizarre and out of place, and without giving it another thought, she lopped it off with one quick slice. It wasn’t much of an improvement.

“It’s my first time.”

Blake’s shoulders started to shake, and she fought back a smile of her own. It really did look kind of comical. She’d been hoping to surprise Chloe when she got home from school. She had thought they could put a candle in it and light it when it got dark out. They could still do that, but she wasn’t sure if it would make them laugh or if it would look so horrid it would be scary. She’d let Chloe decide, and now that she had some idea of what not to do, they could pick up a couple of more pumpkins and carve them together. Maybe they’d get one of the kits she’d seen at the drugstore to use as a guide.

Blake’s eyes were dancing with amusement and for the sake of her pride Gab said, “Don’t you have some missing walls or something to check on?”

He chuckled and walked into the house, leaving her to her maimed pumpkin face and her restless thoughts. She knew Blake would do a wonderful job on her house, but it would be so much easier to get through the process if he didn’t have to check on the progress so often. He reminded her too much of Justin. Everything about him was like Justin, and she’d felt the likeness more today than she ever had. If Blake had shown up in a business suit instead of his blue jeans and flannel shirt, she might have thought Justin had been the one standing on her porch teasing her instead of his twin.

Setting the pumpkin aside, Gab brushed the seeds off her arm and tried to wipe the worst of the pulp off her blouse. She folded everything up in the newspaper she had wisely put on her small porch table before she set about mangling the poor jack-o’-lantern.

Next, she returned a couple of phone calls to clients and then plugged in her laptop and started to work. Her back porch was gone, soon to be replaced by an expanded kitchen and a new back porch. Because she worried about getting in the way of the work crew, she had come out onto the front porch the last couple of days to work.

The rose bush that her father had planted had been carefully trimmed back and moved under the knowledgeable advice of Mary, who had supervised the process and whom Gab trusted implicitly with anything related to gardening. When the new back porch was completed, she would replant the rose to trail up over it the way her father had.

Blake came back out about an hour later and got a small cooler out of his truck.

“Mind if I sit out here and eat my lunch?” he asked, already parking himself on her front steps and stretching his long legs out in front of him.

She did, but she didn’t want to offend him by suggesting he go somewhere else to eat. Grimacing, she looked back at her computer and tried to concentrate on her work.

“Sure is amazing,” she heard Blake mumble a few minutes later. She darted him a quick glance and then returned to her screen.

“Yep,” he mused, “no telling what modern technology will think of next.”

Gabriella closed her eyes a second and tamped down her frustration. Normally, she would welcome a distraction from work, but this distraction reminded her too much of another distraction she had no desire to think about.

Blake pulled a bottle of water out of the cooler and took a long drink.

“Next thing you know we’ll be able to go into a store and buy replacement organs.” He packed up his cooler and stretched his arms up and over his head. “Damn spanking amazing.”

Gab turned away from the computer and looked at him.

“Was there something you wanted to tell me about?” she asked, sure his rambling about technology had some purpose.

“Oh sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you.”

Gab arched a brow. “Didn’t you?”

Blake leaned against her porch post. “No. I was just thinking about how amazing technology is today.”

“Yeah,” Gab said, “I sort of got that. So what’s so amazing that you can’t get over?”

“Oh, paternity tests,” he said, pushing away from the post and standing up. “Did you know you can do them yourself now? You can pick one up in a drugstore for thirty bucks and take your own DNA samples.”

Gab’s breathing slowed to a crawl. Both Morrison brothers had recently had a baby. She couldn’t fathom Blake questioning his paternity, let alone doing a test…but what about—

“I thought Justin was pulling my leg when he told me, but it’s true.” Blake looked at her, watching her as if he was waiting to see if she thought he was pulling her leg. That wasn’t what she was waiting for. She was waiting to hear why Justin had been talking to his brother about paternity tests.

Blake walked down the steps and started for his truck.

“Blake,” Gab said in a thin voice. “How do you know it’s true? That…that you can do your own test?” That wasn’t what she wanted to know, but asking what she did want to know would be too obvious.

“Because Justin got one,” he told her, as if her question was redundant. “That’s how he found out he wasn’t the father of Brin’s baby.”

“It was just a drugstore test,” Gab said, her heart barely beating. “It might have been wrong.”

“Nope,” Blake said confidently. “Test was conclusive, and when he presented the report to Brin, she confirmed it.”

Gabriella felt her world tilt. Saliva started to build in the back of her throat, and she felt as if she might get sick. If Justin wasn’t the father of Brin’s baby, then the woman had lied to him. She’d tried to manipulate him into marrying her…and Gab had turned her back on him when he needed her to trust him most. She had thought she was doing the right thing. She had made what she thought was the best decision for everyone involved. She had never even given him a chance to explain or listened to what he had tried to tell her. She had thought she was being selfless, but what she’d been was self-righteous. And for what?

Blake went back into the house for a few minutes and then walked outside again.

“The guys are going to start putting the frame up this afternoon. I’ll stop by tomorrow to check in.” He said as he walked to his truck. He gave her a final wave, hopped in, and then drove away.

Gabriella just stood there, staring wordlessly as she watched the dust that had been kicked up by the truck’s tires dissipate. Blake’s revelation had crumbled the walls she had worked so hard to build around her heart the last several weeks, leaving her exposed to the painful knowledge of what she’d given up.

If only she could go back to that morning and do it over again. If only she hadn’t sent him away. If only...

