Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy)

by Force, Marie

  Mike squirmed off his lap. “Eww, gross, if you’re going to start that, let me down,” she said, making them laugh.

  When Brandon heard the movie go back on, he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss Daphne properly. “We’re getting married,” he whispered.

  “Your mother will freak.”

  “Nah, I warned her. I was going to do this a week ago, but then Aidan got engaged. I decided to give him a week before I knocked him off the front page.”

  “Did I mess up your plans by not wanting to go out tonight?”

  “Not at all. This was much better.”

  “This was perfect,” she whispered. “Thank you for including Mike the way you did.”

  “It wouldn’t have been right without her.”

  “No,” she said, kissing him. “It wouldn’t, especially since you fell for her first—after she chose you for us.”

  “I can’t deny that, so I won’t even try. When do you want to tie the knot? We’ve got Dec’s wedding at the beginning of July, Aidan’s in mid-July, and Colin’s in August. That leaves September. My parents are going to Ireland for the first two weeks of September, so how’s late September?”

  Her smile faded, and the worried look was back.

  “What’s wrong? Is it your stomach?”

  “No.”

  “Then what?”

  “I want to wait to get married until we resolve this thing with the Monroes. I don’t want to start our life together with that hanging over our heads.”

  “I don’t care about that. If we wait then we’re letting them run our lives even more than they are already. Let’s set a date, and if it’s not resolved by then, so be it.”

  “Can we wait a few weeks to see what happens before we make any plans?”

  “I suppose we could do that, but we will be married before the end of the year, even if it’s not resolved, you got me? You can just say ‘yes, sir’ again. That works for me.”

  “No way. You caught me in a moment of extreme exhaustion. You’ll never get that out of me again.”

  “I’ve got a lot of years to work on you.”

  With a sly sideways glance that made his mouth go dry, she ran her hand up his leg. “Give it your best shot.”

  He tore his eyes off hers long enough to find Mike on the floor watching the movie. “Time for bed, squirt.”

  When Mike insisted on wearing her new necklace to school the next morning, Daphne protested. “You’re not wearing a diamond necklace to kindergarten. Your teacher will think I’ve lost my mind.”

  “I want to show it to everyone and tell them we’re engaged,” Mike said.

  “It’s insured,” Brandon whispered to Daphne.

  “It is?”

  “I was giving a diamond to a six-year-old. I’m not a total idiot.”

  “Just a partial?” she asked with a smile.

  He laughed at the reminder of the day they met. “Let her wear it today, and then we’ll put it away for special occasions.”

  “All right, Mike. Your new daddy has gone to bat for you once again. You can wear it today, but that’s it. And I expect you to be very careful with it.”

  With a grateful grin for Brandon, Mike said, “I’d never let anything happen to it, Mom. Don’t worry.”

  “I’ll drop her off on the way to my meeting,” he said.

  “Thanks.”

  “Call me the minute you leave the doctor. I want to know what he says.”

  “I will.”

  Brandon spent the morning rehanging shutters on the freshly painted apartment building. Soon he’d be finished at the apartments and would be moving on to his new venture. When he told his sponsor about his plans for the renovation business, Joe asked to be his first client. “My wife has been after me for a new kitchen for years. And my daughter just bought an old place in Brewster. You’ll probably be hearing from her, too.” It was a start, and Brandon was excited about the future. He had so much to look forward to these days.

  He was on a ladder hanging a shutter on one of the second-floor windows when Daphne pulled up in front of the building. Moving quickly to turn the last of the screws, he scurried down the ladder to meet her as she came through the gate.

  “What did he say?” Brandon put his arm around her and sat with her on the stairs. “Is it an ulcer?”

  Her eyes seemed even bigger than usual against the backdrop of her pale face as she shook her head.

  “Then what? Come on, you’re taking years off my life here.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Brandon stared at her. “What? But, how…”

  Amused by his astounded expression, she patted his face. “The usual way, I suspect.”

  “But we’ve been so careful.”

  “Not always,” she reminded him. “Remember that day you came back home after you took Mike to school?”

  “That’s all it takes?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Pregnant.” He dropped his head onto her shoulder and for once gave in to the need to weep.

  “What?” she asked, alarmed. “Are you mad?”

  He shook his head. “I was just thinking about how much I have to look forward to. That there could be even more…”

  She wiped the tears from his face and kissed him.

  He wrapped his arms around her.

