“All you have to do is sign the offer and express mail it to Beehag’s lawyer,” Jenny said coaxingly. “Graham—I mean Grant—has already signed his part of the contract, granting you full ownership. Shifting Sands will be yours, free and clear. The whole island.”
Scarlet sank slowly backwards into her chair and she put the open folder carefully on the table before her. Then, to everyone’s surprise, she put her face in her hands and wept.
There was an awkward moment of silence, and Gizelle asked in a stage whisper, “Did you break Scarlet?”
Scarlet looked up at that, her face full of aching happiness behind the tears. “You didn’t have to do this,” she said again, choked.
“We didn’t have to,” Graham said, to everyone’s surprise. “But we wanted to. You’ve done a fair bit for us that you never had to.” He raised his glass of wine with the hand not holding Alice’s. “To Scarlet.”
The room raised glasses. “To Scarlet.”
She closed her eyes a moment, more tears leaking down her cheeks, then opened them and reached for her own glass. “To Shifting Sands,” she replied, and that received a chorus of echoes as everyone toasted the resort they called home.
Chapter 39
Graham’s bare chest had been distracting, and his accent had been devastating, but Alice was utterly unprepared for the beauty that was Graham in a suit.
It was hard to watch the wedding, even harder to watch Tony’s speech, and the emotional reveal to Scarlet that they had colluded to save the resort. Alice wanted to gaze at Graham only, to see the smiles that he kept trying to bury, to see the joy in his eyes, and his satisfaction at Scarlet’s surprise and tearful delight.
“You know you could have kept the resort in your name,” Alice told him, trying not to stare at the way his suit spread over his muscular shoulders as he stood to help move tables and chairs back from the dance flo
or. “It would be like being a landed lord again.”
“I don’t want to be a lord, and I don’t want to own a resort,” Graham said with a shudder. “I just want to grow tomatoes and strawberries and let Scarlet deal with the rest of the nonsense.”
Then he looked at Alice, his deep blue eyes intense. “And you,” he added. “I want to be with you.”
Alice’s breath caught in her chest.
She couldn’t deny the connection they had any longer, but they hadn’t talked about what came next. “Let’s go for a walk,” she suggested, as the music struck up. This wasn’t a conversation to try to have during the wedding chicken dance. Mary was too busy with Neal to even notice her skipping out on the reception.
Graham nodded, and he offered Alice one of his starched arms.
She took it, barely keeping herself from rubbing herself against it inappropriately, and they walked out along the side of the dance floor. Scarlet was circulating among the guests and staff, thanking each of them sincerely for their part, and she caught them at the door.
“My lord,” she said to Graham, and Alice didn’t think that she said it in the slightest bit ironically, certainly not in the mocking fashion that Breck said it. For a moment, Alice thought Scarlet was going to bow or curtsy, but she only tipped her head respectfully. “There aren’t words for what you’ve done for me.”
Graham cleared his throat in embarrassment. “Scarlet, you’ve done more for my family... for this family... more for me... than I could ever repay. But it’s not about debt or duty. This is your island. It’s always been your island.”
Scarlet looked between Graham and Alice, her face grave and grateful. “Thank you,” she said simply, and she shook both of their hands in turn. Alice wondered afterwards if she imagined the tingling sensation that tickled up her arm.
She wasn’t a shifter, Alice reminded herself, and she briefly wondered why someone who wasn’t a shifter would invest themselves so deeply in a place made for them.
Graham and Alice escaped out the side door, leaving Scarlet to continue her rounds.
They made their way out onto the sprawling lawn, still littered with chairs and flower chains. The dais from the wedding was pale in the moonlight.
Without conferring, they walked towards it and stood looking through the archway at the sparkling ocean beyond.
“Alice,” Graham growled, just as Alice cleared her throat and said, “Graham...”
“You first,” he insisted.
Alice sighed, not even sure how to say what was bubbling up in her chest. She closed her eyes, and let the sound of the ocean on the rocks wash over her. “Graham, I love you.”
Once it was said, it seemed the simplest, most obvious thing in the world. “I love you,” she repeated. “I am a part of you, and you are a part of me I can’t imagine being without.”
Graham let his breath out as if he’d been holding it. “Alice...” he said achingly.