The Walker family was very warm and welcoming, if a little on the large side. Christian was wondering where Paige had disappeared to when Morgan began to introduce him to everyone else. In addition to her father and Paige, there were three other Walker sisters and an assortment of boyfriends and husbands, as well as their grandmother, Ava, whom everyone called Grams. Christian was definitely going to have to be on his game to keep all the names straight tonight.

As they all began to take their places at the large dining table, he was glad to see that he had been seated next to Paige. Very glad.

She wasn’t anything like the models and actresses he spent so much time around. No doubt that was part of the reason he wanted to get to know her better. But it wasn’t nearly the entire reason. Nor was the fact that they needed to get along so that they would be dancing well together by the time the studio sent an entertainment news crew to the island for a publicity shoot.

No, it was simply that from the very first moment he’d seen Paige in the dance studio, his heart had all but stopped in his chest.

She was beautiful. Breathtakingly, heart-stoppingly beautiful. The kind of beauty Christian thought he ought to be used to after spending years around some of the best-looking actresses in television. Yet, next to Paige, none of those women measured up. Paige had the same blond hair and elegantly crafted features as Morgan, but there was something else there, too. Something that made her look astonishing even in simple dance leggings and glasses.

What was it about her? Her porcelain skin? Her innate poise and elegance? Her sky-blue eyes? Christian could certainly think of several co-stars who would happily sell their souls for looks as perfect as Paige’s.

Maybe that was a part of it, too. There were plenty of beautiful people in Hollywood, and at the TV studios in Seattle, but few, if any of them, seemed so sweet, or to possess such a sense of decency and gentleness. None of the actresses he knew, for example, would have ever worn dance leggings and a ponytail backstage during a show. On the contrary, they would have been busy making sure that the whole occasion was about them. Whereas Paige had quite obviously wanted to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible for the kids. He’d even spotted her backstage, helping out a girl who’d hurt her foot.

Finally, Paige came back into the living room. And as he held out her seat for her—her eyes going wide as she realized she was going to be sitting next to him throughout dinner—he suddenly couldn’t help but wonder if this week in Walker Island would change his life forever.

Excerpt from All For Love: The Walker Island Series #4, copyright 2016, Lucy Kevin