Desire After Dark: A Gansett Island Novel (21 page)

“I like her.”

“This is big news.”

“Could I ask you something?”

Adam sat in the chair next to Slim’s. “Anything.”

“How’d you know Abby was the one for you?”

Adam thought about that for a minute before he began to speak. “We’d been hanging out for a while when I got called back to New York to deal with my business. I was stuck there seeing to the details for a couple of weeks,
and the whole time, I was
dying
to get back to her. That was all I could think about when I wasn’t working. Her. Just her. I need her like I need oxygen, you know?”

Slim nodded because he was beginning to understand all too well. Leaving Erin had been excruciating.

“So is she it for you?” Adam asked.

“I’m starting to think she might be.”

“Oh damn! Never thought I’d
see the day!”

“Do me a favor? Don’t tell anyone? We’re a long way from being ready to make declarations.”

“I gotcha. It’s cool, and I won’t say anything, except I’m happy for you.”

Slim shook his friend’s outstretched hand. “Thanks and likewise. What a great night this has been.”

“Indeed it has. I gotta hit the head and get back to my wife before she gets a better offer.”

“She’s never going to get a better offer, and she’s smart enough to know that.”

Adam smiled. “I got really lucky. I hope you do, too.” He took off toward the men’s room, leaving Slim alone to think about his next move.

O
wen had brought
Laura home from Adam’s wedding at ten o’clock. She’d wanted to stick it out until midnight, but he could see that she was exhausted and had talked her into coming home to bed.

While she slept in his arms, their busy babies played a soccer game in her belly.

Owen smiled
in the dark each time a little foot or elbow connected with his body and wondered how she could be sleeping through the party they were having. She’d been incredibly tired as the third trimester got under way, which was why they’d been arguing over the Christmas gift she’d given him—tickets to Anguilla for Evan and Grace’s wedding.

Laura had cleared the travel with Victoria and David, and
insisted they had to be there when his best friend and her cousin got married.

Owen disagreed, preferring to stay home where they’d be close to her doctor and midwife in the event of any problem.

They were at a standoff, with Laura insisting they were going and he insisting they weren’t. The rare disagreement was working on his already frazzled nerves as he waited to see if his father
would call again. It had been more than ten days since the last call, and Owen wondered if he’d missed the opportunity by ignoring the first two calls.

They’d spent a lot of time with his mom and Charlie over the holidays, and seeing how happy they were together made Owen determined to do what he could to win her freedom from her nightmare of a marriage.

But the bastard had yet to
call again. Why didn’t he call? It wasn’t like Owen could call him in prison. No, he was forced to wait for Mark to make the next move, which only added to his anxiety.

Between the ongoing argument with Laura and the stress of waiting to see if his father would call, Owen knew there was no chance he’d sleep tonight. He disentangled from Laura, who’d reached for him in her sleep out of habit,
and settled her on the pillow next to his. Sweeping her hair back from her face, he kissed her cheek and stared down at her for a long moment, wishing he could make her see his side of their debate.

After what’d happened to Maddie when she had Hailey and then Janey with PJ, he was terrified of something going wrong for Laura and the babies. The last place they ought to be eight weeks before
her due date was in the Caribbean for a wedding, but she was determined to go, to have a last hurrah before the babies came and upended their peaceful existence.

Owen retrieved his cell phone from Laura’s bedside table, took his guitar and went downstairs to the sitting room off the lobby where he wouldn’t bother anyone by playing at two in the morning. Closing the door behind him, he lit
a fire and settled into the armless chair that was his favorite place to practice.

Thank God for the music that had always been there for him, transporting him to another world where troubles didn’t exist. He’d taught himself to play at twelve on a flea market guitar with bad strings. That guitar had opened up a whole new world to him, one that he still ran to whenever life got to be too
much for him.

He was lost in the music when Laura slid her arms around him from behind. Owen wasn’t surprised to realize he’d been there for ninety minutes by then.

“I woke up and you weren’t there,” she said. “I was worried.”

“Sorry. Couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to bother you.”

She kissed the back of his neck. “What’s keeping you awake?”

“Lots of stuff.”

“The trip?”

“For one thing.”

“Can I say something about that?”

“Something you haven’t already said?”

