Book 10 Meant for Love #3
“You don’t have to apologize for being upset.” He continues to rub her back, wishing he could do something to make her feel better. Alex asks if she wants him to go. She doesn’t.
Alex asks who Toby is.
He was her fiancé.
Alex guesses the relationship ended badly.
The next day, Jenny asks Sydney’s advice on how to share her story of loss and grief with Alex.
“Do you ever worry about something happening to Luke and having to go through the whole nightmare again?” Jenny asks her friend.
“I worried about that every day when we were first together, especially after the accident at the marina when he was hurt. I was a wreck for weeks after that. I obsessed about what could’ve happened.” They have a long talk about their journeys with loss and grief.
“For what it’s worth,” Syd says, “I think you’ll feel better after you tell Alex about Toby.
It’s weighing you down at a time when you should be feeling happy at having found someone you want to be with.
Tell him sooner rather than later, so you can put the past where it belongs and start to enjoy the future. ”
“That’s very good advice.”
Armed with courage following her conversation with Sydney and determined to tell Alex her story before someone else does, Jenny buys lunch and meets Alex at the Chesterfield Estate, where he’s working for the day.
Alex shows Jenny the beautiful grounds and impresses her with his knowledge of plants and flowers.
Jenny shares her story of loving and losing Toby.
“I’m glad you told me, but I hate that you had to go through such an awful thing.”
They bond over their struggles and become closer.
Carolina finally convinces Seamus that she feels well enough to go to the mainland to meet her grandson. She’s relieved to see Janey and Joe, and to hold her precious grandson. She introduces him to Seamus, who will be his “Da.”
Grant McCarthy meets with his friend Dan Torrington weekly at Rebecca’s to review his new screenplay.
In exchange, Grant is reviewing the novel that Dan is writing about his work to free unjustly imprisoned people.
Grant overhears a couple arguing behind him and realizes he’s listening to Kelly and Matt, the sister and brother-in-law who betrayed Kara.
They’re planning to surprise Kara with their visit.
Grant urges Dan to warn Kara. Dan’s only goal is getting to Kara before they can blindside her.
He calls in reinforcements to cover her at work and gets her to leave the dock on the launch before Kelly and Matt arrive.
“You’re kind of freaking me out,” Kara says as she drives the boat into the Salt Pond at his urging.
“Kelly and Matt are here with the baby.”
Her entire body goes rigid with shock. “What? How do you know?”
“Grant and I were in the diner for our weekly meeting, and we heard them talking about you and how they’d come to clear the air and introduce you to the baby.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I wish I were. They planned to force you to deal with them by showing up with the baby.”
He tells her he called in her coworker to cover for her, and there’s no reason they can’t spend the day on the water. Kelly and Matt can’t force a confrontation if they can’t find her.
Clearing the anchorage, Kara slows the boat, shifts into neutral and turns to him, sliding her arms around his neck. “My hero.”
“Hardly.”
“Did you or did you not come running, with broken ribs that aren’t entirely healed, when you heard what my sister planned to do? And did you or did you not have the foresight to call in another driver so I could actually run away for the day?”
“I might’ve done those things.”
“Then you’re absolutely my hero.”
“I absolutely love you, and I couldn’t let them do that to you. When I think about how they might’ve succeeded if Grant hadn’t heard them…”
“Well, they didn’t, and it’s all thanks to you.”
“While my approval ratings are at an all-time high, I’ve got something I need to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“When are you going to marry me?” After a pause, he adds, “Your mouth is hanging open. Not that I mind that, because it gives me all kinds of ideas, but I was sort of hoping you might say something at this juncture.”
“What am I supposed to say when you throw that out there like a live grenade?”
“How about yes?”
“You didn’t ask me a yes-or-no question.”
“Pardon the error.”
He falls gracelessly to his knees before her, grimacing at the flash of pain that radiates through ribs that refuse to heal. “Kara Ballard, center of my universe, love of my life, future mother of my children, will you do me the humongous and probably undeserved honor of being my wife?”
Once again, she stares at him with a flabbergasted look on her face that only makes him love her more, if that’s possible.
