“I guess not,” he said. “I don’t really know what it’s like not to have money. I don’t have anything to compare it with. My family was always wealthy. So it’s the kind of thing I’m aware of, but I don’t always notice how it’s affecting the things I say and do.”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry I give you a hard time,” she said.

  “Don’t apologize. Maybe somebody should give me a hard time.”

  “I don’t know,” Halle said. “I don’t know what I was hoping to accomplish by it. It’s not like I think I’m going to change you.”

  He was quiet.

  “Honestly, it’s not like I even want to change you,” she murmured.

  He turned to look at her.

  “I don’t talk this way to people I don’t already like,” she confessed. “If I’d really disliked you, Grayson, I wouldn’t have given you a hard time. I would have been…reserved. Distant. Cold and formal.”

  “You’ve been that way with me,” he reminded her.

  “That was different.”

  He waited.

  “It’s like you said,” she confessed. “It’s like I once said to you. I liked you too much. That’s why I was trying to keep my distance. Staying away from you seemed like the safest choice.”

  His heart swelled with affection for her. He knew exactly how that felt.

  “We’ve kind of failed at that, haven’t we?” he asked. “Staying away from each other, I mean?”

  “We haven’t been great at it.”

  “And that’s why you’re really quitting?”

  “Of course it is.”

  “So it’s not because you’re angry with me about the night we spent together?”

  She sighed. “I’m not angry with you about that. That was a mutual decision. We both decided to sleep together. And whether it was a mistake or not—”

  “Do you think it was a mistake?”

  “Whether it was or not,” she repeated, “it was a mutual one.”

  “I don’t think it was a mistake,” he told her quietly, doing his best to suppress the anxiety that came along with being so open about his feelings.

  “But you did,” she said, turning to look at him, eyes wide. “The morning after, you said that it had been a one-night thing, and you clearly couldn’t get me out of your house fast enough. You couldn’t stop working long enough to drive me home. It couldn’t have been more obvious what your real priority was.”

  “I’ve been prioritizing work too much,” Grayson said. “I know that.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  “It’s just that work is easy,” Grayson tried to explain. “When everything else seems too difficult, I can focus on my work. I know I can do it well. I’m kind of—well, I’m kind of a mess at everything else in life. But when it comes to work, I’m confident.”

  “How can you be surprised that I pulled away?” Halle asked. “Knowing that every time you got close to me, you would pull away and bury yourself in your work?”

  “I know.” Grayson raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, Halle. But I couldn’t stand it if I lost you. Is there any way you can forgive me?”

  “Of course I can forgive you,” Halle sighed. “I’ve already forgiven you. You must know that.”

  “It was hard to tell from the way you stormed off down the beach and refused to talk to me,” he said, hoping a little light teasing wouldn’t be out of line right now.

  She shook her head. “I so wanted to be angry with you,” she said. “It was so much easier than everything else I was feeling.”

  “Like what?”

  She looked at her hands. “I’m scared,” she said.

  Cautiously, giving her every chance to pull away, Grayson reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  She leaned into him.

  “We’ll be okay,” he said quietly.

  “You can’t know that.”

  “But I believe it,” Grayson said. “People are going to notice that we didn’t show up in Barbados. It’ll be noticed when I miss my meeting. And someone will come looking for us.”

  “How are they going to find us?” She looked up at him anxiously. “We don’t even know where we are.”

  “A search plane will be flying low overhead,” Grayson told her. “It’ll see the wreckage of this plane, and whoever’s looking will know to investigate. Trust me. We’re going to be found.”

  “You sound sure.”

  “I am sure,” he said, doing his best to sound completely confident.

  The truth was that he wasn’t sure at all. There were thousands of little islands in this part of the ocean, and who knew how long it would take a search plane to get to them? But he didn’t want Halle to worry.

  “When we get off this island,” he said, emphasizing the word when, “I’m going to change my ways.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to stop hiding in my work,” he said. “I’m going to let myself feel things a little bit more. I’m going to actually live my life.”

  “What’s that going to look like?”

  He took her in both arms now, turning her toward him.

  “It’s going to look like telling you how I really feel about you,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to run away from you anymore, Halle. I’m not going to let the fact that you work for me stop me from telling you that I care. I’m not going to let the fact that I’m afraid stop me from telling you that I care, either.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Grayson—”

  “I don’t need any final answers from you right now,” he said. “I know it isn’t the time. But, Halle, is there even a chance you could feel about me the way I feel about you?”

  “I already do,” she whispered. “I think I have for a long time.”

  He reached for the blanket and pulled it up over them, bringing her down to lie beside him on the bed as he did so, and she rolled willingly toward him and met him in a kiss.

  A loud noise awoke Grayson. He squinted, frowning. He didn’t want to wake up. The night had been so pleasant, and even now, he could feel Halle’s body pressed up against his own. Whatever that sound was, he didn’t want to take note of it. He didn’t want to let her go.

  But the sound didn’t fade. If anything, it was growing louder.

