by Marie Force
“How long did it take for you to know Laura was the one for you?”
“We’re not talking about me.”
“Answer the question.”
“I knew the day I met her that she was going to change my life.”
“There you have it.”
“That fast?”
“Believe me, I’m still trying to get my head around it myself. All I can tell you is that Katie has been more right for me in five days than Courtney was in five years.”
Owen smiled then, a big, bright smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “When you see her later, make sure you tell her that. It’ll matter to her.”
“How much later will I see her?”
“A couple of hours.”
“Owen, come on. Have a heart, will you?”
“Crashing girls’ night takes finesse and strategy. We can’t just stroll in there like we meant to. We have to act like we didn’t know they were there. If I tell you where she is, you’ll go in there like a bull in a china shop and ruin it for the rest of us. I’ve got to think of my brothers-in-arms.”
“I used to like you, and now I kinda hate you.”
Owen, that bastard, laughed hard. “You’ll like me again once you fix things with Katie. If you fix things.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Much appreciated. You’re all smug in your newly married bliss, but someday you’ll screw up, and I promise to enjoy it twice as much as you’re enjoying this.”
“Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Your sister is all about me.”
“Blissful and arrogant. A deadly combination. Don’t forget—I’ve been married, and you’re a rookie. Blissful arrogance leads to rookie mistakes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I stand warned and unconcerned.” Owen checked his watch. “Let’s go. We’re meeting the boys for dinner at the Beachcomber in ten minutes.”
“Dinner? I don’t want dinner. I want to talk to your sister.”
“I have to wonder why you don’t just pick up the phone and call her if you’re so all-fired anxious to talk to her.”
“Because. We live on the same hallway. We haven’t needed to call each other. Yet.”
Owen laughed again. He really was a rotten bastard when it came right down to it. “So you don’t even have her phone number. Speaking of rookie mistakes.”
“If I didn’t need you to get me to Katie, I wouldn’t be speaking to you right now.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m going to tell Laura how you tortured me.”
“I bet she’ll side with me.”
“I’ve known her longer.”
“I’m sleeping with her.”
“Shut the fuck up. Will you please? Just shut the fuck up.”
Owen laughed all the way to the Beachcomber, where they met up with Joe, Adam, Grant, Evan, Blaine, Alex, Paul and Dan. A short time after they arrived, Shane’s other cousins Riley and Finn joined the party. Shane was forced to sit through several rounds of beers and somehow managed to choke down the burger Owen ordered for him.
“What’s the matter with you tonight?” his cousin Evan asked. “You’re wound tighter than a drum.”
“I’m being held hostage against my will.” Shane used his thumb to point at Owen. “I need to speak to his sister, who is with my sister at girls’ night out, but my jackass brother-in-law won’t tell me where they are.”
“I know where they are,” Evan said. “We all do.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Depends. What’d you do to Katie?”
“Oh my God. Not you, too. You’re my freaking cousin. Whose side are you on?”
“If you did something that will make all the women mad, I’m on her side. Firmly on her side.”
“If being blindsided by my ex-wife while returning from a day in Newport with Katie counts as me doing something to piss them all off, then feel free to take her side.”
“Dude,” Evan said gravely. “Courtney was here?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“And I had it out with her, but not before I released Katie’s hand at the sight of her and asked her to give me a minute with Courtney. Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to do.”
“Whoa… Yeah, bad move.”
“I was blindsided. I hadn’t seen or talked to Courtney in more than two years. She served me divorce papers without so much as a conversation, and I’m sorry, but I had a few questions for her after all that time.”
Grant and Adam tuned in to their conversation, both of them listening intently.
“Did you get any answers?” Adam asked.
“Some. I guess. She says it was all done to protect me. She was in trouble, and it wasn’t going away for a while, so she set me free to spare me. Yada, yada. Now she wants me back.”
“Holy shit,” Grant said in a hushed tone. “What’d you say to that?”
“I said no. No fucking way am I going back to her after what she put me through. And if what’s his name would let me see Katie, I’d tell her that.” This was said loudly enough for Owen to hear.
“We know where they are,” Adam said, glancing at his brothers. “We can take you there.”
“Would you please?”
“It’s up to him.” Adam pointed to Evan. “His turn to be the designated driver.”
“I’m happy to help the cause,” Evan said. “Let’s go.”
They stood up and tossed money on the table to cover their tab.
“Wait,” Luke said. “Where’re you going?”
“Time to crash,” Evan said.
“Not yet. I promised Syd a couple of hours, and it’s only been an hour and a half.”
Shane would’ve sworn he’d been there for at least eight hours, or so it seemed.
“By the time we get there, it’ll be almost two,” Grant said. “That counts as a ‘couple’ of hours.”
“I was made promises,” Luke said. “Good promises. You wouldn’t want to screw that up for me, would you?”