Smiling, she came around to sit on the footstool in front of him, which was when he noticed the baby monitor she held in her hand so they could hear Holden if he woke up. “We’ve had such a crazy year, O, between Holden’s birth, renovating the hotel, your dad’s
trial, the wedding and the twins on the way. I want us to have a wonderful time away from it all before the babies come. Your mom and Charlie are thrilled to have Holden for a week, and we know he’ll be in very good hands with them. Please. I just want out of here for a week, and I really want to go to my cousin’s wedding—and I want you to be there, too. Evan is your best friend. He can’t get married
without you. And,” she added, waggling her brows, “a whole week alone in Anguilla.”

“Alone with your whole family and all our friends.”

“With our own room to flee to any time we want.”

“I’m worried something will happen while we’re away.”

“If it does, we’ll deal with it. I’m not being frivolous with my safety or that of the babies, Owen. I have clearance from my doctor
and midwife. We are still within the range where it’s safe to travel. I really,
really
want to go, but not if it’s going to keep you awake at night with anxiety.”

He put down the guitar and reached for her, bringing her onto his lap. “That’s not the only thing keeping me awake.”

“Your father and that freaking phone call, too.”

“Yeah.”

“I hate him for doing this to you.”

“I hate him for a lot of reasons, and then I feel guilty for hating my own father.”

“He’s given you plenty of reasons to feel that way.”

“Still…”

“I know.”

“So a whole week alone in the Caribbean, huh?” Owen asked, desperate to talk about anything other than his father.

“That’s what I’m offering.”

“It would take a stronger man than I am to turn down
an offer like that from you.”

“Yes?” she asked, her face alight with giddy excitement that made him smile. If she was happy, he was, too.

“We can go, but you’d better not let anything happen to you or our babies.”

“I won’t. I promise.” She kissed his lips and then his neck again. “Come upstairs. I’ve got another offer you won’t be able to refuse.”

Owen laughed as his
body reacted to her blatant come-on. “I don’t know what I ever did without you, Laura Lawry. I was in a funk when I came down here, and then you showed up and made everything better.”

“I seem to recall you doing the same for me once upon a time.” She got up and held out her hand to him.

Owen took her hand and brought his guitar with him when he followed her upstairs to their apartment.
They looked in on Holden, who was sleeping with his arms thrown over his head and his covers kicked off as usual. Laura covered him while Owen stashed his guitar on the stand in the corner of the living room.

They met in the bedroom, where Laura treated him to the pleasure of watching her remove her nightgown, revealing a rounded belly and breasts made large by pregnancy. He thought she
was, quite simply, the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

“Don’t look too close,” she said, suddenly shy after revealing herself to him.

Owen pulled off his T-shirt and went to her, running his hands over her abundant curves. “Don’t ever tell me not to look at what’s mine. And there will never be a time when I don’t think you’re perfect.”

“You’re blinded by love.”

“Maybe so,” he said, resting his hand over the babies, “but I hope you know I mean it. I look at you, and I just see everything.”

“Me, too,” she whispered, drawing him down to her for a kiss.

Owen wrapped his arms around her and fell into the kiss, drowning in the sweet comfort he always found with her. He was so fully engaged with her that he almost missed the sound of his
phone ringing in the pocket of his pajama pants. Withdrawing from the kiss, Owen kept one arm around her as he retrieved the phone. A quick glance showed a Virginia number on the screen.

“Give me the phone, Owen. I’ve got this.”

“Thank you, honey, but I’ll do it.” Her love had given him the strength to face anything, even his monster of a father.

He took the call and accepted
the collect charges. Owen sat on the bed, and Laura put her nightgown back on and sat next to him. He held the phone so she could hear, too.

“Finally,” Mark Lawry said in a low growl that immediately put Owen on guard. Nothing good had ever followed that particular tone of voice.

“What do you want?” Owen asked.

“I wanted you to pick up the goddamned phone when I called you.”

“Why would you think I have anything at all to say to you?”

“Maybe it’s time you did some listening rather than talking. There are things you don’t know.”

“If you’re going to tell me some sob story that you think will change how I feel about you, then you’re wasting my time—and yours.”

“It’s not a story. It’s the truth. I… I was knocked around by my old man. I never
knew anything else. They’ve got me going to court-ordered counseling here, and the guy got me to tell him that. He said I needed to tell my kids so they’d understand why I am the way I am.”

Stunned by the confession from a man who’d never once admitted to weakness of any kind, Owen tried to wrap his brain around what he was hearing.