She looked at the pumpkin. It seemed to gawk at her with lopsided mockery, as if to say…you fool.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not polite to stare?” She turned the scoffing jack-o’-lantern’s face around. She already knew what a horrible mistake she’d made.

OVER THE next few days Blake spent most of his time on the job at Gabriella’s. His constant presence began to wear on her to the point she couldn’t concentrate on anything. An hour after he showed up on Thursday, she told him she was going into town for lunch and if anything came up that he needed to talk to her about, he could call on her cell.

The lot behind Mosey’s was full, and she had to look for a parking spot on the street. She found one about a half a block down from Justin’s office. As she approached it, she told herself to just walk quickly by and hoped she wouldn’t run into him in the coming or going.

She darted a glance at the door as she passed by and then stopped and backed up. There was a sign in the window announcing his office was closed and would reopen the following week. Anyone who needed to speak to him before then could reach him at the number listed on the notice.

Gab’s shoulders relaxed, and she felt some of her tension drain away. She didn’t have to worry about running into him; he wasn’t even in town. She reached out and ran her hand lightly over his doorknob. It seemed that by touching something he had touched recently, she might be able to pick up some of his essence. It was foolish and she knew it. She just hadn’t been able to stop herself. She wondered where he’d gone. Was he away on business? A law conference perhaps…or maybe he’d taken some time to get away and celebrate his newfound freedom.

Continuing down the block, she walked slowly, enjoying the warmth of the lazy autumn day. She stopped into The News Junction, one of her favorite shops in town. They sold magazines, a small selection of paperback books, lottery tickets, newspapers, beef jerky, and cheese.

Gabriella had never been able to reconcile the cheese, but it always made her smile when she thought about it. She liked the place because everything about it reminded her of an old-fashioned store. It still had the original wood plank floors, an exposed brick wall, and it smelled like paper…paper that had been around for a while…not musty, but almost. Even the proprietor, for whom she had a soft spot, seemed like a holdover from the past. He was seventy-eight years old and one of the dearest men she’d ever known. His name was Tito. He was Italian and still spoke with the hint of an accent, and every time she went into his shop he offered her a sample of his cheese. Who did that anymore?

After browsing the aisles to pass some time, she picked up a couple of magazines and then went to the counter, where she talked to Tito for a bit and sampled a small slice of Canadian cheddar, before leaving the store and going to Mosey’s to get some lunch. She sat in a booth by the window and leafed through one of her magazines as she ate. When she finished her lunch, she left the diner and walked to Speckles to pick up a couple of pumpkins and a carving kit.

It was just shy of two thirty when Gabriella got home. She had hoped by the time she returned Blake would be gone, but when she pulled into her driveway, she saw his black truck still parked in the front of the house. If he was going to be spending so much time there, the next two months would be as unbearable as the last two. Realistically, she knew she wouldn’t be able to escape into town everyday as she had today, but she’d have to find some way to avoid the man.

Instead of checking in to let the work crew know she was back, Gab went directly into her office and closed the door. She had tried so hard to move on, but it wasn’t working. If she thought there was a chance Justin would welcome her back into his life, she’d be tempted to throw herself at his feet and not give a damn if she looked like a fool in the process.

He had insisted he hadn’t been in love with Brin, but he’d never told Gab he loved her, either. If she told him she loved him, that she’d wanted to start over, he might tell her it was too late. If that happened, she’d be crushed…but she was already crushed, and lonely, and missed him more than she’d imagined possible. So how much worse could it be? If she didn’t tell him how she felt, nothing would change, so either way the result was the same. So why not tell him?

Gabriella leaned backward in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. No answers there. She stood up and paced to the refrigerator which had been temporarily set up on the side wall of the office with the microwave and a George Foreman grill. She pulled a bottle of water out and walked back outside to the porch to wait for her daughter to get home.

The yard was full of leaves, pretty orange and red maple leaves and bright yellow walnut leaves. She didn’t have a rake, and she kind of liked the way the leaves looked scattered all over her lawn displaying their autumn colors, but it probably wasn’t good for the grass. What grass she had.

Blake walked out of the house and told her he would see her tomorrow. She groaned inwardly. She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to withstand the constant reminder of Justin…of what she’d thrown away. Her motives had been good, her heart, she’d thought, in the right place, but that hadn’t made ending their relationship any easier. And it was no easier now, especially with his brother serving as a constant reminder of the man.

“Blake, do you really think it’s…” Gabriella trailed off. She was going to ask him if it was necessary for him to check in so often. The crew seemed to know what they were supposed to do, and he must have other jobs that he needed to spend time at. Maybe he was checking so often because she and Delaney were such good friends, and he wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea or offend him, though, so she aborted her question.

He turned around halfway down the steps and looked at her. “Do I think it’s what?” he asked, his eyes traveling over her face.

What did he see there, she wondered? Did he know how much she missed his twin? Was he aware of how much his presence unsettled her? He and Justin were extremely close. If anyone knew how Justin felt about her or anything else, it would be Blake. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him.

“Oh nothing,” Gab said, looking away. She cursed her inability to move on with her life. Justin couldn’t be the only man who could fulfill her so completely. But she was afraid he was. She was afraid she’d been offered a once in a lifetime love and had chosen to walk away from it.

