After Morgan left, Sierra floated through her morning routine feeling oddly disconnected from reality. Everything seemed softer, sweeter, full of possibilities and new beginnings. He’d said all the right things when she expressed concern about diving all in with him, only to be devastated if or when he decided to return to his life on the mainland.
She recalled when Duke had faced a similar dilemma the first time he was engaged and his fiancée decided she couldn’t handle living full time on the island where Duke had found the first real family he’d ever had. Duke had struggled with the conundrum of trying to make the relationship work when she didn’t want to live where he’d made a real home for himself, not to mention the successful business he now owned after working there for years.
Ultimately, he’d ended it with her because he couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else, and while he’d suffered over the loss for a time, he’d done the right thing. His friends had agreed that he wouldn’t have been happy living on the mainland, even if it meant he got to be with her.
Now that he was madly in love with McKenzie, he could see that he’d truly done the right thing in letting go of the relationship with Lynn. He never would’ve met McKenzie if he hadn’t stayed on Gansett and stepped up for her after Hurricane Ethel flattened the home she’d inherited from her grandmother.
Things worked out the way they were meant to. She believed that and had seen it happen more than once. Like for her friend Jace Carson. At one time, all the odds had been stacked against Jace, and look at him now, playing a role in the lives of his sons and happily in love with Cindy Lawry. His story had inspired her to chase her own dreams, which had included finding a partner to share her life with who lifted her up rather than dragged her down.
Would Morgan turn out to be that partner?
She didn’t know yet, but after last night, she’d begun to think he could be.
Her first client of the day was her friend Piper, who came breezing through the door at five minutes before eleven with a coffee for Sierra.
“Bless you,” Sierra said as she took the cup and gave Piper a quick hug. “How’s everything?”
“Couldn’t be better.”
“I take it things are going well with Jack?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Duh. Of course I can.”
Piper laughed. “I know, but it’s so weird to say it out loud.”
“Say what?”
“That I think I’m in love.”
“Again—duh. I’ve known that for weeks now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Piper… Honestly… You can’t talk about that man without lighting up like a woman in love.”
“Really?”
“Yes, silly.”
Piper frowned and seemed to be less than thrilled by a development that should’ve made her deliriously happy.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure how he feels. We’re together every night, and it’s so, so good, and he seems totally into me the way I am with him, but…”
“What?”
“I don’t know. There’s something not quite right, and I’m afraid to ask him because I might not like what he says.”
Sierra put an arm around Piper and guided her into the break room at the end of the hallway, while knowing the delay would throw off her schedule. What did that matter when her friend was in distress? They sat at her little table with their coffees.
“I’m sorry to dump this on you, but my friends at the hotel are so excited about Jack that I couldn’t bring it up with them…”
“What do you think is going on with him?”
“If I had to guess… It’s probably that things got real between us very quickly, and maybe he wasn’t quite ready for that after losing his wife.”
