Kisses After Dark

by Marie Force

Asking her out was a big deal for him, not that she could possibly know that. It was probably just as well she’d declined. With their siblings now married and babies on the way who’d be their shared nieces or nephews, it was better not to let things get weird or complicated with Katie. They’d see each other at family events, and the last thing either of them needed was that kind of awkwardness every time they got together.

  At the top of the stairs, the family gathered at a big, long table for brunch. Shane carried Holden toward the table, where Adele and Russ were holding court. Katie was surrounded by her siblings, several of them blond and athletic-looking, like her and Owen. Her twin, Julia, and two of their brothers had darker hair.

  Katie smiled and laughed as she interacted with her brothers and sisters, each of whom hugged their mother, Sarah, when she and Charlie joined the party.

  When Shane’s dad, Frank, came in with his girlfriend, Betsy, Shane walked over to say hello to them. Holden let out a happy squeal at the sight of his grandfather, who took him from Shane.

  “Hey, guys.” Frank peppered the baby’s chubby cheeks with noisy kisses that made him laugh. “How was boys’ night?”

  “Perfectly uneventful.”

  “Your sister won’t be happy to hear that.”

  “I’m told I shouldn’t tell her or run the risk of getting ‘stuck’ with him every night, which I wouldn’t mind.” If nothing else kept him on the island after the latest job he was doing for Mac ended, remaining close to his nephew would be a major incentive to figuring out a way to stay on Gansett.

  That his father and sister were here, too, was also great, but Holden… He was more than enough on his own to have his Uncle Shane thinking about putting down some roots. Shane didn’t want to miss a thing with Holden or the babies his sister was expecting. If he wasn’t destined to have a family of his own, at least he’d have Laura’s kids to love and spoil.

  It was probably time to talk to Mac about a permanent job on the island, if his cousin was amenable to keeping Shane on the payroll.

  “Your sister is lucky to have such a hands-on brother to help out with the baby,” Betsy said as Holden wrapped his pudgy hand around her index finger.

  At first it had been odd to see his dad with another woman. He’d been single for more than twenty years, since his wife—and Shane’s mother—died of cancer when Shane was seven and Laura nine. Betsy was the first woman Frank had been serious about since then, and Shane couldn’t be happier for them.

  “I love him,” Shane said in response to her comment. “It’s certainly no hardship to help out with him.”

  “You’re going to be a wonderful father someday,” Betsy said.

  The comment, which he knew Betsy meant as a compliment, hit him like a spike to the heart. He should’ve had kids of his own by now and would have if his wife hadn’t lied to him about everything. They’d wanted to be young parents so they could enjoy raising their kids and then fully enjoy the years they’d have to themselves afterward.

  But none of that had happened, and now, as he approached his thirtieth birthday, it seemed like it never would. Fortunately, Laura and Owen’s arrival saved Shane from having to reply to Betsy’s well-meaning statement.

  Holden let out a shriek at the sight of his mother, who lit up with joy as she scooped her son out of his grandfather’s arms and swung him around.

  “There’s my big boy! How was your night with Uncle Shane?” She rained kisses down on the baby’s face, making him chortle with baby laughter. “Did you keep him up all night?”

  Shane smiled at his sister. “Um, no, not exactly…”

  “If you tell me he slept through the night, I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do, but it won’t be pretty.”

  “All right then, I won’t tell you that.”

  “Are you kidding me?” She stared into Holden’s big brown eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Are we kidding her, buddy?” Shane asked his nephew, who replied with a big gummy grin. “He got a little wasted on champagne at the wedding. That might explain it.”

  “Explain what?” Owen asked as he joined them, putting his arm around Laura and leaning in to kiss Holden.

  “How our son managed to sleep through the night, for the first time, when we were elsewhere.”

  “What?” Owen said. “No way.”

  “Way,” Shane said with a smile for his brother-in-law.

  “I say we go away more often,” Laura said to her husband.

