Gansett After Dark (13 page)

Because she couldn’t resist touching him when he was lying so close to her, she unbuttoned his shirt and laid her hand on his chest. The steady beat of his heart under her palm calmed her like nothing else could. “Charlie took Sarah home with him tonight.”

His hand covered hers. “Really? Good for them.”

“He has this amazing second chance because of you.”

“I just made a phone call. Dan gets the credit for freeing him.”

“You get half the credit, because without that phone call, there would’ve been no Dan Torrington to the rescue.”

“We’re both glad we were able to right a terrible wrong—for Charlie and for you.”

“I don’t want to be afraid anymore, Grant, but it’s almost like I don’t know how
not
to be. I’ve spent most of my life afraid of one thing or another. It’s a hard habit to break.”

“I have every confidence that you’re capable of anything you set your mind to doing. If you decide that fear isn’t going to run your life anymore, then I have no doubt you’ll make that happen. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You have no idea how much everyone admires you for what you’ve been able to accomplish all on your own.”

“You admire me,” she said with a laugh. “Who’s the one with the Academy Award?”

“That’s nothing compared to the huge accomplishment of fighting to overturn a conviction that never should’ve happened in the first place.”

“At which I was hugely unsuccessful until you came along and made that phone call.”

“Steph… Come on. Why can everyone see this but you? You’re the hero of this story, not me. Not Dan. You. If you hadn’t kept fighting, I would’ve never known about Charlie or his situation. If you hadn’t cared about him more than you cared about yourself, he’d still be sitting in that prison. You need to take most of the credit for freeing him, and you need to free yourself by letting go of the past and embracing the future.”

“I’m trying. You have no idea how hard I’m trying.”

“I know you are. When you and I are together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“I was on my way to believing that when the accident happened, and I had a whole day to contemplate how I’d ever manage to live without you.”

“Ah Christ,” he said with a sigh. “And then I came back a total wreck, and all the focus was on me when you were dying inside. I’m sorry, honey. I should’ve paid more attention to how traumatizing it was for you.”

“It was way worse for you.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” He pulled her in closer to him, his lips pressed to her forehead. “God, I love you so much. I had no idea it was possible to love anyone as much as I love you. And the thought of you worried or afraid for all this time, and me not even knowing it… I feel like a selfish bastard.”

“You’re not. It’s not your fault. I went out of my way to hide my worries from everyone. No one knew until today.”

“Will you promise me you won’t suffer in silence anymore?”

She nodded.

“Say it. I want to hear the words.”

“I promise I won’t suffer in silence anymore.”

“And do you promise to remember every day that I love you more than I love myself and all that matters to me is that you’re safe and happy?”

“If you promise to remember I feel the same exact way about you.”

His smile filled her with giddy joy. It was okay. He knew all her darkest worries and loved her anyway. “Promise.”

“Me, too.” She drew him into a soft, sweet kiss. “Let’s go to bed.”

“Not before we set a wedding date.”

“Oh, I thought you’d forgotten about that,” she said with a coy smile to let him know she was kidding.

“I haven’t forgotten and neither have you.” As he spoke, he pulled her top up and over her head, released her bra and removed it. “What’s it going to be?”

“Whatever you want is fine with me.”

Nuzzling her breasts, he said, “How about next weekend, then?”

Her mouth fell open in shock, and she tugged at his hair to get his attention, which was fully on her breasts. “What? Next weekend?”

He looked at her briefly before stroking her nipple with his tongue. “Why not?”

Stephanie squirmed as desire shot through her, hot and insistent, until she throbbed from wanting him. “We can’t get married next weekend.”

“How come?” he asked as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

She gasped and squiggled, forcing him to release her. “First of all, that’s right before Laura and Owen’s wedding, and I don’t want to upstage them. Second of all, it’s still high season at the restaurant, and it took a lot of juggling to get today off. I don’t want to be worried about work when I should be focused on you. Third of all… I can’t think of a third reason, but the first two are enough.”

He cupped both her breasts and ran his thumbs over her nipples until they were hard and tingling. “Okay, then Labor Day. We’ll get married on the last day of the official summer season when everyone will be headed home and we get the island back—for the most part.” The season lingered these days until Columbus Day, but things definitely quieted down on Labor Day.

“Fine. We’ll get married on Labor Day.”

“Where?” he asked as he unbuttoned her shorts and slid his hand down the front of her until he was cupping her sex.

“On the beach.”

His fingers pressed and probed until they encountered the well of moisture that awaited him. “And then what?”

“We’ll have a party at the restaurant.”

“Good. It’s a plan.” He sat up suddenly, pulling her shorts and panties off her in almost frantic motions that indicated how badly he wanted her. After removing his own clothes, she expected him to help her up and lead her to bed. But he came down on top of her, apparently in too much of a rush to change locations.

“I love you, too, you know. Unreasonably.”

“There’s not one thing about it that’s unreasonable,” he said, kissing and touching and caressing her until she was on the verge of begging him to take her.

“You’re often extremely unreasonable, but I love you anyway.”

His huff of laughter preceded the press of his erection against her sensitive opening.
 

