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  “A pool!”

  “Cool,” Danny finished dryly. “Let’s go inside.”

  “Who lives here?”

  Sydney blessed her son. She hadn’t had to ask a single question.

  Danny didn’t answer. Leaving Sydney to get out of the car and unbuckle Nick, he walked ahead to the double front door and inserted a key from his pocket. Then he stood aside as Nick came flying up the walk. “Go on in,” he said.

  Sydney walked past, doing her best not to brush against him. Then she stopped. The house was empty. Empty?

  She turned to Danny, bracing herself to meet his eyes. “What’s going on?” For once, Nick seemed speechless.

  “I bought a house this afternoon,” he told her. His eyes were warm and there was no trace of the anger he’d spat at her earlier.

  “Congratulations,” she said formally. She’d made the mistake before of thinking that look in his eyes meant something special, and she’d been wrong. She wouldn’t fall for it again. Then she realized what the house meant. “You’re staying in Portland? At least part-time?”

  He nodded, smiling. “At least part-time. It depends on some other things.”

  Like what? But she didn’t say it aloud.

  His smile fell. “Aren’t you going to ask me about those other things?”

  She shrugged. “It’s none of my business.”

  “I think maybe it is,” he said. Then he turned to Nick. “Let’s take Mommy out back.”

  They walked through the house. It was utterly, utterly lovely. The kitchen was spacious and light, and Danny led them to French doors at its other end. “Out here,” he said.

  Nick darted past him out the door. A second later she heard her son squeal, “Oh, boy! Ohboyohboyohboy!”

  “Wha—?” She stepped onto the terrace. Danny’s brother Trent stood at one side. Dancing around him on a leash was a puppy. A huge puppy. Black and fuzzy, and currently licking her son’s face as he knelt on the ground beside it.

  “Oh,” she said. “He’s wanted a dog for so long. And this will be a perfect place to raise it.”

  “I thought he might be a bear cub when I first saw him,” he said. “He’s a Newfoundland puppy. Ten weeks old.”

  “Just a baby,” she murmured.

  “But I’m not sure I can keep it,” Danny said.

  “What? Then you shouldn’t have let him see it,” she began sharply. Then the smile on his face registered. Her heart stuttered but she told herself to ignore it. That smile wasn’t for her. “What’s going on?” she asked again, suspiciously. She just wanted to go home. Being this close to him was breaking her heart into even smaller pieces than it already was.

  “The dog needs a family,” he told her. “Not just a lonely man and a little boy.” He took a deep breath. “Last night you told me you loved me. This morning I said some pretty unforgivable things. But, Sydney, I’m asking—begging—you to forgive me, anyway.”

  She was stunned. Rooted to the spot. She felt tears sting her eyes.

  “I’m a coward,” Danny told her. “It was a lot easier to hide than to risk rejection. You were right about me being angry at Felicia. But what I also realized is I’ve given my past too much power over the rest of my life. I’m not going to let myself be afraid to take risks anymore. I promised myself that this morning.”

  Sydney didn’t know what to say. She wanted to throw her arms around him and tell him he wasn’t a coward, that he was the bravest man she knew. But he hadn’t said any of the words she most needed to hear, and she was the coward now, afraid to misinterpret his meaning.

  Danny dug into his pants pocket. He withdrew a tiny jeweler’s box, dropping onto one knee before her as he did so. “Sydney,” he said, “I love you. I dream of you all the time. Will you marry me? Not,” he rushed on, “just so we can give Nick a family, but because you love me, too.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again as she sank to her knees beside him. In his eyes, she saw the confidence and love she’d longed for. He’d found himself, she realized, and come to terms with his past.

  And finally he could look at the future.

  He flipped up the lid of the box to show her a striking, sparkling blue sapphire set amid several smaller diamonds. “It matches your eyes,” he said.

  She took a deep breath. “I have loved you,” she said, “since the first time you kissed me on your island. Before I ever knew you were Nick’s father. There’s nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  Danny smiled. He took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger, then drew her to him and kissed her with all the passion he’d shown her in the past. “Will you live here in this house with me?”

  “You and a young boy and a puppy?” she asked, laughing. “I’d love to.”

  “There are several extra bedrooms,” he informed her.

  “Danny!” She pretended shock. “Not in front of your son and your brother.”

