“This is the best chocolate I’ve ever had,” Duncan said. “How come I’ve never heard of Brooke’s company?”
When Lola had first met Duncan, she’d thought he was too preoccupied in trying to grow every business he was involved with into a multinational, billion-dollar corporation. But now she understood that it wasn’t money that drove him, but the urge to help people with great products change the world for the better.
“Brooke loves creating the chocolates by hand. It’s more like she’s making art than working in a commercial kitchen,” Lola explained. “Plus, if she and Rafe are thinking about starting a family soon, she might not be interested in going into startup mode and upending their relaxed lake life in Washington.” Actually, it was the perfect opening for Lola to let Duncan know that she’d changed her mind about a few things. “You might be surprised to hear this, but I’ve decided that I can finally see the benefits of working with a great investor. The only barometer I used to have when it came to investors was Moira’s terrible experience, so I assumed they were all bad. But Serafina loves working with you. Same goes for Dave building the prosthetic limb—he’s clearly thrilled to have your support for his work.”
“Corporate and financial success used to be the only barometers I had to gauge my own happiness,” Duncan responded. “But once I met you, I finally understood just how many other things there are to be happy about. Parts of life that have nothing to do with work, or business, or money. Picking vegetables in the garden. Taking a walk by the shore. Sitting side by side sketching.” He looked at her with so much love it stole her breath away. “And I would give up every penny I have just to hold you in my arms one more time. When you kiss me, Lola, I have everything I’ll ever need.”
Cradling his jaw, she brought his lips down to hers. Duncan was exactly the kind of man she’d been hoping for all her life. After being in so many bad relationships, she’d started to believe good ones didn’t exist. But now, here she was, in love with the most amazing man in the world.
“No matter what happens,” he continued in his gorgeous deep voice that shot through her veins like fine Irish whiskey, “getting to be with you every morning, and every night, has made this the best week of my life. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing. All that matters is loving you.”
* * *
“I’ve been on the Harborwalk before,” Lola said a short while later, “but it’s never seemed quite this beautiful before.”
Duncan agreed that the Boston sky had never been so blue, the sun had never sparkled more on the water, and the historic ships on display in the harbor had never looked quite so majestic.
“That first night we were together, I told you my brother and I used to come to the Harborwalk. But what I didn’t say was that the first time was only a few days after my parents died.” He remembered it so clearly. “It felt so normal, like we were still just two kids with nothing more to worry about than whether we’d score a goal at our next soccer game. That was the day we went inside the Tea Party Ships and Museum, and I discovered the hand-drawn maps.” Lola squeezed Duncan’s hand tight as he continued speaking. “I was only six, but even then I understood that bringing me here was his way of telling me we’d be all right, even without my parents to guide us. He wanted me to know it was okay to have adventures, and dream about the future, and even to have fun and forget that we weren’t normal kids with normal lives anymore.”
Emotion hit Duncan square in the middle of his chest. “He loved me. He really did. I may never know what turned him to the dark side. Was it being forced to step into a responsible-parent role at such a young age that he never really got to sow any wild oats? Did he have to get his thrills from cheating the system instead? Did he buckle under the pressure of having to protect me and keep the business going? Or was he simply so good at getting his own way that he couldn’t help but get cockier and cockier as the marks got bigger and bigger?” Duncan shook his head, knowing the answers would likely always be a mystery. “But even after everything that’s happened, I’ll never forget the love between us as kids.”
Lola put her arms around Duncan and held him tight, oblivious to the throngs of walkers skirting around them on the path. “It’s wonderful that you can remember the good things. How close you once were. How well he took care of you. And the hope he filled you with when you needed it most.”
This walk along the Boston Harbor was Duncan’s chance to see the good in his past…and lay the bad parts to rest for good. Because now that he had made his peace with the past, he could finally look toward the future. By letting go of the guilt and shame he’d carried for the past five years, his heart now overflowed with joy and hope and boundless love.
Slowly, he went to one knee, making Lola’s eyes grow wide with surprise—and what he hoped was pure joy. “Whatever happens from this moment forward, I know that I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me, Lola? Will you let me love you with everything I am, forevermore?”
“I swear, I was just about to ask you the exact same thing.” Her words were thick with tears as she said, “Will you marry me, Duncan? Will you let me make you the happiest man alive, as happy as I know you’ll always make me?”
At the same moment, they both said, “Yes.”
He stood, swinging her around and around in his arms. Barely thirty seconds later, his phone rang with the ringtone he’d assigned to the FBI.
They both stilled, instinctively knowing this was the call that would decide his—and his brother’s—fate.
Lola slid down to her feet as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, seeing the lead investigator’s name on his screen. “Steve, I take it you have an update?”
Barely five minutes later, Duncan put the phone back in his pocket.
“Alastair was just indicted. The FBI is getting a warrant for his arrest.” The enormity of the situation hit Duncan like a sledgehammer. Despite his brother’s money and connections, Alastair’s future was going to be very difficult from here on out.
“Does that also mean…?”
“The FBI and SEC have concluded that I am wholly and completely innocent of any crimes.” The evidence Lola and her family and Moira had helped Duncan pull together, along with the past week of closed-door testimony, had convinced the prosecutors that Duncan’s intent had only ever been to build great companies with smart people.
“This is the best news ever!” Lola’s cheers of joy caused everyone on the Harborwalk to turn and look at them.
Duncan pulled her close again, never wanting to let her go. “Deep down, a part of me always believed that maps could lead me to the place I was meant to be.” He felt like the luckiest man in the world as he said, “And that’s exactly what taking your drawing class for my maps did—it led me straight to you. Forever, Lola. That’s what you are. My forever.”
“You’re my forever too,” she whispered against his lips, before kissing him with all the love in her heart.
Hand in hand with Lola on the Harborwalk, Duncan couldn’t wait to begin his new life with her in Bar Harbor. While a part of him would forever regret the way things had turned out with his brother, at last his heart was free.