“I’ve never been on a Ferris wheel. Let’s take a ride.”
Her eyes lit up, and in the next breath, they saddened. “I know your childhood was horrible, but was it ever not as bad? When you were much younger? Four? Five?”
“Nope,” he said, and headed for the Ferris wheel.
He’d hated telling her about the horrors of his youth. She’d cried for him and his sisters, breaking his heart anew. But she’d needed to know who she was getting involved with, because while she’d grown up with cotton candy and bubble gum, he’d gotten belts and bruises. He’d been up front with her about everything, and he’d told her that he wasn’t looking for a wife or planning on having a family of his own. He loved his nieces and nephews to the ends of the earth, and he had never hurt a woman or child, or a man who hadn’t been either causing someone else harm or threatening him. But he feared that his parents’ abusive patterns might be lurking deep inside him, etched into his DNA, and he wasn’t going to saddle any woman with a ticking time bomb like that.
The trouble was, he hadn’t anticipated falling in love with her.
“You know we have to kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel,” she said as they took their place in line.
He gathered her in his arms. “Is that a rule?”
“It’s a legend of a curse. If a couple sits on the Ferris wheel, they’re destined to break up. But if they kiss when it reaches the highest point, the curse is broken, and they’ll be together forever.”
“Forever, huh?”
He’d tried to convince himself more than once that he was being selfish by staying with Penny when he couldn’t give her the family she wanted and deserved. He’d told himself he needed to end things with her, but he just couldn’t do it. He loved her so damn much, he wished he was the type of person who could push past their issues and move forward more freely, like his buddy Quincy, who had overcome years of substance abuse.
Or Sarah.
His chest constricted thinking of the sister who had suffered as much abuse as he had. She’d left home soon after he did, only to fall into the hands of another abuser. Thank God she’d escaped him and was marrying a good man who adored her and her children. He had no idea why his parents had never abused Josie, but he thanked God every day she’d escaped their wrath. Although Josie hadn’t gone unscathed. She carried heaps of guilt for having an easier time of it than they’d had. At least she’d ended up with a kind and generous young man who had gotten her away from their parents when she was thirteen and eventually had become her loving husband. She’d lost him too quickly to an undiagnosed medical condition, which was heartbreaking, but at least now she was happy and safe once again and married to a good man.
“That’s right,” Penny said with a hint of challenge, and pressed a kiss to the center of his chest. “Forever.”
She was always challenging him, and he really dug that about her, too. But she never challenged him about his choice not to have children. She acted like she was cool with not having a ring on her finger or making plans for a family, but he knew her too well. He’d seen her with her niece, Tallulah, and his nieces and nephews, for whom they often babysat, and it always brought conflicting emotions for both of them. She was a natural with children, and she’d be an amazing mother one day. Which was why the fact that he was going to kiss her the whole time they were on the Ferris wheel to earn as much of forever as he possibly could probably made him a dick.
But there were far worse sins than loving someone too much.
THE TOWN OF Echo Beach was even more charming than Scott had remembered, with painted brick-front shops, old-fashioned streetlamps, and flower boxes bursting with gorgeous blooms. The street names—Peony Way, Daffodil Drive, Black-Eyed Susan Lane—followed the same floral theme as the garden and park, which anchored either end of the main drag, Bluebell Gardens and Primrose Park.
As they explored the shops, they picked up a cute mermaid rattle for Tallulah and gifts for each of Scott’s nieces and nephews. They bought a truck whistle for Hail, a toy motorcycle for Bradley, who at five wanted replicas of everything his daddy had, a xylophone for two-and-a-half-year-old Lila, and a stuffed kitty for Maggie Rose, who was fifteen months.
They spent hours looking around, and as they were leaving an eclectic shop with everything from clothing to knickknacks, Scott caught sight of a small oval sign with green lettering that read LIFE IS BETTER WITH SWEETS, bordered by tiny ice cream cones with ice cream dribbling down their sides.
“Hold on, sweets.” He picked up the sign and said, “We need this.”
She laughed.
He slipped his arm around her, tugging her against him, and feigned a serious tone. “Did you just laugh at my choice of signs?”
“Yes, but only because I love it so much.”
Not nearly as much as I love you. It pained him to hold back that declaration, but it wouldn’t be fair to give it wings. Instead, he kissed her, pouring the passion he felt into their connection.
They bought the sign and then headed down the street to the Blue Fin restaurant where Scott had secretly made reservations. He had another surprise in store for Penny, and he knew her well enough to realize that if he’d told her what it was ahead of time, she’d have been a nervous wreck all day. He’d wanted her to enjoy every minute of the festival.
When they arrived at the restaurant, he said, “This looks perfect.”
“I heard a couple talking about this place at the festival. I think we need reservations.”
“Don’t I always take care of you?” He’d researched the restaurants in the area to find one that had excellent food and service but allowed casual attire. The Blue Fin was noted as the best in casual dining. He opened the door and waved her in. “After you, gorgeous.”
He took her hand as they followed a hostess through the restaurant to the back patio with a beautiful water view.
Penny whispered, “I can’t believe you got tickets to the festival and made reservations here. You thought of everything.”
“Because you are my everything,” he whispered back.
He spotted his surprise, Alyssa Braden, a tall, dimple-cheeked brunette and the director of the Sweet ’n Savory Dessert Festival, waving from her table on the far side of the patio.
“Old girlfriend?” Penny teased.
“Hardly,” he said with a laugh.
She knew that wasn’t the case. He’d explained early on in their relationship that after leaving his hometown in Florida, he’d kept personal connections to a minimum to avoid having to answer too many questions about his past and to allow him to use his free time searching for his sisters. When he and Sarah had first reconnected after a decade apart and moved to the Harbor, they’d been on their way home from a celebratory dinner and had gotten into a horrible car accident. Bullet Whiskey had been the one to pull them from the wreckage, which was how they’d met him and his family. Sarah had been pregnant at the time, and she’d come out of it with scratches and bruises but thankfully, no major injuries. Lila had suffered a minor head injury, along with cuts and bruises. Bradley, luckily, had come away with only a few scrapes. Scott had gotten the worst of it with a broken leg, his other femur shattered, and a collapsed lung. While he was in the hospital, he’d developed an embolism and was in ICU. He’d had a long recovery and was left with a permanent plate and pins in one leg, along with a slight limp. He’d been focusing on recovering, physical therapy, and taking care of Sarah and her children, who had lived with him, when he’d met Penny. He’d also thought Quincy had been interested in her and had respectfully kept his distance. Not long after Sarah and the kids moved in with Bones, he’d reconnected with Josie. They’d moved into his house, and he’d cared for her and Hail, too.