  He raised his eyebrows, laughing out loud. Somewhere along the way, she realized, Danny’s laughter had returned. His smiles had grown from bare curls at the corners of his mouth to the beautiful, flashing grin she saw every day on the face of their son. “I meant for more children,” he said. “But if you want to test-drive all of them first, I guess I’m up for that.”

  Now it was her turn to laugh.

  Across the terrace, Nick turned and hollered, “Hey! Trent says he’s my uncle now! Can I have this dog, Mommy? He can sleep on my bed and I’ll feed him and everything!”

  Epilogue

  Five months later…

  It was the biggest holiday party Sydney had ever imagined, and the most unusual. Almost all the members of the Logan and Crosby families had accepted Danny’s and Sydney’s invitation to join them on Nanilani for a post Christmas gathering. Though they lived at the big house in Portland now, Danny had told Sydney that they would always keep the island where they’d met.

  On the fourth day of the week-long vacation, Sydney opened the doors that led onto the lanai for Leilani. In the housekeeper’s hands was an extraordinary cake, decorated with a family crest.

  “Hey, everybody, look at this thing!” called Sydney’s sister-in-law Ivy as Leilani set the cake on the long table at one side of the terrace already loaded with traditional Christmas dishes.

  “Is that the new design?” asked Ivy’s husband, Max von Husden. Max peered down at the cake as he juggled their eight-month-old son in his arms. Funny, thought Sydney, to imagine that baby was a prince who would take his father’s place on the throne of Lantanya one day.

  “It is,” Katie Logan said in answer to Max’s question. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s beautiful,” pronounced Ivy. “A crest that unites the emblems of the Crosby and Logan families was a perfect idea for your family.”

  “Have you seen the ring?” Leslie Logan asked. Every inch the proud grandmother, she held a wriggling infant boy in her arms. “It’s on that table over there, in the white box.”

  The ring Leslie referred to was a birth ring she’d had designed for Katie and her husband Peter’s first child. Today’s party had been an excuse to unite both families as well as to visit with everyone Danny and Sydney hadn’t seen in the months since they’d been married. The only family member not invited was Danny’s mother Sheila, who had forfeited any right to be part of the family with her hateful, manipulative actions. Sydney had met the woman once, storming out of Trent’s office after some tantrum, and once had definitely been enough.

  Sydney looked across the lanai. Standing by the railing that looked out toward Kauai, Danny, his brother Trent, their half brother, Jackson, and father, Jack, stood talking casually. Her heart swelled with love when her husband caught her eye and smiled. “You all right?” he mouthed.

  She nodded. Just then, Nick and his younger cousin Tyler, Jackson’s son, barreled into the middle of the crowd. Barking loudly behind them came Wildman, Nick’s dog. The Newfoundland pup easily outweighed at lea
st half the wedding guests, she thought wryly, and he wasn’t even a year old yet.

  “Whoa there, fellas!” Jackson’s wife, Laurel, adroitly caught each boy around the waist as they ran past her. “This isn’t the place to be ripping around. Why don’t you two go out on the lawn? And take him with you,” she said, pointing sternly to the big dog.

  Jack Crosby’s second wife, Toni, joined the group. Sydney would always have a soft spot for Toni ever since she’d learned that Toni had been instrumental in helping Trent convince Jack to get Danny out of that horrible school so many years ago. “Any chance I could hold that baby?” Toni said wistfully to Leslie.

  “Of course.” Leslie grinned. She handed Kate and Peter’s son to Toni. “There are plenty more around here to snuggle. She beckoned to her son David’s wife, Elizabeth. Their adopted daughter Natasha slept soundly on her mother’s shoulder while David and his twin sister Jillian stood nearby, heads close together as they conversed. “I’ll take her,” Leslie announced, smiling warmly at her daughter-in-law.

  Moving through the group, Sydney stopped to exchange a word with FBI agents Sam Jones and his wife Bridget Logan-Jones, and Bridget’s brother Eric and his wife, Jenny. Sydney noticed Jenny kept an eagle eye on their son, Cole, while still participating in the conversation.

  “…and Morgan is fairly pleased with the way Children’s Connection has weathered the scandal,” Bridget was saying. Morgan Davis was the director of the organization and had worked hard to get them positive publicity in the wake of Charlie Prescott’s damaging deeds.

  “How’s it going with Reya?” Sydney asked. Morgan and his wife, Emma, had recently adopted their first child, a girl, through Children’s Connection.

