Pushing back his chair, he moved to stand, but the next song stopped him. She began singing about two lovers that had crossed paths and gone their separate ways. A sad song, filled with emotion that drop-kicked him back into his chair.
When he looked up at the stage he saw tears in her eyes and watched, mesmerized, as she finished the song, took a bow and said goodbye to her fans with sadness in her smile and a tremble in her hand.
Then the crowd pulsed toward the band and the place turned into chaos. Jack stayed put, hidden in the shadows, watching the band mingle with the crowd. He’d only caught the tail end of the show, but the praise was well deserved. They were very good. It only reinforced his earlier thoughts. She deserved what he couldn’t give her.
****
Darci hugged her parents, then her sisters, and waved as they left the pub. They were going back to their hotel, since her apartment wasn’t big enough to house all of them. Sadness filled her heart as she watched them drive away.
It was over. The band had said their goodbyes and gone their separate ways. She’d agreed to stay and help close up. She didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment and think about the void inside her. It hurt too much.
Turning the closed sign over, she turned back around and saw him. Sitting alone at a table in the corner, his back propped against the wall. Her heart stopped beating for the barest of seconds. She blinked, thinking her imagination played tricks on her, but when she opened her eyes he was still there.
He rose from his chair and her knees went weak. Jack. In Boston. She could only stand there in silence and watch as he weaved his way toward her. He looked good. Tall, strong, healthy. His bruises had faded, leaving a clean-shaven, handsome face that revealed none of his thoughts. The cut across his eyebrow had healed, but bisected the brow, making him look dangerously sexy. He wore low-rise jeans and t-shirt that hugged everything that should absolutely be hugged. Not even her dreams could compare to the living, breathing Jack Taggart.
He stopped a foot away from her and his scent wrapped around her, tantalizing her senses. Heaven help her, she couldn’t face him right now. She was too vulnerable, her emotions raw. Two months had passed but the pain remained. As did her love. But he hadn’t shared that love, so what brought him here? Why tonight, with her life falling apart?
“Hi.” He grinned. “I caught the tail end of your performance.”
“How’d you like it?” Her voice went breathless, but not from her singing. She wanted him to pull her into his arms because there she’d forget all her troubles. But he only stood there, looking at her in the dim light of the pub, revealing nothing.
“You’re a talented woman.”
“Thanks, but this was our last performance.” Her chest tightened at the thought. What adventure would fill the void?
Jack seemed surprised by the news. “The band is breaking up?”
She nodded. “Kit’s getting married and Brian was offered a career opportunity with a reputable rock band.”
“I see.” Jack’s gaze studied her face. If he looked any harder, he would see how she struggled. He had a way of reading her like a book. That could be irritating and wonderful at the same time.
“So what are you going to do?”
The million-dollar question. She’d been asking herself that for two months. Write songs, for sure. After that? A mystery. She had the entire world in front of her. She could do anything she wanted: travel, sightsee, enjoy her freedom. But none of that sounded fun anymore if she did it alone.
Instead of answering, she moved to an empty table and motioned for him to sit. Much safer with a block of wood between them to keep her from reaching for him.
Paddy, the owner, came over and asked if they needed anything before he turned in for the night. Jack refused and Darci assured him she’d lock up before she left. She’d spent many a late night with the band, so it wasn’t that unusual for her to lock up. Paddy had been one of her first friends here in Boston and for an old coot he was as good as they came.
“How about a beer?” She stood. “I need a beer.”
“Sure,” Jack answered, even though he’d just told Paddy he didn’t want anything.
She tapped out two beers and handed one to Jack.
“Green beer.” He examined the contents of his glass.
“Did you expect anything less?” Darci sipped hers.
Jack grinned and took a hefty swallow. She would have to escort him to the door if he didn’t like it.
When he didn’t push the remaining beer away, Darci relaxed. He liked it. Good. She didn’t think she could live with a man who didn’t drink green beer.