All eyes turned to Shane. Under normal circumstances, he was happy to help a brother out. These were not normal circumstances. “Sorry, Luke. I need to see Katie, and I need to see her right now.”
Evan shrugged. “The man is on a mission. We’re just his wingmen.”
Bolstered by his cousins’ support, Shane got up and started to leave with them.
“Wait a minute,” Owen said.
Groaning, Shane turned to him. “Don’t start again.”
“All I was going to say is good luck. And please, don’t do anything to hurt her. She’s been hurt enough in her life.” Gone was the earlier torment and swagger. All that remained was a concerned older brother. Shane extended his hand to his brother-in-law. “You have my word that I’ll never again do anything to hurt her.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I never do.”
Owen shook his hand.
“Come on,” Shane said to his cousins. “Let’s go.” He followed them down to the street where Evan had parked Grace’s four-door sedan. The four men piled into the small car. Shane was crammed into the backseat with Adam. “This is like a clown car.”
“It’ll get us to Luke and Sydney’s house,” Evan said in defense of the car.
Shane blew out a sigh of relief at knowing where he’d find her. Now he could only hope she’d give him the chance to apologize and explain.
“Anyone heard from Mac?” Grant asked, breaking the silence.
“They came back on the five o’clock boat,” Evan said. “I left him a message to call me if he wants to come out.” His phone rang as soon as he finished speaking. He handed it to Grant. “Maybe that’s him now.”
“It is,” Grant said. “Hey, it’s Grant. Evan’s driving. You want to come? What about the kids? Okay, sure. We’ll come get you.”
“Where will we put him?” Shane asked. “In the trunk?”
“We’ll switch car
s,” Grant said. “Tiffany drove Maddie, so Maddie’s SUV is at the house. We’ll have to take the car seats out, though, which will piss off Maddie. We never get them back in the way she wants them.”
Shane moaned at the thought of more delays. “And here I thought you guys were on my side.”
“We are,” Adam assured him. “But we gotta get Mac.”
“Yeah,” Shane said. “I know.”
“Who’s with the kids?” Evan asked.
“Mom came over,” Grant said. “She encouraged him to go out since Maddie went with Tiffany.”
After a long pause, Adam said, “Is it weird that she went out tonight after everything?”
“She was probably in bad need of a diversion,” Grant said.
“True.”
“I can’t imagine that scenario,” Evan said. “You go in for an ultrasound all excited to see your baby, and there’s no heartbeat.”
“It’s unbearable,” Grant said.
“Unimaginable,” Adam added.
“You think they’ll be okay?” Shane asked.
“Yeah,” Evan said. “They’re solid. I can’t picture them any other way but solid.”
They arrived at Mac’s house a few minutes later and went through the motions of removing the car seats from Maddie’s car so they could take the big SUV.
“Thanks for coming to get me, you guys,” Mac said.
“No problem.” Grant put his hand on Mac’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry. We all are.”
Mac released a deep sigh. “Thanks.” He glanced at Shane. “How’d you end up with these characters?”
“He’s a man on a mission.” Evan filled his oldest brother in on what was going on with Shane.
“So Courtney actually came here?” Mac asked as they got into the backseat together. “With no warning?”
“I had no clue I was about to run into her. She told me she went to my old job and asked my boss where I was, and he told her I was out here. It didn’t take much effort to figure out where she could find me here. She’s just lucky that Laura didn’t see her first, or she never would’ve gotten to talk to me.”
“That must’ve been so shocking,” Mac said, seeming eager to talk about someone else’s problems rather than dwelling on his own.
Shane was happy to indulge his cousin. “It was so shocking that I totally screwed up with Katie, and now I’m desperate to fix things with her.”
“You and Owen’s little sister,” Mac said with a chuckle. “How’s he handling that?”
“He was handling it pretty well until today when I made her cry without meaning to.”
“Ouch,” Mac said with a wince. “I remember how annoyed I was with Joe—for the first time in our lives, I might add—when he started dating Janey. There’s something about baby sisters that makes older brothers crazy.”
“No,” Adam said, “there’s something about you that makes you crazy.”
Evan and Grant joined Adam in laughing their asses off.
“Soooo true,” Evan said. “We’re her older brothers, too, and we weren’t annoyed with Joe for dating her.”
“You’re not the oldest,” Mac said. “Special responsibilities come with being the oldest.”
“You’re not the oldest anymore,” Evan reminded him.
“Speaking of our older sister,” Mac said, “I saw her last night. She brought me a pizza and a six-pack. We had a nice time.”
“That’s cool,” Adam said.
“She met Maddie, too. They really liked each other.”
“Dad said she’s coming over this weekend to spend the week before the wedding with him and Mom,” Grant said. “How do you suppose that’ll go?”
“I think it’ll be fine,” Mac said. “There’s nothing not to like about her—and believe me, I tried to find something.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Grant asked dryly as the others laughed.
