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each other and kissed. When they turned back Meg recognized the shock of unruly white hair on the man.
    “There’s Stan,” Meg said.
    The couple kissed again, and Cole stared at Stan and his wife with the same steely gaze he looked at anything.
    “That marriage is a testament to true love,” Cole finally said.
    The air rushed from Meg’s lungs.
    “Excuse me?” Meg did her best to pull closed her mouth instead of staring at Cole with total surprise.
    Did Cole Jackson just say the words true love and marriage ? Shock. Absolute shock. Had the earth upended?
    Cole’s right eyebrow lifted skyward. “What? You think I don’t believe in true love?”
    Meg struggled to form words. Something akin to a gurgle escaped her mouth. “Urghh…I…well, I guess I never considered what you thought about true love,” she finally answered stiffly, attempting to maintain her composure.
    “But you’d guess I didn’t believe in it? If you had…considered it?”
    Meg couldn’t meet Cole’s eyes, and instead stared at Stan and his wife walking toward them. Her expression would be a dead giveaway. Of course a man of Cole’s ilk didn’t believe in true love. Or there’d been no evidence of his belief in love nor marriage in the three years she worked for him. Especially if you considered his relationship patterns: Find hot model, date hot model, discard hot model, have Meg send flowers to hot model after relationship ends so as not to be deemed a complete cad.
    “Well, I do,” Cole said softly. “I believe in both—true love and marriage.”
     “Well, good then.” Meg’s heart beat fast as if she’d been running down the beach, not just walking beside her boss. “For you and…whomever it is you’re dating right now.”
    “Actually”—Cole turned to her and she could feel his eyes on her—“I’m not dating anyone at the moment.”
    Meg’s breath caught in her chest. She forced the salty air into her lungs. This was merely a conversation. Between two people. Not innuendo or veiled information or a segway into something other than a business relationship. So why did Cole’s gaze feel so heavy upon her and for god’s sake why couldn’t she force her heart to stop beating two hundred times per minute. Control. She needed absolute and total control of her emotions. Cole equaled business.
    Meg looked away from Cole and his endless muscles and sun-kissed skin and tousled black hair and sparkly eyes. She buried her unwanted desire for her boss and stared down the beach toward Stan, who now had his hand over his eyes and his head cocked to the side. He squinted as if trying to confirm that the person he thought he saw approximately twenty yards in front of him was actually—
    “Meg Parson!” Stan yelled. He moved quickly for a man who was nearly a septuagenarian. He held his wife’s hand as they walked toward Meg and Cole. “Oh my goodness! It is you! And on my beach!”
    The last time she saw Stan he’d smiled that same smile. He had seemed pleased by the deal he and Meg struck for Cole to buy TBC. And he seemed just as pleased to see her now. Business was business, true, but business was lovelier when you could do it with someone you enjoyed. And Stan, with his gentlemanly hugs and grandfatherly advice, was a person Meg enjoyed doing business with.
    “Did you hunt me down because I didn’t call you back?” Stan said, smiling, and threw his arms around Meg, giving her a hug.
    “Maybe,” Meg said, and wiggled her eyebrows. She wouldn’t attempt to fool Stan. It was no use. He’d been a businessman for over forty years and he’d seen every kind of maneuver. In her negotiations with him, Meg had quickly sorted out that the best way to approach Stan was straightforward and with honesty.
    “Meg, this is my wife, Allison.” Stan gazed at the woman with blondish hair and a round figure. The evidence of his love for Allison left track marks all over his face: love-lit eyes, broad smile, even a protective tilt