“I’m sorry about your band.” Jack’s voice sounded compassionate.
Darci smiled, hoping he didn’t see the sadness in it. “Me too, but it’s okay. Brian has a great opportunity and Maxine deserves her time with Kit.”
“What about you?”
Darci shifted in her chair. “I’m fine.”
“Are you?”
No, she’d lost her lover. Her band.
Jack asked the right questions and she didn’t like it. She wasn’t ready to figure out her future, and certainly not with him. He’d walked away from her and that still hurt. She loved him and that hurt too. If he’d come here thinking they could hook up for the weekend, he had another think coming. No way could she handle that, so she decided to be blunt.
“What are you doing here, Jack?”
“I came to make good on my promise.”
“You flew from California to Boston to invite me to dinner?”
“I guess that blows my ‘I was in the neighborhood’ theory,” he said with a grin.
Darci smiled. “I guess it does. Are you serious? You really want me to go with you to California just for dinner?”
“If you’re up for the adventure.”
She’d go on any adventure with him. She’d been wondering what to do next. Then Jack showed up with an answer to her problems. A temporary answer, but she wasn’t complaining.
“Having dinner with you will be an adventure?” She sipped her beer.
“It is when you include the Demarco family. Donovan has four brothers and three sisters. All Catholic and all temperamental. I figured I’d take you to lunch first and let you adjust before sitting to dinner.”
Darci refused to read too much into that. Jack never broke a promise. He was an honorable man, she knew that, but it still had her off guard that he’d come. She’d never expected to see him again. And now she had the chance to go to California, meet his friends, and fill in the blanks as to who Jack Taggart really was.
Her curiosity got the better of her. She had to know where he lived, how he lived and what kind of friends he kept. She wanted to know him as something other than the man who’d saved her life in a tropical paradise. Besides, she had nowhere else to go at this particular time in her life. An adventure might be just what she needed.
“All right, Jack, it’s a date.”
****
Jack lived in Coronado, a charming little town surrounded by water. They had to cross a bridge over the San Diego Bay to get there, and even after the long flight Darci could hardly contain her excitement. She was in California with Jack, with her whole life ahead of her. Suddenly her predicament didn’t seem so horrible. But this was how she always reacted whenever she experienced something for the first time. Jack had offered her a chance to do something she loved. How could she not be excited?
They drove past cafes and restaurants with outdoor dining and a dozen shops she couldn’t wait to explore. There were parks and beaches and Darci loved it all. The sun shone full force, promising a hot day. Jack had the air conditioner on, but Darci asked to turn it off so she could roll her windows down. He obliged with a smile and turned down another street, this one leading away from downtown.
When they pulled into the driveway of a small, white cottage with red shutters, matching roof and a stone path leading to the front door, Darci couldn’t help but g
ape. She had expected Jack to live in an apartment or condo, a bachelor pad, not a cute little gingerbread house with its octagonal turret above a covered porch. Not what she expected to see on a California beach either, but it sat on the end of a narrow road with a sprinkling of other equally cute houses.
“This is yours?” She opened her door.
“Is that a compliment?” Jack came around to her side to open the door for her, but she was already out and trotting up the path.
Darci grinned over her shoulder and waited on the porch while Jack lifted her bags out of the back of his beat-up Chevy. The truck was a workhorse, not meant for vanity, but to pull his sailboat. It didn’t look shiny and new, but it ran like a luxury vehicle. He took care of the things he cared about and it made her hot all over.
A bag in each hand, Jack strode up the stone path toward her. “Not me, I know,” he said. “A friend of my mom’s was selling it because she didn’t want to put the time or money into restoring it and sold it to me cheap a few years ago. She made me promise to renovate, not tear down. I couldn’t let her down, so I spent the past five years restoring it.”
A man of his word. Someone could have easily made that promise and turned a profit within a year, but not Jack. Honorable through and through. Big, tough alpha male living in a red and white gingerbread house.
