“Oh, Rafael…”
He gave a ragged intake of breath. “I know you can’t forgive me for taking Noah from you like I did. But I swear to you I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn your love back again. I can think of nothing but you. I want you, love you, need you and I always will…”
Louisa stopped his words with a kiss. When she pulled away, his handsome face was dazed with joy.
“Louisa…”
“I love you,” she whispered tenderly. “And I never stopped loving you.”
Pulling her back into his strong arms, Rafael kissed her fiercely beneath the dark sky, beneath the stars that fell into the deepness of the sea, twinkling light into eternity.
“We’re engaged!”
Six months later, Louisa looked up from the poolside chair to see her sister holding out her left hand with a shyly joyful smile.
“Engaged?” Louisa exclaimed. “To who?”
Katie grinned back at Rafael’s chief bodyguard. “All the times Madison and I have visited this island…I never thought I’d come back with a souvenir like this!”
“A husband is your idea of a souvenir?” Evan Jones said with a grin, then took Katie’s hand in his own and said earnestly, looking into her eyes, “This time, I wasn’t going to let her go back to Florida without me.”
Louisa leaped to her feet, clapping her hands. “I’m so happy for you both.”
All this time, she’d hoped her little sister would find true love…and now she had. She looked out toward the surf, where Rafael was playing with his little niece, Madison, and his son, Noah, who at fourteen months old was now running like crazy all over the sand as fast as his chubby little legs would carry him. “Does Rafael know yet?”
“Not yet,” Evan said with a rueful grin. “We thought we’d better tell you first. We might need you to smooth things over. You know how Mr. Cruz hates staffing changes. He’s not going to like getting a new chief bodyguard.”
The three of them looked down at the beach. The sun was shining against the white sand. Baby Noah had picked up a little pail and shovel, and was running frantically in pursuit of his cousin Madison across the sand. Louisa heard her husband laugh as he scooped his son up, swinging him around. His deep laughter, along with the higher-pitched giggles of their son, was Louisa’s favorite sound in the world.
“But it’s too bad for him,” Evan Jones said, turning back to Katie with a smile. “I’ve decided to quit the bodyguard gig to become a baker.”
“So don’t make Louisa do your dirty work,” Katie said, nudging her new fiancé with her shoulder. “Go on, tell him you quit. You’re the one with the gun!”
“Actually I don’t have…” he started, then squared his shoulders. “All right. I’ll do it.”
He marched off toward the beach.
Once Evan was out of earshot, Louisa asked softly, “Are you sure about this? He’s so different from Matthias…”
“I know.” Katie looked at her, her eyes shining with tears of joy. “Evan is better than rich. He’s an honest, loving man with a good heart.”
“Not to mention brave.” From a distance, Louisa saw her husband scowl at Evan, folding his arms as he received his now ex-bodyguard’s news. She gave a little laugh. “Uh-oh. We’d better get down there!”
Once Louisa joined her husband on the beach, the situation was easily managed. Within three minutes Rafael was congratulating the man and wishing him all the best with a hearty clap on the back.
Afterward, Louisa took her husband’s hand. Rafael turned to her, kissing her palm, looking down at her with eyes shining with love. Her heart turned over in her chest. Was any woman ever so lucky, to be so adored?
Then, with a laugh, she picked up their giggling baby and ran off into the surf to frolic. They were swiftly chased by the man she loved: her former boss, her forever lover, her beloved husband who’d had a good heart all along but just needed a little help to find it.
A housekeeper always knew just what to do. Just what her boss needed most.
And sometimes, Louisa thought, smiling as she looked back at the most handsome ex-playboy on earth, she knew it even before he did.