Page 188 of Capturing You

A hundred feet below, waves crashed over the small, pebbly beach and against the granite headlands, as they had since the beginning of time. But the land didn’t give way to the powerful sea.

It was strong, sort of like the man who’d seemed so terrifying to Brooklynn at first. Now she knew him, the man she’d come to love. Maybe it was new and fresh and untested—though, theuntestedpart didn’t feel true, all things considered—but what she had with Forbes felt real and solid.

After he’d been released from the hospital, he’d taken a hotel room in town, where he could be close to his grandmother at the retirement home in Portland, and to Brooklynn. He’d shed his alias and was in the process of taking his real name back legally.

Some of the townspeople acted as if he was some sort of celebrity. Brooklynn had seen more bootlicking in the last two weeks than in her entire life—and that was saying something, considering how wealthy and powerful her own father was.

Forbes Ballentine, aside from being a famous, reclusive billionaire, was a local legend, especially now that the news was out that he’d been at the house when his family died. If anything, Forbes was embarrassed by all the attention.

It was strange what people regarded as important.

To her, he was just Forbes. The man who’d saved her life, over and over.

His shadow in the evening sun announced his approach an instant before his arm slid around her waist.

She looked up at him, studying his face. He looked…pensive. “You okay?”

He nodded, then shrugged. “I’m sad about the house. But also…I don’t think I could’ve kept it. I did, all these years, because I believed it held secrets. Now those secrets are out, and what remained were just…memories.”

“Some good memories.”

“Some. But the bad memories tainted the good. All of them are stored here.” He tapped the side of his head. “I don’t need the house to remind me who they were, how much they loved me.”

Brooklynn leaned in to him. “Will you sell it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll rebuild.”

That had her turning to face him. “Here? But you live in Boston.”

“Fordlived in Boston.Forbesis from Maine.” He squeezed her closer. “Forbes has a really pretty girlfriend in Shadow Cove. He’d be an idiot to leave her.”

Brooklynn’s heart did a little jig.

For two weeks, she’d dreaded the moment when he announced he was going home. She figured they’d try long-distance dating, and if it worked, she’d have to move away from her life, her gallery, her beloved town to be near him.

She would have done that, for Forbes.

It seemed he’d do the same for her.

His eyebrows hiked. “You seem surprised.”

“I just thought… You have this whole big…enterprise.”

“I’ve run it via conference call for years. Why change that now?”

“I guess because you can.”

“Boston isn’t that far. If the drive is too long, I’ll rent a jet.”

“I have a cousin who can help you with that.”

His brows lowered, though a smile played at his lips. “I need to meet these cousins of yours.”

“You’ll like them. And they’ll like you.”

Forbes had met her parents and sisters, who’d converged the day after the big showdown. Even Kenzie had come up from South Carolina. They’d all been eager to get to know Forbes, and not because he was rich or famous but because they knew he mattered to Brooklynn.

Only Delaney had been reticent with him, even quieter than usual. Brooklynn worried about her second-youngest sister, who seemed to believe that Owen’s part in the whole ordeal had somehow been her fault. Delaney had always taken everything to heart, feeling things more deeply than the rest of them.