Stephanie raised her hips, needing to get closer, to take him in, to show him what he meant to her. She wanted to give him everything, including the family he wanted so much. If it meant making him happy, she would swallow all her remaining fears and have faith that the future he promised would be as bright and as glorious as he said it would be. As long as she had him, she couldn’t imagine her life playing out any other way.

With a hard thrust, he entered her fully, and every thought that didn’t involve the exquisite pleasure they found together was pushed from her mind, swept away on a waves of desire that required her full attention.

“Nothing has ever been like this, Steph,” he whispered against her ear as he pushed deep into her before withdrawing and doing it again. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Listening to him, feeling him, surrounded by him, Stephanie finally was able to let go of the past, of the fears that had ruled her, and embrace the future that would revolve around him and the love they’d found together.
 

“You can’t ever leave me,” he said. “You’d ruin me.”

“Where would I go when the only thing I need is right here?”

Her words seemed to light a fire in him that had him picking up the pace, until they both cried out from the power of what they’d created. She clung to him, her anchor in the storm, and took everything he had to give until he was spent and lax in her arms, his heart beating fast and his breathing rapid.
 

“So Labor Day it is?” he asked after a long period of silence.

“Labor Day it is.”

Mac and Maddie arrived home from the day’s festivities to find a party going on at their house. Daisy and David, who’d been babysitting for them while they attended what they thought would be a clambake, were entertaining Jenny Wilks and her fiancé, Alex Martinez, as well as Jared James and his new wife, Lizzie. With them was another woman Maddie didn’t know.

“Hey,” Daisy said when they came in through the sliding door. “Mom and Dad are home, and we’re in so much trouble for having a party.”

“Oh stop it,” Maddie said to her friend. “As long as no one was drinking, there’s no trouble.” The kitchen table was littered with beer bottles, wineglasses and snacks.

“Um, well,” Alex said, trying to hide his beer bottle.

Mac laughed at his lame effort. “Are there more of those somewhere?”

“In the fridge,” David said. “Help yourself.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Mac said.

“It is your house after all,” David replied.

“Do you want us to go?” Daisy asked Maddie when she pulled up a chair to the table.

“No need to break up the party,” Maddie said, even though she was beyond exhausted. Since discovering her third child was on the way, exhaustion had been her closest friend. She’d never been this tired with Thomas or Hailey. “How were they?”

“Thomas didn’t want to go to bed, as usual, but he’s out cold now.”

“He didn’t give you a hard time, did he?”

“Nothing like that. He and Uncle David were having fun with the trucks, and he didn’t want to stop playing.”

“I can picture that. We have the same issue with Daddy most nights. How was Hailey?”

“An angel, as always.”

“That’s good to hear. She is a nice, easy baby.” Maddie rested her hand on her belly, which was just starting to expand. “I hope this one is, too.”

“Maddie and Mac,” Jenny said, “this is my friend Erin Barton. She’s interviewing with the town council Monday to take my place at the lighthouse.”

Erin had long, light brown hair that she wore in a ponytail that made her look younger than her age, which Maddie estimated to be in her mid-thirties. “So nice to meet you, Erin,” Maddie said.

“My dad is on the council,” Mac said. “I’ll tell him to be nice to you.”

“He’s nice to everyone,” Jenny said.

“That he is,” Mac said with a smile for Erin. “I’m sure if Jenny is recommending you, you’re a shoo-in.”

“I’m still not a hundred percent sold on this change Jenny insists I need,” Erin said, “but she can be hard to resist when she gets something in her head.”

“Don’t I know it,” Alex said drolly, winking at his fiancée.

“You love when I get something in my head,” Jenny said with a meaningful smile that made everyone laugh.

“TMI,” Erin said, covering her ears.

“I’m sorry,” Jenny said with a somberness that took Maddie by surprise. Jenny had obviously been joking around. Why would she feel the need to apologize to her friend?

Sensing Maddie’s confusion, Erin said, “I’m Toby’s twin sister. The original fiancé.”

“Oh,” Maddie said as the import settled in on her. Toby had been killed on 9/11. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
 

“That’s very kind of you. It was a long time ago, and no one is more thrilled for Jenny than I am. Truly.”

Jenny gave her friend a one-armed hug. “Thanks.”

“I might be happier for Jenny than you are,” Alex said, which had them all laughing again.

“I like him,” Erin said.
 

“So do I,” Jenny replied. “And the best part? He has a brother who’s almost as handsome as he is.”

“He is nowhere near as handsome as I am,” Alex said. To Erin, he added, “I’d hate to see you get your hopes up only to have them dashed.”

“Oh my God,” Jenny said. “You’re insufferable. Paul is every bit as gorgeous as you are, isn’t he, ladies?”

“Absolutely,” Lizzie said.

Her new husband glared at her playfully.

“What? He is. Just because I’m married now doesn’t mean I’m suddenly blind.”

Maddie giggled behind her hand.

“What’s so funny over there, Mrs. McCarthy?” her husband asked.

“That you all think we get hysterical blindness or something once you put a ring on our fingers. My eyes still work just fine, and Paul Martinez is hot.”