  Halle’s eyes fluttered open. “Grayson?”

  “It’s a helicopter,” he said.

  “What?” She struggled to sit up.

  “It’s a helicopter!” He bolted out of bed, grabbing his pants and jumping into them. He scrambled out the bedroom door, through the plane, and out onto the sand.

  Sure enough, there was a helicopter hovering overhead, dropping lower and lower.

  Grayson raced across the sand, waving his arms overhead, trying to draw them in. He turned and looked back at the plane in time to see Halle emerging, blinking in the morning sun.

  We’re saved.

  Chapter 22

  Halle

  “Do you want to get dinner tonight?” Grayson asked.

  He hadn’t let go of her hand the entire way home. Now that they were back on the tarmac in La Vega, Halle found it a little difficult to believe that they had only been stranded for less than a day. So much had happened on that island. Surely it had been longer than that?

  “I could get dinner,” she said, smiling up at him, relieved by how easy things seemed between them now.

  “Good,” Grayson said. “I’m going to stick to what I said, you know. About changing.”

  “Grayson, you don’t have to change for me,” she said, even though she wanted him to make the changes he had talked about.

  “I’m not just doing it for you,” he said. “It’ll be better for me, too. I’ll live a richer life this way.”

  Then he pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. “Case in point,” he murmured. “I almost lost you, didn’t I?”

  “Almost.”

  “Promise that won’t happen to us.”

  “We’ll talk about it at dinner,” she said. “But I don’t want us to fall apart.”

  “You’re not going to quit your job now?”

  She grinned. “I don’t know if I am or not,” she said. “We’ll have to decide what’s best. Can you date me if I’m working for you?’

  “Oh, I can pretty much date you no matter what,” he said. “You’ll have a hard time talking me out of it now.”

  A car pulled up on the tarmac. Grayson pointed to it.

  “That’s for you,” he said.

  “For me?”

  “I called a car to take you home. I figured you’d want to shower, maybe take a nap or something, before we go out. I know I do,” he said.

  She was touched that he had made the effort, gone out of his way to care for her. He seemed to do that so often. She had thought, at one time, that it was a way of flaunting how much money he had, but she didn’t think so anymore. He was throwing his money around, but he had made her understand that money was one of the only ways of showing love that he had ever experienced. He had always done these things out of care and concern for her, not because he had wanted to impress or intimidate her.

  And I can show him more ways to show someone he cares.

  That would be something to look forward to as they began their relationship, she thought with a satisfied shiver.

  She crossed the airstrip and climbed into the car that had been ordered for her.

  The driver turned and smiled at her. “Miss Johnson?”

  “Yes.” She leaned back on the seat, feeling suddenly exhausted.

  “Where to?”

  She gave him her address and closed her eyes as the car pulled out. She felt strange, suddenly, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the time she had been out on the beach or because of the new and complicated emotions swirling within her. Maybe she had gotten a bit more dehydrated than she’d realized. Maybe the sun was getting to her. Or maybe it was just nerves at the idea of seeing Grayson again in a few hours and formalizing the new relationship between them. Her stomach churned.

  The car pulled out onto the highway and accelerated to join traffic. The driver wove in and out among the three lanes. It was the kind of thing Grayson probably appreciated—getting through traffic quickly—but it was making Halle feel sick.

  She shivered, feeling a sudden chill. She looked down at her arm and saw goosebumps. The back of her neck was suddenly drenched in sweat.

  Her stomach gave another lurch. I’m going to be sick.

  This wasn’t nerves. This was something else.

  Suddenly, she was filled with anxiety. She’d been on a tropical island. She’d spent a lot of time outdoors. What if something had happened? What if she had sunstroke? What if she’d been bitten by some kind of venomous bug and hadn’t noticed? Or what if—as Grayson had worried—she actually had injured herself in the crash somehow, and she’d just been too worked up until now to realize it?

  She leaned forward. “Excuse me,” she said. “Can you drop me off at the hospital instead?”

  The driver looked over his shoulder at her. “The hospital?” he asked, his voice filled with concern. “Are you all right?”

  “I just want to get something checked out.” She swallowed hard, feeling suddenly as if she might start to cry. She wished she could call Dina, or her father, but her phone had died and she hadn’t had a chance to charge it up again.

  “Do you want me to contact Mr. Bloom and let him know where you are?” the driver asked. He was already pulling into the hospital drive. They had evidently been much closer than Halle had realized.

  “No, I’ll call him myself,” she said, even though she knew she couldn’t. The truth was that she didn’t want to worry him. This might turn out to be nothing at all, and there was no point in raining on the parade that would be their first real date in a few hours. Probably, the doctor would just give her something to settle her stomach and send her on her way.

  At least, I hope that’s what’ll happen.

  She got out of the car.

  “I’ll go and park and come in to wait for you,” the driver said.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Halle insisted.

  “That’s what Mr. Bloom would want,” the driver said. “He told me to see to it that you got home all right.”

