Fool for Love

by Marie Force

  She followed him into the kitchen and filled her favorite travel mug with black coffee. "I'll be there. Want some cereal or something?"

  "I'll grab something at the diner." He examined the mug she'd handed him. "Seriously? You expect me to walk through town carrying a cow full of coffee?"

  "It's my favorite," she said with a playful pout. "It's a huge honor for me to bestow my cow upon you. I expect you to take very good care of Bessie."

  Rolling his eyes, he kissed her once more, fast and far too brief, and headed for the door. "Thanks for the coffee. I think."

  "Joe! Wait."

  Turning, he raised an eyebrow in question.

  "Just, you know, take a look before you go out."

  A flash of hurt crossed his face and then vanished just as quickly. The sneaking around bothered him, and Janey hated that.

  "Sure," he said. The lips that had teased her so sensuously a few minutes earlier were now tight with tension. "We wouldn't want anyone to know, right?"

  "Joe—"

  "It's okay." He glanced back at her. "For now."

  Linda McCarthy stepped into the South Harbor Diner and looked around. Kay Lawrence waved from one of the booths in the back. Feeling every eye in the bustling restaurant on her, she slid in across from Kay.

  The other woman reached for Linda's hands. "Thank you so much for meeting me."

  "It was no problem."

  Kay released her hands and sat back in the booth. "You're angry."

  "I'm furious. And with good reason."

  "Believe me, I'm as angry as you are. I love Janey like my own. You know that."

  "Yes."

  "I just can't believe David would risk everything he and Janey have worked so hard for by acting so foolishly."

  Linda nodded to the waitress who offered coffee. "And thoughtlessly."

  "That, too." Kay took a sip from her mug. "I'm truly appalled by his behavior, Linda."

  "I have no doubt. You've always been so proud of him."

  "Which makes this so much harder to understand." She dabbed at her eyes. "How's Janey? I can't stop thinking about her."

  "She seems to be holding up okay. She insisted on going home last night so she could be with her pets. They make her happy."

  "David loves her so much. He's beside himself."

  "He has an odd way of showing his love."

  "He swears it was a one-time thing, and he deeply regrets it. If you could've seen how stirred up he was last night, you wouldn't doubt his sincerity."

  "I'm not sure what you think I can do about it," Linda said. In the mirror, she watched Mac come through the door, holding Maddie's son Thomas. Joe followed them into the diner. Linda waved to them as they took over a table inside the door.

  "Oh, that Joe Cantrell," Kay whispered. "He broke my David's nose! Can you imagine?"

  "He's like a brother to Janey. My husband or son might've done worse if they'd gotten to David first."

  "It's no way to handle a disagreement."

  "This is far more than a disagreement, Kay. He cheated on her, and she saw him."

  Kay's brown eyes filled with tears. "Surely there has to be something we can do to help them find their way back to each other. All those years… I can't imagine either of them without the other."

  "I don't know if I want her back with him. Not if that's the kind of husband he plans to be."

  "He's having some challenges right now," Kay said tentatively. "Things he needs to discuss with Janey."

  "She has no interest in discussing anything with him."

  "Once they're married and living together, everything will be perfect—the way it was always meant to be since they were kids. If we can just help them get there, I'm sure they'll be so happy. It's meant to be. We both know that."

  "I used to think so, but now…" Linda recalled how upset she and her husband had been when David discouraged Janey from going to vet school. Other than that fiasco and the current one, however, Linda had to acknowledge that their relationship had always seemed solid.

  "We have to do something, Linda. We can't let them lose their way now, not when the wedding is just a year away."

  "I don't know."

  "Can you imagine Janey being happy, truly happy, without David?"

  "She's amazingly resilient. I'm sure she'll bounce back in no time at all."

  "She's never been tested like this before. You can't know that for sure." Kay again reached for Linda's hand. "How can we not at least try to help them figure this out? That way, if they decide in the end to part, at least we know we did all we could for them."

