He was so much taller than she was, and his eye was bright with the morning sky.
“I’m so sorry for misjudging you.”
He reached down and put his warm fingers against her mouth. “Hush, now. There isn’t anything to forgive. You were hurt, and you lashed out. I get it. I have been guilty of doing the same.”
She gently took his hand away from her mouth, interlacing her fingers with his. “Maybe. But…the thing is…I don’t want to run away from you. I don’t want to run away from my hometown. I want to stay. Here. And I want to love you.”
“You want to love me?” He seemed utterly surprised.
“Yes. Because you’ve been loving me for all this time, and I was just a little slow figuring it out. So I’m really sorry about that. But can we, you know, start over?”
“You love me?”
“I do.”
“I love you back. I—”
She rocked up on tiptoes and smothered whatever else he was about to say. The man wasn’t great with words, but who cared? She knew now that he was a master at speaking with his heart.
Epilogue
A week later, Jessica found herself having a Cinderella moment. Dressed in an off-the-shoulder ballgown of pink lace and tulle, she put her hand in Topher’s and let him help her out of his BMW.
Which wasn’t exactly a coach and four, but it did have leather seats. And she knew good and well that he was nothing like Prince Charming, even if he’d managed to pull the wool entirely over Granny’s eyes.
Granny, who was up at the yacht club hobnobbing with the cream of Magnolia Harbor’s society for this Heritage Day ball, was probably crowing about how her granddaughter had landed a very rich man with a long and storied last name.
Which was also a lie. Jessica hadn’t landed anything. She’d fallen into it. But Topher had given her a soft landing spot. Right in his arms.
“Ready?” he asked, giving her his arm. He looked dashing in his tuxedo and eye patch, like some character out of a spy novel. Although she much preferred him in Hawaiian shirts.
“Granny is going to say something about the color of my dress.”
“Who the hell cares what she thinks? I think you look good enough to eat.”
She blushed. “You do?”
“Yes. And after we drink some champagne and dance, I intend to consume you.”
“We’re going to dance?”
“Yup.” He clipped the word as they headed toward the yacht club’s door, but before they could enter, Harry Bauman intercepted them.
“Jessica, you look fabulous tonight.”
“Thanks.” Her cheeks warmed again.
“I saw you getting out of the car, and I wanted to intercept you before you heard the news from someone else. The City Hall design committee met last night, and we’ve narrowed down our selection to two firms. Blackwood Designs is one of them.”
“What? Really? You’re kidding.”
“There’s a lot of support for the idea of selecting a local architect. But since your company is so much smaller than the other competitors, we’re going to need a few more details before we make the final selection. I hope that’s not a problem?”
“No. Not at all. Thank you so much.”
Harry nodded and shot Topher a glance before he turned and headed into the party.
Topher tugged her forward, but she resisted. “Wait a second. What was that look he just gave you?”
“What?” Topher sounded suspiciously guilty of something.
“Did you make a contribution to the building fund?”
He stared up at the stars for a moment. “I might have. I mean, I’m living here now. I feel as if I should, you know, contribute. And besides, I want to make sure that Rose Howland’s letters and diary make it out of the vault in the library and into a display in the new museum. Especially now that everyone knows about them. I’m insanely proud of Jackie for winning a blue ribbon on his Heritage Day project.”
“You don’t think your contribution had anything to do with my being selected?”
He turned and faced her. “What if it did? Would you hate me? And besides, you haven’t won the contract yet. Sounds like the selection committee wants you to jump through a few more hoops.”
“You can’t go around buying stuff for me, Topher.”
“No?”
She shook her head.
“That’s no fun. I like spending my money. And I want to buy you things. Expensive things.”
“I don’t—”
“How about this?” He pulled a small red leather case from his suit pocket. He opened it to display a necklace studded with pale-pink rubies.