Blackout After Dark: Gansett Island Series, Book 23

by Marie Force

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Since she was a nurse practitioner and knew better than he did, he yielded to her. For now. If it continued, he’d insist she get treatment.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, hiccupping on sobs. “I didn’t even know. How did I not know?”

  “Shhh, it’s okay. You would’ve figured it out soon.” He was trying keep his own heartbreak out of the mix while he tended to her. Under the sink, he found cleaning products and had the bathroom back to rights by the time she shut off the water in the shower.

  Shane had a towel ready that he wrapped around her, holding her close to him. “Are you hurting?”

  “I was. Now it’s more like a dull ache. I thought I was getting my period, but this was way more than that.”

  “Are you still bleeding?”

  “A little.”

  “How about I go ask Julia if she has anything you can use.”

  “I can’t use tampons. I need a pad. Probably a couple of them.”

  “I’ll ask her to find us some. If she doesn’t have some, someone does.”

  “Don’t tell her what happened. Not yet. I need a minute…”

  He kissed her forehead. “I’ll tell her you’re having a bad period.”

  “Thank you. I’m sorry. I know this is gross.”

  “Don’t be sorry, and it’s not gross. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  “I’m heartbroken.” Her chin wobbled as her eyes filled. “We were going to have a baby, Shane.”

  “We’ll have others. The good news is that now we know we can.” They’d been trying for a while, so it was a bit of good news mixed in with the sorrow. “This one wasn’t meant to be for whatever reason, but we’ll have babies, sweet Katie.”

  He held her while she sobbed, and when she finally calmed, he settled her on the closed lid of the toilet and went to find Julia.

  She was outside on the deck, talking to Owen about the set they planned to perform and figuring out how to work around not having power for Julia’s keyboard or their microphones.

  “Hey, Julia.” Shane gestured for her to come to him. “Katie’s upstairs and having a bad period. She needs pads. Do you have any?”

  “Let me check my bag. Is she okay?”

  Shane followed her inside. “I think so. She just feels lousy.”

  “That stinks.” Julia rifled through a massive tote bag and found three individually wrapped pads at the bottom. “Would you rather I delivered them?”

  Shane forced himself to smile. “I got it. I’m not easily intimidated by girl things.”

  “Tell her to let me know if she needs anything.”

  “I will. Thanks.” He went back upstairs, moving quickly to get to her as fast as he could. In the bathroom, he handed her the pads. “Julia to the rescue.”

  “I can always count on her and that suitcase she carries around.”

  “Do you need clothes? I can ask your mom for something.”

  “No, I managed to protect my clothes.”

  “I’ll, ah, just give you a minute.”

  When she emerged from the bathroom, dressed but still pale and looking shocked, he guided her into one of the guest rooms and encouraged her to lie down for a bit. He shut the door and sent a text to Julia, telling her where they were and asking her to run interference for them. Katie isn’t feeling well, so we’re going to chill up here for a bit. Tell your mom?

  Will do.

  Shane opened the windows so they wouldn’t suffocate from the heat and stretched out next to Katie on the bed. His phone chimed with another text from Julia that included the eye-roll emoji.

  Mom was freaking out that maybe Katie had food poisoning. Assured her it’s girl trouble. Tell her we said to feel better.

  Katie curled up to him, resting her head on his chest.

  Shane put his arms around her. “How do you feel?”

  She sniffled. “Sad, empty, achy.”

  “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

  “I’ve helped so many patients through this very thing, but until it happens to you…” She took a shuddering deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “As soon as it’s safe to try again, we will.”

  “Thank you for being so great. You deserve hazardous-duty pay after walking into that nightmare.”

  Shane chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad, and I always want to be wherever you are, especially when you need me.”

  “I need you all the time, but I might need you even more the next few days.”

  “I’m right here, sweetheart.”

  Chapter 22

  Alex drove home from the senior care center with tears running down his face. Of course it couldn’t have lasted. He’d known that but had held out hope, nonetheless. They’d gotten four hours of complete lucidity before Marion had once again retreated into the cruel bitch of dementia, asking where she was, who they were and when her husband, George, would be home.

  As quickly as the lucidity had arrived, it’d been snatched away.

  He was so thankful for the time they’d gotten, but losing her again had knocked the wind out of them all. He’d offered to drive her “home” to the center, which had been dreadful. She’d been confused and disoriented and screaming for his late father. The very capable staff had encouraged him to leave, assuring him they’d take good care of her.

  It fucking sucked.

  They’d gotten just enough time with her to see what kind of grandmother she might’ve been to the kids.

  He pounded his hand against the steering wheel until pain shot up his wrist.

  The sun had nearly set by the time he pulled into the driveway to Martinez Lawn & Garden, the business his mother and Paul had been running only a few short years ago. He hooked a left behind the retail store, pulling up in front of the house he and Jenny had built.

  His mother hadn’t gotten to see it. He’d hoped they’d have more time.

  Alex sat for a long while, once again pondering the irony of him meeting Jenny and Paul meeting Hope because of their mother’s illness. He sure as hell never would’ve moved home to Gansett or been cutting grass at the lighthouse if his mother hadn’t gotten sick. Hope had come to the island to help care for Marion at home.

