“Not quite. Maybe by July.”
“It’ll be in the high eighties by then.”
“Good. Maybe the only thing you’ll feel like wearing is a bikini.”
They crossed the street and stopped in front of the Tranquil House Inn, which had a sign that read 1587 Restaurant.
“Are you as hungry as I am?” Ian asked.
“Starving.” They’d left Kate’s parents’ house around noon the day before and had broken up the thirteen-hour drive from Zionsville to Roanoke Island by stopping in West Virginia for the night. They’d gotten back on the road right after breakfast and hadn’t stopped for lunch. Having been sidetracked upon their arrival, they were now more than ready to eat.
A hostess escorted them to a table near the window and took their drink orders. They had a stunning view of Shallowbag Bay and the boats in the slips that lined the dock. Kate shielded her eyes from the sun that reflected off the water and streamed into the dining area, filling it with light.
When their drinks arrived, Ian lifted his glass. “Cheers to an endless summer, Katie.”
She smiled, clinked his glass with hers, and said, “Cheers.”
Roanoke Island was good for Kate. Ian treated her like a cherished treasure, and he handled her with the utmost care.
Every night he slept with his arms around her and his body pressed up against hers.
Every day he told her how much he loved her.
She had cried an ocean of tears in the preceding months, more than she’d ever had a reason to shed in her adult life, and she was determined that there would be no more crying.
They explored every inch of the island as well as all the towns along the Outer Banks, making their way north to Duck and south to Hatteras. Each day brought a new choice, and they’d discovered early on that they both preferred spending their time near the water. Kate loved lying on the beach, watching the ghost crabs scuttle along the sand while she read a book until she got too hot and had to submerge herself in the still slightly chilly ocean. She took long walks before breakfast every morning, but on Roanoke Island the air smelled like the ocean instead of the Mississippi River.
Ian had taken up windsurfing on Pamlico Sound as his preferred form of exercise. His dirty-blond hair was longer and had lightened considerably from the daily exposure to the sun. With his deep tan, he looked more like a surfer than a hacker, especially when he came out of the water, board shorts hanging low on his hips and sand clinging to his feet.
By the middle of June, only the slightest sadness remained from the emotional trauma of thinking she’d lost him forever. But every now and then the events of the previous months backed up on her and escaped without warning.
“This house is too small for a man who is six foot four,” Ian said one day after nearly hitting his head on the doorframe.
“I like this small house and this small island because I always know where you are,” Kate said and then burst into tears.
“Sweetness, come here,” he said, pulling her to him. He held her tight, stroking her hair until she calmed.
“I’m sorry,” she said, holding on to him until her heart stopped racing. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“You don’t ever have to apologize to me. And I promise I will never leave you again.”
To celebrate the Fourth of July, they decided to spend the evening at Nags Head.
“One of the locals told me they’re shooting fireworks off from the pier. We should have a great view from the beach,” Ian said as he put the cooler in the car.
When they arrived at the public access point, they walked along the path and up the wooden stairs until they reached the top of the dune, Ian pulling a beach cart behind him with their supplies. Below, the beach was filling up fast.
“Let’s head over that way,” Ian said, pointing toward an area that wasn’t quite as crowded.
He hadn’t let Kate help him with any of the preparations. He’d filled the cooler, gathered up the rest of the things they’d need, and loaded everything in the car. Now, after they shook out the blanket and set their low beach chairs down side by side, he reached into the cooler.
“Wow, champagne,” Kate said when he held up the bottle. “Fancy.”
He popped the cork and filled two flutes. “Nothing but the best for you.”
“What else do you have in that bag of tricks?”
“Chocolate-dipped strawberries, of course.”
“Of course,” she said, opening her mouth so he could feed her one.
They ignored the beach chairs in favor of stretching out on the blanket. Around them, children built sand castles and chased each other holding sparklers. The sun began to dip lower on the horizon, its fiery reddish-gold color fading as the light slowly disappeared from the sky. A strong breeze was blowing in off the ocean, and Kate shivered. Ian reached for his faded MIT sweatshirt and pulled it down over her head, freeing her hair while she put her arms through the sleeves.
“Ah, much better,” she said.
When it was fully dark, he sat down in one of the beach chairs and tucked Kate in front of him, nestling her between his legs. “While we’re waiting for the fireworks, I thought I’d tell you a story.”
“A story? I’m intrigued.”
“Once upon a time there was a hacker. He saw a woman on TV and he thought she was beautiful and selfless and kind. And even though he’d hacked her, she agreed to go out with him. He tried to play it cool, but he was really happy about that. He didn’t even mind when she whipped out her pepper spray and made him take off all his clothes.”
“You wanted me to see your naked body, which I will concede I now enjoy having unlimited access to. God, you were so cocky that night. I can’t believe I agreed to go out with a man who’d hacked my computer and wouldn’t tell me his last name. What was I thinking?”