When she looked back at Blake, he was still watching her. His beautiful eyes, eyes so much like Justin’s, regarded her with a tenderness she’d never seen there before. It was almost too much for Gab to bear. He felt sorry for her. He probably knew what was on her mind, and he felt sorry for her because he knew Justin didn’t love her. He knew his brother had moved on even though she couldn’t.

“You want to talk about it, sweetheart?” Blake’s voice sounded gentle, almost encouraging. She had never thought Blake was a man of many words, and she was much closer to his wife than she was to him, but she had always recognized an underlying compassion and goodness in him. His offer of an ear touched her, but she didn’t feel right burdening him with her problem, especially when there was nothing he’d be able to do about it.

Gabriella shook her head. “No sense talking about things we can’t have, is there?” She smiled at him, but her heart wasn’t in it. In fact, if she had to keep looking at him and thinking of Justin, she would have to go back to her office because she was already afraid she was on the verge of falling apart.

Blake’s eyes never left hers. “Sometimes,” he said, his tone filled with compassion, “what you’re looking for has been in front of you the whole time. You just need to open your heart to see it.”

His softly spoken words almost undid her, threatening her thin veil of control. A jumble of confused feelings swelled to assail her. Was he trying to tell her Justin still cared about her? Her mind wasn’t sure how to interpret what he said, but her heart wanted to believe there was hope.

She chewed her bottom lip and looked up at him, almost afraid to put any faith in his words for fear he was wrong or she’d misinterpreted them.

“Gabriella,” he said, and it sounded so much like Justin she had to look away for fear Blake would see the raw emotion screaming from her eyes. “There’s something—”

“There’s Chloe’s bus,” Gab said, standing up and brushing her hands down the sides of her jeans as if she could whisk away the torrent of emotion threatening to drown her.

Blake looked over his shoulder and then back at her, an odd shadow of disappointment clouding his expression that confused her. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe he’d been about to tell her not to get her hopes up about Justin. But if so, what had he meant by his other comment?

“Hi, Mom,” Chloe yelled. She waved as she ran up the driveway. “Hi, Justin,” she said when she reached the porch. “How come you haven’t come over for so long?”

“This is Mr. Blake,” Gab said.

Chloe looked up at Blake and scrutinized him with the blatant openness of a child. “Oh,” she said with a frown. “I thought you were Justin.”

“How you doing, kiddo?” Blake got down on his haunches and chucked the girl under her chin. “I swear you get prettier every time I see you.”

Chloe gave him a big toothy grin. “Some day I’m gonna be as pretty as my mom.”

“I’ll just bet you are, darlin’.” Blake ruffled her hair and then stood back up, grinning warmly. He looked back at Gab and said, “And your mom sure is one beautiful woman.”

His unexpected compliment, although appreciated, made her feel uncomfortable, and Gabriella felt the color come to her cheeks. She jerked her gaze away from his to hide her embarrassment and reached down for Chloe’s backpack.

“Do you have any homework tonight?” she asked her daughter in an attempt to find her balance.

Chloe nodded. “And I know, homework before play.”

Gab smiled when she heard Blake’s chuckle and said, “I think she’s trying to tell me something.”

After Blake left, Gab and Chloe sat outside on the front porch while her daughter did her homework. By the time she finished, the remaining work crew was packing up, and Gab breathed a sign of relief that they would soon have their house back to themselves, at least for the rest of the evening.

JUSTIN STOOD at the back door of the house he’d grown up in later that day ruminating over the mistakes he’d made that he would change if he could. He pulled his gaze away from the restless bay and turned back around. Blake sat at the kitchen table in solemn quiet, the copy of the police report documenting their parents’ fatal accident still in his hands.

For more than a decade they thought they had known what happened. Justin wondered if their grief would have been any easier to bear had they known the truth. It seemed almost surreal to discover after so many years that what they had believed was nothing more than their own prejudiced assumptions about a man they barely knew.

“Why do you think we weren’t ever told what really happened?” Blake tossed the report onto the table. “You know how many times I wanted to deck Landfred when I saw him in town? I hated that man. I wanted to make him pay for what he did to Mom and Dad.”

Justin eyed him in silence. He knew exactly how his brother felt. He’d felt the same way, condemning the man on nothing more than local gossip. Remorse filled the cauldron that had been vacated by his anger. How often had he given Landfred a hateful glance or wrongfully shunned the man with cold intent? He shook his head with regret. Gabriella’s father had been a heartbroken, lonely old man whose wife had deserted him and taken away the daughter he loved. He never hurt anyone. He hadn’t deserved to be ostracized, but that’s exactly what he and Blake, and a lot of other people who didn’t understand, had done. They should have been reaching out to him, looking out for him like they did most of their friends and neighbors.

Granted, he’d kept to himself, and his behavior had led most people to think he was a drunk, but that was no excuse. The man could probably have used a friend more than most of them.

“I can understand how it happened.” Justin walked over, pulled out a chair, and joined Blake at the table. “We were barely adults, and we were both pretty devastated when it happened. My guess is, by the time they finished the investigation no one wanted to upset us any more. They probably didn’t see any reason to tell us how it happened. It’s not like it would have brought them back.”

“I suppose.” Blake pushed a hand through his hair and then dropped it to the back of his neck. “Or maybe they assumed we knew.”

“Yeah,” Justin agreed, “there’s always that. And it never crossed my mind to ask the police about the accident report when I was so sure I knew what happened.”

“We both were.” Blake slid him a glance. “Do you think Landfred knew we blamed him?”