“That was a yes-or-no question, in case you didn’t notice.”
“I noticed.”
“And? Are you planning to make me suffer?”
Apparently, she isn’t, because she drops to her knees in front of him, wraps her arms around him and holds him. “Yes. But—”
He has no interest in any “buts,” so he kisses the words right off her sweet lips.
When Jenny goes to meet with Paul at the store, she finds him and Adam McCarthy huddled over a computer.
Sharon, the manager they fired, has password-protected the system, and they can’t get a hold of her.
Paul shows Jenny around the store, then they head to the house to keep trying to access the computer.
Alex is thrilled to have her at the house when he comes home and proceeds to announce to everyone, including his mother, that they’re together.
They spend the evening visiting with Dr. David and Daisy, who come most evenings to visit with Marion.
David brings his landlord, Jared James, with them.
They discover that Jared went to Wharton with Jenny and Toby.
At the end of the evening, Jenny offers to help Marion get ready for bed.
Alex is deeply appreciative of her kindness toward his mother.
Later that night, as a member of the Town Council, Paul shows his brother the letter Jenny sent to apply for the lighthouse keeper job. Alex is deeply moved by what Jenny has overcome. He desperately needs to see her and heads to the lighthouse to spend the night with her.
Evan McCarthy is overwhelmed by the sudden change in his circumstances.
He asks his father and Ned how to handle the resurrection of his album now that he’s engaged to Grace and running the studio.
Following their talk, he contacts Buddy Longstreet and explains how things have changed for him since he first recorded the album.
He and Buddy agree to a shorter tour away from home, giving Evan much-needed relief.
Jenny agrees to attend the interview for the nurse Alex and Paul hope to hire to help care for Marion. Thankfully, Hope Russell agrees to take the job and hopes to be ready to move within a few weeks. Help is on the way.
Jenny hosts a successful shower for Tiffany and Blaine. Jenny and Alex have a conversation about having kids in the future, which triggers another dream about Toby, causing Jenny to wake up sobbing. Alex comforts her, saying how lucky Toby was to be loved by her.
Jenny’s parents come to visit her for the first time.
She enjoys showing them her island and the lighthouse.
She tells them about Alex, and they’re thrilled to see her so happy.
Jenny takes her parents to the Lobster House to meet Alex.
He brings his mom to dinner because he can’t leave her home alone.
Being out in public makes Marion agitated, and he is embarrassed and infuriated when she insults Jenny.
He leaves dinner early and apologizes for the scene.
“Well,” Jenny says to her parents, “that’s Alex. And his mom.” She explains the effort Alex and Paul have made to keep Marion at home and how they’ve recently hired someone to help with her care.
“They say the measure of a man is in the way he cares for his mother,” her father, Hugh, says. “If that’s the case, then it seems like you’ve found a man truly worthy of your affection.”
Jenny couldn’t agree more, but she also can’t shake the feeling of impending doom that came over her as Alex left the restaurant.
Later, Jenny goes to see Alex, only for him to send her away.
He can’t subject her to his life. By taking away her choice, he breaks her heart.
Jenny avoids her friends for days until Sydney forces her out of her self-imposed solitary confinement.
Ten days later, Alex shows up first thing in the morning with the beast lawnmower, waking Jenny up again. She pelts him with tomatoes, which ends with them wrapped up in each other. Later that night, Alex proposes to Jenny.
“I want you to know I think you’re probably the best person I’ve ever known.
You have the face of an angel, the heart of a warrior and the backbone needed to put up with me.
I would like for you, Jenny Wilks, to come along with me the rest of the way, to build an amazing future together that also pays homage to the past you shared with Toby.
I want to bring him with us, too, because he’s part of you and thus part of who we are together.
I love you, I need you, I believe I’ve proven I want you, but I’m available to provide additional evidence upon request.”
Jenny laughs as she wipes away tears.
“I know I’m asking a lot of you by bringing you into my family at this particular juncture, but I’m hoping you’ll be by my side wherever this journey we’re on with my mom takes us.”
She happily accepts his proposal.