Chapter 43

• What would have happened if she’d decided not to come to Quinley, to leave Michelle to her own mess this time? She’d be in Langford now, having just been through a hurricane. The outgoing manager of Shady Oaks Condos would have to cope with the cleanup, but she’d probably have been called in to help even though she didn’t start officially for another week. Instead, she was here, toward the end of a perfect day, in a lakeside paradise with a man who said he loved her.
• Loved her! When he’d said the miraculous phrase on the Beach, she’d been paralyzed, torn between joy and shock so that she’d probably looked like a parody of a stunned person. Nolan had laughed when he took her in his arms, told her not to say anything, that he’d been feeling it and wanted her to know.
• Again, the unflappable Nolan, taking life as it came, though she could sense his disappointment. What would she give for that easy nature? If she’d been in his place and gotten no response, she probably would have hurled herself face-first into the sand and howled.