“I hope not.” Justin leaned his elbows on the table and regarded his twin. “We need to let this one go, Blake. We didn’t know about the man’s illness, no one did, or there wouldn’t have been so many rumors. We were young, we made a mistake, but we can’t change things now. And based on some of the things Gabriella said, I’ve got a feeling Landfred wouldn’t have wanted us to keep punishing ourselves over it.”

He reached out and put a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “I don’t like knowing I allowed myself to hate a man who didn’t deserve it all this time, but it feels good to finally be able to let go of the anger.”

Blake gave him a crooked grin, their gazes locking. “Yeah.” He reached up and clasped Justin’s arm. “It does.”

Several minutes later Justin went down to the dock with Blake to help him get started on winterizing the power boat. With Kate being so young and Delaney not feeling comfortable taking her out on the water yet, Blake told Justin he might as well get the job done now rather than waiting until November or December when he’d have to freeze his ass off doing it.

Now that he knew the truth about Gabriella’s father, Justin was even more anxious to bring his plan to win her back to fruition. She deserved to know the truth, and he thought it would give her a deep sense of peace and happiness. He missed her so damn much he didn’t know what he’d do if she turned him down again. He didn’t think that was going to happen. Thanks to his brother, he’d been able to gather enough information this week to feel pretty confident she still cared about him. And he prayed to God he wasn’t wrong.

Come tomorrow he would know his fate. He had done what he could to increase his chances of success. Blake hadn’t been too happy about his role in the plan, and Justin owed him big-time, but if everything worked out, he’d take Blake and Delaney out for the most expensive steak dinner at the best restaurant they could find. Twice.

Justin pictured Gabriella in his mind and what he saw there took his breath away. She was everything he wanted or desired in a woman. She was joy and laughter, light and love, and he knew to the depths of his soul, she was the only woman who would ever own his heart.

ALL SHE could think as she walked down to the dock with a cup of coffee a little before noon was, Thank you, God, it’s Friday. Gabriella needed the weekend to rebuild her defenses. Every time she turned around she saw Blake, and every time she did it made her think of Justin. She was cursed.

She knew Blake was the best damn builder on the Eastern Shore. Everyone from here to Kent Island said so, but she was beginning to think she didn’t need the best damn builder. She just needed a competent one, one who wouldn’t remind her of what she had lost.

Wrapping one arm around her waist, Gab raised the other and took a sip of the freshly ground brew. She had on jeans and a pair of knee-high leather boots. The bulky, cable-knit oatmeal sweater she’d pulled on over a long sleeve tee was warm, but the breeze was brisk, and she shivered a little even with the extra layer.

Despite feeling cool, she didn’t want to go back up to the house, at least not yet, not until she could calm her ravaged emotions. Before escaping to the dock, she had felt like she was being bombarded with memories of Justin. If Blake happened to glance at her, she saw Justin’s eyes. If he grinned, it was Justin’s. If she continued this way, she was going to have to move out of the house until the renovations were complete. She just wasn’t strong enough to stand the onslaught much longer.

If the cottage at Mary’s was available, perhaps she and Chloe could move in there for the duration. Memories of the first time she’d gone there came flooding back. Justin making her dinner…almost making love to him on his couch…their easy, playful banter.

She shook her head, knowing those memories would haunt her there. Although it was for a totally different reason, involved a completely different emotion, she could understand why it was difficult for Justin to feel comfortable in her house. Memories were a powerful force, and it was difficult to break loose when your feelings were so tied up in them.

Setting her coffee mug on the top of a piling, Gab lowered herself into a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the dock. Her life had changed so much since moving here. Seven months ago, when she had gotten Mark Carell’s call about her father’s estate, it had been a dream come true. She had already decided she needed to start a new life somewhere away from Bruce’s family. It wasn’t that she didn’t love them. She did, but she would never have felt free to live her life the way she wanted or to raise her daughter without their well-intentioned interference.

She had never anticipated falling in love or the pain associated with it now, but despite having lost Justin, she still believed coming to Glebe Point was the best decision she could have made. She didn’t regret it. And most importantly, Chloe was happy.

There was only one thing missing, the one thing that would make her world perfect.

“You’re not thinking of jumping, are you?”

Gab looked up over her shoulder. She hadn’t heard him coming, and now the man she’d been hoping to avoid was standing just a few feet away from where she sat. Maybe she should jump. If she wasn’t such a wimp, she might, but then she’d probably end up with a case of pneumonia to go with her broken heart and wouldn’t that be ducky!

She pushed up into a standing position and offered Blake a limp smile. She didn’t feel like talking to him. She felt bad about it, but it had started to hurt a little too much.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked.

Why had the man she’d always considered short on words suddenly have to become such a conversationalist? Why couldn’t people ever be what you expected them to be?

“No, not really. I doubt you’d find it very interesting.” She took a couple of steps forward, and when he didn’t move, she glanced up at him and waited.

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?” His eyes roamed over her face, and she wondered at his odd expression. “I’ve got eyes, Gabriella, and I could see you were upset this week. Maybe I can help.”

Gabriella’s frustration had reached a breaking point. He was the problem. If he would just stay out of her face, she’d be fine. She could cope. She wouldn’t be sitting on the dock sulking and making people wonder if she was going to jump in.

“I said I didn’t want to talk about it, Blake.” She tried to step around him, but he sidestepped into her way. Annoyance slithered through her. What was he doing? She tried to step the other way, and he blocked her again, taking a hold of her arm.