“I have no idea. Frankly I thought you’d run.” He reached around with the champagne bottle to top off her flute. “So when this hacker was younger, he never thought much about settling down or having a wife.”
Kate took a sip of her champagne and smiled.
“But one day he started thinking about it. He was deeply in love with the girl he’d seen on TV and wanted a future with her. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and he was scared that he’d lost her forever. But one of the things he’d always admired was her tolerance. Though he’d really pushed it, she found it in her heart to forgive him for what he’d done. And after several tense hours of negotiation, her dad reluctantly agreed to give the marriage his blessing.”
At this point, Ian turned Kate around so that she was facing him.
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Katherine Watts, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?”
Tears rolled down Kate’s face despite her resolution that there would be no more crying. “Nothing would make me happier than marrying you, Ian. I would be honored to become your wife.”
He embraced her, and she pressed her face to his chest. She had never felt more sure about a decision in her life. Feeling movement between their bodies, she pulled back slightly and wiped her eyes. “Are you trying to put your hand down my shorts?”
“I’m trying to dig your ring out of my pocket.”
“There’s a ring?”
“Of course there’s a ring.” Once he’d managed to remove the box, he told her to close her eyes, and he turned on the flashlight app on his phone so they’d have enough light to see by. “Now give me your hand.”
She worried that he might have spent too much. Any man who could pay seven million for a car could have easily gone overboard in the ring department. But when he slipped it onto her finger and told her to open her eyes, she gasped because it was exactly the type of ring she would have chosen. At approximately two and half carats, it definitely wasn’t small, but it wasn’t ostentatiously large either. A halo of smaller diamonds surrounded the center princess-cut stone, giving the ring a vintage feel that she love
d.
“Oh my God.”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s perfect. Have you had it the whole time?”
“It was a custom design. FedEx just delivered it yesterday.”
“Let me guess. Right around the time you asked if I’d run back to the coffee shop to grab you a muffin.”
“I was tracking the delivery on my phone.”
Kate laughed. “Of course you were.”
“Remember the day I spent with your parents while you were driving from Minneapolis? I really wanted to get it right, so I asked your mom to help me design the ring. It made her cry.”
“It’s amazing. I love it.”
“You were worried it might be too big, weren’t you?”
“No, not at all.”
He laughed. “Kate.”
“Maybe a little.”
Just then the fireworks began, and as the colors streaked across the sky, the future Mrs. Bradshaw snuggled with the man she couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her life with.
The next night, when they were seated at a table at 1587 Restaurant, which had quickly become one of their favorite places to eat on Roanoke Island, Ian said, “My fiancée would like a glass of chardonnay and I’ll have a bourbon.”
“You are so sweet,” Kate said, smiling back at him because his happiness was palpable.
“Congratulations,” the hostess said. “When’s the big day?”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Ian said.
“We do weddings at the inn. You should stop by the front desk and pick up some information on the way out.”
“Really?” Ian said.
“Yes. People get married here all the time. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
“We cannot elope,” Kate said once the hostess had walked away. “Underneath my mother’s sweet and mild-mannered exterior lies a woman hell-bent on immersing herself in the planning of her only daughter’s wedding. She’s been looking forward to it my whole life. She won’t admit it, but when I broke up with Stuart she mourned the loss of that ceremony. She hasn’t been able to scratch her itch with Chad because Kristin’s mom is just as cuckoo about weddings as she is. If she doesn’t get the chance to make her wedding fantasies come true with me, she’ll come unglued and then my dad will kill you for real.”
“Oh, I know all about your mother’s wedding obsession. After she helped me with your ring, we sat on the couch with my laptop for hours while we were waiting for you. She showed me flowers and dresses, we looked at tuxedos and wedding cakes. I know we can’t elope. But what about inviting everyone to come here? It shouldn’t be hard to plan, especially with your mom’s help.”
“That’s actually a really good idea.”
“Do you think she’ll be upset that we can’t have a large wedding?” Ian said. They’d already discussed the fact that only Kate’s parents and Chad and Kristin could know what had happened with Ian.
“She’ll be fine. And considering we’ll have to pull it together quickly, she’ll have her work cut out for her.”
“What about you? What do you want?”
“As long as my immediate family is here and you’re waiting for me at the end of the aisle, that’s all I care about. Maybe everyone could spend some time with us on the island before the wedding. You could meet Chad and Kristin. Just a heads-up: my brother thinks you’re crazy.”
“I’ll win him over. You’ll see. I’d want to invite Phillip and Susan too.”
“Of course,” Kate said. “Maybe we could also invite your mom.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
But Kate didn’t think he would.
Diane had thrown herself headlong into planning the wedding, and she’d already made a trip down to meet with the wedding planner and go over things with Kate. They’d decided to get married at the inn as their hostess had suggested. It was such a small affair that everything came together easily, which was exactly the way they wanted it. Kate bought a dress online, which had almost sent her mother over the edge, but once Diane saw a picture of it she calmed down considerably. The ivory bias-cut silk sheath with narrow straps was simple and understated and would look beautiful on Kate.