By the time they finally pulled into Luke and Sydney’s long driveway, Shane had convinced himself that Katie would have gone from hurt to furious by now, making his task that much more challenging. The second the SUV came to a stop, he was out the door.
He’d been to a cookout here earlier in the summer, but he wasn’t particularly close to Luke. However, that didn’t stop him from jogging to the door on the side of the house. With one quick knock, he stepped into a room full of women, who went silent at the sight of him.
“Here they come,” Abby said.
Shane zeroed in on Katie, who was sitting between Laura and Maddie. He walked over to her and extended his hand. “Could I please speak to you outside?”
She stared at his outstretched hand for what felt like an hour while the others looked on.
Shane would never know if she took his hand because she wanted to talk to him or because everyone was watching and she didn’t want to say no in front of them. What did it matter? She was coming with him as he led the way through the kitchen to the deck on the back of the house, where it was dark except for a string of white lights around the rail. He took a deep breath, prepared to put it all on the line to make this right with her.
Chapter 29
The moment they were outside and alone, Shane turned to face her. “I’m so sorry, Katie. I’ve been trying to get to you for hours now so I could say that to you. I was completely shocked to see her, and I reacted badly. It kills me that I hurt you and made you cry after you put such faith in me.”
After a long pause, Katie said, “Why did she come?”
“She had things she wanted to tell me.”
“What things?”
“It doesn’t matter. It has nothing to do with you and me.”
“Is there still a you and me?”
“Yes, Katie! I sent her away. She’s not the one I want.”
“And I am?”
“God, yes. Every minute I spend with you makes me want more of you. For the first time in longer than I can remember, I feel hopeful and happy. Because of you.”
“That’s very nice to hear.”
“But?”
She took a deep breath and seemed to be summoning the courage to say what was on her mind. “I’d like to know what Courtney said to you today.”
“I don’t want to talk about her. I sent her away. It’s truly over between us.”
“Hmm, see, I thought it already was—before today.”
“So did I! I had no idea she was going to suddenly show up here the way she did. I hadn’t seen or talked to her in more than two years.”
“And when you saw her, the first thing you did was let go of me. That hurt me, Shane.”
“I know.” He leaned his forehead against hers and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m so, so sorry I did that. You have no idea how badly I’d like to go back and have that minute to do over again.”
“What would you have done differently?”
“I would’ve introduced you to her as my girlfriend. If I had done that, you’d know what you mean to me, and she’d know there was no hope of reconciliation.”
“That’s what she wanted?”
Shane wanted to shoot himself for telling her that. He was truly batting a thousand today. “It’s what she wants. It’s not what I want. I want you.”
“You were with her for years, Shane. You’ve known me for days.”
“And I’ve loved every minute we’ve spent together. I told your brother earlier that you’ve been more right for me in five days than she was in five years. He said I ought to tell you that.”
When she sniffled, he realized she was crying.
“Katie, please… I’m so sorry. The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you or make you cry. It’s killing me to see you cry.”
“You talked to Owen? About me?”
“Um, yeah, he basically tortured me by not telling me where you were and dragging me along to dinner with him and the guys. He’s not too happy with me for making you cry.”
“I don’t blame you for what happened earlier. You had no way
to know she’d be there waiting for you.”
“I didn’t know. I swear it.”
“I believe you.” She took a deep breath. “You were married to her for a long time, so it’s only natural that the sight of her would make you feel guilty for holding hands with someone else.”
“I don’t feel guilty being with you, Katie. Not one bit. I’m single, and I have been for almost two years.”
“And in all that time, you wondered why she left you. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“Yes,” he said, resigned to having this conversation when all he wanted was to take her home so they could be alone to work this out.
“Did you find out why?”
“She said it was because she had to testify against some big-time drug dealers to get immunity on being prosecuted herself for dealing. Or something like that. Apparently, the big guys were convicted yesterday, and she’s now free and clear.”
“So she divorced you to protect you?”
“That’s what she said. Who knows if it’s the truth?”
“Would your father know? Doesn’t he have connections with the court?”
“What does it matter at this point, Katie? I don’t want her back. I don’t want a life of always wondering where she is, if she’s lying, what she’s doing, who she’s doing it with. I almost lost my mind being with her. It’s not what I want anymore.”
“When did you decide that?”
“You want an exact date?”
“An estimate would be good.”
“I don’t know. Last winter, maybe? I thought about what I’d do if she sought me out. And quite some time ago, I made up my mind that when or if she came looking for me, I wasn’t going to be available.”
“So before you met me.”
“Long before.”
“And when you saw her today, how did you feel?”
“Shocked. I never actually expected her to come after the way she dumped me. Plus, I didn’t think she knew where I was.”
“Did you feel anything else besides shock?”
“I feel like I’m on the witness stand here. Let’s cut to the chase. What do you really want to know?”