“I get the feeling it’s just me you don’t want to talk to,” he said, his hold gentle, but firm.

“You’re right.” She felt rude and ungrateful. She knew her reaction was foolish, but she couldn’t help herself. She was trying to hold on to what little control she had, and he was making it more and more difficult with each passing day.

“I don’t want to talk to you, Blake. I’m sorry, but I…I can’t be around you. You remind me too much of your brother.” She let out an enormous breath. “There, I said it. Every time I see you I see Justin. And with you being around here so much it’s just too hard.”

“Why, Gabriella?” His voice was so soft it startled her. “Why is it hard?”

She looked at him with tears in her eyes, unable to hide her feelings any longer. “Don’t you know? Doesn’t anyone know?” The tears were streaming down her cheeks now, and she didn’t care. She was too tired of fighting them any longer.

“Justin was the most wonderful man I’ve ever known, and I’ve lost him.” She brought her hands to her face, covering her eyes as if that could stop the tears.

“You haven’t lost him,” Blake said.

Gabriella sobbed into the palms of her hands. “Yes I have. I sent him away. I told him to leave me alone, that I didn’t want to see him again.”

“He didn’t believe you.” Blake sounded so encouraging, but if Justin still cared about her, he would have tried to contact her. Unless she’d hurt his pride too much, unless he had no idea how much she loved him.

“If I thought for one minute Justin still wanted me, I’d…I’d…” She squeezed her eyes harder and felt a misery so intense she started to shake.

“Open your eyes, love.” There was so much compassion in his voice Gabriella couldn’t help but do as he said.

He stood directly in front of her, his arms open wide, offering a moment of comfort from her grief. It was such a kind gesture, and it would be so nice to be held, to take succor in the friendship he extended her. She was no different from anyone else, and everyone needed a hug once in a while. She needed one now.

Gabriella walked into his arms and welcomed the brief respite from her need for control.

JUSTIN’S HEART was bursting with love for her. He opened his arms, and she walked into them. Nothing had ever felt as right as Gabriella right there where she belonged. He breathed her in, lowered his head, and whispered to the woman he’d waited a lifetime for. “Welcome home, darling.”

He felt her stiffen and pulled her in closer, kissing the top of her head. She instantly brought her palms against his chest and tried to push away.

“Blake!” she protested. “Let go of me, please!”

Justin eased his head back and waited for her to look at him. “If you think for one minute I’d ever let any man, including my brother, get this close to you, then let me assure you otherwise.”

He saw the second the truth registered. The flare of joy in her eyes made his heart soar, and she threw her arms around his neck.

“Justin!” His name was a song on her lips, and he covered them with his. He was starving for her, and he made love to her tongue the way he wanted to make love to her body.

Gabriella kissed him back with all the passion and desire she had given him so completely before everything had gone awry. “Oh, Justin, I’ve missed you so much.” She kissed his cheeks, his neck, and came back to his mouth.

“You couldn’t have missed me half as much as I missed you.” He tightened his arms around her, crushing her against him. The feel of her slender body against his made him ache with desire. He wanted to lay her down, explore that beautiful body with his hands, his mouth, and then make sweet love to her until neither one of them had the energy to do anything but breathe.

Justin ran his hands down her sides, over her hips and back up. It had been so long since he’d held her, touched her, he couldn’t keep them still. He cradled the back of her head, drawing her face to his, and slanted his mouth over hers again. His need to reclaim her, to absorb the essence that was Gabriella, undid him.

She returned the kiss as eagerly as he offered it, and when he heard her moan, it nearly snapped his control. He moved his other hand down and under her sweater, then another layer, and slid it up until he reached the fruit he’d been seeking. Her skin was warm silk, calling for his touch. He molded his hand to her breast and brushed his thumb over her erect nipple. Gabriella groaned into his mouth, and Justin knew if he kept it up, he was going to be making love to her on the dock. He dragged his hand from its desired place and gentled the kiss. Looking down at her, he smiled. Her eyes were bright, her color high, and her lips were full and dewy. Her breathing matched his, heavy and ragged, and he knew she felt as tortured as he.

“Well, that took the chill off,” she quipped in typical Gabriella fashion.

Justin laughed and pulled her back against him for a crushing hug. He had missed her so damn much. He held her away again, devouring her with his eyes, taking in every precious feature.

Gabriella looked up at him, and what he saw in her eyes staggered him. They were so full of love it took his breath away, and he felt humbled that this amazing woman truly loved him. “I’m so sorry for sending you away. I…at the time I thought it was the right thing to do.”

“I know you did.” He cradled her face between his hands. “I’m sorry, too. For staying away this long, for being so damned afraid I was wrong about us, that you didn’t want the same things I did. I should have trusted what my heart was trying to tell me.”

“I guess we both need to work on that because my heart was screaming that I was making a mistake. It knew all along what I needed, what I wanted, what was meant to be. I just didn’t listen.”

“What’s it saying now?” he asked tenderly.

Her beautiful blues glowed softly. “It’s still saying this is what you need, this is what you want. This is what was meant to be. Only now it has put a name to it.”

“What name has it put to it?”

“Justin,” she said, still gazing up at him.

A small furrow appeared in her brow, and then she narrowed her eyes and angled her head. “Speaking of names,” she said, her voice taking on a less gentle tone.