  “Really,” Halle said. “I want you to go. I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, what should I do with your luggage?”

  “Would you mind bringing that in to reception for me?” Halle asked. “I’m sure they’ll hold onto it behind the desk.

  The driver nodded. “Of course,” he said.

  An hour and a half later, Halle was sitting on an examination table and wearing a paper gown. When she had told the nurses at reception that she’d spent the night on an uninhabited island, they had made her a top priority. And while Halle did appreciate being bumped to the front of the line, it had also made her feel more anxious. Clearly, they thought there might be something wrong with her.

  They’d drawn blood and made her pee in a cup. They’d checked her pulse, her blood pressure, even her height and weight. She was feeling thoroughly examined. What she wasn’t feeling was any kind of relief. If anything, the nausea and fatigue were worse. She lay back on the table and closed her eyes, hoping desperately that nothing was seriously wrong.

  “Ms. Johnson?”

  Halle opened her eyes and turned her head, but didn’t sit up. A friendly looking man in a white coat had entered the room.

  “I’m Dr. Wong,” he said, pulling up a rolling stool and sitting beside her. “I understand you’re not feeling so great.”

  “I’ve been better,” she said. “I was worried I might be dehydrated or something. I don’t know if you heard about how I had to spend the night on an island, exposed to the elements?”

  “Yes, that’s here on your chart,” he said. “And I’m glad you made it home all right. That must have been traumatic. In particular, I’m concerned about the plane crash that put you on that island in the first place. Were you hurt at all?”

  “No,” she said. “The man who was flying the plane did a good job of bringing us in safely. I was a bit shaken up, but nothing more serious.”

  “Even something like that can be very serious in your condition,” Dr. Wong said gravely. “With your permission, I’d like to perform a full examination, just to make sure everything’s all right.”

  “Wait a minute.” Halle frowned. “My condition? What does that mean?”

  It was Dr. Wong’s turn to frown. “I assumed you knew,” he said.

  “You assumed I knew what?”

  “That you’re pregnant.”

  Halle sat bolt upright. “I’m what?”

  “Ms. Johnson, please stay calm,” Dr. Wong said. “I don’t want you to overexert yourself. It might not be good for the baby.”

  “The baby?” she repeated numbly.

  “I take it you weren’t aware of your pregnancy?”

  “No—no, I had no idea.”

  “It’s still early days,” Dr. Wong said. “I’m not able to tell how far along you are exactly, but there were markers in both your blood and urine tests that left no doubt about your condition.

  Halle felt as if her head was spinning.

  “Is there someone you’d like to call?” Dr. Wong asked gently.

  “My phone is dead,” Halle murmured.

  “We can loan you a phone. Or we may have a charger that will work for yours. If you’d like to get a friend or family member down here—the father, perhaps?”

  “The father?”

  Grayson.

  Somehow, she had managed not to absorb that aspect of this news until this very moment. If she was pregnant, that meant that Grayson was the father. It meant that the two of them were going to be having a baby together.

  What’s he going to say?

  He had just barely convinced himself that it was worth it to open himself up to her. It had been difficult enough for him to accept the emotional risks of dating. If he’d struggled with that, he couldn’t possibly be ready for fatherhood. He wasn’t going to want anything to do with her or her baby.

  And just when I thought things were finally working out between the two of us. Now it’s all going to fall apart.

  She took a breath and tried to steady herself. There was no way she could know for sure what Grayson’s response to this news would be. He had certainly managed to surprise her in the past. Maybe this would be another one of those times.

  Maybe.

  But she wasn’t confident about that at all.

  “Ms. Johnson?” Dr. Wong prompted her, and she realized he had been waiting for an answer.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “What?”

  “I asked whether you’d like to borrow a phone to call somebody,” he said.

  She wasn’t going to call Grayson, that was for sure. The only thing keeping her steady right now was the memory of the kiss he had given her as they’d parted and the promise of their date tonight. She had to cling to that. If he came down to the hospital now, that might well be ruined.

  “No,” she said. “I’m all right.”

  Dr. Wong looked at her sympathetically. “Are you sure? It might be easier to have someone. A loved one.”

  “No, really. I’m fine.” She didn’t want her father here right now. She would tell him, but she couldn’t be sure how he was going to react. And although she probably could have reached out to Dina—she knew her friend would have come—somehow, she wasn’t ready to do that either. She didn’t want to talk to anyone about this just yet.

  “Well, is it all right if I do an exam?” Dr. Wong asked. “I’m guessing your symptoms are just the normal signs of early pregnancy, but I want to make sure everything’s all right after that plane crash.

  Halle nodded absently, knowing that he was right.

  “Lie back,” the doctor said. “This won’t take very long.

  Halle closed her eyes.

  Everything she had been feeling made so much sense now. She didn’t have sunstroke. She hadn’t been poisoned on the island.

  I’m pregnant.

  She was going to have to tell Grayson about this. And she knew she would have to break the news tonight. This wasn’t the kind of thing she was capable of sitting on. Besides, he deserved to know.