Gansett After Dark (17 page)

“Yes, it will. It’s all resurfacing now because you know you have to see him in a couple of days and testify and hear your mother testify. Before all this, you’d managed to put a lot of distance between yourself and your past.”

“Not as much as I thought I had if I’m this easily undone by the thought of seeing him again.”

“Owen, he terrorized you for years. You’d have to be superhuman not to be undone by the thought of seeing him again. Please don’t put yourself through the added hell of wondering why you’re undone. Anyone would be.”

“I don’t want to be. I want to look right through him so he’ll know he doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

“He’ll know. When he sees us together and how happy we are, he’ll see that he didn’t win. That’s the second reason I want to be there. I want him to see that he didn’t win.
You
did. He’s going to jail, and you’re going back to your happy life full of love and joy and all the things he denied himself because he couldn’t control his rage.”

“What if he doesn’t go to jail? What if he gets off and never has to pay for what he did?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that possibility and worrying about what it’ll do to you and your mother if that happens.”

“And?”

“I’ve decided you’ll both be fine. He’s out of your lives. That’s the most important thing. And a tiger doesn’t change his stripes. He’ll find someone else to bully, and maybe the next time, the law will catch up to him.”

“I don’t want him to be able to do what he did to us to anyone else.”

“Then let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst. You’ll have to find a way to live with it if it doesn’t go your way. You’ve lived with it this long and have made a good life for yourself. Stay focused on that, and you’ll get through it. I’ll be right here with you the whole way.”

Of all the incredible things she’d said to him, that last one touched him the most. “I’m sorry we have to deal with this.”

“I’m not. If it means your father has his day of reckoning for what he did to you, then it’s well worth whatever else has to happen. At the very least, from everything you’ve told me about him, the public aspect of the trial will be extremely humiliating to him, which is the least of what he deserves.”

“Yeah,” Owen said with a grunt of laughter, “you’re right about that. It gives me a perverse amount of pleasure to imagine him squirming in court while my mother and I air out the family’s dirty laundry. He’ll hate every minute of that.”

“And you should enjoy every minute. If that’s the only justice you ever get, find a way to make it good enough.”

“I will.” He reached out to touch her face, amazed as always by how soft her skin was. “I’ve gone from not wanting you to come with me to wondering how I ever thought I could do it without you.”

Her satisfied little smile drew one from him, too.
 

“Which was your goal all along,” he said with a laugh.

“That sounds so calculating.”

“I love you. I can’t wait until this is over and we can focus exclusively on our wedding with nothing standing in the way.”

“I don’t want to add to your worries or anything, but there is one teeny tiny other thing still standing in our way.”

Alarmed to hear that, Owen said, “What?”

“I haven’t gotten my final divorce papers yet.”

The reminder that she was still legally married to someone else hit him like a fist to the chest, stealing the breath from his lungs. “Have you talked to Dan? What did he say?”

“He assures me it’s all on schedule and we should be getting the papers any day now.”

“What if they don’t come in time for the wedding?”

“They will.”

“Laura…”

She propped herself up and leaned over to kiss him. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”

“Of course you should tell me that. We’re calling Dan at one minute after nine today to make sure he’s all over it.”

“If you insist.”

He pulled her closer to continue the kiss she’d started. “I insist.”

Mac was on his way to work when he took a call from his sister. “What’s up, brat?”

“How old do I have to be before I don’t have to put up with that nickname anymore?”

“Sixty? Ish?”

“Very funny. Speaking of very funny and how life comes around full circle, I need you to do something for me.”

As always Mac was prepared to give her a hard time, but since they’d nearly lost her the day P.J. was born, he found that more difficult to do than it had ever been before. Usually, giving Janey a hard time was as easy as breathing to him. He couldn’t allow himself to think about how very close they’d come to losing her without being reduced to tears. Not that he’d ever tell her that… “What do you need?”

“Condoms.”

Okay, he might’ve guessed diapers. He hadn’t seen that one coming. “What? What the hell?”

“Joe and I need condoms, and I’ve decided you’re going to get them for us.”

“You’ve decided? What the hell is wrong with him that he can’t do it?”

“Absolutely nothing is wrong with him, but I want
you
to do it.”

Recalling the time he’d sent her to get them for him and Maddie when they were first dating and didn’t want the whole island talking about them sleeping together, he had to concede he owed her one—and she knew it. “You think you’re pretty funny, don’t you?”

“I do. In fact, I think I’m downright hilarious. Just make sure you get them to me before bedtime. Joe’s feeling a bit…
cooped up
and ready to get back to normal. You wouldn’t want me to get pregnant again after what happened with P.J., now would you?”

“This is like a form of emotional blackmail. Right? You know I’m totally over all the train-wreck deliveries around here, so you’re blackmailing me into doing dirty work your husband ought to be doing for you, right?”