  Linda had to acknowledge the other woman made a good point. "What do you suggest we do?"

  Kay leaned in and lowered her voice. "Okay, here's what I'm thinking."

  Sitting across from Mac and Thomas, as he did most mornings lately, Joe tried to focus on the conversation, but what he really wanted to know was why Linda McCarthy was engaged in an intense conversation with Kay Lawrence.

  "Luke said you guys have big plans for a bachelor party," Mac said.

  Joe tore his eyes off the table in the corner and returned his attention to Mac. "Oh, yeah, I was going to talk to you about that today. You up for some poker and beer on the fifth?"

  "Sure. My brothers are due in that morning, so that's perfect."

  Joe took a sip from the cow mug Janey had given him.

  "Where'd you get that goofy mug?" Mac asked.

  "Oh, um, a friend gave it to me." He cleared his throat, anxious to steer the conversation in any other direction. "So, it's starting to look like this whole wedding thing is really going to happen, huh?"

  Mac uttered an ironic laugh. "Hard to believe." He glanced down at Thomas. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."

  Thomas flashed a gummy grin. "Dada, dada, dada."

  Joe smiled at the soft look of love his friend bestowed upon the blond, blue-eyed baby. "If you ask me, you fell for him even before you fell for his mama."

  "I sure did. He's the frosting on a very nice cake."

  "I give you credit, man. Raising someone else's kid isn't the easiest thing to take on."

  "He'll never know me as anything other than his father. I have a feeling it'll be the easiest thing I ever do."

  "I'm happy for you, Mac. You've got it all worked out."

  "All except for one thing: Maddie's mom. She doesn't know yet."

  "About you?"

  "About any of it." Mac's brow furrowed with worry. "She has no idea she's coming home to a wedding, and something tells me she won't be thrilled to learn her daughter is marrying a McCarthy."

  "You're crazy in love with Maddie and Thomas. What's there not to be thrilled about?"

  "For one thing, my mother helped to land her in prison. She won't soon forget that."

  "She landed herself in prison by passing bad checks all over the island for years. Hell, I wrote off more than five hundred bucks in bad debt with her name on it."

  "You didn't press charges?" Mac asked, incredulous.

  Joe shrugged. "Would've just been piling on at that point, and I wouldn't have gotten the money back."

  "Sometimes I wish my mother could've seen it that way, too," Mac said.

  "She had no way to know you'd end up marrying the woman's daughter."

  "Still…" Mac's face was set in a pensive expression that Joe didn't often see from his usually confident friend. "I just hope she doesn't cause any trouble. Maddie is so happy, and after everything she's been through, she deserves a beautiful wedding with no complications."

  "You both deserve that. Leave it to your best man and your brothers to run interference."

  Mac smiled. "Gladly."

  Kay Lawrence rushed by them, casting a menacing scowl at Joe before she left the diner.

  "Whoo," Mac said, whistling. "Mama Bear is not happy with you."

  "Her baby bear got exactly what he deserved."

  "You won't hear me arguing."

  Linda approached their table. "Scoot over
, you two," she said to Mac and Thomas.

  Pretending to be put out by her, Mac made room for his mother.

  "Now, give me that baby."

  Smiling, Mac handed Thomas over to his new grandmother. Joe marveled at how far they'd all come, from Linda not approving of Mac's relationship with a woman unfairly branded the town tramp to Linda holding the woman's child like he was her own flesh and blood.

  "How's my little man today?" Linda cooed, kissing the baby until he giggled with delight.

  "I'm here, too, Mom," Mac said with a petulant pout.

  Never taking her focus off the baby, she said, "Yeah, yeah. Good morning, my darling Malcolm. Better?"

  Mac scowled at her use of his dreaded first name. "Go back to ignoring me. Please."

  Joe laughed at their banter. "So," he couldn't help but ask, "what were you and Kay up to over there?"

  "She thinks we need to try to get Janey and David back together."

  The news hit Joe like a punch to the gut, and it was all he could do to refrain from sucking in a sharp deep breath.

