by Marie Force
“Thanks, buddy,” Frank said, squeezing Ned’s shoulder.
“So you’re going over for the services?” Kevin asked Frank.
“I’m going. For better or worse, she was my daughter-in-law. My son loved her very much, despite her challenges. And there’s no way I’d let him go through this without all the support I can muster. I’m sure Laura will go, too.”
“We’ll all go,” Mac said.
“You don’t have to do that,” Frank said, moved by his brothers’ support.
“Yeah, we do,” Kevin said.
Ned nodded in agreement.
Frank released a deep sigh. “We can’t let Shane go off the deep end again.”
“He’s so much stronger now than he was then,” Mac said. “We all see it. It’s not just Katie, although she’s been a big part of it. He’s really grown into himself since he’s been here. Mac tells me all the time that he couldn’t run the construction business without Shane.”
“It’s good for him to spend his days with his cousins and closest friends,” Frank said.
“He has support around him he didn’t have the last time, not that you and Laura didn’t do all you could,” Kevin said. “But now he’s got the entire tribe, and there’s no way any of us are going to let him falter. We’ve got him, Frankie.”
“Love you guys,” Frank said gruffly. “I’m so damned glad to have you nearby at times like this.”
“We love you, too,” Mac said. “And we love Shane. We’ll get him through this.”
Knowing his brothers and friend had his back—and his son’s—made Frank feel a thousand times better than he would have without them around to tell him everything was going to be okay.
Chapter 10
Riley showered and changed into clean jeans and the striped sweater his mother had sent him for Christmas. He put on a little cologne and was on his way to a clean getaway when Finn emerged from the shower, towel around his waist and dripping all over the place.
“Off to see your girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Yet.”
“Okay, see you later.” Riley was in no mood to spar with his brother tonight, not when he’d been waiting all day to see Nikki again.
“You going to Janey’s?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Are you bringing her?”
“Probably. Don’t be a dick if I do, you hear?”
“I’ll try not to be.”
“Try hard.” Riley zipped up his coat. “And mop up the puddle you made on the floor, will you?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
Rolling his eyes, Riley went out the door before Finn could say something else to irritate him. On the drive to Eastward Look, Riley ruminated over the way his brother had been getting under his skin lately before his thoughts naturally turned to Shane. He’d lived through a nightmare with Courtney, and now this…
Riley hadn’t known Courtney very well. He’d met her at their wedding and seen her a few times after that at family events. He remembered how happy Shane seemed with her, how his cousin had had his arm around his wife any time she was nearby. And he recalled how low Shane had been after it all went sideways. The entire family had been gravely concerned about him. Riley knew that Kevin had spent many a day trying to get through to his nephew, without success. Only when Laura begged Shane to come help with the renovations to the Surf had his cousin seemed to rally.
Witnessing Shane’s unbearable agony had been a good reminder of the many reasons it paid to remain stubbornly single. At the time, he couldn’t have imagined giving another person the power to flatten him the way Courtney had done to Shane.
But as he pulled into the long driveway that led to Nikki, he began to understand that something had shifted in him since he met her last fall, a door had opened to the possibility of taking that kind of chance. Then she’d disappeared before he’d gotten to know her. And why her and not the hundreds of other women he’d known in his life?
That was a mystery he couldn’t easily solve. All he knew was that something about her made her different from everyone else, and he wanted to know her better—perhaps better than he’d ever known anyone else.
The thoughts, coming one right after the other, frightened him. This was all new territory for someone who’d gone out of his way to avoid anything that smacked of commitment or permanence.
He was still sitting in the dark staring at her front door when his phone rang, startling him. The caller ID showed his former boss’s name.
“Hey, Clint,” Riley said. “How’s it going?”
“Not so great, to be honest. I’m just coming off another shitstorm of a week in which everything that could go wrong did.”
“Wow, sorry. What happened?”
“Incompetence, negligence and downright stupidity, to name a few things. Listen, Riley… I know you and your brother are happy out there on your island, but I could sure as hell use you guys back here. I just fired another foreman, and I’ve got another one hanging by a thread. I need people I can freaking count on, and I’m willing to double whatever you’re making now to get you back on the job.”
“I, um… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes. Come back and bring your brother. I need you guys.”
Clint Davis had been very good to Riley and Finn, employing them from the time they were in college until they took vacation to come to Gansett for Laura’s wedding and ended up staying when Mac offered them jobs. They’d also wanted to stay close to their dad in the immediate aftermath of their parents’ breakup. A few months turned into a year, and now they were well into a second year on the island.
“Let me talk to Finn and my cousin, who we’re working for now. We’re into some pretty big things out here with a new family business in the works.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get. Let me know, okay?”
“I will. Sorry things are fucked up there.”
“Me, too. I’ll look forward to hearing from you guys.”
“Take care, Clint.”