“Has Ian seen the dress?” her mother asked one day when they spoke on the phone.
“No. I told him he had to wait until our wedding day. He did ask about my hair. I said I was going to wear it up and attach the veil underneath. I have no idea why he wanted to know.”
“I know why,” Diane said.
“You do? Tell me.”
“Absolutely not. I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”
“You’re just giddy about it, aren’t you?”
“I can’t help it,” Diane said. “You’re going to be so surprised.”
“What do you feel like doing today?” Ian asked one morning a week before the wedding. They had walked to the Coffeehouse to pick up breakfast and were now sitting in the Adirondack chairs on the patio, drinking coffee and eating, the air around them growing steamy and humid. “Beach day at Nags Head? Lunch in Rodanthe?”
“It’s supposed to storm later, so I vote Rodanthe,” Kate said. “We can have lunch at Good Winds and then come back here and crawl into bed while it rains.”
“I like the way you think.”
“Heard from Phillip lately?” Kate asked, taking a drink of her coffee.
“I actually got a call from him this morning while you were on your walk. He said he was losing hair at an alarming rate and that what was left was turning white. He sounded worried.”
“He should be basking in the glow of a job well done now that the forum’s been shut down.”
“Phillip doesn’t bask. Despite the stress, he’s not happy unless he has a new problem to solve.”
The carding ring had been fully dismantled, but the arrests had all been carried out after Ian had been doxed, leaving him to wonder if it was actually a carder who’d discovered his identity. He’d admitted to Kate that the possibility of it being someone with a different motive worried him immensely.
“What’s got him so rattled?” Kate asked.
“Hacktivists. They’ll rattle anyone, even Phillip.”
“Hacktivists? Hackers who are activists?” Kate knew the combination of those two words couldn’t be a good thing.
“That’s exactly what it means. They’re socially and politically motivated. Largely nonviolent, but they care deeply about their agenda and will pursue it at any cost. It’s keeping Phillip awake at night.”
“Are they really that bad?”
“They make the carders look like Boy Scouts. But unlike cyberthieves, they’re not profit oriented, which makes them much harder to stop. They just want to be heard.”
“So if they don’t steal, what do they do?”
“They launch denial-of-service attacks, which send so much traffic to a website that it crashes. They help themselves to confidential information because they believe very strongly in free speech. Government agencies are frequent targets, which is why Phillip asked me to do the pentesting. He doesn’t feel the current systems are as secure as they need to be.”
“What do you think?”
“I think he’s right to be worried.”
“Sounds like it’ll be quite a challenge,” Kate said.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never gone this long without hacking into something.”
“Frankly I’m surprised you don’t have the shakes.”
“When did that mouth get so smart?” he asked, grinning and pulling her toward him for a kiss.
They’d brought their laptops to the island, and Ian had secured an anonymous network connection for them. Kate had been relieved to learn that he could no longer detect the presence of a backdoor on her computer, but she still felt uncomfortable using it.
“The longer you use it, the more convincing it will seem, in case they check back,” Ian said. “We’ll gradually phase it out and I’ll set you up with a new one.”
They were p
lanning on returning to Washington a few days after the wedding, having decided that a summer on Roanoke Island was the perfect honeymoon and neither of them minding that they’d done things out of order. “Let’s go someplace tropical in January,” Ian had said. “I’ll be itching to get out of the cold by then.”
Kate was looking forward to the next phase of their lives, and she knew Ian was eager to get back to work. Though he swore to Kate that the time they were spending at the cottage was everything he wanted and needed, it was the most idle he’d ever been in his life. He was ready to buy a house and wanted to connect with a Realtor as soon as possible; in the meantime, they’d live in Phillip and Susan’s guesthouse, which did not thrill him.
“It won’t be long before we have our own place,” she reassured him. She didn’t mind the guesthouse for the same reason she didn’t mind the small cottage they were currently living in. She needed closeness more than she needed space. For a little while longer at least.
Kate’s family and Phillip and Susan were due to arrive on the island the next morning, and Kate and Ian had booked them rooms at the Tranquil House Inn. Ian had invited his mother, but she’d left a voice mail saying she’d be unable to attend and hadn’t given a reason. Ian shrugged it off, and Kate didn’t press him about how he really felt. Someday maybe she’d be able to facilitate a reconciliation between the two of them.
Kate had expected to be busy, maybe even a little stressed out, but Diane had triple-checked every detail, leaving Kate with nothing to do but relax.
“I’m going out to get a haircut,” Ian said.
Kate looked up. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I would expect any man marrying my daughter to get his hair cut before the most important day of his life.”
“This is the second time you’ve mentioned your daughter.”
“Shelby is our daughter.”
“You’ve already named her?”
“You can name our son.”
“William.”