Love After Dark (11 page)

“Why are you sad?” Kyle asked. “Did your mommy die, too?”

Seamus released a deep breath. “No, but I’m sad that yours did. I’m sad for her and you and Jackson.”

“It’s not fair.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Is she really not going to come back?”

Aw, God
, Seamus thought.
Give me strength and wisdom to get these poor kids through this
. “No, honey, she’s not.”

A sob shook the boy’s small body, and his tears soaked through Seamus’s T-shirt. After a while, the sobs morphed into hiccups, but Seamus never stopped rubbing the little back. Eventually, Kyle’s breathing settled, and Seamus wondered if he’d fallen back to sleep. He kept the rocking chair moving until he was certain the boy was back to sleep.

Then he stood carefully and walked back to the bedroom, where he deposited Kyle in his bed, pulled the covers up and over him and kissed his sweaty forehead. He sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, waiting to make sure Kyle had settled into sleep. When he got up to leave the room, he fixed Jackson’s covers and smoothed the hair off his forehead before leaving them to sleep.
 

Though he was now wide awake and overwhelmed by the weight of the responsibility he and Caro had assumed for these precious children, Seamus got back in bed.
 

“What’s wrong?” Caro asked as she curled up to him.

Seamus put his arms around her. “Kyle was awake and crying, so we spent some time in the rocker. The poor guy asked me if his mom is really not coming back.”

“Oh Lord. What did you say?”

“I told him the truth. What else could I say?”

“That was the right thing to do. I remember when Joe asked me that after his dad died. I was always honest with him. It took a while for him to understand how long forever really is.”

“I forget that you’ve already been through this with one heartbroken little boy, and now I’ve got you back in the same boat again.”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but in that boat with you and Kyle and Jackson. We’re going to get them through this, Seamus. It won’t happen overnight, but one day they’ll find a way to accept what’s happened, and when they do, they’ll go back to being the happy little guys they once were.”

“You promise, love?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I sure hope so, because I already love them an awful lot, and I find myself wishing for a magic wand that could make everything right in their world again.”

“Since we don’t have a magic wand handy, we’ll just have to love them through it.”

“We did the right thing taking them in, didn’t we?”

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“Not about wanting them or anything like that.”

“Then what?”

“I guess I worry that I’m not up to the job of being their dad. We know you’ve got this mother gig mastered. You’ve already raised one fantastic son, so you’re an expert. But they’re getting a rookie with me, and I’m feeling out of my league already.”

Her shoulder shook under his hand.

“Are you
laughing
at me, Carolina O’Grady?”

“I might be.” She cupped his face in her hand and kissed him. “Seamus, my love, every new parent feels the way you do. Outmatched, overwhelmed, certain that disaster is looming around the next corner. Those boys have suffered a terrible tragedy. There’s no way around that. But you’re their silver lining.”

“
We
are.”

“
You
are. I’ll give them everything I have to give, but you… You’ll teach them how to be men, and if they’re even half the man you are, you will have done an amazing job.”

“Awww, Caro, that’s a sweet thing for you to say.”

“It’s the truth. What happened to their mom is a terrible stroke of bad luck, but they got lucky the day you decided we needed to be there for them. They may not know it yet, but someday they will.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“When have you ever known me not to be right?”

“Um, how about the months you spent pushing me away when you
knew
we were meant to be?”

“Other than that.”

“That’s a pretty big other than.”

“Shut up and kiss your wife.”

“My sassy wife, you mean.” Since there was truly nothing else he’d rather do than kiss his wife, he did as he was told like the good husband he was. And as he did every day, he gave thanks to whatever higher power had brought her and her good sense into his life.

They were in for one hell of a challenging ride with their boys, but Seamus was confident that with her by his side to make sure he didn’t screw it up, they’d do right by Kyle and Jackson.

Lizzie James was up before the sun on Sunday morning. She’d been awake for hours thinking about the idea that had taken root the night before and how they might make it happen. It was such a brilliant idea—a place on the island for seniors and others in need of health care so they could remain close to their loved ones. She and Jared certainly had the resources to make it happen, and it might turn out to be an ideal situation for her brother-in-law Quinn, who’d returned from his service as a medic in Afghanistan badly injured and in need of a new direction.

The more she thought about the idea, the more brilliant it became. She made it until seven o’clock before she brought a mug of coffee into the bedroom with her, hoping to butter up Jared.

She kissed him awake.

“Hey,” he said when his eyes finally opened. “What time is it?”

“Seven.”

“It’s Sunday, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What the heck are you doing up so early on the one day we get to sleep in?” He made himself get up and be productive the other days of the week, lest he become a slovenly “retiree.” Sundays were his day “off.”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore. And I’ve been thinking.”

“Ugh,” he said with a dramatic groan. “Any time you get to thinking, it costs me money.”

Lizzie responded with a big giddy smile.

