Willa straightened away when she heard the amusement in his voice. “Keelstone Cove has a population of twelve hundred and forty-six people, and everyone knows everyone’s business. And if they don’t, they’re just as liable to make up something.”

She leaned forward and turned the wheel slightly to adjust their course, then pivoted on the bench to face him. “Just last year, the coffee-shop club decided Mary-Jane Simpson had a thing for Rory Peterson, even though Mary-Jane had just marriedChad six months earlier. Rumors of their affair spread

all over town within a week.”

“And Mary-Jane didn’t have a thing for Rory?”

“He was old enough to be her father!”

“So the town gossips hurt her new marriage?”

“It turned out that a week after the rumors began, Mary-Jane and Rory ran off together,” she muttered. She grabbed the front of his jacket and gave it a tug. “The coffee clubbers are notoriously good, Sam. They can sniff out a scandal before the participants themselves even know they’re involved.”

“And my renting your cottage is scandalous?”

“For me—a single, eligible woman—to have an equally eligible man living in my dooryard is going to start a tidal wave of rumors.”

“So what?” He peeled her hand off his jacket and held it in his. “You’re how old?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“Okay. You’re a twenty-nine-year-old, totally independent woman who has the right to rent to anyone she chooses, as well as the right to sleep with whoever she chooses. You can’t stop the rumors, but you can rise above them. So don’t even try to be discreet. What can they possibly do to you?”

She stood up, glaring at him. “Since my parents died, the entire town has felt it’s their duty to take over parenting me. I have endured everyone in town trying to marry me off for the last five years . I swear, they didn’t even wait until the ink was dry on my divorce. I can’t tell you the men they’ve thrown at me—even tourists! Some poor unsuspecting guy will walk into the coffee shop, and if he’s not wearing a ring, he’s fair game. Before he knows it, they’re persuading him that Keelstone Cove is a great place to live—especially if he were to fall in love with a wonderful woman who just happens to own a thriving business. Then they drag the poor schmuck out to Kent Caskets, because every perverse tourist wants to see a casket factory, and then they suggest wouldn’t it be nice if the two of us had dinner together.”

Sam was laughing so hard he was holding his belly. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not! Sam, if you spend even one night in Keelstone Cove, you’re going to find yourself facing down the marriage posse. And I’m only one of five eligible women in town they might decide you’re perfect for.” She scrunched up her nose. “Although I am considered the spinster in the group, so they’re trying to get me married off first. Only they keep telling me to sell my business, because no one wants to be married to a casket maker!” she finished loudly, since Sam was laughing so hard he actually fell off the bench.

“It’s not one stinking bit funny, Sinclair! How would you like to have a bunch of busybodies butting into your love life?”

He leaned against the bench and grinned up at her. “I already have, Willa. Bram could have given lessons to your marriage posse.” His eyes suddenly widened. “Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been leading your posse for the last six weeks. Your coffee clubbers probably helped him draft that bequest.”

Willa was so horrified by that possibility that her knees buckled, and she landed on the deck beside Sam. “Come to think of it, Abram never showed up at Kent Caskets until after ten every morning,” she said, staring off at the horizon. “And he did smell of coffee and bacon. He must have been going to the diner before he came to my factory.” She turned to Sam. “What are we going to do? If we show up in Keelstone Cove together, they’re going to make my life hell. I probably can’t even go home now! If anyone knows about Abram’s will, I’m toast.”

He pulled her against his side again and leaned back against the bench. “We could get married. That would shut them up.”

She shuddered.

He chuckled and gave her a squeeze. “Then stand up to the bastards, Willa. Sail straight into Keelstone Cove as if you own the damn town—which you probably could if you wanted, considering your new net worth.” He used his finger to lift her chin to look at him. “Nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to, Willa. Not your neighbors, not Bram, and not me.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “So you’ll stop bugging me to marry you and help me break Abram’s will?”

“I only said I can’t make you marry me. I didn’t say I wouldn’t keep asking.”

“But why?” she cried, pulling away. “Why would you even consider marrying me?”

“Because I love you.”

She gaped at him for several seconds, then scrambled to her feet. “You can’t fall in love with someone in only a week! You’re just saying that because you don’t want Warren Cobb to get those shares.”

He stood up and faced her, his feet planted against the sway of the deck, his hands shoved into his jacket pockets. “There isn’t a damn thing I can do or say that will make you believe I couldn’t care less what happens to Tidewater International. But I swear, Willa, my heart hasn’t been in that business for years.”

“Then why were you so hot to be the new CEO?”

“I told you, and so did Ben and Jesse, that we all wanted it because Bram was still alive. But Ben is the only one who has any genuine interest in Tidewater. So even if you and I do get married and you turn your shares over to me, I will use them to vote Ben in as CEO.”

“Then why didn’t Ben offer to marry me?”

“Because he doesn’t love you.”

Willa drew in a shaky breath. This was getting them exactly nowhere. She turned her back to him and silently walked to the bow of the boat. Nobody fell in love in eight days, and nobody as handsome and rich and self-assured as Sam Sinclair was going to fall in love with her. Which was perfectly fine, because she sure as heck wasn’t ever falling in love with anyone ever again. It was bad enough that she loved Shelby and Jennifer and Cody with all her heart. Not for the first time since the accident, Willa was tempted to sail into the sunset and find a deserted

island. She could drop Sam off on the town dock, go home to pack some clothes and supplies, and point the RoseWind toward the southern horizon. Shelby and Jennifer and Cody would miss her at first, but they’d eventually get over it. And Sam could clean up the mess Abram had made and eventually find someone he could really love and get on with his own life. She stared out at the ocean and sighed, wondering why that was such a depressing thought.

Since he’d grown accustomed to going to bed and making love to Willa for half the night, Sam was unable to sleep despite being utterly exhausted. He was back up in the front bunk, alone, and thoroughly at odds with himself.

He’d been more surprised than Willa that morning when he’d told her that he loved her. He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen in love with her, but he’d said the words out loud, by God, and he wasn’t taking them back. Hell, why else would he have volunteered to be the one to marry her? He wasn’t into self-sacrifice, so it must be love—or something real close to it. And considering the position his grandfather had put her in, the truth was the best he could offer Willa and the least she deserved. Abram Sinclair had been able to accomplish what the marriage posse hadn’t in just six short weeks, proving that money and power were amazing tools in the hands of someone who knew how to use them. Dammit, he was a successful, intelligent businessman in his own right—so why couldn’t he find a solution to this mess? Willa had asked him to help her break Bram’s will, but he’d dismissed the idea because…because…