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CHAPTER 1
October...
The warm Caribbean Sea washed over Sara Collins’s feet as she walked barefoot down the beach, carrying her flip-flops in one hand. Shading her eyes from the late-morning St. Croix sunshine, she squinted at her destination. A white, cottage-style house with a lovely, full-length covered porch faced the ocean a fair distance away from the bungalow where she had spent the previous several nights. Half Moon Bay Resort had been closed for the previous several days, only this morning returning to normal. Since guests would begin arriving in a few hours, she was leaving so her former bungalow could be prepared for them.
As she approached, her sister Hope’s house looked the same—everything around her did—but the world was fundamentally different now. A massive shift had occurred, and a new era had started. Sara lifted the skirt of her breezy yellow sundress and climbed the short flight of stairs onto the porch. A quiet woof greeted her as a short-coated yellow dog sat up on his padded bed, watching her closely.
“Hello there, Cruz. I’m going to crash here until my flight. You’re not going to get all protective and bite me, are you?” Sara used a soft, friendly voice and Cruz responded with a thumping tail, approaching so she could pat his head.
With a relieved sigh, she scratched behind his ears. He’d been mistreated by his former owner, who was euphemistically known as Creepy Guy, and he was wary of people unless he knew them well. Though Sara had never met the man, the aftermath he’d left on Cruz was evident. Apparently, she had been around enough the past few days to pass muster, which made her smile. “Thank you for not running away or attacking me. Creepy Guy sure did a number on you, didn’t he? Poor baby.” She glanced around, locating her packed suitcase near the sliding glass door. Well, I won’t be needing that for the next few hours. It can just stay there.
Sara slid open the unlocked door, and Cruz shimmied through the narrow opening as soon as he could, eager for the cool interior. She entered more hesitantly. Shutting the slider behind her, her gaze took in an expansive great room with a kitchen at the far end. The house was silent, and despite the cozy, welcoming decorative touches, Sara was uncomfortable. This wasn’t just her big sister’s house anymore.
This was Hope and Alex Monroe’s house.
Hope had owned Half Moon Bay for a year and a half, and Alex had been the dive operations manager and head guide for over six. But the resort wasn’t Hope’s anymore—it was officially theirs. Their wedding had taken place two evenings ago, an intimate sunset ceremony on the resort beach.
The bride and groom had retired to a guest bungalow and hadn’t made another appearance until the previous afternoon, when they had joined the rest of the small wedding party at the infinity pool. Hope and Alex radiated happiness as they embraced their family and close friends. Now Sara was the last of the wedding party to leave. Best man Mike Baker and his wife Emma had left the previous evening, and Alex’s sister Kate Fletcher and her family departed earlier that morning.
Still standing near the slider, Sara took in a deep lungful of the cool air, trying to convince herself she wasn’t an outsider. Her musings were interrupted by a loud thump from the kitchen corner. Cruz stared at Sara, his water bowl tipping back and forth on the floor before finally settling.
She grinned, glad to have something productive to do. “Thirsty, huh? I can take care of that. It’s just you and me for a while yet, Cruz. You’re probably glad to have things back to normal around here.” She padded over and filled his bowl with water, trying to avoid his wagging tail as she set it down. “Hope and Alex are both working. She’s getting the resort ready to accept guests, and Alex is taking out a group of divers staying in a condo. He wanted to give Tommy and Robert some time off, so he’s driving.” She scowled. “Apparently, that asshole divemaster Jack is working too.”
Cruz ignored her, not as interested in Hope and Alex’s whereabouts as quenching his thirst. And even less interested in the work schedules of Captain Tommy Williams and Divemaster Robert Davis. And as far as she was concerned, Jack Powell wasn’t even worth thinking about.
Sara straightened and caught sight of Hope’s bridal bouquet, sitting in a vase on the kitchen table. She shook her head, still not able to fully process the image of the two of them exchanging vows. Or, more specifically, her own reaction to it. As maid of honor, she’d had a full view of Alex during the ceremony.
Sara had never been traditional or domestic, so it was all the more surprising that seeing Alex stare at Hope like she was the only thing in the universe had induced such longing in her. Wanting a man to look at her like that. Hope was fond of saying she never thought marriage was in the cards for her. Until she fell in love with Alex.
Sara breathed a deep sigh, then shook herself. Stop being a sap.
Cruz finished drinking and curled up in his bed in the corner, closing his eyes with a happy sigh. “Well, I’m not going to get any stimulating conversation from you. Maybe I’ll head down to the pier and see if Selena is back at work yet.” He cracked an eye open, then closed it again and she smirked. “The only thing worse than talking to the dog is talking to yourself. Get a move on, girl.”
Soon Sara was climbing onto the pier, the wooden slats creaking pleasantly under her feet. Though Half Moon Bay was primarily a scuba diving resort, Hope had opened a spa recently. She’d spoken with the new massage therapist, Selena Allen, several times prior to the wedding, and immediately bonded with her enthusiastic personality, especially since the spa was Sara’s kind of place.
Halfway down the pier, she passed through a tunnel of buildings and made her way past the dive shop to a long staircase at the north end. A covered deck with an incredible ocean view dominated the area at the top of the stairs and served as the outdoor massage area. Next to the glass entrance door, a wooden wall formed a privacy screen, and a second, more nondescript door led to a restroom. Sara entered the clean, brightly lit spa, where Selena stood behind the glass check-in counter, refilling a small bottle with massage oil. The warm scent of sandalwood filled the air.
The massage therapist glanced up at the door’s opening, her dark face bursting into a wide smile at Sara’s entry. She was a trim, small woman in her mid-twenties, wearing a light-blue staff polo shirt. What I wouldn’t give to have her small, petite frame... Lucky girl.
Sara made an effort to dress well and appear professionally styled and made-up, partly to compensate for her voluptuous and curvy figure. No manner of diet or exercise had ever changed that and now, at age thirty-three, she was resigned to her fate. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t self-conscious about it
“Sara! You stayin’ a few more days?”
“No, I’m flying out this evening. Hope’s working, so I thought I’d come up here.” Her gaze took in the mani-pedi station along one wall, with a full stylist area in the corner. Like a magnet, she was drawn toward the hair salon. Several windows let in plenty of light. “You have a massage scheduled?”
Selena finished filling the bottle, shaking her head. “Not till tomorrow. I’m just gettin’ ready.”
Sara ran a hand over the back of the stylist chair where she had cut Hope’s hair and given her a deep-conditioning treatment the day prior to the wedding. They had chatted throughout, almost like old times. Immediately afterward, they had met the rest of the wedding party on the resort dive boat, Surface Interval.
Heat crept up Sara’s neck as she tried to push away the memory of what had happened next. The resort’s newest employee, the divemaster Jack, had tripped and dumped an enormous bucket of water over her head, drenching her from head to foot. In front of everyone. She’d been mortified and embarrassed but determined not to show it.
As Sara passed by a window next to the stylist station, movement at the end of the pier caught her eye. A gleaming white boat was tied up and the group of divers was already headed away. “There’s good sound insulation in here. I didn’t even hear the boat come in.”
“They did a great job on the construction. It always stays nice and cool in here, too.”
Sara turned toward the front door. “I’d better get going. Hope said she’d be finished about lunch time.” The two women said their goodbyes, then Sara opened the door, turning left to descend the stairs.
And collided right into a warm body, smashing her nose into a shoulder. “Oof!” Wincing, she rubbed it as she staggered back. She was preparing to apologize as she looked up into a pair of huge, gorgeous brown eyes that widened in recognition.
