He looked across the lawn at her as she laughed and talked with Penny, her back resting against the tree trunk. Damn she was beautiful. Yes, stunning on the outside, but her inner beauty shone like a beacon. He loved her. He didn’t see her with love, he didn’t love things about her, he loved her. Was in love with her.

“You love her, don’t you?” Shane’s father came to stand next to his son.

He looked at his father. “You’re scary. I just realized it myself. I’m scared to death I’ll f**k it up. I don’t have the best track record with this stuff.”

Edward chuckled. “That’s love. Real love is scary. Because you know what you stand to lose. But she’s damned strong, Shane. You need that. You didn’t need some tough-as-nails woman to capture your heart. That’s Marc. No, you needed a woman who was as strong as you but who engaged your ability to empathize. To show you what it meant to truly rise above and live. She’s a fighter, our Cassie. She’s your equal and your other half because she gives you the ability to see beyond yourself.

“You’re a good man, Shane. But you’ve been selfish with women after Sandra. It’s been hard to watch you wall your emotions off the way you did. All we could do was hope like hell Cassie would come along and break your shell. And she did and you’ve broken hers too. Seeing you so gentle with her does my heart proud. I’m proud of you, son. You’re a man now.” Edward pressed a kiss to his son’s cheek and squeezed his shoulder before Shane moved to walk down to his woman.

But before Shane got to her she was standing up and looking toward the water. She took off at a run and Matt ran the other way, toward the front of the house.

Shane yelled her name but she dove off the dock and he ran, balls out, to reach her. Dee was crying and, in what felt like slow motion, Cassie surfaced, holding eighteen-month-old Michael in her arms. He’d fallen from the dock into the water and at some point, he’d taken a knock to the head and a deep, ugly wound gashed into his forehead.

Matt shoved him out of the way and took Michael from Cassie. Breaking free of his trance, Shane reached out to help her scramble up onto the dock.

“Back up,” she ordered and everyone did. Shane put his arm around Dee with Arthur on the other side of her.

Matt opened a medical bag and Shane watched in awe, as his Cassie melted away and a confident, in charge woman replaced her. Her face was set in concentration as she tipped Michael’s neck up and leaned in.

“Matt, I’m going to need something for this head wound but let’s get him breathing first.”

Matt took orders smoothly as she began to give CPR to Michael, who’d turned blue.

Dee sobbed and he heard his father yell out that an ambulance was on the way.

Cassie broke her lips from Michael’s and turned him onto his side and he coughed, water gushing from his mouth. She continued to give orders to Matt while she alternately spoke to Michael in a soothing voice to keep him calm.

Without taking her eyes from Michael, Cassie addressed Dee. “Dee, honey, can you hold it together? Just kneel down and touch his legs. He’s scared. I’m going to get this gash on his head cleaned up and the bleeding stopped. He’ll probably need a few stitches. Ask when you get to the hospital for a surgeon to do it. Preferably a plastic surgeon if one is available. That should help with the scar. He’s going to be all right, Dee.”

Dee took a deep breath and fell to her knees. She reached out to rub Michael’s legs while talking to him, reassuring him. Cassie continued to work and Matt handed her everything she asked for. The siren sounded as the ambulance neared.

The paramedics ran over with a board and Cassie spoke to them clearly and quietly, explaining what had happened and what had been done. Dee moved to go with them in the ambulance, Arthur would follow in the car. Cassie followed until they got loaded in and drove away.

As she returned to the yard, Shane looked to her, amazement on his face. Matt wore an identical look.

She held up a hand. “I need a drink. The story is long and I can’t tell it with everyone here.”

Polly had already begun to shoo people out of the yard and Edward put a tumbler filled with an amber liquid into her hand. One handed, he pressed her into a chair in the shade.

When everyone but the Chases, Penny and Liv had gone, Cassie took a deep breath, and the smoky scent of good scotch filled her nose. Two swallows and it was gone. The heat spread through her, warring with the adrenaline crash.

“My name is not Cassie Gambol. It’s Carly Sunderland. Or rather, it used to be Carly Sunderland, it’s been changed legally. A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I was a successful vascular surgeon at a private hospital in Orange County. You all know the story of my ex-husband.

“I divorced him. He wasn’t happy. He harassed me and my family. Showed up at my job until they had to bar him from the hospital and he lost his position and ability to practice there and his own practice group tossed him out. I kept quiet and was careful when I went home so he couldn’t follow me. I thought I’d been successful. But I wasn’t. Eight months later he found me. Broke into my condo while I was sleeping. I woke up with him on my chest and a hammer coming toward my face. I threw him off but I tripped leaving my bedroom and he landed on my back. He held me down while he used the hammer to shatter the bones in two of the fingers in my right hand. I tried to get free but he’s a big man.

“Blood was everywhere, I was slipping in it as I tried to struggle. I’ll never forget the smell. It wasn’t like I’d never smelled blood before but it was different because I knew it was mine. I knew I was losing too much.