“I told the shrink that you kids would think I’m
making excuses, and he said you can think whatever you want as long as I tell you the truth. I swear on my life I’m telling you the truth, and it’s something I’d never told anyone until I told him—even your mother has never heard any of this. She only knew that there was no love lost between me and my father. You were lucky you never knew him. The sadistic bastard died before you were born. One
of the best days of my life was when he was hit by a car crossing the street. As far as I was concerned, he’d gotten exactly what was coming to him, but his rage… It was like he left it all to me. The first time I hit your mother was the day he died. I was wrong to do that. I knew it then. I know it now, but… It was like something would come over me, and I’d lose control of myself. The shrink… He’s
helping me see how it’s all connected—what was done to me and what I did to all of you. I’m not making excuses. I swear that’s not what this is. I just… I wanted a chance to say I-I’m sorry for what I did, Owen, to you and the others. You all deserved better than me, and I won’t bother you anymore after this. I just… I wanted you to know. I’m sorry. Will you tell the others? Will you tell your mother?”

Owen couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Tears flooded his eyes, blinding him. He’d never heard his father say so many words at one time, unless they were angry words.

“Owen, are you there?”

Clearing the huge lump from his throat, he said, “I’m here.”

“Will you tell them?”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Two other things I want to say, and then I’ll let you go. The first
is that if you’re ever so angry with your wife or your kids that you feel you could harm them, get help. Get help right away. If I’d done that, my life would’ve turned out so different. Tell your brothers I said that, okay? Tell them to get help if it happens to them.”

Owen took deep breaths as the tears continued to flow. “What’s the second thing?”

“No matter how it might’ve seemed,
I loved you all. I loved you very much.”

Owen had absolutely nothing to say to that.

“Thank you for taking my call. I’ll sign the papers for your mother right away and get them back to the lawyer.”

“Dad…”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for telling me.”

“Least I could do. You’ll tell your mother I said… Tell her I said to be happy. She’s certainly earned the right.”

Owen wiped away more tears. “I’ll tell her.”

“Take care, son.” And then he was gone, having dropped an emotional bomb into Owen’s lap, changing everything he knew to be true in one ten-minute conversation.

He ended the call and took a deep breath, trying to regain control of his emotions. “Sure as shit wasn’t expecting that.”

“Oh my God, Owen.”

That was when he
realized Laura was crying, too. He reached for her, and they held each other as they tried to comprehend what his father had told him.

“What’re you thinking and feeling?” she asked after a long silence. “I can’t even begin to know.” She raised a hand to his face to wipe away his tears.

“I… I don’t know either. All I’ve ever done is hate him. I don’t know how to think of him as anything
other than a monster. But hearing that…”

“You believe him?”

“I do, and you want to know why? Because General Mark Lawry would never,
ever
admit to anything that smacked of weakness, even to further his own agenda. There’s no way he would’ve told me something like that if it wasn’t true.”

“Come lie down with me.”

They crawled into bed and came together in the middle,
arms and legs intertwined, her head on his chest.

“Now I have to tell everyone else about this. How do I do that?”

“The same way he told you. He came to you with this because he knew you’d be strong enough to handle it the same way you’ve handled everything else for your family all these years.”

“I guess.”

“It’s true, Owen. He chose you, despite your differences, because
he has faith in you to take care of the others.”

“Will you take care of me while I take care of them?”

“Always.” She pushed herself up on one elbow so she could kiss him.

Needing her desperately, Owen grasped handfuls of her long hair and held her close to him, losing himself in the sweetness and heat of a kiss that became desperate and needy in no time at all. Whenever he
was drowning, she was there to save him, to anchor him, and he loved her more with every passing day.

Without her, the bomb his father had just dropped in his lap would’ve blown the lid off his life. With her, it was shocking but manageable. They’d figure out the way forward together, and knowing that made it possible for him to cope.

“Let me,” she whispered against his lips, rising
to straddle him. Her baby belly made this the most comfortable position for her, which was fine with him. She groaned as she took him in.

“Don’t say it.”

“Why not? Did you or did you not get more than your share?”

Owen wouldn’t have thought it possible to laugh or smile, but she showed him otherwise as she came down on him, taking him in until he was fully seated in her tight
heat. Making love with her was as close as he’d ever come to heaven, and he couldn’t get enough.

She shuddered on top of him, proving that while he might’ve gotten more than his share, she loved every bit of what he had to give. Rocking in a slow, sensual rhythm, she drove him mad as he tried to remain still, to let her set the pace. He was always so afraid of hurting her, so he kept his
hands on her hips and tried not to lose his mind as she rode him.