Justin put a hand in his pocket and scuffed his foot against the boards. It was time to face the music, but he didn’t care. Whatever wrath she felt inclined to layer upon him for his minor deception would be worth it. He’d done what he set out to do, and they would both reap the benefits.

“Is today the first time you played at being Blake?” She put her hands on her hips and frowned. “Or should I be bringing in an inspector to check over the structural integrity of my house?”

Justin bit back a grin. Even though she had every right to be upset with him, she had chosen to joke about it rather than get angry. He shook his head. “It wasn’t the first time.”

That bit of news made her fold her arms over her chest and cock her hip. She looked so adorable trying to look stern it was all he could do not to grab her and start kissing her all over again.

“It was you yesterday, wasn’t it? Telling me that what I wanted had been there the whole time.”

“Yes.”

“And that was the first time then?”

“Well, actually,” Justin said, clearing his throat, “the first time would have been the morning you murdered that pumpkin.”

Gabriella’s mouth dropped. “You’ve been masquerading as your brother since Monday?”

Justin scratched his head. He was in for it now. He owed it to her to stand there and take it like a man.

“But why?” she asked softly. She didn’t yell, and she didn’t posture; she just searched his face looking for an answer.

Justin reached for her hands and held them as he told her as clearly as possible why he had done what he had. He tried to hold nothing back. His method may not have been the best, but he’d been fighting for what he held most dear in his life.

“I love you, Gabriella,” he said, voicing the words out loud for the first time. He watched her eyes soften at the admission. He wanted to kiss her, to show her, but he owed her this explanation. “I love you so damn much, but I wasn’t sure if you felt the same way. And after finding out about Brin and the baby, I wasn’t sure you’d want anything more to do with me. I never told you about her because it was in the past, and I honestly didn’t think it mattered.”

He rubbed his thumbs over the tops of her hands. “I had thought with time, when you realized I was never going to marry Brin, you might be willing to give me another chance. Then I discovered I wasn’t David’s father, and suddenly I didn’t need to wait to try and convince you we belonged together. That obstacle had been eliminated.”

“But why didn’t you just come to me and tell me?”

Justin swallowed his pride. “I was afraid you’d shoot me down. And I was hoping to find some sign you wouldn’t. Then, I started noticing how uncomfortable you were around me…I mean…Blake. Every day it became more obvious my presence bothered you. I finally figured out it was because I reminded you too much of…well, of me.”

He gave her a lame smile. “I started finding every opportunity I could think of to hang out with you. And the more I did the more sure I became that you were just as miserable as I was.”

“And did it bring you comfort to discover I was as tortured as you?” She arched her brows and smirked at him.

“Darling, it made me so damn happy I was downright giddy. But if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it. Men aren’t supposed to be giddy.”

Her lips curled with feminine charm. “I kind of like knowing I could make you giddy.”

“You make me a lot of things, Gabriella. The point is, after a couple of days, I was convinced everything I’d imagined we had together before was still there, and I was determined not to let anything stop me from trying to win you back.”

“Justin,” she said seriously, and he felt a moment of panic. She looked up at him, her expression unreadable. “You win.”

He wrinkled his brow. She started laughing, and the full import of her words hit him. He grabbed her under the arms and spun her in the air, letting out a whoop of delight.

“Or maybe I should say I win,” she amended, and he brought her back into the circle of his arms for a scorching kiss.

“God, I love you, woman.” His words were hoarse, and he actually had to blink away the heat at the back of his eyes. He looked down at her, and her upturned face was radiant.

“I love you, too,” Gabriella said, reaching right into his heart and claiming it for all eternity. “I always have.”

Justin rested his forehead against hers. He believed her.

JUSTIN AND Gabriella spent the next couple of hours talking about all that had happened. He told her about the police report outlining what had happened on the night his parents had died. After his scathing portrayal of her father months ago when he’d first learned she was Landfred’s daughter, he was humbled by her compassionate response. When he told her the report stated that the brakes on his parents’ car had failed and that was what caused the accident, she had held his hands and apologized…to him…that they had died in such a tragic way. Her capacity for forgiveness awed him.

He told her that according to the report, her father hadn’t been drinking the night of the accident. Further, from what he’d learned, the rumors about him being an alcoholic were nothing more than that—rumors.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I really didn’t want to believe…well…it’s just nice to know they were only rumors.”

“If you’d be willing to share them with me, I’d like to read some of the letters you said your father wrote to you.”

Gabriella searched his face, and her eyes started to mist over.

Justin wove his fingers through hers. “I know how important his memory has become to you, and I’d like an opportunity to get to know him in another light, different from what I have in the past.” He swallowed back the last of his regrets. The past was past, and he intended to do whatever he could to put it behind him.

“Oh, Justin.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You have no idea how much that means to me.” She planted several kisses across his chest then leaned back, looking at him. “I love you.”

His heart swelled. “I’m going to hold you to that, darling.”

The real Blake showed up around two thirty, not long after Justin called his brother to tell him the cat was out of the bag. He did a thorough go-around of the house, and after satisfying himself everything was as it should be, informed Gabriella he didn’t think it would fall apart anytime soon.

When Chloe got home from school, she looked at Justin and frowned.

“I know you’re Mr. Blake,” she said, wrinkling her forehead, “but you look more like your brother Justin to me.”

Gab and Justin looked at each other and shook their heads.

“I am Justin,” he said, opening his arms to give the girl a hug. After he did, he lifted her up onto his hip and asked, “How do you think I look like me and not Blake, Chloe?”