  “You got that right.”

  “Without sharing details that’ll scar me for life,” Frank said, “did you have a nice evening?”

  “It was all right,” Laura said with a shrug. “Nothing special.”

  Owen poked her gently in the ribs, making her laugh. “Nothing special, my ass.”

  Frank put his hands over his ears. “Don’t say one more word, or I’ll have you arrested.”

  “She’s my wife.”

  Frank scowled at his new son-in-law. “She’s my little girl.”

  “He’s got you there, Owen,” Betsy said, patting Frank on the back.

  “Now, boys,” Laura said, “there’s plenty of me to go around.” She placed a hand over her growing baby bump. “And getting more plentiful all the time.”

  Adele touched a knife to a crystal goblet and summoned them all to brunch. The table had been set with the festive china that Shane recognized from a hutch in the hotel’s sitting room where he’d hung out with Laura, Owen, Holden, Sarah and Charlie on many a winter night.

  “I thought the whole crew was coming to brunch,” Frank said.

  “I bet they’re all hung over,” Owen replied with a droll smile. “Which is indication of a successful wedding.”

  “Indeed,” Laura said proudly.

  Shane found his name on a card next to a plate and took a seat as the others did the same. He glanced at the plate to his right and saw Katie’s name on the card. He hoped it wouldn’t be awkward to sit her after he’d asked her out and been turned down.

  She took her seat a minute later and offered him a shy smile. “We meet again.”

  “So it seems. I’m Shane. Laura’s brother.” He extended his hand, hoping she’d get that he was going for a clean slate.

  Eyeing him curiously, she shook his hand. “Katie. Owen’s sister.”

  “Nice to meet you, Katie.”

  “You, too.” She laughed at the little game they were playing, as if the uncomfortable exchange on the beach had never happened.

  Julia sat across from them with their brothers Jeff, the youngest of the seven Lawrys, and Josh as well as their sister Cindy. If Katie was quiet and somewhat reserved, Julia was bubbly and chatty. The fraternal twins bore a slight resemblance to each other. Katie had blue eyes while Julia’s were grayer, and her hair was darker than Katie’s. Their smiles were similar, but Julia was much freer with hers than Katie was.

  “What’s up with Mom?” Julia asked the others. “She’s all glowy looking.”

  “Um, that would be called happiness,” Jeff said. “Something we’ve never seen on her before.”

  “What do we know about this guy?” Josh asked. “We should get John to check him out for us.” John was a cop in Tennessee and had been unable to get away from work to attend the wedding.

  “He’s a great guy,” Shane said of Charlie Grandchamp.

  Julia eyed him skeptically. “Oh yeah? Do tell.”

  Shane decided Charlie’s story was one that Charlie should tell Sarah’s children himself, if he chose to. It wasn’t Shane’s place to tell them that Charlie had spent fourteen years in prison for a crime he hadn’t committed, or that his stepdaughter, Stephanie, had devoted herself to getting him released. “He’s first class. I’ll let you figure out the rest for yourselves.”

  “So there’s more,” Julia said with a sigh. “Isn’t there always more?”

  “It’s not always bad,” Shane said, even though in his experience it often was. For some reason, he wanted Sarah’s kids to give
Charlie a chance. “Trust me when I tell you that you have nothing at all to worry about where he’s concerned.”

  “You’ll have to excuse us if we’re a little cynical,” Cindy said in a soft Southern accent that was in sharp contrast to the steel behind her words.

  “I understand.” How could he not understand when he’d lived with Owen and Sarah as they prepared for the trial? He knew far more than he wanted to about the way the Lawry children had been raised and empathized with their desire to protect their mother from any more harm.

  A waitress came to take drink orders, and since he was off baby duty, Shane ordered a Bloody Mary.

  “That sounds good,” Katie said. “Make it two.”