“Oh, it’s going to be dirty, all right. The dirtier the better.”

“Janey!
Come on!
Spare me the gory details, will ya?”

“I’m counting on you, big brother. Don’t let me down.”

“I hate you right now.”

“No, you don’t. You love me, and you know it. Oh, and Mac?”

“Yeah?”

“Get the extra-large ones, will you?” She hung up laughing before he could begin to fashion a reply to that. Disgusted, he tossed his phone onto the seat and grunted out a laugh. He had to give his baby sister credit for a game well played. As the younger sister of four older brothers, Janey had learned to fight dirty from an early age. He could only imagine her plotting out this scheme with Joe and the two of them having a good laugh at his expense.
 

He’d once done the same exact thing to her, right down to the extra-large comment, so he probably had this coming.

It would be just what they deserved if he poked holes in all the condoms he bought for them. Not that he’d actually do that, because he truly didn’t want Janey having any more kids after what’d happened with P.J.
 
That had been one of the scariest days of his life, and he had absolutely no desire to relive it.
 

And, as Maddie often told him, it really was all about him.

Now he just had to think of some way to get Janey back for this…

Chapter 12

Sunday mornings in early August were among Big Mac McCarthy’s favorite days at the marina he’d owned and operated for forty summers now. Many of the boaters left early to head for home, and after they’d seen off the others, he and his boys had time to sit around and shoot the shit.

This year had been the best of times because his brother Frank had joined the morning crew after his retirement in June, and having Frankie back in his everyday life made Big Mac almost as happy as having his four sons living home again on the island. His oldest son, Mac, now a partner with him in the marina, was an everyday regular, and his other three boys made occasional appearances at the morning “meeting,” at which Big Mac and his band of buddies attempted to solve the world’s problems.
 

His longtime best friend, Ned Saunders, was the first to arrive that Sunday morning, and he grunted out a good morning on his way inside to get a coffee and some sugar doughnuts.
 

Thinking about the early days here, after he’d persuaded Linda to leave her life in Providence to marry him and come live with him on his island, made Big Mac feel sentimental. She’d taken to the place like the proverbial fish to water, making the restaurant her own with her special brand of class and charm that his customers had responded to instantly. The doughnuts had been an inspired idea that had become part of the magic of the place.

And it was magic. What other word could you use to describe the view he had every day of the Salt Pond and all her many personalities? Some days she was so bright blue it hurt his eyes to look at her. Other days, she was gray and angry and frothy and just as beautiful as every other day. Big Mac appreciated all her many moods.

He loved the boats, the people, the smell of diesel fuel mixing with sand and seaweed. He loved the seagulls that stalked the docks looking for anything edible. He adored the kids who dropped their crabbers into the water off his floating docks, using hot dogs for bait, until they filled a bucket with the slimy creatures. He enjoyed the “crab races” down the ramp off the main dock where the captured crustaceans escaped back into the water unharmed, but leaving behind priceless childhood memories.

Big Mac needed to invite his grandson Thomas down to do some crabbing one of these days. Thomas was old enough this summer to appreciate something his father had once loved. They’d invite Ashleigh, Thomas’s cousin and constant companion, too.
 

Ned came out to the table and dropped a box of doughnuts in the middle as he took a seat.

“What’s got you so cranky this morning?”

“I ain’t cranky.”

“Tell that to someone who hasn’t seen you every morning for going on forty years.” Ned had been Big Mac’s first friend on the island. Their bond had been immediate and enduring. Now that Big Mac’s other lifelong best friend, his brother Frank, was on the island, Big Mac had gone out of his way to make sure he still had plenty of time for Ned. “What gives?”

“Seamus and Carolina,” Ned said, taking a drink of his coffee.

“What about them?”

“They stole our idea.”

“What idea?”

“Have a cookout and git married.”

“Oh! When was this going to happen?”

“Coupla weeks. After Laura’s. You got any idea how hard it is to find a time around here to git married without steppin’ on someone else’s toes these days? Now I don’t know when we’re gonna do it.”

“Do what?” Big Mac’s son Mac asked as he joined them.

“Git married.”

“Who’s getting married?” Mac asked.

“Everyone but me,” Ned replied glumly. “Waited a long time fer this. I’m ready. She’s ready. Now we gotta come up with another idea cuz Seamus and Caro stole ours.”

“So wait,” Mac said, “you guys were going to do a surprise wedding, too?”

“Was gonna. Didn’t want all the fuss and bother. Now? Who knows?”

“As the son-in-law of the future Mrs. Saunders, I’d be happy to offer up my house, my yard, anything you need to make it happen,” Mac said. “You just say the word, and we’ll get it done.”