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Grace hurried to pick up Dylan’s hat before the breeze took it into the water "Mason is usually prettyto him"

Or perhaps that was just her, because every ti up from the inside out Which was crazy on a number of fronts First, for the past year and a half she’d been completely shut dohen it came to men Second, she was here for professional, not personal, reasons And third, the chance of everbeyond professional with a hable

But when she handed hi it fro the cap at him

"I can take gled closer into Dylan’s broad chest

"I’er if you’re okay with it," Dylan offered

God, no, she wasn’t okay with it for a whole host of twisted-together reasons It wasn’t just that Mason had chosen a stranger instead of her for the first tiht she’dhis father--only now that she’d seen Mason in a ain, harder than ever, that he’d never have this At least, not forin front of a stranger fro her son so sweetly--Grace couldn’t figure out how to stop her heart froain

Or to keep fro head over heels for Dylan the same way it seeo, Dylan had been sailing in Belize when he’d looked up and seen a rogue wave co toward him and his boat He hadn’t stopped to think, hadn’t had time to be afraid, had sih as later called the "storm of the century" And he’d known that every second he’d spent in a sailboat during the past two decades had been to prepare hi Grace and Mason for the first ti in his boathouse, enjoying the quiet and the physical labor, when he’d heard crying, and then the somewhat desperate murmur of a woman’s voice as she tried to calm the baby The moment he’d stepped outside to make sure neither of them were hurt, and set eyes on the mother and child, his entire world had spun off its axis

Desire for the woman--and his need to soothe the little boy--had come so fast that he hadn’t stopped to overthink or be afraid of what he was feeling He’d simply reached out for the baby at the same ti a wedding ringand thought, I’ to marry her

Maybe he should have been surprised, but he wasn’t Not when he’d always known that this would be how he’d love All or nothing And faster than a sloop flying over the water at twenty-five knots All the years he’d spent watching his parents together, along with the way his cousins and siblings had found love these past few years, had prepared hi bolt straight to the heart

Dylan had never second-guessed himself He’d always known he would be a sailor and build boats There had been s the way, of course, but he’d never doubted his direction or his beliefs So when he’d stepped close to Grace and the sparks between theboth their fates with a kiss

But he hadn’t been raised to be an idiot Which hy he wasn’t going to let himself pull her closer and kiss her

Not yet, anyway

"I have some cold drinks inside the boathouse If you have a few minutes, why don’t you coave him a small smile, one that didn’t quite reach her eyes Despite their obvious attraction to one another, she ary, he could see that Of him specifically? Or of all men? "I’d like that"

Dylan settled her son more fire building Her eyes widened when she saw the interior of his boathouse Fra was three stories high, with large wood-fraht on every side But the best part of the building was, hands down, that the skylights were retractable so that he could work under the open sky

"Your boathouse is incredible"

He grinned at her awed tone as he pulled a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge in the corner where there was a small kitchen area built in "Thanks My brothers and father helped n is ive her the water, she caught sight of the nearly completed sailboat in the back of the boathouse and headed toward it as if drawn by a net "How do you do it?" she asked hi?"

"It’s all I ever wanted to do I read everything I could find aboutboats as a kid and then once I had the basics down, I started taking them apart I’d save up my money to buy the junkiest sloops and my parents would let h them, study the hulls, and then I’d try to replicate them as closely as I could"