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His eyes danced with something I couldn’t quite identify as he looked down at me, a small smile tugging at the left side of his lips.

“But…” He grinned. “What if you could?”

“What? Control the ending? How?” I laughed.

Art’s smile grew as he dropped to one knee and held out his left hand. My heart did a triple somersault in my chest and lodged itself in my throat as I placed mine in it.

“Meg MacIntosh, you are the Catwoman to my Batman, the woman I never thought I’d meet, heck, the woman I’d stopped believing existed. I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone.”

Shifting his weight a little, he placed his right hand over his heart. I sucked in a tremulous breath as I waited to hear what I knew was coming next.

“I know you’re probably not ready for the official question, but would you do me the honor of agreeing to let me propose at some point in the future when you are?”

He grinned when I laughed but continued before I could reply.

“I wanted you to know that I am all in here, and we are not going anywhere. I would never make you choose between your shop and our family. In fact, the company that I was brought over to work with did cancel our contract yesterday.”

My eyes widened, and he held up a finger to forestall the question on my face.

“They offered me the in-house job. Long-term. Full benefits. Visa. The works. I’d like to accept, but I wanted to make sure that was also what you wanted. I didn’t want to make any unilateral decisions without your input.”

When he stopped to take a deep breath and smile, the love and hope shining in his eyes broke my heart again in the best way imaginable.

“So, what do you say?”

I dropped to my knees and cupped his face in my hands and kissed his lips tenderly.

“Yes,” I answered, locking eyes with him.

“To which part?” he asked, looking a little uncertain.

“All of it.”

“Margaret MacIntosh! Did I just see what I thought I saw?”

My head snapped up and spun around as if on a swivel to see where the voice had come from. The last of the storm wind toyed with me for an instant, but the beach wasn’t big enough to keep him hidden from me for long.

Art helped me to my feet and squeezed my hand once before releasing it. “Go. I’ll be right here waiting for you.” He kissed me quickly, then pushed me in the direction I was looking.

Feeling a whole lot like Merry, I flew over the sand, my feet barely touching the ground, until I reached Mac and threw myself into his arms, wrapping myself around him as tightly as I could.

“What are you doing here, you oaf? Why didn’t you call?” I cried as he hugged me back just as hard.

“I tried!” he cried. “The phones were dead.”

“The storm,” we said as one and laughed.

“Why?”

“Twice in as many weeks, I felt you melt down through the twin bond. Worse than ever before. I had to come see for myself what was happening.” He smiled sheepishly. “Well, we had to come see for ourselves.” Turning his body slightly to the side, he tipped his head toward a particularly large pile of driftwood, where a familiar shape was picking through the storm debris with a childlike wonder. “I think Gerald might have found his happy place. But don’t tell him I told you.”

Pulling my brother into another hug, I laughed. “I am so glad to see you! I have so much to tell you and show you!”

“I’m glad to be here too. I also have a lot to tell you,” Mac said, his eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

I grinned up at him, my heart truly full now that all my favorite people were with me. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” I said, tucking my hand into the crook of his arm and tugging him toward the large man grinning goofily at me from a few feet away. “Three someones, really.”

“That’s good. Because there are three people I flew across the world to meet,” Mac said with a laugh.