Island Expectations - Evangeline Kelly Page 0,2

that conclusion. She hadn’t meant to imply I would be his future wife. How crazy of me to even think it. “It’s beautiful. I can’t imagine any woman not loving this ring.” My eyes widened as the implication of my statement dawned on me. “I mean, I’m sure Annette just had a different style in mind. I wasn’t suggesting—”

“You don’t have to explain yourself, dear. I understand where you’re coming from and, truthfully, it disappointed me that Annette preferred a modern ring, but I wasn’t upset with her. I wanted her to have the ring she desired. To each his own, right?” She chuckled. “Well, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll let Brett know it’s time to get serious.”

My heart fluttered in my chest at the insinuation. “What do you mean?”

“He needs to find himself a wife. It’s time. He grieved for quite a while, but for some reason, he won’t allow himself to be happy again. I want that for him.”

I nodded, barely able to contain my sadness that she wanted him to move forward with someone. That someone wouldn’t be me, and I would be forced to deal with it. It was becoming clearer and clearer every day that I couldn’t hold on to what didn’t belong to me. In my heart of hearts, I longed for that ring, not because it was the most beautiful piece of jewelry I’d ever seen. And it was. And not because the cost value of a ring like that exceeded all expectations of what I would eventually have one day. No, I wanted this ring because Brett’s great-great-grandmother had passed it down through the generations, and I yearned to be a part of his family. Yearned for it so badly, my body trembled at the thought.

“Well, maybe something will happen with the woman he’s on a date with. You never know.” I tried to sound optimistic, but my stomach whirled with nausea just picturing it.

She laughed confidently. “That’s doubtful.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I didn’t have a chance to respond before she quickly kissed me on the cheek and turned back to the door. “Tell my grandkids I’ll come by tomorrow.”

“Okay, I will.”

The rest of the night I couldn’t stop wondering why she didn’t think his date would work out. She’d seemed so adamant about it. Weird.

I played with the kids, gave them evening snacks, and then put them to bed. Once I had time to myself, I googled “how to let a man know you’re interested,” and a flood of articles showed up. I clicked on the first one, titled Ten Ways to Make the Man of Your Dreams Notice You. Quickly scanning the list, I cringed a little at the suggestions.

Smile a lot. Lean in and nod when he’s talking to you. Flip your hair. Laugh at everything he says. Oh, brother. Who came up with this stuff? I continued to read, though, open to anything that would help.

Make prolonged eye contact. I wasn’t sure if I could do that, but it was worth a try. I laughed when I saw the next one. Wink if you catch him looking at you. Yeah, right. I would never do that.

Then again, I was running out of options.

Chapter 2

Brett

I waved goodbye to Pamela after walking her to the door and then got back in my car, shaking my head. Well, that was a dud.

There was nothing wrong with Pamela per se. She was attractive, smart, and a great conversationalist. Problem was, I kept comparing everything she said and did to Eden Edwards. My nanny.

Yep, you heard me right…the nanny I employed to take care of my children. She was sweet and much too young for me, though my late wife, Annette, and I had been the same age, and it hadn’t helped our marriage one bit. And, yes, Eden was beautiful, but it was her personality that had caught my eye. Annette hadn’t always been the warmest person to be around, but Eden was the exact opposite. I felt at ease in her presence from the moment we’d first met.

She was kind and compassionate, and, besides my mother, the most nurturing woman I knew. I was drawn to her almost right away. She had a full figure, pleasantly plump as some might call it, and it was one of the reasons I found her so attractive. It was just a preference of mine, but I liked women I could hold on to and not feel like their