  “Emma says she’s an angel,” Jenny reported, smiling. Her warm blue eyes looked at Sydney critically. “You should be resting.”

  Sydney smiled. “I’d love a nap,” she said, “but not just yet.”

  Trent’s wife, Rebecca, was seated at one of the cocktail tables and Sydney walked in that direction.

  “Sit down and take a load off,” Rebecca said to Sydney.

  “Thanks.” Sydney eased into a chair. Her feet were screaming for relief.

  “You know,” said Rebecca, “you’re enormous for barely six months along.”

  “Thanks so much,” said Sydney. “Actually, there’s a reason for my size.”

  Rebecca’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?” Then her face lit up. “Oh! Don’t tell me you’re going to have twins!”

  “Okay, I won’t,” Sydney said.

  Rebecca squealed. “Oh, Sydney, this is so exciting!”

  Trent had come over and placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders. “Danny just told us the news,” he said to Sydney. “Congratulations.”

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  “We, uh, have a little news of our own,” he went on.

  Sydney’s gaze darted to Rebecca’s face. She was looking up at her husband with a look of such love that Sydney felt her throat close up. “Oh, Rebecca,” she said. “When?”

  “In about seven months,” her friend said. “We just found out.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Sydney was close to tears. She’d say a prayer every day that this pregnancy went well.

  Just then a movement near the door caught her attention. Danny’s father, Terrence, entered the room. At his side were another couple and as she recognized them, Sydney heaved herself to her feet. “They came! I wasn’t sure they would.”

  With Terrence was his son Everett, and Everett’s brand-new wife, Nancy. Danny had seen them, too, and he was moving forward from the opposite side of the lanai.

  They reached the new arrivals at the same time.

  “Merry Christmas. We’re so pleased you could come,” Sydney said.

  “We’re delighted to be here,” Nancy said, kissing her cheek. “Leslie told me that this is the last trip your doctor’s letting you take. How are you feeling?”

  Sydney waved her hand. “Better some days than others. It’ll be nice to be able to see my feet again.”

  Nancy chuckled. At the same time she reached back and casually drew Everett forward from where he’d been hovering behind her.

  “Hello,” he said formally.

  “Welcome to Hawaii,” Sydney said. None of them had been confident that Everett would feel comfortable enough to join the combined Crosby-Logan family gathering, or if the terms of his probation would even permit him to travel out-of-state.

  “Glad you could make it,” Danny added.

  Everett looked at him solemnly. “Thank you for inviting us.”

  Danny nodded. “You’d better come over here and say hello to your mother. Looks like she’s dying to smother you with kisses again.”

  Everett looked so dismayed that everyone laughed, but he dutifully accompanied Nancy across the terrace as Terrence followed the couple.

  “I’ll go rescue him in a few minutes and find him a quiet corner,” Danny said. “He’ll be happier if he’s not the center of attention.”

  Sydney slid her arm around his lean waist as she surveyed the crowd. “Could you ever have imagined this a year ago?” she asked.

  Danny pulled her against him, careful to angle her so her belly didn’t get squashed. “No,” he said in a husky voice. “A year ago, I was just trying to get through one day at a time.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek and tipped her face up to his. “The day you washed up on my beach was the best day of my life.”

  “I’m not sure it was the best day of mine,” she said wryly, remembering the lump on her head, “but since it resulted in this,” she said, indicating the group on the terrace as well as the two of them, “I guess it gets my vote.”

  “You should sit down for a while,” he told her. “I don’t want those babies to wear you out.”

  “Those babies,” she repeated in a wondering tone. “Oh, Danny, I still can’t believe we’re having twins.”

  He dipped his head and kissed her gently. “I can,” he said, smiling. “Lady Luck owes me a few. Finding Nick again and marrying you were just the first installment. We’ve got the rest of our lives to see what else she’s got planned.”

  “Hey, Daddy!” Nick stood on the lawn, hopefully dangling a miniature baseball bat. “Wanna come pitch for me an’ Tyler?”

  “You bet, buddy,” Danny called back. “Give me a minute and I’ll be right there.” He looked down again at Sydney, nestled in his arms. “The rest of our lives,” he repeated as he sought her mouth again. “I love you.”

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Anne Marie Winston for her contribution to the LOGAN’S LEGACY series.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6667-8

  THE HOMECOMING

  Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Books S.A.

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