by Marie Force
“Someone call the cops,” he said as he got into the car. “Daisy’s house has been vandalized.”
“Where is she?” a woman asked.
“I’m going to find her.”
He drove faster than he ever had on the way to Mac’s, hoping and praying she was still there, that she hadn’t come home and been attacked again. Had Truck Henry been released from jail? Why hadn’t they been told? Maybe they had been told, he conceded, wondering where in the hell he’d left his cell phone. David had so many questions as he made the turn onto Sweet Meadow Farm Road. He brought the car to a skidding halt in Mac’s driveway and took the stairs to the deck two at a time, calling for Daisy as he went.
Everything stopped as he burst into the house, probably looking like a madman. “Where’s Daisy?”
She appeared at the top of the stairs, seeming baffled by his odd behavior.
Right then and there, at the sight of her beautiful face, safe and sound, David dropped off the cliff and landed in love. He ran for her, up the stairs, again two at a time, and took her into his arms. He kept going, seeking privacy for what he needed to tell her. Inside one of the bedrooms, he kicked the door shut behind him.
“What’s wrong? Is it Janey? Did she, she didn’t… David!”
He poured every bit of fear and love and desire he felt for her into a kiss he hoped she’d never forget. “I’m so sorry,” he said after several deep kisses that calmed his nerves and steeled his determination to make this sweet, beautiful woman a permanent part of his life. “I ran out of here without talking to you or saying anything. I’m so sorry, and then I went to your house, and… Is Truck out of jail?”
“What? What did you say?”
“Did Truck get released?”
“If he did, no one told me.” She drew her phone from the pocket of her shorts. “Oh my God! There’s a bunch of calls from Providence and several from the Gansett Police. I put my phone on silent while Hailey was napping. How did you know?”
“Your house, honey. Someone was there. The door was kicked in, and when I couldn’t find you… I thought… God, Daisy, I’m so glad you’re here and you’re okay. And I love you. I love you.”
She tipped her head as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “You…”
“I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been for quite some time, but the second I couldn’t find you, I knew for sure that I had to tell you. Because if anything ever happened to you and you didn’t know that I love you…”
She put her arms around him and drew him into her warm embrace. “I’m fine. I’m right here, I’m fine and I love you, too. I heard you saved Janey and her baby. I’m so proud of you.”
His entire body shuddered as he exhaled. “I left you here like you mean nothing to me, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“You did what you had to do in an emergency. I’ll always expect you to do what has to be done, no matter who the patient is.”
“I feel so lucky to have found you, to have somehow gotten you to fall in love with me.”
“Falling in love with you was the easy part,” she said with a smile that lit up her eyes. “Convincing myself it could actually last has been the hard part.”
“And how are you doing with that?”
“Better now.”
“Were you mad about the way I left earlier?”
“I wasn’t mad. I was…”
“A little hurt?”
“Maybe a little, but then I was immediately ashamed of myself in light of what Janey was going through—and what you were going through trying to save her.”
“I’m sorry, honey. I swear I’ll never do that again.”
She rested a finger over his lips. “Don’t make that promise. So many people are counting on you. Sometimes you’ll have to put them ahead of me, but as long as you promise to find me when you’re done the way you did today, we’ll be okay.”
As he kissed her again, a peaceful feeling came over him that was all new. Even at the best of times with Janey, he’d never felt the sense of rightness he experienced with Daisy. She calmed and soothed him. She knew the worst of him and loved him anyway.
“Let’s go find Blaine and figure out what’s up with your ex, and then I want to go home and sleep for a year—after I make love to you.”
Her saucy smile was a huge relief to him after the news he’d brought her about the damage to her house. They’d find their way through this latest challenge and move forward from there.
Blaine met them on the stairs. “I was just coming to find you guys. I finally checked my phone for the first time in hours.”
“So it’s true?” Daisy asked. “Truck’s been released?”
“How did you know that?”
“He’s already been to her house, kicked in the door and trashed the place,” David said.
“Son of a bitch,” Blaine muttered, placing a call on his phone. “This is Chief Taylor. I want all units on the lookout for Truck Henry, and position a car at the Harbor Road home of Daisy Babson in case he comes looking for her there again.” He ended the call and looked at his phone. “I missed ten calls from Providence while I was off getting married. I’m really sorry, you guys.”
“Please don’t be,” Daisy said. “You have a right to a day off when you’re getting married.”
“We’ll find him and get him back to where he belongs. Until then—”
“Until then,” David said, his arm tight around her shoulders, “she’ll be with me at my house.”
Blaine nodded in approval. “Good plan. So how’s Janey?”
“Stable and on her way to Providence.”
“And the baby?”
“Same. That’ll be a wait-and-see thing for a few days.”
“They were really lucky you were right here when it happened,” Blaine said.
“I know Janey will feel awful for putting a damper on your wedding celebration,” David said.
“We feel terrible about what happened to her, but our day has still been amazing. In fact,” Blaine added with a silly waggle of his brows, “I think it’s about time I collected Mrs. Taylor and headed off to get the honeymoon started.”