  Charlie’s stepdaughter, Stephanie Logan, came out to welcome them all to Stephanie’s Bistro and to hug and kiss the newlyweds. She’d been one of Laura’s bridesmaids and would marry Shane’s cousin Grant on Labor Day.

  She listed the brunch specials for them and then left the party to her capable waitstaff.

  “Does everyone know about us?” Katie asked him softly as he perused the menu and tried to decide between eggs Benedict and the French toast special.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Does everyone on the island know about our family? About our father and what he did?”

  “I wouldn’t say everyone knows, but some people do.”

  “Do you know?”

  “Some of it,” he said tentatively. Both Laura and Owen had talked to him about the trial, the charges and the horror of Owen’s upbringing, but Shane didn’t see the need to tell Katie that, not when she seemed ashamed that people knew.

  Katie gazed over the heads of her siblings to the ocean that stretched endlessly before them.

  “Hey,” he whispered. When she looked over at him, he said, “It’s no reflection on you—any of you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Intellectually, we know that. Emotionally… That’s a whole other can of worms.”

  What could he say to that? He’d been born into a loving home with two parents who’d worshiped each other and their children. He had no way at all to relate to what she’d been through. Except Laura had been raised the same way and had found a way to relate to what Owen had endured at the hands of his father.

  Still, he felt he should say something, so he went with the most innocuous thing he could think of. “Everybody’s got something, you know?”

  “Even you?”

  His laugh was sharper than he intended. “Ah, yeah, you could say that.”

  “Something bad?”

  “Yeah, it was pretty bad, and people know about it, which is tough. So I understand better than you might think.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through something bad.”

  “Me, too. I mean, I’m sorry you did, too.”

  Baskets of muffins and croissants and delicate pastries were brought to the table, which gave them something else to focus on other than the increasingly intense—and intimate—conversation.

  The more he talked to her, the more he wanted to talk to her. And then he remembered she’d rejected his offer of dinner and told himself to keep the desire to talk to her in check. She wasn’t interested in him, and he had no business being interested in her or anyone when he was still so messed up over Courtney.

  When the waitress came to take his order, he went with the eggs Benedict and then smiled when Katie ordered the same thing.

  “Copycat,” he said in the same soft tone they’d been using.

  She laughed, which caused a curious feeling to unfurl inside him as he watched the way laughter lit up her face and eyes. It totally transformed her.

  “Eggs Benedict are my favorite,” she said, “but I never order them because they’re so fattening. Special occasion. So I’m not a copycat.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  After everyone had ordered, Adele stood at the head of the table and held up a glass of champagne. “I’d like to propose a toast to the newlyweds, Laura and Owen. On this first day of your married life, we wish you a lifetime of happiness and joy and love. To Owen and Laura.”

  Everyone toasted the newlyweds and drank champagne, except for Laura who settled for ice water.

  “Now I believe our friend Charlie has something he wishes to say. Charlie?”

  Looking extremely nervous, Charlie Grandchamp stood, holding a glass of champagne in his hand. “This day—and this weekend—belongs entirely to Laura and Owen, but since many of you are heading home this afternoon, Sarah and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some news with you. Yesterday, I spoke with Russ and received his blessing to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Last night,” he said, looking down at Sarah with a warm smile on his face, “Sarah agreed to be my wife. We’re very happy, and we hope all of you will be happy for us, too. I’m really looking forward to getting to know the children Sarah speaks of so often. I want you all to know that your mother will never know another minute of unhappiness or unrest or fear or anything other than the love and respect she deserves. That’s all I wanted to say, and well, to Sarah.”

  “To Sarah,” the others said.

  The Lawrys seemed shell-shocked by the news of their mother’s engagement, but each of them got up to hug and kiss her.

  When Katie returned to her seat, she glanced over at Shane. “Wow. Didn’t see that coming.”

  “They seem really happy.”

  “I’ve never seen my mother look happier than she does today. I thought it was because of the wedding. I guess we’re going to get to know Charlie better after all.”

