Waiting for You (RightMatch.com Trilogy) (27 page)

“No, of course not. My mood has nothing to do with you and the new addition. I, um, some personal things didn’t work out the way I thought they would.” Now that was an understatement.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is.”

Over the course of the two weeks since Joe walked out of her office, Dana had come to realize Joey wasn’t to blame for his reactions to her. Deeply seated resentment and emotion
had
formed inside of him as a child and she triggered those emotions. The thought made her ill and, conversely, more certain that her decision was correct. She could never live with the fact that her mere presence caused him pain.

She lifted some papers from her lap. “In any case, these are the contracts from my lawyer for you to begin dance work here in the spring and not just oversee the project. Still want to?”

Judith snatched the papers up. “You betcha.”

Dana noticed some activity at the door. Jimmy turned around and motioned for Judith to come over. His smile was as light and young as Judith’s. Dana said, “Go ahead. I have work to do.”
All
I have is work to do
.

A giggling Ruth was in the office, staring at her phone when Dana entered. “Another sexy text?”

Her friend raised her head and grinned. “Yep. I love them.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“We’re getting engaged, Dana.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Oops I didn’t mean for that to come out. It’s, um, a compromise of sorts.”

Dana stopped wheeling. “What made you decide?”

“Losing him for those weeks. And reuniting. I don’t ever want to go through that again.”

“I’m glad for you. Truly.”

“Doesn’t it feel like that for you, honey? That you miss him so much you hurt all the time inside?”

Dana swallowed hard. “Yeah, Ruth it does.”

o0o

“Shit, I can’t watch this anymore.” Spence threw down his rake, plopped his hands on his hips and nodded to Joe, who lifted a heavy planter off their mother’s patio to store for the winter.

Cole felt the same way about Joe’s malaise. It had been four weeks since he and Dana had broken off their relationship and Joe got more and more morose every day.

“What are we gonna do about it?” Cole asked. “I have no idea how to help him.”

“I’d like to beat some sense into him.” Spence ran a hand through his hair. “Damn, I don’t know what to do, either. I hate being powerless when people I care about are suffering.”

“Your nemesis.” Cole decided to tease. “You should be used to it by now, with Annie and kiddies in your life.”

“I’m trying. I’ll tell you, our kids are great, but Annie is so strong-minded, I can’t believe her.”

“Something going on?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at Joe again. “I haven’t said anything because of him.” He sighed heavily. “Annie wants to have my baby.”

“Spence, that’s terrific news.”

“I…I’m afraid to upset the balance.” He looked at Cole with an expression on his face that Cole had never seen before. Total and complete indecision. “My life is perfect now. I don’t want to jeopardize the status quo. But it’s hard to deny Annie anything, and she’s rabid about this.”

“You poor thing. A wife who loves you to pieces. Kids who adore their new stepfather. I feel really sorry for you.”

“Shut up. Wait till you fall for somebody.”

Cole turned away. He was dragged back around by his older brother, who said, “What’s going on? Jesus, are you in love, too?”

“No. But I thought I found somebody online.”

“Which site?”

“Um, mine.”

“You’re a babe in the woods. You don’t qualify for the age cutoff.”

“I know. But I found a woman who feels like she could be my soul mate. I didn’t contact her for months, and when I did, she was already talking to some other guy and didn’t want to deal with two men. If it doesn’t work out with him, she’s going to get in touch with me.”

“Hell, Cole. How old is she?

“Forty-four. I lied, said I was forty.”

“Do we never
learn
in this family?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at the havoc lies have played in mine and Joey’s lives. I thought you were smarter.”

“I always thought I was, too,” Cole said to ease the strain. He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway. I waited too long.” Which really galled him. He was drawn to this woman.

“Fucking son of a bitch.” The swearing came from Joe, as he moved a bench that was too heavy for him.

“Jesus, he’s going to hurt himself again,” Cole said.

“I don’t think he cares. Let’s go save him from himself.” Spence head-locked Cole. “Next, we can work on you.”

“Yeah, I need some sobering.”

“These days, Joey would sober Pollyanna.”

