Fool for Love (14 page)

Tipping his head, he urged her over to
him.

Janey crossed the room and let him
envelope her in his warm, welcoming embrace. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to get that he's not planning
to go quietly."

"No," she sighed.

Joe smoothed a hand over her hair.
"You're shaking, baby."

"He caught me off guard." Janey
looked up at him. "I hope you understand why I asked him about bringing
her to his house."

"That's exactly the kind of stuff I
was talking about when I said you need to work your way through it all.
Naturally, you have questions. Anyone would."

Janey returned her head to his chest.
"I don't know if I'd be able to deal with this quite so well without you
to lean on."

"I'm here."

She nuzzled her lips into curve of his
neck. "I'm glad for that, Joe. I really am."

"I need to get to work. Will you be
okay today?"

Reluctantly, Janey let him go, followed
him into the bedroom and sat on the bed. "I have a few things I need to
do. Keeping busy will help." When he dropped the towel, she let her eyes
take a leisurely stroll from muscular shoulders to sculpted chest to belly and
below. Licking her lips, she took her gaze back up to find him watching her,
his own eyes blazing.

He pulled on his shirt. "What?"

"I'm just wondering how I never
noticed the supreme hotness you've got going on over there."

He stopped in the midst of buttoning his
shorts. "Is that so?"

"Uh huh."

Keeping his eyes fixed on her, he came
over to the bed, bending at the waist to bring his face level with hers.

Janey smiled, looped her arms around his
neck and dragged him down on top of her.

"Listen you sex-crazed vixen, I have to
go or I'll get fired."

She rubbed her lips back and forth over
his, reveling in the moan that rumbled from deep inside him. "You can't
get fired. You own the place." Her hands traveled over his back to cup his
ass.

"Could you hold that thought for twelve
or so hours?"

"
That
long?"

He pressed hot, open-mouth kisses to her
neck and trailed his tongue over her collarbone. "Mmm, I'll make it well
worth the wait. I promise."

Janey ran her fingers through his hair.
"Is this real, Joe? Is it really happening?"

"It's real and it's happening and
it's magic. Do you feel it, too? Even just a little?"

"I feel a lot of magic, and that's
what I can't believe. We've been friends forever. And now this."

"And now this." Holding her
gaze, he linked their fingers and stretched her arms over her head, aligning
their bodies.

Janey wrapped her legs around his,
marveling at the emotion, the desire, the overwhelming passion. "You have
to go."

"I know." But he made no move to
leave. Rather, he devastated her with wet, open-mouthed kisses that quickly had
her craving more.

She ran her tongue over his bottom lip,
and he pulled away.

"No," he said, once again
capturing mouth with just soft lips on lips.

Janey groaned with frustration.
"You're being mean!"

Chuckling, he said, "I'm just making
sure you'll think about me today."

"Oh, I will."

Another soul-stirring kiss.
"Promise?"

"Yes, Joe," she said, laughing.
"I promise I'll think about you today."

"Then my work here is finished."
With what appeared to be great reluctance, he pushed himself up and off her.
"Meet me at the ferry landing at seven forty-five?"

She followed him into the kitchen and
filled her favorite travel mug with black coffee. "I'll be there. Want
some cereal or something?"

"I'll grab something at the
diner." He examined the mug she'd handed him. "Seriously? You expect
me to walk through town carrying a cow full of coffee?"

"It's my favorite," she said
with a playful pout. "It's a huge honor for me to bestow my cow upon you.
I expect you to take very good care of Bessie."

Rolling his eyes, he kissed her once more,
fast and far too brief, and headed for the door. "Thanks for the coffee. I
think."

"Joe! Wait."

Turning, he raised an eyebrow in question.

"Just, you know, take a look before
you go out."

A flash of hurt crossed his face and then
vanished just as quickly. The sneaking around bothered him, and Janey hated
that.

"Sure," he said. The lips that
had teased her so sensuously a few minutes earlier were now tight with tension.
"We wouldn't want anyone to know, right?"

"Joe—"

"It's okay." He glanced back at
her. "For now."

Linda McCarthy stepped into the South Harbor Diner and looked around. Kay
Lawrence waved from one of the booths in the back. Feeling every eye in the
bustling restaurant on her, she slid in across from Kay.

The other woman reached for Linda's hands.
"Thank you so much for meeting me."

"It was no problem."

Kay released her hands and sat back in the
booth. "You're angry."

"I'm furious. And with good
reason."

"Believe me, I'm as angry as you are.
I love Janey like my own. You know that."

"Yes."

"I just can't believe David would
risk everything he and Janey have worked so hard for by acting so
foolishly."

Linda nodded to the waitress who offered
coffee. "And thoughtlessly."

"That, too." Kay took a sip from
her mug. "I'm truly appalled by his behavior, Linda."

"I have no doubt. You've always been
so proud of him."

"Which makes this so much harder to
understand." She dabbed at her eyes. "How's Janey? I can't stop
thinking about her."

"She seems to be holding up okay. She
insisted on going home last night so she could be with her pets. They make her
happy."

"David loves her so much. He's beside
himself."

"He has an odd way of showing his
love."

"He swears it was a one-time thing,
and he deeply regrets it. If you could've seen how stirred up he was last
night, you wouldn't doubt his sincerity."

