He laughed and joined her. He picked her up in his arms, kissing her, loving her, wanting her as he'd never wanted anyone. After what had happened that ugly day at the landfill, he promised himself he'd never again lose control with her, but the sight of her, the feel of her against him, made him forget everything he knew about the right way to make love to a woman. This wasn't any woman. This was Meg. His funny, beautiful, irresistible love. And, oh God, he nearly drowned her.
His brain finally cleared. He was still inside her, and she was looking up at him from the floor of the shower, a grin like spangled sunshine spread over her mouth. "Go ahead and apologize," she said. "I know you want to."
It would take him a hundred years to understand this woman.
She pushed him over, reached up to slam off the water with the flat of her hand, and gave him a look that was full of sin. "Now it's my turn."
He didn't have the strength to resist.
When they finally made it out of the shower, they bundled themselves in robes, dried each other's hair, and rushed toward the bed. Just before they got there, he went to the window to close the drapes.
The rain had stopped, and in the distance the Lady of the Harbor gazed back at him. He could feel her smiling.
Epilogue
M eg refused to marry Ted until she got her degree. "Boy geniuses deserve to marry college graduates," she told him.
"This boy genius deserves to marry the woman he loves right now instead of waiting till she gets a diploma." But despite his grumbling, he understood how important this was to her, even if he wouldn't admit it.
Life in Wynette was dull without Meg, and everybody wanted her back, but despite numerous phone calls and occasional drop-in visits from various residents to her tiny apartment in Austin, she wouldn't set foot inside the city limits until her wedding. "I'd be tempting fate if I came back before I had to," she told the members of the library's rebuilding committee when they showed up at her door with a Rubbermaid pitcher of Birdie's mojitos and a half-empty bag of tortilla chips. "You know I'll get into trouble with somebody as soon as I hit town."
Kayla, who cut calories by eating only the broken chips, dug through the bag. "I have no idea what you're talking about. People went out of their way, right from the very beginning, to make you feel welcome."
Lady Emma sighed.
Shelby poked Zoey. "It's because Meg's a Yankee. Yankees don't appreciate southern hospitality."
"That's for sure." Torie licked the salt off her fingers. "Plus, they steal our men when we're not paying attention."
Meg rolled her eyes, drained her mojito, then kicked them all out so she could finish her paper on eutrophication. After that, she dashed off to supervise the undergraduate art major she'd hired to help fill the orders that continued to come in from New York. Over the outraged protests of Ted, his parents, her parents, her brothers, the library committee, and the rest of Wynette, she was still paying her own expenses, although she'd relaxed her principles long enough to accept Ted's engagement present of a shiny red Prius.
"You gave me a car," she said to him, "and all I have for you is this lousy money clip."
But Ted loved his money clip, which she'd fashioned from a rare Greek medallion of Gaia, the goddess of the earth.
Ted wasn't able to spend nearly as much time in Austin as they'd originally planned, and even though they talked several times a day, they desperately missed being together. But he needed to stay close to Wynette. The group of carefully selected investors he'd been assembling to build the golf resort had finally come together. The members included his father, Kenny, Skeet, Dex O'Connor, a couple of well-known touring pros, and a few Texas businessmen, none of them involved in plumbing. Amazingly, Spence Skipjack had resurfaced all full of bluster about putting the "misunderstanding" behind them. Ted told him there was no misunderstanding, and he should stick to making toilets.
Ted had maintained controlling interest in the resort so he could build it exactly as he envisioned. He was jubilant about the project but overworked, and with construction scheduled to begin soon after their wedding, it would only get worse. Although he frequently talked about how much he needed someone who shared both his vision and his trust working at his side, it wasn't until Kenny drove to Austin and cornered Meg for a private conversation that she realized the person Ted wanted working with him was herself.
"He knows how much going back to school for your master's degree means to you," Kenny said. "That's why he won't ask you."