Grinning, he shook his head. “It’s a good thing you’re so damned cute, or I might be tempted to be annoyed with you for waking me up at the butt crack of dawn.”

“You love me too much to be annoyed with me, and you have to admit I have good ideas.”

He sat up and took the mug from her. “They’re not
all
bad.”

Lizzie waited until he’d had three big sips of coffee. “So about this home for the aged that everyone was talking about last night…”

“What about it?”

“I want to go see the old school that Paul mentioned. He said the town is about to list it for sale.”

“When do you want to do this?”

“Um, now?”

“Lizzie! It’s seven o’clock in the morning on the one day we take to chill out and do nothing. Does it have to be right now?”

She smiled again, knowing that was all it took to get him to see things her way. He loved to see her smiling and happy, so she played her best card.

“I never knew you were so devious when I married you.”

“You did, too. Now get your lazy butt out of bed and drive me to see this school.” She started to get up, but he took hold of her hand, stopping her from getting away.

“On one condition.”

“What?”

“When we get back, we spend the rest of the morning in bed.”

She raised a saucy brow. “Sleeping?”

“You’ve got me wide awake after a good night’s sleep. I doubt I’ll need more sleep for many,
many
hours.”

He was so damned sexy, especially first thing in the morning with his blond hair standing on end and his jaw covered in whiskers.
 

Lizzie pretended to think about his very tempting offer for a moment or two. “Okay, we have a deal. Now get up.” She’d showered an hour ago and was already dressed. She tugged on his hand to “help” him up.

He groaned as he let her pull him out of bed.

Lizzie took a good long look at her gorgeous husband, who stood before her fully nude and fully erect. She licked her lips.

“Don’t do that and then tell me we’ve got to go somewhere.”

“What did I do?”

“You looked and you licked.”

Lizzie laughed at the foul expression that marred his handsome face. “You’re so grumpy in the morning.”

He hooked an arm around her waist. “I’m only grumpy when I get blasted out of bed far too early by my beautiful but exasperating wife who’s like a little kid at Christmas every time she gets one of her big ideas.”

“But you love me, right?”

“Yeah, baby, I love you so much that I let you drag me out of bed when all I want to do is drag you
into
bed.” He kissed her neck and nearly had her forgetting why she wanted him up so early.

“No way, buster,” she said, wise to him as she pushed him back. “No nookie until we take a lookie.”

He walked into the bathroom laughing, giving her a great view of his most excellent ass as he went. A few minutes later, he reemerged wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. His hair had been combed into submission, and he looked nothing at all like the ex-Wall Street billionaire that he was. She loved him this way—casual, relaxed, removed from the rat race that had once been his life.
 

Jared grabbed his wallet and keys from the dresser. “You’re so cute when you’re excited about something, Lizzie.”

“I must be
really
cute right now, then.”

He kissed the tip of her nose and then her lips. “You’re positively adorable. Let’s go see what’s got you all wound up.”

They drove to the north end of the island in Jared’s Porsche. Lizzie opened the window and took deep breaths of the cool, crisp September air. “This might be my favorite month here.”

“You say that every month.”

“I haven’t seen a month yet that I haven’t liked.”

“Wait until December.”

“When I’m marooned with you and a cozy fireplace while it snows outside? I’m not seeing the downside.”

He took hold of her hand and used their joined hands to shift the car. “I’m so glad you’re happy here.”

“I love everything about it, especially the part where I get to be married to you.”

“Sometimes, when I think about how close we came to missing out on what we have now…”

“Don’t think about that.”

“Hard not to when it was such a close call.”

“We got lucky, and the planets aligned in our favor.”

“I’ll never, ever take this for granted, Lizzie, even on days when you blast me out of bed way too early to tend to one of your big ideas.”

“That’s good to know,” she said, smiling over at him. “I worry about the day when I push you one step too far and you tell me, ‘That’s
it
, Elisabeth with an S. No more big ideas for you.’”

“I’m not seeing that day ever coming, as you well know, which is why you play me like a well-used fiddle to get what you want.”

“You are kind of easy,” she said with a giggle.

“Easy,” he said with an indignant huff. “I’ll show you easy when I get you back home.”

“Oh boy. I can’t wait.”

They pulled up to the building that had served as Gansett Island’s K-12 school since the seventies, and Lizzie saw right away that the abandoned school looked tired, worn and dated. But that was nothing a little TLC couldn’t fix. The second Jared brought the car to a stop, she got out to go peek into dirty windows.
 

“Be careful,” Jared said. “There might be broken glass in those weeds.”

Lizzie didn’t see the dirt or the weeds or the broken glass. She only saw the big rooms that had once housed students and might one day be rooms for elderly patients. “This is perfect,” she declared.

“You can’t tell that just by looking in a few windows.”

“It’s got good bones, and check out the size of the rooms. Come over here and look.”

Jared joined her at the window, peering inside with his hands around his eyes blocking the sunlight. “The rooms are big.”