  The cruel sadness of those twists of fate wasn’t lost on him, that in her brief moment of lucidity, Marion had finally gotten to meet the daughters-in-law who wouldn’t be her daughters-in-law if she hadn’t become ill.

  He had no idea how long he sat there, lost in thought, before Jenny knocked on the passenger-side window.

  Alex unlocked the door and hastily wiped the remaining tears off his face.

  Jenny slid into the seat, holding the remote baby monitor. She immediately directed the AC vents toward her sweaty face. “Are you okay?”

  “Never better.”

  “It was bad?”

  “Horrible. When I left, she was screaming for my dad.”

  Jenny winced. “I’m so sorry, Alex. What can I do?”

  He reached for her hand. “This helps.”

  She squeezed his hand. “I wish there was more I could do.”

  “I was just thinking how there’d be no me and you without her illness, no Paul and Hope. No Ethan, George or Scarlett. How fucked up is it that we have these happy lives because she got sick?”

  “She seemed so pleased with the family we’ve created in her absence.”

  “She did.” He swiped angrily at another tear, wishing they would fucking stop. “It’s just so unbearably sad.”

  “It’s sad and unfair.”

  He nodded, appreciating that she understood. Of course she did.

  “Life can be sad and unfair, but it’s also sweet and joyful, often all at the same time.”

  “Today was such a tease,” he said on a long sigh.

  “I think you should try to see it as a gift. She got to meet me, Hope, the kids. Really meet us, not just exist in the same space with us. We got to talk to her and get to know her better. I’ll never forget that tim
e with her or stop being thankful for it.”

  “I’m thankful for all of that. Please don’t get me wrong.”

  “I know, it’s the having-it-yanked-back part that’s tough.”

  “Yeah.” He took a deep breath and held it for a second before releasing it. “We can go in.”

  “It’s so much nicer out here in the AC.”

  “We’re getting a generator ASAP.”

  “You won’t hear me arguing.”

  He looked over at her. “Thanks for being there for me and my mom today. Having you by my side makes everything easier than it would be without you.”

  “Same.”

  “It might take me a minute to shake this off.”

  “Take as many minutes as you need and tell me what I can do to help.”

  “I love you, Jenny Martinez.”

  “I love you, too, Alex Martinez, and I’m so very glad we met, but I’ll always be sorry your mom had to get sick for us to find each other.”

  “Me, too. Can we go in?”

  “Whatever you want to do.”

  “You know what I want to do?”

  “Gee, let me guess,” she said as she followed him from the hot outdoors to the hotter indoors.

  “I want a re-creation of our first sweaty week together.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yep.”

  Inside the door, he turned to keep her from progressing into the house, backing her up until she was pressed against the wood door he’d hung himself. He took the baby monitor from her and placed it on the table where they kept their keys. “We were talking about the mudroom at the lighthouse earlier,” he said as he kissed her neck. “That was where my obsession with the lighthouse keeper began.”

  “Did it?”

  “You know it did. Shortly after she pelted me with tomatoes.”

  “That was my finest hour. And to think, the boys at school used to say I threw like a girl.”

  Laughing, he said, “Not that day.” He unbuttoned her shorts, pushed them down and shoved a hand into her panties. Back when they were first together, he used to worry about his lack of finesse at times like this, when he wanted her so badly, he burned from it, but she told him she loved him with or without finesse. It was a good thing, because tonight he needed her as much as he wanted her, craving the connection he found only with her. That connection soothed and comforted him on days like this, when the enormity of his mother’s illness was too much to bear.

  “Yes, Alex,” she said on a sigh. “Right there.”

  He knew exactly where to touch her, how to make her scream from the pleasure they found together. Waiting until she was right on the verge of release, he withdrew from her only long enough to free his hard cock from his shorts and plunge into her, which sent her flying.

  Somehow he managed to hold on through her release as sweat rolled down his face and burned his eyes. Or maybe those were tears. What did it matter, he wondered, as he pumped into the woman he loved more than anything or anyone. Where would he be by now in this situation without her to keep him sane, to fill his life with joy and love, to light the darkness?

  “Jenny…”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek and then his lips. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

  “Love you so much.”

  “Love you more.”

  He shook his head, his fingers digging into the dense flesh of her ass as he pounded into her. His sweat mixed with hers as they moved together with the practiced ease that came from years together. He’d never had that ease with anyone else. “It’s so fucking hot.”

  “Mmm, sure is.”

  “I meant the temperature, but this is pretty hot, too.”

  Jenny smiled. “‘Hot’ is the word of the day.”

  Alex slowed his pace, lifting her and letting her slide down the length of him repeatedly until her head fell back, connecting with the door with a loud thunk. “Ouch. Are you okay?”

  “Very okay. Don’t stop.”

  The need he heard in those few words lit a new fire in him, and when he reached between them to coax her over the finish line, he was right there with her, surging into her as he came with a groan. When he’d recovered enough to be sure his legs would hold their weight, he said, “Hold on to me.”