"I'm not sure what you think I can do
about it," Linda said. In the mirror, she watched Mac come through the
door, holding Maddie's son Thomas. Joe followed them into the diner. Linda
waved to them as they took over a table inside the door.

"Oh, that Joe Cantrell," Kay
whispered. "He broke my David's nose! Can you imagine?"

"He's like a brother to Janey. My
husband or son might've done worse if they'd gotten to David first."

"It's no way to handle a
disagreement."

"This is far more than a
disagreement, Kay. He
cheated
on her, and she
saw
him."

Kay's brown eyes filled with tears.
"Surely there has to be
something
we can do to help them find their
way back to each other. All those years… I can't imagine either of them without
the other."

"I don't know if I want her back with
him. Not if that's the kind of husband he plans to be."

"He's having some challenges right
now," Kay said tentatively. "Things he needs to discuss with
Janey."

"She has no interest in discussing
anything with him."

"Once they're married and living
together, everything will be perfect—the way it was always meant to be since
they were kids. If we can just help them get there, I'm sure they'll be so
happy. It's meant to be. We both know that."

"I used to think so, but now…"
Linda recalled how upset she and her husband had been when David discouraged
Janey from going to vet school. Other than that fiasco and the current one,
however, Linda had to acknowledge that their relationship had always seemed
solid.

"We have to do something, Linda. We
can't let them lose their way now, not when the wedding is just a year
away."

"I don't know."

"Can you imagine Janey being happy,
truly happy, without David?"

"She's amazingly resilient. I'm sure
she'll bounce back in no time at all."

"She's never been tested like this
before. You can't know that for sure." Kay again reached for Linda's hand.
"How can we not at least try to help them figure this out? That way, if
they decide in the end to part, at least we know we did all we could for
them."

Linda had to acknowledge the other woman
made a good point. "What do you suggest we do?"

Kay leaned in and lowered her voice.
"Okay, here's what I'm thinking."

Sitting across from Mac and Thomas, as he did most mornings lately, Joe tried
to focus on the conversation, but what he really wanted to know was why Linda
McCarthy was engaged in an intense conversation with Kay Lawrence.

"Luke said you guys have big plans
for a bachelor party," Mac said.

Joe tore his eyes off the table in the
corner and returned his attention to Mac. "Oh, yeah, I was going to talk
to you about that today. You up for some poker and beer on the fifth?"

"Sure. My brothers are due in that
morning, so that's perfect."

Joe took a sip from the cow mug Janey had
given him.

"Where'd you get that goofy
mug?" Mac asked.

"Oh, um, a friend gave it to
me." He cleared his throat, anxious to steer the conversation in any other
direction. "So, it's starting to look like this whole wedding thing is
really going to happen, huh?"

Mac uttered an ironic laugh. "Hard to
believe." He glanced down at Thomas. "But I wouldn't have it any
other way."

Thomas flashed a gummy grin. "Dada,
dada, dada."

Joe smiled at the soft look of love his
friend bestowed upon the blond, blue-eyed baby. "If you ask me, you fell
for him even before you fell for his mama."

"I sure did. He's the frosting on a
very nice cake."

"I give you credit, man. Raising
someone else's kid isn't the easiest thing to take on."

"He'll never know me as anything
other than his father. I have a feeling it'll be the easiest thing I ever
do."

"I'm happy for you, Mac. You've got
it all worked out."

"All except for one thing: Maddie's
mom. She doesn't know yet."

"About you?"

"About any of it." Mac's brow
furrowed with worry. "She has no idea she's coming home to a wedding, and
something tells me she won't be thrilled to learn her daughter is marrying a
McCarthy."

"You're crazy in love with Maddie
and
Thomas. What's there not to be thrilled about?"

"For one thing, my mother helped to
land her in prison. She won't soon forget that."

"
She
landed herself in prison
by passing bad checks all over the island for years. Hell, I wrote off more
than five hundred bucks in bad debt with her name on it."

"You didn't press charges?" Mac
asked, incredulous.

Joe shrugged. "Would've just been
piling on at that point, and I wouldn't have gotten the money back."

"Sometimes I wish my mother could've
seen it that way, too," Mac said.

"She had no way to know you'd end up
marrying the woman's daughter."

"Still…" Mac's face was set in a
pensive expression that Joe didn't often see from his usually confident friend.
"I just hope she doesn't cause any trouble. Maddie is so happy, and after
everything she's been through, she deserves a beautiful wedding with no
complications."

"You both deserve that. Leave it to
your best man and your brothers to run interference."

Mac smiled. "Gladly."

Kay Lawrence rushed by them, casting a
menacing scowl at Joe before she left the diner.

"Whoo," Mac said, whistling.
"Mama Bear is
not
happy with you."

"Her baby bear got
exactly
what he deserved."

"You won't hear me arguing."

Linda approached their table. "Scoot
over, you two," she said to Mac and Thomas.

Pretending to be put out by her, Mac made
room for his mother.

"Now, give me that baby."

Smiling, Mac handed Thomas over to his new
grandmother. Joe marveled at how far they'd all come, from Linda not approving
of Mac's relationship with a woman unfairly branded the town tramp to Linda
holding the woman's child like he was her own flesh and blood.

"How's my little man today?"
Linda cooed, kissing the baby until he giggled with delight.

"I'm here, too, Mom," Mac said
with a petulant pout.

Never taking her focus off the baby, she
said, "Yeah, yeah. Good morning, my darling Malcolm. Better?"