  The kiss went on for several minutes until he took her hand to pull her up. He scooped her into his arms and carried her inside to his apartment.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as he kicked the door closed.

  “To celebrate.”

  Chapter 33, Day 132

  Colin left work early on the June day that he and Meredith were scheduled to meet with Kevin.

  “What’re you doing home already?” she asked when he arrived at her house at two. She had taken a personal day from school, knowing she’d never be able to concentrate on her students that day. “We don’t have to leave until four thirty.”

  “I know.” When he leaned down to kiss her, she put her arms around him to encourage him to join her on the sofa.

  “I came right from a job site, so I’m filthy. Let me grab a shower.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I do. Hold that thought for five minutes.”

  He emerged from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist to find her lying on the bed waiting for him.

  She patted his side of the bed, and he stretched out next to her.

  “That AC feels good,” he said, bringing her closer to him.

  Her hand traveled over his chest and stomach. “You feel good.”

  “Why don’t you take a nap before we have to go? You were up half the night.”

  “How do you know that? You were sleeping.”

  “I always know when you’re not with me.”

  “You say the sweetest things, Colin. Did you come home to babysit me?”

  “Maybe.”

  She tugged at the towel. “I’m glad you did.”

  “What’re you up to?”

  “We don’t have to leave for more than two hours.”

  “I want you to sleep.”

  “I don’t want to sleep.” She pulled the towel free and wrapped her hand around his erection.

  “Meredith.”

  “Take my mind off of it, Colin. Please?”

  Since that’s what he’d come home to do, he happily obliged.

  They pulled up to a ranch house in Eastham right at five o’clock. Meredith didn’t want Kevin anywhere near her house, and she hadn’t wanted to see him in public, so they were meeting at his sister Joanie’s house where he’d been living since his release from prison. Meredith had sent a letter to his parole officer indicating her willingness to see him so the meeting wouldn’t violate his parole.

  “Will you be able to do this?” Colin asked, concerned about her suddenly pale face and the iron grip she had on his hand.

  She nodded. “Just don’t let go.”

  “Never.” He raised their jo
ined hands to kiss hers. “Let’s go hear what he has to say and get it over with, okay?”

  She took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  Colin let go of her hand only long enough to help her out of his truck.

  Joanie waited for them at the front door. Colin wasn’t surprised when Meredith greeted her with a hug since he knew Kevin’s sister used to be one of her closest friends.

  “This is my fiancé, Colin O’Malley.”

  Colin would never get tired of hearing her refer to him as her fiancé.

  “Come on in,” Joanie said, leading them into a spacious living room.

  Colin and Meredith sat together on the sofa and declined Joanie’s offer of drinks. “Are those your kids?” Meredith asked, pointing to framed photos on the wall.

  Joanie nodded. “Phillip’s twelve, and Matt’s seven. They’re with their dad this week. We’re divorced.”

  “I’m sorry,” Meredith said.

  The death grip on his hand told Colin, who was looking at the photographs, that Kevin had joined them.

  “Hello, Meredith,” Kevin said. “Thank you so much for coming.”

  Tall with thinning blond hair, Kevin was still built like a football player. But his broken blue eyes told the story of his life since the golden days of high school.

  “This is my fiancé, Colin O’Malley,” Meredith said in a small voice.

  Since shaking Kevin’s hand would have required letting go of Meredith’s, Colin just nodded.

  “Nice to meet you,” Kevin said, sitting down across from them next to Joanie.

  A long, pregnant pause ensued while they waited for Kevin to say what they had come to hear.

  “You look great,” Kevin said to Meredith.

  “Thank you.”

  Colin knew how much she must’ve hated the blush that flamed her cheeks.

  “I, um, I know it’s such an insignificant thing in light of what I did to you, but I wanted the chance to tell you how sorry I am, Meredith. That I could’ve hurt you the way I did, it just…” He blinked back tears and shook his head. “When you ended it between us, I went nuts, and I was drinking more than ever. I know what I did to you is unforgivable, but it was important to me that you know how very sorry I am.”

  Joanie wiped away a tear and reached for her brother’s hand.

  “I forgive you.” Meredith surprised Colin and apparently herself, too. “You have a disease.”

  “That’s no excuse. You’d be dead if Melanie hadn’t found you.”

  “Well, fortunately for both of us, she did. It’s time for us to put it behind us and get on with our lives. I appreciate your apology, but we don’t have anything else to say to each other.” She glanced at Colin, and they stood up. “It was good to see you, Joanie.”