Laughing, they followed him down the stairs to find Tiffany surrounded by her friends admiring her new rings. The atmosphere in the group had lightened considerably since word got out that Janey and the baby were stable and on their way to Providence.
Despite the fact that he was exhausted and emotionally drained, everyone wanted to shake David’s hand and thank him for what he’d done for Janey and the baby. Janey’s Uncle Frank hugged him, as did her cousins Laura and Shane. With everyone back from the clinic, Grace, Stephanie, Jenny, Maddie and Sydney fell over themselves getting him food and a beer, which went down easy after the stressful day.
Tiffany and Blaine were corralled into dancing to “Make You Feel My Love,” performed again by Evan, cutting the cake and tossing the bouquet before Maddie finally allowed them to leave. Before they went, though, Blaine found David and Daisy and promised to keep in touch with them until Truck was apprehended.
“Can we go, too?” David asked Daisy. “I’m fried.”
“Sure, let me just find Maddie to tell her we’re going.”
In the kitchen, Maddie was wrapped up in her husband’s arms.
“Oh, sorry,” Daisy said. “I wanted to tell you that David and I are leaving.”
Maddie pulled back from Mac, wiped her tearstained cheeks and turned to hug Daisy. “Thank you so much for watching the kids while we were at the clinic.”
“It was nothing. I was happy to be able to help, and I’m glad Janey is okay.”
“So are we,” Mac said. “I’m putting a moratorium on babies in this family. I can’t handle the stress.”
“You can’t, huh?” Maddie said. “You might want to rethink that, because I’m officially late, my love.”
The look on Mac’s face as he absorbed her announcement was nothing short of priceless.
“I
need a really big drink,” he muttered as he left the women laughing in the kitchen.
“Do you think you’re pregnant?” Daisy asked her friend.
She shrugged. “I’m regular as clockwork, so probably. I have half a mind to kill him for knocking me up again so soon after Hailey was born, but I love him too damned much to kill him.”
Daisy hugged her again. “Keep me posted.”
“I will and thanks again, Daisy.” Maddie lowered her voice. “Your handsome doctor seems very smitten.”
“He’s in love,” Daisy whispered.
“Is he now?”
Daisy nodded.
“And you?”
“Crazy in love.”
“Oh, I’m so happy for you! You so deserve to be happy after all that’s happened.”
“Apparently, it’s not over yet.” Daisy told Maddie about Truck being released and how they suspected him of vandalizing her home.
“You’ll be with David, right? Until they find him?”
“He won’t let me out of his sight. Don’t worry.”
“I will worry until I hear they’ve put Truck back where he belongs.”
“They’ll find him,” Daisy said confidently as Maddie saw them out. “He’s hard to miss, especially when he’s high and enraged.”
When they were in the car, David reached for her hand. “I won’t let him get anywhere near you, so don’t worry.”
The man she loved was holding her hand, and he loved her, too. What did she have to worry about?
Janey’s first conscious thought was that everything hurt. She fought her way through the confusion, trying to make sense of the pain. Her eyes were too heavy to open, and her mouth felt thick and dry, so dry. “Joe.”
“Janey! Janey, talk to me. Oh God, honey. Please talk to me.”
“What happened?”
“You wouldn’t wake up, and you were bleeding.”
At that news, she forced her eyes open and blinked him into focus. He looked like hell, and was he crying? “The baby.” She tried to move her arms to feel the baby, but they wouldn’t cooperate. They felt like lead weights had been attached to them. “Where’s the baby?”
“Our son is in the neonatal ICU. I’ve been with him all afternoon.”
“It’s too early!” Her voice broke on a ragged sob. “It’s too soon.
“He’s beautiful, Janey. The doctors say he’s going to be okay. He’s going to be here awhile until his lungs develop some more, but he’s going to be okay, and so are you.” Tears rolled down his cheeks as he bent over her, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair. “You scared me so badly. I’ve never been that scared in my whole life. I was so afraid I was going to lose you.”
“I don’t understand what happened. We got to Mac’s early. You wanted to get me settled before everyone started coming. I was tired…”
“Yes,” he said, his lips soft against her face. “You took a nap, and when I went to wake you up so you could see Tiffany and Blaine come in after the wedding, you wouldn’t wake up. You wouldn’t wake up. Thank God David was there, and he knew what to do. He got you to the clinic and did an emergency C-section.”
“Why was I bleeding?”
“David said you had what’s called a partial placental abruption, which is very rare and happens suddenly.”
“Did I do something wrong to make that happen?”
“No, honey. It wasn’t your fault. One of the nurses told me she’s seen instances of the mom and baby both dying from an abruption. We were so lucky that David was there and he knew what to do.”
“David… I need to talk to him, to thank him.”
“There’ll be time for that when you’re feeling stronger.”
“Where are we now?”
“In Providence. The Life Flight helicopter brought us over. Your parents are on their way with Slim. I’ve talked to them twice since we got here, but I know they can’t wait to see you.”
“They must be so worried.”
“We all were.”
“I want to see the baby.”