Long after he ended the call, Riley sat in the cold, pondering the complexities of timing. Then Nikki opened the inside door and turned on the porch light, and the sight of her cleared every thought that wasn’t about her from his mind. He got out of the truck and jogged to the stairs, taking them two at a time in his haste to be with her again.
“Hey,” he said, smiling when she opened the storm door for him.
“Hi there. I saw your lights coming down the driveway. Were you on the phone?”
He followed her into the kitchen. “Yeah, sorry. My old boss called.”
“No worries. I knew it was you. The big yellow plow on the front of your truck is a giveaway every time.”
“I’m going to need it tomorrow night, according to the weather reports.”
She opened a beer for him and put it on the counter. “What’d your old boss want?”
He noted that she’d gotten some Amstel Light for him. “Me. And my brother. Back to work in Connecticut, for double what we’re making now.”
“Oh.” She turned to the stove. “Are you going?”
Did she seem disappointed or was that wishful thinking on his part? “I don’t know. I like what I’m doing here, and I think Finn does, too.” He hadn’t intended to tell her about his ex-boss’s call, but he found himself spilling the details anyway. “Something smells good.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I cooked.”
“Trust me. I don’t mind. What’d you make?”
“Nothing fancy. Just pasta.”
“Works for me. Thanks for doing that.” With her face flushed from the heat of the stove—or at least he thought it was that—he wanted to put his arms around her. He wanted to hold her and kiss her and show her how happy he was to see her. But something stopped him from acting on those urges. He’d already accepted that the first move, if there was one, would have to come from her.
He hoped that someday she’d tell him wh
at had hurt her in the past, so he could do his best to make sure nothing ever hurt her again. Caring that much about a woman was definitely a first for him, but something about her made him want to shelter her, to protect and comfort her.
“Riley?”
He realized he’d been staring at her. “What? Sorry.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? No, definitely nothing wrong.” He took a step toward her, drawn to her like he’d never been to anyone else.
She seemed breathless as she looked up at him while standing guard over a pot of sauce.
He reached out to swipe a smudge of sauce from her cheek, smiling as he did it.
“Jordan says I’m the messiest cook ever.”
“I think you’re the sexiest cook ever.” There. He’d done it. Thrown down a gauntlet. Changed the ballgame. He held his breath, waiting to see if she’d meet him halfway. Hell, he’d take a quarter of the way after months of thinking about her and days of dancing around the fact that he wanted her. Badly.
She glanced up at him, looking madly vulnerable. “You really think so?”
He took another step toward her. “I really, really do.” Running a finger over her face, he focused on the pink hue that had left her with a rosy glow.
“I… um…” She swallowed hard. “I kinda suck at this.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I really do.”
Riley shook his head and moved his hand ever so slightly to cup her cheek and tilt her face upward. It cost him tremendously to wait for some sign, any indication that she wanted him to kiss her. He thought he’d go mad in the seconds it took for her lips to part and her gaze to shift to his lips.
He took that as a green light to proceed, but he moved carefully, not wanting to spook her or ruin his chances with her by asking for too much too soon. The last freaking thing in this world he wanted was to scare her, so he gave her the softest, sweetest, gentlest kiss he’d ever given anyone, completely unprepared for the wildfire that sweet kiss set off inside him.
With both hands now framing her face, he leaned his forehead against hers, hoping she would come back for more.
Her hand curled around his neck, and her fingers in his hair made him tremble from the effort it took to hold back, to wait for her.
Then she licked her lips, and the movement of her tongue over her bottom lip moved into first place as the single most erotic thing he’d ever seen. Without making a conscious decision to proceed, he came down as she moved up, their lips meeting in a frenzy of need that had him pulling her closer to him, greedy for more after waiting so long to taste her.
The metal spoon she’d used to stir the sauce fell to the floor with a clatter that he ignored as her tongue met his in a sensual, desperate dance.
Holy shit. Hottest. Kiss. Ever.
With his hands on her ass, he lifted her, deposited her on the counter and leaned in for more, kissing her until his lips were numb and his dick was so hard, it ached. Too much, too soon. The refrain echoed through his mind, reminding him he needed to take it easy with her, to respect the hesitancy he’d sensed in her from the beginning. Though it was the last freaking thing he wanted to do, he eased out of the kiss, turning his focus to the elegant length of her neck.
“You are so sexy, so beautiful, so sweet,” he whispered, making her shiver. He loved that little shudder that rippled through her.
“Riley…”
“Hmm?”
“The pasta… It’s boiling.”
“The pasta isn’t the only thing that’s boiling.”
She laughed and eased him back from her with her hand on his chest before jumping down from her seat on the counter to tend to the stove.
Riley didn’t know what to do with himself or the rampant desire that gripped him like an extra heartbeat, and there was no way he could hide what the encounter had done to him. So he leaned back against the counter, crossed his feet at the ankles and focused on breathing as he watched her intently.