  “I know him quite well, and I can assure you he’ll take very good care of your mom.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  She said the right thing, but he could see and feel the hesitancy coming from her anyway. This was a woman who didn’t trust men. Even though she had good reason to feel that way, it was a daunting realization.

  “While I have your attention,” Adele said when the Lawrys had returned to their seats, “Owen, your grandfather and I thought long and hard about what to give you and your lovely bride for a gift, and we kept coming back to the same thing time and again. We hope you’ll accept this gift in the spirit in which it’s given and know that you have brought us so much pleasure with what you both have done here.” She handed over a cream-colored envelope to Owen. He glanced at Laura, who shrugged.

  Owen opened the envelope, pulled out the paper inside, shared it with Laura, and they gasped in stereo. “No way,” he said.

  “Oh my God.” Laura raised a hand to her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. “You can’t do this, Adele!”

  “It’s already done, my love.” To everyone else, she said, “Meet the new owners of the Sand & Surf Hotel!”

  A collective gasp preceded cheers and congratulations for Owen and Laura, who were visibly stunned by the extravagant gift from his grandparents.

  “I want all my other grandchildren to know you’ll receive a gift of equal value on the day you marry.”

  “What if we never get married?” Julia asked.

  Adele shrugged. “Then you’ll have to wait for us to kick the bucket, which we don’t plan to do for a long, long, long time. So it would be easier and quicker to fall madly in love and get married.”

  “That’s right,” her husband, Russ, said. “We’re going to live to be really old and really crotchety, so you’re better off getting married than you are waiting us out.”

  “You’re already crotchety, my darling,” Adele said to laughter from her husband and the others. “While I have you all, I have one more thing I’d like to say. Something happened yesterday that I feel you should know about. There’s a hero among us, and we owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude.”

  Shane felt his stomach drop as Katie sucked in a sharp, deep breath next to him. Without thinking, he reached for her hand under the table.

  She held on to him almost as tightly as she had the day before when he’d saved her from drowning.
>
  “While everyone was getting ready for the wedding, our beautiful Katie took a swim and was pulled into a rip current that took her quite a ways from the shore.”

  “Oh my God,” Sarah said, her gaze shifting to Katie.

  “Fortunately,” Adele continued, “Shane was also on the beach, realized she was in trouble and swam out to rescue her. I saw the whole thing from up here on the deck. You saved her life, Shane, and we’ll always be grateful to you.”

  Seeming stunned by the news, Laura looked at him with tears in her eyes.

  Everyone began talking at once, asking Katie if she was all right and telling Shane how thankful they were for what he’d done. All the while, Katie clung to his hand like a lifeline.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Owen asked them.

  Shane cleared his throat. “We didn’t want to put a damper on your special day.”

  “God,” Owen said, unable to take his eyes off his sister, “I can’t even imagine…”

  “Neither can I,” Julia said tearfully, reaching across the table to grasp her twin’s free hand. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”

  “I’m fine,” Katie assured them. “Thanks to Shane.”

  “Proud of you, son,” Frank said gruffly. “And I’m glad you’re both okay.”

  “We’re fine,” Shane said for both of them as he squeezed Katie’s hand under the table.

  “I’m sorry.” Laura handed Holden to Owen and got up to come to where Shane was sitting. “But I really need a hug right now.”

  Shane had no choice but to release Katie’s hand to get up and hug his sister.

  “Thank you so much,” Laura said for his ears only. “Owen never would’ve gotten over losing her.”

  “It was no big deal.” He was grateful that Adele had left out the part about Katie panicking and nearly taking him down with her.

  “It’s a huge big deal, and we’re so thankful you’re both all right.”

  “Couldn’t let anything ruin your big day,” Shane said.

  “That would’ve ruined a lot more than our wedding.”

  She released her brother and hugged Katie, too. And then Laura wiped up her tears and went back to her seat. “I’m better now.”