  “You, too, Meredith. Good luck with your marriage.”

  “Thank you.”

  When they reached the front door, Kevin said, “Meredith.”

  She turned around.

  “I loved you. No matter what else you remember about me, I hope you’ll remember that, too.”

  She nodded, and Colin put his arm around her to lead her from the house.

  “Are you okay?” he asked when they were in the truck.

  “Yeah. Let’s get out of here, and then I need a very big hug.”

  “Coming right up.” He drove to the Eastham Town Beach, parked, and reached for her. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”

  She clung to him. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

  “You were so brave in there.”

  “My knees were knocking.”

  “I couldn’t tell.”

  She caressed his face. “Thank you for encouraging me to do that. You were right. I would’ve always been worried about running into him somewhere. Now if we do it won’t be such a big deal.”

  “He can’t hurt you anymore. I won’t let him.”

  “I love you, Colin O’Malley.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Spring slipped into summer on Cape Cod, and the O’Malleys were consumed with the planning of four weddings. When the private investigator failed to immediately uncover anything they could use against Monroe, Brandon convinced Daphne to set a late September date for their wedding.

  “Maybe by then we’ll have it worked out,” he said.

  She tired easily but otherwise felt better as her pregnancy progressed. They’d decided to keep the news about the baby to themselves until she began to show.

  Despite their ongoing worries about Mike’s grandparents, it was the best summer of Brandon’s life. He dug two gardens in the backyard—one for vegetables and the other for flowers—and Daphne and Mike worked for hours on them. They also planted flowers all over the front yard and began to make some changes inside the house. Daphne’s beaded lampshades replaced the ones Valerie had bought years earlier. They painted Mike’s room a pale lilac, bought her a new canopy bed, and began to quietly gather baby items in a spare bedroom that Mike never ventured into.

  They spent a weekend on Nantucket with Erin’s family, went sailing on Colin’s boat, and lounged on the beach every chance they got. Mike slept over at least once a week with Erin’s kids at “Grandma” Colleen’s house and seemed to spend as much time at Erin’s house—usually trailing behind Josh—as she did at home.

  The wedding frenzy began on the Fourth of July with Declan and Jessica’s clambake in Dennis and Colleen’s backyard and continued two weeks later when the family trekked to Vermont for Aidan and Clare’s wedding.

  In late July, Brandon and Daphne watched the Democratic National Convention on television, during which Harrison Monroe officially became John Tucker’s vice presidential nominee.

  “With California’s fifty-five electoral votes up for grabs, the popular senior senator brings an almost certain win for Tucker in the Golden State,” one of the commentators said after Monroe addressed the convention.

  Daphne moved closer to the television to get a better look at Monroe and his wife Eleanor as they stood next to Tucker and his wife on the big stage. “She looks different,” Daphne said.

  “All that stuff the media’s been saying about her being a virtual recluse since her son’s death has probably taken a toll on her,” Brandon said.

  “There’s something about her eyes.”

  The day after the convention ended, Alan called. “We’ve got him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Monroe’s got a mistress.”

  Brandon gasped.

  “He’s got her set up in a townhouse in Georgetown. Scott’s got pictures. This is what we’ve been hoping for.”

  “I think it’s time I paid Senator Monroe a visit.”

  “You read my mind.”

  Two days later, Brandon flew to St. Louis. Scott had managed to get his hands on the senator’s schedule for the first week of the campaign. After a series of appearances in the morning, Monroe had a strategy session planned for his hotel suite in St. Louis that afternoon.

  Brandon wore a suit, hoping it would make him look like he belonged in the midst of a presidential campaign, and carried with him only the envelope full of damning photos. He took a cab from the airport to the Omni Majestic Hotel on Pine Street and rode the elevator to the top-floor suite Scott had identified as Monroe’s.

  A Secret Service agent stopped Brandon as he came off the elevator. “This is a secure floor.”

  “I need to see Senator Monroe.”

  “Do you have an appointment?”

  “No, but he’ll want to hear what I have to say. You can tell him he can hear it from me or on the news within the hour.”

  “I need to see some identification,” the agent said.

  Brandon produced his Massachusetts driver’s license.

  The agent studied it for a moment and gave it back to Brandon. “Wait right here.” The agent signaled to one of the aides in the hallway.

  Brandon watched the agent talk to the aide, who looked over at Brandon and shrugged.

&nbs
p;