  Her head was on his shoulder, her arms looped around his neck. “Holding on.”

  Alex kept a tight hold on her as he lifted her off the door, stepped out of his shorts and walked them to the sofa, where he came down on top of her while maintaining their connection.

  “Fancy,” she said, smiling up at him.

  “You liked that?”

  She pushed the sweaty hair back from his forehead. “I like it all.”

  “Thanks for being there for me today.”

  “I’m here for you every day, not just the good ones.”

  “Thank God for that. I never would’ve survived this situation with my mother without you here to keep me sane.”

  “Yes, you would have.”

  He shook his head. “No way. You’re the secret to my success. You and George.”

  “We love you.”

  “I love you, too.” He kissed her softly, intending it to be a quick one, until her mouth opened to his tongue, and suddenly, round two was underway. That’s how it always was between them. They could never seem to get enough of each other. He was thankful every day that he’d gone to the lighthouse to mow the lawn and had been pelted by her tomatoes. She’d been so mad at him for waking her up at the crack of dawn.

  “What’re you thinking?” she asked, gazing up at him with eyes that looked at him only with love. Well, except for when he irritated her, often on purpose, because that was fun, too. Everything was fun with her.

  “I’m thinking about the tomatoes,” he said as he moved slowly in her. “You have no idea what you saved me from by throwing tomatoes at me.”

  “I do know. I was right there with you in the pits of despair.”

  He put his arms around her and nuzzled her neck. “Everything was better after I found you.”

  “For me, too.”

  “Even days like today.”

  Jenny wrapped her arms around him and held on tight to him as they moved together like dancers in perfect harmony. “Especially days like today.”

  He held on tighter to her and took them on a sweet, sensual ride that ended in gasps of pleasure that echoed through the room. They were a sweaty mess, but he felt better than he had when he got home. “Thank you for this, for us, for having my back with my mom. All of it.”

  “Yours is my favorite back in the whole world,” she said as she ran her fingers through the sweat that had formed at the base of his spine.

  “We’re getting a fucking generator.”

  Chapter 23

  Luke Harris held his sleepy daughter, Lily, while his wife, Sydney, said goodbye to their friends. He wondered if anyone else noticed how fragile Syd seemed lately, since the accident at the marina at the beginning of the summer. She’d inadvertently driven her car over the bulkhead into the water with Lily strapped into her car seat. Mason and Blaine had gotten them out, but not before they’d all been severely traumatized by the rising water inside the car. When he thought about what might’ve happened if it’d taken Blaine and Mason a few more minutes to get there, or if they hadn’t been able to rescue them in time…

  He’d had his own nightmares about those scenarios and could only wonder if she had, too. If so, she wasn’t talking to him about it. He kept hoping she’d bounce back, but she hadn’t. Not really. She’d done a great job of pretending to be fine, but he knew her too well for her to get away with it.

  She’d had a nice time at Charlie and Sarah’s party, had enjoyed a few glasses of wine with their closest friends and was as relaxed as he’d seen her since the incident.

  After they got home and put Lily to bed, he was going to see if he could get her to talk it out with him. He hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake by forcing the
issue, but he couldn’t bear to see her suffering in silence any longer.

  As they drove home, he tried to think of how he might broach the subject with her. He was nervous about it, which was further indication that things were off between them. Talking to her was the easiest thing he’d ever done—and for someone who’d been quiet with other people his whole life that was saying something. He was never nervous or uncertain around her. The fact that he was both those things now meant this conversation was long overdue.

  The accident had happened almost three months ago, but nothing had been the same since then. He’d noticed that Syd went out of her way to avoid driving herself and Lily anywhere unless it was absolutely necessary. That couldn’t continue. She had a booming business as the island’s only interior decorator, and with her biggest job yet—the redecorating of the McCarthys’ hotel coming this winter—she couldn’t be afraid to drive with their daughter in the car.

  When they got home, he let their dog, Buddy, out while she gave Lily a bath.

  Then they snuggled in their bed to read her a couple of stories.

  At the end of a busy day, Lily was tired and fell asleep during the second story.

  “Want me to put her in the crib?” Luke asked.

  “Sure.”

  Luke carefully lifted the sleeping child and carried her into the next room to put her down for the night. Sometimes when he looked at her, he still couldn’t believe she was real. He ran his fingers through silky hair that was the same copper color as her mother’s and gave thanks, as he had every day since that awful ten minutes at the marina, that Blaine and Mason had gotten to them in time.

  They’d immediately installed a new curbstone in the spot where it had occurred, but Luke couldn’t bear to look at the area, even after all this time. He woke in a cold sweat at least once a week after having dreamed about the two of them being trapped in a sinking car and him unable to do a goddamned thing to save them.

  He forced himself to breathe through the now-predictable wave of nausea that hit him every time he relived those endless moments of watching the car fill with water while his wife and daughter were trapped inside.

  Syd blamed herself. She’d been on the phone when her foot slipped off the brake onto the accelerator. No matter how many times she was reminded that it’d been an accident, she couldn’t get past the fact that she’d caused it. And that was at the crux of their problem. She had to forgive herself before she could move on.