“’Cause you see me different,” she said, her answer baffling him.

Gabriella didn’t seem to understand anymore than he did and shrugged her shoulders at her daughter’s response.

“What do you mean he sees you different?” Gab asked, angling her head.

Chloe rolled her eyes at them as if they were both dense. “Mr. Blake’s real nice, and I really like him and all, but when he sees me, I’m just Chloe…you know, like a kid. But when Justin sees me, I’m still a kid, but not like all the other kids. He sees me special.”

Justin’s heart turned over. He swallowed the lump that rose in the back of his throat. Gabriella was staring at her daughter, her eyes turning bright with unshed tears. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around the girl and hugged her against his broad chest. “If I see you special, it’s because you are special.” His voice cracked a little from all she’d made him feel.

“Are you gonna have supper with us tonight?” Chloe asked, already moving on.

“What if I take you and your momma out for dinner?” Justin suggested. “We haven’t done that in a while, and I’d like to treat my two favorite girls to an evening on the town.”

“Cool!” Chloe lifted her hand to give him a high five.

“Why don’t you go put your things in my office, honey, and since it’s the weekend, you can watch a movie before we go to dinner instead of doing your homework right away.”

“Awesome!” the girl cheered.

Justin lifted her back down, and Chloe grabbed her backpack and ran into the house. When he looked at Gabriella, she was studying his face. The corners of her mouth twitched as she watched him watching her.

“What?” he asked, curious about what she found so amusing.

“I never noticed it before, but she’s right.”

Justin took hold of her hands and eased her toward him.

“What is she right about?”

“I should have known it was you all along. You see me different.”

The fire in his eyes blazed with love as he began to lower his mouth to hers. She was right. He did see her different because she was like no woman he’d ever known or would ever know again.

AFTER GETTING back from dinner the three of them played a game of Scrabble. Justin was at a huge disadvantage because they had agreed that to try and make the odds fair for Chloe, to only use words relating to fairy tales or Disney movies.

He did successfully argue that food applied because everyone had to eat, and climb because he knew he’d heard fairy tales where someone had to climb something, although he couldn’t say which ones.

When Gab came back downstairs after putting Chloe to bed, she was delighted to discover Justin had carried in some wood and was building a fire in the large brick fireplace in the living room.

“Why don’t I get us some wine?”

He looked over his shoulder and nodded. “Sounds good.”

Upon her return she saw that he had piled several cushions on the floor in front of the fire, and she walked over to join him there. He took the glasses from her and set them on the side of the hearth. Turning back around, he reached for her and drew her into the circle of his arms, against the solid warmth of his chest.

“I don’t think I can wait one more night to make love to you,” he said huskily, his hands stroking up and down her back, along her sides and over her breasts. Gabriella closed her eyes and languished in his touch. He was magic, and she willingly let him pull her under his spell.

THE FOLLOWING morning, Gabriella made French toast layered with fried bananas and a side of bacon for breakfast. Serve him bacon with just about anything and Justin thought he’d be a happy man. While she was cleaning up the dishes, he went down to the pier with Chloe to fish.

Justin wasn’t much of a fisherman, never had been, but apparently Gab’s daughter had taken up the sport and enjoyed it.

“Who taught you how to cast?” he asked Chloe when she pulled her rod back and released it with a gentle flick of her wrist.

“Mr. Blake.” She glanced back at him and smiled. “He took me and Ben out in their johnboat,” she told him, and he chuckled at her use of the term. “Me and Ben get to fish from their dock sometimes, too. I want to practice ‘cause Ben’s been fishing a mite longer than me, and that’s why he’s better at it.”

Justin bit his lip trying not to smile. He could just imagine his brother saying those exact words to Chloe so she wouldn’t feel bad if Ben were catching fish and she wasn’t.

“Maybe I’ll go up to the shed and get another pole so we can fish together,” Justin suggested, thinking it would be a nice way to bond with the girl he hoped would soon become his daughter.

She threw him a cautious look. “I don’t think we have any more poles.”

“Yes you do. I saw a couple hanging on the back wall of the shed when we got yours out.”

“Well…” She chewed on her lower lip, looking hesitant, and he got the distinct impression she didn’t want to fish with him. Maybe she thought he was as good as Blake and Ben and didn’t want to be shown up again.

“I’m not very good at it,” he said, trying to boost her confidence.

“Yeah, I know. Mr. Blake told me if I wanted to learn to fish, he’d teach me ‘cause if you did it, I might end up with a hook in my bottom.”

Justin grimaced. “And you don’t want to end up with a hook in your bottom? Is that it?”

She shook her head emphatically. “Or no place else,” she informed him with wide eyes.

“Okay. Well, you don’t mind me sitting here with you while you fish, do you?”

“No.” She gave him an angelic smile that mended any harm her critique of his fishing skills had done to his male pride. “I like you being here.” And there went his heart again.

“Chloe, you know I like you and your momma a whole bunch, right?” Justin leaned forward where he sat on the dock and rested his forearms on his knees.

Chloe nodded. “Ummhmm. I like you a bunch, too. I think Mom does, too.”

“I think she does, too. And we have lots of fun together, you and your mom and me. That’s why I want to get your advice about something.”

“Okay.”

“You see,” Justin said, wondering if he was approaching this the right way. “I’d like to spend a lot more time with you and your mom.”

“You mean like a family?” the adept girl asked.