By the time she turned to face him, he had himself more or less under control—until she rolled her plump bottom lip between her teeth and fixed her gaze once again on his mouth. It was all he could do not to groan out loud.
“I… I haven’t done anything like that in a long time,” she said, each word seeming to cost her something vital.
“Why not? You’re quite good at it.”
Her eyes widened with surprise.
“You didn’t know you’re good at it?”
“I…” She shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself in that protective thing she did.
He wondered if she knew she was doing it. Standing up straighter, he held out a hand to her. “Come here.”
“I’m here.”
“Closer. Only if you want to, that is.”
He watched her screw up the courage to step back into his embrace. With his arms around her and her body flush against his, where there’d be no doubt in her mind how their kisses had affected him, he rested his hands on her shoulders. “Tell me why you think you’re not good at this,” he said, punctuating his words with kisses to her forehead and lips.
“I haven’t done a lot of it. Something happened… when I was in college.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
She shook her head and then closed her eyes when they filled with tears.
“Nikki, sweetheart.” Devastated by her tears, he hugged her close to him and buried his face in the fragrant silk of her hair. “Please don’t cry. You don’t have to tell me.”
“I do have to. It wouldn’t be fair not to.”
“Not now. Not if you aren’t ready.”
“I want to be ready… for you, for this. I want…”
“What do you want, sweetheart?” Now that he was allowed to touch her, he couldn't seem to stop himself from sliding his fingers through her hair or rubbing soothing circles on her back. “Tell me what you want so I can get it for you.”
“I want you.”
He smiled down at her, filled with giddy elation that was all new to him. “That’s the best news I’ve had all day.”
“It’s just that I don’t know how… I dated a guy in college who… He got tired of waiting for me to put out and took what he wanted.”
“Oh my God,” he said, his elation of a minute ago turning to rage at the thought of someone hurting her that way. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Nikki.”
“It was a long time ago, but sometimes it feels like it only just happened. I’ve mostly kept my distance from men and dating ever since.”
“I can’t say I blame you. Tell me he was charged at least.”
“He was. It was a total nightmare. I ended up leaving school.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through such an awful thing.”
She smiled up at him, and the ground seemed to shift beneath his feet as the most profound feeling of falling overtook him. He’d never experienced anything like it.
“Whatever happens between us is completely up to you. I’ll never ask you for anything you don’t want to give.”
“You have no idea how much that means to me.”
He traced his fingertip over her soft cheek, his stomach and heart aching for her and what she’d been through. “I wish I could have five minutes alone with the guy who hurt you.”
She looked away, seeming to collect herself before returning her gaze to him. “I wanted you to know why I’m so… weird.”
“You’re not weird.”
“Yes, I really am.”
“No, you’re really not.” Keeping his eyes open, he kissed her again, returning to the initial soft sweetness in light of what she’d told him.
“I don’t want to be weird with you.”
Riley laughed as he hugged her, bewitched, enchanted and getting deeper by the second into something that had the power to change his life.
* * *
Hot damn, the man could kiss. Sweet fancy Moses, as Gram would say. Nikki wanted to d
ance with glee around the kitchen. She’d kissed the sexy, thoughtful, handsome, sweet Riley McCarthy, and she’d survived it. She hadn’t done anything overly embarrassing besides shed a few tears that had come mostly from the sheer relief of having gotten that first kiss out of the way, confirming the hum of attraction she felt for him wasn’t at all one-sided.
He’d said and done all the right things when she told him about what’d happened in college and how it had affected her ever since.
As they ate the spaghetti and salad she’d made, she was thankful she’d decided not to make garlic bread. Now that she’d kissed him once, the only thing she could think about was when she might get to do it again. Thank goodness garlic breath wouldn’t be a concern.
Everything was different between them now, the air charged with an aura of expectation and anticipation that made her unable to focus on anything but the lips that had kissed her with such tenderness.
“Quit it,” he said gruffly after taking a sip from his beer.
Startled, Nikki said, “Quit what?”
“Staring at my lips.”
Mortified, she had no idea what to say to that until those sinfully sexy lips curved into a smile that had her toes curling inside her fleece-lined slippers. He was teasing her, and she’d fallen for it.
“Stare all you want, because that means I get to do it, too.”
“You want to stare at me?”
“Hell yes, I want to stare at you. I’ve been trying not to since the second I first saw you.”
“And that’s taken some effort, has it?”
“You have no idea.”
She hid her smile behind her hand.
He took hold of her other hand and brought it to his lips. “The best thing to happen to me since last fall was you coming back. You should’ve seen me when I heard you were here. I was out with my brother and our cousins, and I basically ditched them and took off with my dad’s car, which I haven’t done in years.”
“You must’ve really wanted to see me.”
Giving a gentle tug on her hand, he had her rising from her seat to move to his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck. “I really, really wanted to see you.”