  Apparently tuning in to his dismay, Mac met his gaze and rolled his eyes. "Tell me you didn't agree to be part of that, Mom."

  "I agreed to think about it."

  Mac's eyes bugged out of his head. "You gotta be kidding me! The guy cheated on your daughter! You can't still want to see her married to him!"

  Linda sighed and seemed to sag a bit. "Kay makes a good point about how long they've been together. I don't want Janey to have any regrets."

  Mac snorted. "The only regret she would've had is if she'd married him and then found out he's a cheating scumbag."

  "He swears it only happened once."

  "And you believe that? Come on, Mom. Get real."

  Paralyzed, Joe listened to their back-and-forth with a growing sense of dismay.

  "Is that Janey's mug?" Linda asked Joe. "She has one just like it."

  He looked up to find Mac zeroed in on him, but before he could say anything, Thomas let out a lusty wail, demanding his new daddy's full attention.

  Joe took that as his cue to escape. "Gotta run, folks. I'm on the nine."

  Distracted by the baby, Mac and Linda uttered hasty good-byes.

  Outside, Joe took deep, gulping breaths of fresh air, hoping to slow his charging heart. Here they were trying to keep their relationship a secret, and a stupid cow mug had nearly undone the whole thing. Mac might've been distracted by Thomas, but later, when he had time to think about it, he'd wonder what Joe was doing with an odd mug that was exactly like one his sister owned.

  "Shit," Joe muttered as he made his way to the ferry landing. And Kay Lawrence, determined to fix things for her creep of a son… That news didn't exactly make Joe's day, either. "You gotta have faith in Janey. She knows what he is. It'll take more than a couple of scheming mothers to undo the damage he did."

  "Having a nice chat with yerself?"

  The voice startled Joe out of his musings. Big Mac McCarthy's best friend, cab driver Ned Saunders, leaned against his battered woody station wagon waiting for his next fare.

  Joe shook his hand. "How goes it, Ned?" The grizzled old man wore tattered khaki shorts with a T-shirt that read, "Squeeze Your Lemons on a Lobsta."

  "Getting tossed in jail and talking to yerself. What's going on with ya, boy?"

  Joe released a huff of laughter. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

  "Never known ya to be one to take care of things with ya fists."

  "Your buddy Big Mac has already given me the same lecture."

  "I heard he didn't make ya spend the night this time," Ned said, chortling with laughter.

  "Now that you've had your entertainment for the day, I gotta boat to catch."

  Ned went back to perusing a copy of the Gansett Gazette. "Give her some time, boy. She'll come round."

  Startled, Joe stopped and turned back to stare at the older man. "What'd you say?"

  "Ya heard me right the first time." Ned nodded to the ferry landing. "Looks like they're gonna leave without ya."

  Questions cycled through Joe's mind: how did Ned know? What did Ned know? Who else knew? But the questions had to wait, because the ferry wouldn't, and Joe needed to get back to his office on the mainland. As much as he hated to leave the island—especially with David still in town—Joe had a business to run, and last time he checked, it didn't run itself.

  Jogging down the hill to the ferry landing, Joe felt torn in a thousand different directions. His love for Janey had always been one of the simple truths in his life. How, then, he wondered as he dashed aboard the boat just as the final warning horn sounded, had the simplest thing become so damned complicated?

  Chapter 13

  After Joe left, Janey resisted the urge to go back to bed and instead took a shower and got dressed. She was out in the yard enjoying the warm sun and playing with the dogs when Maddie arrived.

  "Hey," Maddie said as she came through the house to the backyard. "The door was open, so I let myself in. Hope that's okay."

  Janey smiled at her. They were still working out the boundaries of their new friendship. "Of course it is. You don't have to knock here."

  "Oh, I'll still knock. I wouldn't want to interrupt anything."

  Janey felt heat creep into her cheeks when she thought of waking up with Joe.

  Maddie laughed. "Your face gives away your every thought."

  "I know! I hate that."