“You can’t get up quite yet, but I took some pictures for you.” He turned on his phone and took her through the series of photos he’d taken of the baby through the incubator.
“He’s so small.”
“But he’s perfect. See his little fingers and toes? And his nose is just like yours.”
“Can we have others?”
“We should be able to. The doctors here said David did an excellent job.”
“We owe him so much.”
“We owe him everything.” He kissed her nose and her lips and the tears on her cheeks.
She tried again to move, but the pain brought tears to her eyes. “Hurts.”
“What does?” he asked, alarmed.
“Everything.”
“Let me get the nurse.”
He returned a minute later with a nurse who adjusted Janey’s pain meds and taught her how to use the morphine pump to get immediate relief.
When they were alone again, she held on tight to his hand. “Joe.”
“I’m here, honey.”
“After seeing the pictures, I know what I want to name him.” They’d been debating names for weeks now without settling on one. “Peter Joseph, after your father and you. We’ll call him P.J. What do you think?”
“I think P.J. Cantrell is the nicest name I’ve ever heard, second only to Janey McCarthy. Thank you so much for my son and for honoring my dad with his name and for not dying and leaving me all alone to raise him. I never could’ve faced the rest of my life without you.”
“I’m going to be around to give you grief for a long, long time.”
“Thank God for that.”
Her parents came bursting into the room and stopped short at the sight of her talking to Joe.
“Oh, thank you, Jesus,” Linda said, bursting into tears.
Janey couldn’t remember the last time she saw her mother cry like that—or her dad who was crying just as hard. “I’m okay,” she said when Joe stepped back to let them see her. “And so is the baby. His name is P.J. Peter for Joe’s dad and his middle name is Joseph. What do you think?”
“That’s a lovely name,” Linda said.
Big Mac nodded in approval. “P.J. Cantrell. Welcome to the family, P.J.”
“I wanted to name him McCarthy, but Joe and I decided we have enough Macs running loose in this family.”
“Probably so,” Linda agreed.
“However, I reserve the right to use that name in the future,” Janey added.
“So you can have others?” Linda asked.
“That’s what they told Joe, but we’ll be waiting awhile. We got way more than we bargained for this time, right, Joe?”
“We sure did.” His voice broke on the last word. “I…ah, I’ll be right back.”
“Daddy, go after him,” Janey said.
Big Mac bent to kiss Janey’s cheek. “You got it, Princess.”
Chapter 17
On the verge of completely losing his composure, Joe hurried from the room and took a couple of deep breaths in the hallway. But nothing could stop the flood of tears or the overpowering relief of knowing she was okay. They were both okay. When Big Mac emerged from the room, Joe tried to mop up the tears that kept coming.
“Come here, son,” Big Mac said, holding out his arms to Joe.
Like he had from the first time he met the strapping man who’d been his best friend’s father, Joe gravitated to him, even if he was embarrassed to be caught crying like a baby by the man he idolized.
“Big day for any man to welcome his first child, but this… This would’ve been too much for anyone. You held up well. You took good care of your family, and I’m proud of you.”
“Actually,” Joe said, laughing through the tears, “David Lawrence took good care of my family.”
Big Mac smiled. “Thank goodness he was right there when it happened. Life has a funny way of coming full circle, doesn’t it?”
&nb
sp; “It does, indeed.”
“He might’ve done the heavy lifting, but you were strong for them, and that matters, too.”
“The only thing that matters is that she’s okay, and that the baby’s okay. I had some rough moments today imagining life without her. I don’t know what I’d do…”
“I know exactly what you mean. I had a few of those moments myself.”
“How’d you like to meet your new grandson?”
Big Mac’s smile lit up his tanned face. “What do you think?”
Joe glanced at the door to Janey’s room.
“Her mom is with her. She’s in good hands.”
Joe nodded and headed down the hallway with Big Mac’s arm around his shoulders, excited to introduce his son to his grandfather.
After she tucked Thomas and Ashleigh into bed, Maddie came downstairs and went into the kitchen wishing for a big glass of wine but settling for ice water on the outside chance that she might be pregnant.
What a day this had been! Tiffany and Blaine married, Janey’s baby born in dramatic fashion, and her closest friends still gathered around the fire pit in the yard, ready to rehash it all.
As Maddie filled her glass, Mac came into the kitchen. “Everyone in bed?” he asked.
“Yes, finally. They were so excited about the wedding and the baby. I didn’t think I’d ever get them settled down, but I promised them a trip to the beach tomorrow if they were very good and went to sleep. I think it worked.”
He kissed her forehead. “Good job, Mom.”
“How’re you doing?”
“Okay. I guess. I wish my hands would quit shaking.”
Maddie put down her glass and took hold of his hands, which were, in fact, trembling. “What can I do?”
“I could use a hug.”
“I’ve got one for you anytime you need it.”
He stepped into her outstretched arms and held on tight. “I can’t deal with all this crazy shit that keeps happening to people I love. My dad falling off the dock, you delivering Hailey during that storm, the sailboat accident and now Janey… It’s too damned much.”
