He nodded. “That I can do.” He leaned over to press a kiss to her forehead.
When he left, she didn’t wait for the doctor. Didn’t wait for Casper to return. She simply got up, eased the IV out of her arm, and held a cotton ball against the blood. Then found a Band-Aid and peeled it over the wound. She grabbed her bag and headed out the door just as Denise came down the hall.
“Hey!”
“I’m fine.” Raina waved, not looking back. “Really, I’m fine!”
She left the hospital before anyone could stop her.
Grace hadn’t recognized the man who sat across the table from her at Sammy’s Bar and Grill last night.
Sure, he’d looked like Max, with his tan skin, those devastating brown eyes that could whisk a girl back to a star-strewn beach and stir up memories of the smell of the ocean on his skin. And his laughter—she’d recognized that, too, deep and breathtaking, a rumble under her skin, almost hypnotic.
Yes, the man across from her had looked like Max, sounded like Max, but in truth, Max hadn’t shown up all night. Even though she’d forgiven him.
Not that he needed forgiveness, perhaps, but he appeared undone when Jace revealed his secret about Owen. That’s when Grace had heard it. The small voice inside her that said, Do you love Me?
You know I do, Lord.
Feed My sheep. Forgive him.
Forgive.
The word had taken root inside, and her heart went out to the man who couldn’t escape his mistake so much that it drove him away from their friendship. If that was what they had. She wasn’t quite sure, because even after her statement of forgiveness, fun Hawaii Max hadn’t appeared.
Instead, she got a prickly version of Iron Chef Max. A Max who recited some of the many dishes they’d made in school, took notes, and promised to e-mail them to her. A Max who picked up the dinner tab and left without even a one-armed hug.
A Max who seemed determined to erase the three glorious weeks they shared in Hawaii, as if they’d never existed.
Maybe they hadn’t. Maybe she’d read into everything.
No. Her memories wouldn’t let her believe that.
Which meant that Max wanted to forget everything that happened. That truth had lodged in her throat throughout dinner, over the past three days of helping Eden shop and pull together her wedding details, and even during the drive to Deep Haven this morning.
Poor Max. The last thing he wanted to do was help her with the wedding.
And she wouldn’t force him. Thanks, but she could do this on her own. Especially with Raina and Ty by her side.
Best-case scenario, she never talked to Max again, and she filed their vacation in Hawaii away, never to look at it again.
“Sis, when did you get back?” The voice rose over the crowd perched along the beach getting ready to watch today’s competition, finding Grace where she sat on a boulder onshore. Darek picked his way around the fold-up athletic chairs, kids eating ice cream, onlookers dressed in dragon boat festival shirts and foam hats, some with bandannas.
Grace stood to greet him, and he swooped her up. “A little while ago,” she answered. “You were all gone already, so I thought I’d come to town, watch the race.”
He put her down, set her away from him. “You look amazing! Hawaii agrees with you. Look how tan you are!”
Please don’t ask me about the vacation. “How was the honeymoon? You’re not so pale yourself.”
He grinned. “We survived.”
Out in the harbor, the first racers streaked across the lake to the roar of the crowd. “How’s the team?”
“Casper’s at the helm this year.”
“Really? What, did he pry the rudder from your hands?”
“Funny. No. I was gone, and we needed a team. Besides, am I the only one who’s noticed that he didn’t go back to school in January? He’s . . . depressed. Or he was, until he started training for this competition.”
Grace rose on her tiptoes and kissed Darek’s cheek. Patted it. “That’s why you’re the big brother.”
He blushed a little. “Yeah, well, how do you feel about paddling?”
“Why?”
“Raina quit the team, and we need someone.”
“Raina was paddling?”
“Yeah. Casper recruited her. But she didn’t show up for practice today. Casper went to her house, but she didn’t answer the door.”
She frowned. “I’ll have a chat with her.”
“Better hurry. Our race is in an hour. Thanks, Sis.”
Grace picked her way through the crowd and out to Main Street, where vendors lined the sidewalks. She walked past the cheese curd stand, the fish burgers, the kettle corn, and spied Ivy standing in line with Tiger, his hand tucked into hers.