Date with Destiny

“You’ve been home almost a week, seems to me like you would have had plenty of opportunity to tell your family what’s going on.”

“Stay out of it,” she warned.

“Or what?” He chuckled. He was toying with her. As usual. “Ah, Princess, you’re about as wound up as a spinning top at the moment.”

“No thanks to you,” she fired back and crossed her arms.

He smiled again. “By the way, you owe me a dance.”

Dancing? After what had happened on the beach she had no intention of falling into his arms again. “You don’t have a chance of getting me on the dance floor.”

“Things have a way of changing,” he said and gently took hold of her elbow. “As we discovered earlier.”

The kiss. The touching. The insane desire that had taken hold. Of course he’d remind her about it. “Don’t imagine for one minute that we’ll be repeating that craziness anytime soon.”

“Are you sure about that, Grace?”

She stuck out her chin. “Positive.”

“Such confidence,” he said in that vague, annoying way of his. “So, about that dance?”

She clung to her resolve. “No.”

“I could beg and embarrass you.”

Grace refused to react. “You mean embarrass yourself. And surely there are other women here you can try to charm the pants off other than me.”

He laughed and she hated that a few people looked in their direction. “Is that what you think I’m doing, Grace? Trying to get your pants off?”

She cast him a sharp look. “Try your best, Hot Tub.”

He grinned at her attempt to antagonize. But she knew he would win out. She’d called him the ridiculous name for a decade because he’d installed a huge spa bath at the house he’d built and her brother teased that it was to impress women. She hadn’t liked the idea then. and she liked it even less now.

“Are you throwing down the gauntlet, Grace?”

“Not at all.” She managed to pull away and put some space between them. “I’m…tired,” she said and shook her head. “Too tired to play games.”

“Then tell me what’s going on with you. If you do I might be inclined to leave you alone.”

Exasperated by his persistent badgering, Grace threw up her hands. “So, what do you want to know?”

His gaze narrowed. “Why you’ve come back for so long this time?”

“Because this is my home.”

He clearly didn’t believe that for a second. “Last I heard New York was your home, Grace. Crystal Point was the place you couldn’t get away from fast enough.”

It was a direct hit. She knew what he meant. Her career was the reason she’d left Crystal Point—the reason she’d put an end to their relationship all those years ago. She’d been overwhelmed, crowded, hemmed in…everything she didn’t want to be. Leaving had been her salvation. And her career had panned out exactly as she’d dreamed it would. Until the car wreck that had changed her life.

Grace’s back stiffened. “You know why I left. I wanted…I wanted…”

“Bright lights, big city.”

She stilled. Quiet stretched between them, like brittle elastic. The music seemed to fade and Grace experienced a strange tightening behind her ribs. “It was never that simple.”

“Yes, it was, Grace.” His voice was velvet-smooth, his expression unreadable. “You knew what you wanted. What you didn’t. And who you didn’t.”

She looked into his eyes. It sounded so black-and-white. But nothing was simple anymore. And she didn’t have the courage to admit the truth—that she’d gone to New York to make her parents proud and become everything they’d hoped she would become…or that now she’d come home to save her life.

Chapter Three

On Sunday morning at her sister’s bed-and-breakfast, Grace reorganized the upstairs linen cupboard, alphabetized Evie’s cookbooks and by eleven o’clock was sitting on the sofa watching a corny movie on a cable channel.

Anything to take her mind off the job she’d left in New York, the empty apartment that had never really felt like a home and the accident that killed her work colleague. An accident that had altered her in so many ways. Before that awful day she’d been in control of her life and future. There were no question marks. No uncertainty. At least none she was prepared to admit. She had known her trajectory. Her plan.

You knew what you wanted. And who you didn’t.

Cameron’s words rolled around in her head.

Because there had been the sting of truth in those words.

When they’d dated, when he’d said he had serious feelings for her and wanted to talk about their future together, she’d panicked and cut him down immediately. And as she sat in the lotus position on the sofa and stared absently at the television, Grace remembered what she’d said to him in stunning Technicolor.

“I’m just not interested in anything serious. Especially not with a small-town cop. I’m getting out of Crystal Point as soon as I can. There’s nothing and no one that could ever hold me here.”

Insensitive and cruel. And a pivotal moment in her life. What if she’d said something else to him? What if she’d had the courage to acknowledge her deepest, secret feelings and fears? And if she hadn’t left Crystal Point when she did, would she have felt even more trapped in their relationship, perhaps their marriage, had it ever come to that?

Grace sat back on the sofa and uncurled her legs.

Marriage had never figured in her life. Erik, who was as focused on his career as she was, had never mentioned it. Before Erik, she’d had a three-year relationship with Dennis Collier. The handsome and successful orthopedic surgeon had asked her twice to marry him—both times she’d insisted she was happy with the tempo of their relationship. She worked long hours and kept her own apartment. Toward the end they’d go for days without seeing one another. Eventually Dennis had traded her for a third-year resident at the hospital where he worked. Within six months of their breakup she heard he’d married and had a baby on the way.

The news hadn’t torn her up. She’d genuinely cared for Dennis—but knew it wasn’t the kind of feeling that could sustain her for a lifetime. There were feelings, certainly…but love? Grace wasn’t sure she even knew how to be in love. Long ago she’d run from those feelings, terrified they’d trap her, make her less than whole and dilute her ambition. She’d wanted a career. That’s what she’d planned for. That’s what her parents expected of her. Not marriage. Not babies. Not Crystal Point. That legacy was left to her brother and sisters. Noah took over running the family business and Evie was the original Earth Mother. While M.J. waltzed through life as a free spirit, making jewelry and saving the world with her causes. She was Grace Preston—smart, successful…untouchable.

Her cell rang, interrupting her thoughts, and she grabbed it from the coffee table.

“Hey, Princess.”

She bit back a startled gasp and took a deep breath. Strange that Cameron should telephone when her head was full of thoughts of him. “Would you stop calling me that?”

Cameron laughed softly. “I’ll do my best. So, how are things?”

“Since last night?” she shot back and ignored the rapid thump of her heart.

He was silent for a moment and Grace could swear he was smiling. “Come down to the surf club this afternoon.”

“What?”

“The surf club,” he said again. “I want to show you something.”