For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

“Yes,” Graydon whispered. “The very last time.”

Toby was in the big tent, the seating chart in her hand, and putting the place cards where they belonged. She and Millie had ordered used paperbacks of each author’s work, then spent several evenings cutting and pasting pages. They made napkin rings and backs for the seating cards, and wrapped little boxes of chocolates in the author’s own words. For the nonwriter guests, they’d used Victoria’s books.

It was nearly four and it wouldn’t be long before the guests started arriving in costume for the ceremony. Victoria’s daughter, Alix, was going to oversee everything in the chapel, but Toby was to go home and dress before the guests showed up.

She dawdled over her tasks, straightening vases of baby roses, making sure the little nests made of shredded book pages contained enough seashells, checking the table that held the many awards to be given out, and talking to the caterers, who were beginning to set up. What she didn’t want to do was go home where she wouldn’t be surrounded by people.

She hadn’t seen Graydon since the early morning. She didn’t know where he was staying—or even if he was still on the island. Part of her wanted him to be there with her, but the larger part hoped she’d never again have to say goodbye to him. It hurt too, too much!

When her phone buzzed, she took it out of her pocket and saw a text message from Millie saying she needed to come home and get dressed. I’LL DO YOUR HAIR, she added.

The tears that were so close under the surface threatened to come out, but Toby blinked them away. Sometimes she felt that she’d spent her life searching for a real mother, someone to listen and care and—

“Grow up!” she said aloud as she put her phone back in her pocket. It wasn’t as though she’d gone into this with Graydon without being warned. Lexie had told her not to. And—Toby told herself to stop thinking, then got into her car and drove back to Kingsley Lane. Millie met her at the door.

“If we don’t

hurry and get you ready, we’ll miss the ceremony.” Millie had on her magnificent dress with all its silver trim. Her hair was elegantly arranged, and sparkling out of it was a tiara that looked as though it were made of real diamonds.

“You look great,” Toby said.

“And you look like your dog just died. What happened?”

Maybe it was the quiet or maybe it was the familiarity of home, but Toby’s emotions took over. “He’s here,” she whispered.

Millie opened her arms and Toby fell into them, the tears nearly choking her. Millie held her for a while, then half pulled Toby up the stairs to her bedroom.

“You talk while I get you ready,” Millie said. “And start at the beginning. How in the world did you meet a royal prince?” Millie wouldn’t let Toby sit down but pushed her toward the bathroom and told her to take a shower. “But don’t get a drop of water on your hair. We don’t have time to get it dry.”

“Graydon loves my hair,” Toby said.

Rolling her eyes, Millie pulled back the shower curtain. “Get in and wash the sweat off of you.”

Toby obeyed and Millie stood outside and listened.

Once Toby began talking, she didn’t seem able to stop or even slow down. She started at their meeting at Jared and Alix’s wedding. “It was Rory who made Graydon swear to tell me he was a prince.”

“And Rory is the brother?”

“Yes. Supposedly, they’re identical twins, but Graydon is smarter, better looking, and just, well, more adult.”

Millie hid her smile as she pulled the strings on Toby’s corset. “So Graydon only planned to stay for a few days?”

“Yes, but then Rory broke his wrist and Graydon had to stay longer.” She sat down on an ottoman while Millie unbraided her hair and brushed it out, and told of Lorcan and Daire arriving. “They didn’t like me at first. I think both of them thought I was after Graydon because of who he was, but he set them straight.” Toby told how they’d bowed before her.

“He sounds like a storybook prince. Surely there is something wrong with him.”

“You mean the way he thinks he can do everything and that he needs no one else on earth? He bossed poor Rory around so much I sometimes felt sorry for him.”

“He didn’t do that to you?”

“I learned to tell him to stop it.”

“What did you mean when you said you’d been married in your dress?” She nodded toward the gown hanging on the closet door.

Toby might tell about her and Graydon, but there was no way she was going to reveal what had happened with Tabitha and Garrett. “It was just pretend,” she said, then was silent as Millie worked with her hair.

“If I’m understanding you correctly, the brother is now engaged to the woman Prince Graydon was to marry. Doesn’t that leave him free to marry you?”