  "Do I take that to mean you had a friend over last night?"

  "Perhaps."

  Maddie lowered herself to the grass next to Janey. "Do tell."

  Janey fell back onto the lawn, which the dogs took as an open invite to lie on top of her. Running her fingers through Muttley's soft fur, she tried to find the words. "Everything with him is so easy, you know?"

  "That's the way it should be. It wasn't like that with David?"

  "I thought it was, but it wasn't like this. Joe is just so…"

  "Perfect for you?"

  "In many ways, yes."

  "Why do I sense a 'but' coming here?"

  "Everything that's happened with David has me questioning my judgment. If you'd asked me last week if I ever imagined he'd cheat, I'd say not in a million years. I was that sure of him. And look at what he was doing."

  "Janey, you can't let what he did cause you to doubt yourself. You loved him. You thought he loved you. Why in the world would you think he'd cheat on you? The failing is in him, not you."

  "And I know that, but I can't get past the idea that I must've missed something. There had to have been signs, right?"

  "You guys have lived apart a long time. It's not as easy to see the signs when you aren't with him every day."

  Janey stroked Muttley's ears. "Still… When I look back now, I can see there were things I either chose not to see or chose not to question. Like why it took him days sometimes to call me back or how plans would get canceled at the last minute. I always chalked that up to his job and didn't think a thing of it. But now…"

  "Now you're questioning everything."

  Janey nodded. "It's making me nuts."

  "I don't want to say the wrong thing or overstep," Maddie said tentatively.

  Janey smiled at her. "It's not possible for you to say the wrong thing to me. I want us to be the best of friends. You should feel free to speak your mind."

  Maddie's eyes flooded with tears, which made her laugh. "I'm like an emotional disaster area these days. Everything makes me cry."

  "They're happy tears."

  "Absolutely. Not only did I get Mac, but you and all your family. I feel so incredibly lucky."

  "Wait till our other brothers get here. Lucky might not be the word you're using when you see how crazy Mac gets with them."

  "Don't try to scare me off. Nothing could keep me from marrying him."

  Janey grinned at her. "What were you going to say? Before?"

  "Just that I hope you won't hold what David did against Joe. That wouldn't be fair to Joe
."

  "No, it wouldn't, but let's face it, none of this is fair to Joe. He's in love with me, and I'm a mess. I know I shouldn't be encouraging what's happening between us, especially right now, and I have all these good intentions to stay away from him. But then he walks in the room and all my good intentions disappear. I can't keep my hands off him."

  "You're in major lust—and I can see why. He's adorable and sexy."

  "Definitely major lust, but what if that's all it is? That would crush him. He hasn't said anything, but I know where he's hoping this is heading."

  "How do you feel about him?"

  "It's hard to tell. Everything is so jumbled. If you're asking if I love him, of course I do. I've always loved him."

  "But as a friend."

  "Right and that's the problem. It's hard to tell if I suddenly love him as more than that, or if I'm under the influence of great sex."

  "If you start to feel like it's only a rebound, you need to end it. Immediately."

  "I know," Janey said. "I'm so afraid I'm going to hurt him."

  "He's a big boy, and his eyes are wide open. You can't take responsibility for him. You have to think about yourself and what you want."

  "I'm trying, but it's hard."

  "Just take it a day at a time and don't feel that you have to figure anything out right away."

  "That's good advice, and you should know after all you went through with Mac."

  "When I think about how close I came to losing him…" Maddie shuddered.

  "You two are meant to be. You would've ended up together one way or the other."

  "I agree, but my mother won't. I'm picking her up in the morning, and I can only imagine what she'll have to say when she finds out I'm marrying Mac McCarthy next week."

  "You need to take your own advice and do what's best for you. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to see their daughter married to my fabulous brother. But if she gives you grief about it, just let her know if she forces you to choose, you won't choose her."

  "That's exactly what I plan to do."

  "Just remember what's waiting for you in a week's time, and you'll find the courage you need to deal with her."