“Well,” she said, “it looks like you did a fine job. It’s adorable.”
Jack winced as he set one of her bags down and reached out to unlock the door. “Adorable isn’t exactly what I was going for.”
“Oh, well, how about masculine? It’s very masculine in a…cute, Victorian kind of way.”
Jack groaned and pushed the door open. Darci walked in, took a look around at the very non-Victorian interior and raised an eyebrow at Jack, who grinned sheepishly.
“The stipulation was for the exterior only. Mary didn’t think it fair to keep the rose and green décor.”
“Kind of her.” Darci wandered through the foyer into the living room. Not a very big room, with a dark green sofa in one corner and matching chairs in the other two. A loaded entertainment center occupied the remaining corner, creating a cozy, turn the lights down and cuddle on the couch atmosphere. For a man he was incredibly coordinated.
“Original wood floors,” Jack said, following her. “My favorite part of the house, besides the fact it’s on the water and I can dock my boat.”
The floors were beautiful and he didn’t cover them with rugs like in most Victorian homes. He’d done a good job restoring them and, she noticed, he had kept the original Victorian cornice trim on the walls and ceilings. A bit old fashioned and a bit Jack, a nice contrast.
“Come on, I’ll give you the two-cent tour.” Jack led her back into the foyer where a wooden staircase rose to the second floor.
“Head is to your right,” he said, passing the stairs and turning right into the kitchen. More cornice trim lined the straw colored walls. The appliances were modern, the kitchen small and quaint. She noticed a vase of fresh cut flowers on the kitchen table. They stopped her dead in her tracks and for the first time she considered the fact that Jack may be involved with someone. He hadn’t promised her more than dinner and had mentioned a spare bedroom on the plane.
Jack followed her gaze. “My mom leaves fresh flowers from her garden every week. She must have dropped these off while I was in Boston.”
Darci let out a breath. Of course, his mom. Not a girlfriend or lover. Thank God. She didn’t think she could handle meeting Jack’s girlfriend.
“Your mom drops off flowers.” She stepped closer and nested her nose in the bouquet. “How sweet.”
“Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone.”
“Who would I tell?” she asked, thinking it incredibly sweet that Jack got flowers from his mom.
“Remember that when I take you to Demarco’s this afternoon. Want to freshen up before we have lunch?”
Darci turned to face him. He stood beside the fridge with one shoulder propped against it, looking so sexy that she suddenly wanted more than lunch. She liked who Jack was, on and off the island, and she needed to be close to him right now.
“I’d love a shower,” she said, watching Jack’s eyes darken when she licked her lips. They may have gone their separate ways, but the chemistry was still there.
“You can use the one upstairs.”
“Lead the way,” she said and followed him, with any luck, to his bed.
****
Damn. Wondering what color lace she wore beneath her shorts and tank for the past twelve hours was killing him. At this rate he’d be dead by sunset. Maybe lime green or purple? He’d really like to see her in purple.
Raking a hand through his hair, Jack trotted back down the stairs, trying to ignore the sounds of Darci’s shower. He had put her bags in the spare bedroom, not wanting to push her, and tried not to read too much into the disappointment in her eyes. He hadn’t called in a few favors to screw it up now, no matter how much he wanted to climb into that shower with her.
Phase one over. She liked his house. She was the first woman he’d ever brought home and he’d been nervous as hell. He knew his house wasn’t very big or grand, but he owned it, free and clear.
And she’d called it adorable. Shaking his head, Jack went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. He’d drunk green beer and fallen in love with a spirited, Celtic rock singer who thought his house cute. Who would have guessed?
The phone rang and he answered, holding it between ear and shoulder as he poured water into the pot.
“You’re home,” his mother said. “Is she with you?”
Jack smiled. “Hello to you too, Mom, and yeah, she’s here.”