“Exactly like a family. Do you think you’d like that?”

“Would you be like my dad?”

Justin nodded. “I sort of thought so. Of course, I’d have to marry your mom, which I think would be pretty cool, too.”

Chloe put her pole down on the boards and gave him a fist bump. “Awesome!” she said. “And you’d really be my dad?”

“It would make me real happy if I could be. The only thing is, I need to ask your mom if she’ll marry me. Do you think she might say yes?”

Chloe scratched her head. “Well…I think so. Do you want me to ask her for you?”

Justin chuckled. It hadn’t occurred to him the girl might interpret his attempt to win her over as a plea for help to convince her mother to accept him.

“I think I should probably ask her myself, but thank you. I just need to get a little time alone with your mom so I can convince her what a good idea it would be for us to be a family. How does that sound to you?”

“Cool! Why don’t you ask her now?”

“I think that’s a great idea. You won’t mind if your mom and I go outside on the porch by ourselves for a bit so I can ask her?”

Chloe shook her head. “I can pretend I want to watch a video. It’s the weekend so Mom will probably let me.”

They agreed to the plan, and Justin swore her to secrecy.

When they walked back up to the house a few minutes later, Chloe took his hand and looked up at him with a broad smile, matching her step to his. They went around to the front of the house, and before going inside Justin winked at her and put his finger to his lips.

Chloe matched the gesture and giggled, a true conspirator at heart.

GAB WAS just putting the last of the dishes from breakfast away in a spare filing cabinet in her office, their temporary home until the kitchen was done, when Justin came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Everything all cleaned up?” he asked, nibbling on her ear.

“Yep, but from the way you’re gnawing on my lobe it seems you’re still hungry.”

He turned her around and grinned down at her. “I’d like to gnaw on a few other things right now,” he teased, dropping his mouth to her neck and sending a shiver of delight that reached all the way down to her toes.

“Walk outside with me,” he said, raising his head and looking at her with an intensity she found almost alarming. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Is everything all right?” she asked, a little uneasy over his seriousness.

“I’ll let you know after we talk.” He put a hand against her back and steered her out of the office and into the living room.

Chloe was on the couch playing with some of her dolls. She looked up at the two of them and said, “Mom, can I put a Dora video in?”

Gab agreed, thinking it would give her and Justin a little time alone so he could tell her whatever was so important it had him looking nervous enough to make her nervous.

They walked out onto the porch, and he sat down on the front steps, reaching up for her hand and pulling her down beside him. Her heart was racing. She tried not to imagine anything negative. Just because his expression was solemn didn’t mean it had to be bad.

He looked around at the yard, turned his head and looked at the house, then leaned it back and took in the porch roof. She was glad he had been able to come to terms with the house and, more importantly, with her father. It meant so much to her to discover, after all the years of feeling unwanted, to know her dad had loved her, and she wanted to be able to cherish the knowledge without upsetting Justin.

“This really is a great house,” Justin said, glancing at her. “Once Blake finishes the kitchen and dining room remodeling, we should talk to him about updating the second floor bathrooms…maybe redoing the master bedroom.”

Gabriella blinked and stared at him. She wasn’t planning on doing any other remodels, at least not for a while. What money she had left when this one was done she had earmarked for landscaping in the spring.

“I’ll have to wait a couple of years before tackling any other major renovations,” she told him. “I want to put some of the money I budgeted into fixing up the yard before I do anything else in the house.”

She cocked her head and looked over at him. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked. “My remodeling projects?”

He grinned. “We should put in a garage, too.” He hitched his head toward the far side of the house. “That shed isn’t big enough, and if we’re going to live on the water, we should keep the cars parked in a garage to protect them from the salt air.”

“Is there anything else you think needs to be done?” she asked, catching her lower lip between her teeth, afraid to hope this was going where she suddenly suspected it was going.

He leaned his head toward hers and kissed her softly on the mouth, his eyes burning into hers. “The corner bedroom. It’s got great light, but the windows are old and probably drafty. I think we should replace them.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “We’ll do all the windows while we’re at it. Then I won’t have to worry about you and the kids being cold in the winter.”

“What kids?” She gazed up at him.

He regarded her with tenderness, his heart in his eyes. “Chloe,” he said, “and the ones we’re going make as soon as you agree to marry me.”

Gabriella threw her arms around his neck, and he crushed her to him, his mouth covering hers with a hunger that made her dizzy. He wanted to marry her. They were going to be a family and raise their children here in this home and grow old together.

Justin dragged his lips from hers and trailed them over her forehead, down the side of her face, and across her ear. “I hope that’s a yes,” he whispered hoarsely, “because I was also thinking I could build a man cave onto the back of the garage.”

Gabriella leaned her head back and laughed. He kissed her throat, and she could feel him smiling against her skin. It felt so right. It felt perfect. She brought her hands around to take his face in them and met his warm gaze.

“You can have a man cave if you promise not to hang animal heads in there,” she said between kisses.

“Deal.” He kissed her again, nipping at her lips. “Can I hang naked pictures of you?”

“No,” she told him, fighting back a grin, “but you can hang a big-screen television.”

“What did I do to deserve a woman like you?”

Gabriella shrugged. “You’re just lucky I guess.”

Justin touched his forehead to hers and looked into her eyes. What she saw there filled her with a joy unlike any she had ever known. He was her future, and no matter what path life led them down, they would walk it together, hand in hand, heart to heart.