“Oh, Jack, that’s wonderful. I talked to Francesca a few minutes ago and everything is all set.”
“Good. We’ll be swinging by within the next hour.”
“I can’t wait to meet her. You’re sure she isn’t going to mind us being there?”
Jack heard Darci walk out of the bathroom and into the spare bedroom, imagined her in nothing but one of his towels, and lost his train of thought.
“Jack? Hello?”
Snapping his attention back to his phone call he said, “I don’t think she’ll mind. She’s very open to new experiences.”
His mother chuckled. “Good, because meeting the Demarcos and your mother all in one day is going to be more than the poor girl should have to bear.”
“Believe me, if anyone can handle it, Darci can.”
“And it makes me happy to hear you say that. She sounds like a special lady.”
Jack smiled, and turned on the pot. “She is. I think she’s out of the shower. I better let you go. See you in a few?”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world. And don’t worry, everything is prepared for tonight.”
Jack knew with his mom and Donovan’s three sisters in his court, Darci didn’t stand a chance. Tonight was going to be a night she would never forget.
“Thanks, Mom. She’s coming, gotta go.”
Jack hung up the phone and grabbed two coffee cups out of the cupboard just as Darci walked in.
“I wasn’t sure what to wear. Is this okay for lunch?”
He turned around and almost dropped the mugs. She had chosen a form-fitting halter dress in sky blue. It brought out the color of her eyes and made her skin glow. The dress was meant to be casual. On Darci? Sexy. The hem flirted around her knees and made his mouth go dry. It had been two months since he’d seen those long, sexy legs, and damn but he’d missed them. He couldn’t help but wonder what color of lace she’d chosen to wear under the dress.
“Perfect.” He set the cups down before he dropped them. Put a tango in his sights and he was steady as a rock, but put him within fifty feet of Darci O’Shea and he cracked. No woman had ever affected him like this before. He knew without a doubt he’d made the right decision when he flew to Boston. He only hoped that after tonight Darci felt the same way.
Chapter Fourt
een
Demarco’s was not at all what Darci had been expecting. Tucked away in downtown Coronado, near the water, with a dining area out front. Small, round tables with red, white and green umbrellas littered the sidewalk, almost every one of them occupied. A canopy of similar colors with the word Demarco’s scrawled across it invited people inside the restaurant.
With a hand on the small of her back, Jack led her inside the most amazing restaurant she’d ever been in. More spacious than she’d imagined from the outside and smelled like heaven. The walls were light brown stone with large windows and solid wood floors. The oak tables held a wine glass for each setting. Paintings of Italy adorned the walls. Near the back a door led into the kitchen. Most of the tables were occupied and waiters weaved between, hard at work.
A stunning woman with dark brown hair and even darker eyes greeted them at the door. When she saw Jack, a smile lit up her face and she flew into his arms. Darci watched her kiss each of Jack’s cheeks before standing back. Darci tried not to compare herself to this voluptuous brunette, but couldn’t stand up to her lush curves.
“So nice to see you, Jack, it’s been awhile,” the woman said. “And this must be Darci. I’m Francesca. We have your table ready.”
The woman pulled Darci into a hug, catching her totally off guard. With a frown at Jack over Francesca’s shoulder, she hugged her back. But she didn’t have time to ask what was going on as they herded her to a table in the back and introduced her to the entire Demarco family. She met Roman and Maureen, the parents, the four darkly handsome brothers, Luciano, Donovan, Marcello and Shane, and the other two sisters, Gabriella and Angela. They all greeted her with open arms, hugs and a kiss from each brother.
Shell-shocked, she could only stumble her way through the introductions. Donovan Demarco was tall and gorgeous, with dark Italian looks and Irish blue eyes. He looked like he had just stepped off the cover of GQ magazine and had the elegance of a king, but something about him said this man would never be tamed. Maybe the sparkle in his eye or the way he worked the crowd, but Darci knew this man wouldn’t easily be caught.
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