Both brothers approached Joe gingerly.
This
wasn’t going to go well and they both knew it.

o0o

Joe hated training recruits. He wasn’t a good teacher, he had little patience these days, and most of the time, he wanted to punch somebody’s lights out. As he entered his office after the class, he yanked off the vest he’d worn to discuss what the protection of it could and couldn’t do for the cops in trouble, dropped down at his computer and nursed his sour mood.

“You need to date someone else.” Shelly came to the door, still wearing her vest.

“What did you say?”

“Go back on Cole’s website. Find somebody else.”

As if another woman would appeal to him now. When he’d finally told his friends about the breakup, because he was sick of being asked about a relationship that no longer existed, both Evie and Susan had put the moves on him. “That won’t help.”

“Come on, let’s try. It’ll cheer you up.” She glanced at her watch. “We’re off duty.”

“Nah, I don’t want to.”

“You don’t want to do anything.” She yanked Joe out of his chair before he could stop her and called up RightMatch.com. “Give me your password.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll surf.” She mumbled under her breath. “I didn’t know you were such a coward.” She fiddled with the keys, played around with them while Joey went to the window and stared out of it. He didn’t pay any attention to her until he heard a gasp.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she said, and as he turned, he saw her exit the site.

“Why’d you do that?”

“Because you didn’t want to look.”

“Shelly?”

“It’s late. I’m meeting Pete for dinner. Want to come?”

“No, you go ahead.”

As soon as Shelly left, he retraced her actions on the computer. And was shocked as hell to see Dana’s picture come up. What the fuck? Then he remembered. He’d played this trick on Spence, making him think Annie had gone back online to date. Did they think he was an idiot? Of course Shelly would never have been able to put up Dana’s page. But Cole could. He grabbed his cell and punched in Cole’s number. After several rings, his brother answered. A screaming mimi was in the background. “Joe, it’s a bad time.”

“I can hear that. Just answer me one thing. Did you put Dana back on the site to give me a kick in the pants?”

“What? No, I didn’t. Ellie’s been sick for days. I haven’t had time to shower, let alone trick you.”

“Please, Cole. Don’t fool me now. I don’t think I can take that.”

Louder crying. “I didn’t, Joey. Honest to God. Now I’ve to go.”

Joe clicked off and looked up. In the doorway stood Ruth Cosgrove.

“I overheard. Your brother didn’t trick you. Dana’s back dating again. She’s out with some professor tonight.”

His eyes narrow, he studied Ruth. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

“You don’t of course, but this is why I came. You’re going to lose her, Joey, if you don’t do something soon. This guy is really nice. And he’s had experience with wheelchairs, like Craig.”

In answer to her warning, Joe threw the phone still in his hand across the room. It shattered against the wall—a lot like his life.

o0o

Dana had stayed late at the studio because she didn’t want to go home. Ruth, of course, was with Jeremy, the house would be empty and she was sick of missing Joe so much. She’d finished all her weekly plans and decided to go into the first classroom and “dance.” If she pushed herself, the movements she could go through might tire her out enough to sleep, something she’d been having trouble doing.

She put on a skirt, wheeled into the classroom and eased into her standing chair. In front of the mirror, she got a good look at herself.

You look like shit
, her reflection told her.

“Yeah, well fuck you! I have a right.”

You have no right. This was your choice. He wanted to work on the relationship.

“
Do you have any idea how much it hurts that I make him feel all the bad things he experienced when he was a kid?”

Oh, grow up, Dana. People have problems. If they love each other enough, they work them out together.

“
Just shut up!”

She turned away from the mirror, silencing her inner voice, or whatever the hell it was. For an hour, Dana executed hand motions, twisted and bent in contortionist moves until every muscle in her upper body was screaming. Time to quit, she decided. Wheeling over to the lights, she switched them off. It was then that she noticed something shining into the windows of the classroom. It looked like a flashlight beam, about ten feet away. Though the darkness was eerie and a chill skittered up her spine, she didn’t turn the lights on. She wheeled over to the middle of the glass and pressed her face against it to peer out. Maybe some kid was smoking back here. Hell, she hoped it wasn’t vandals. That’s all she needed!

A loud noise rent the room, then the sound of glass shattering, horrible crashing. The chair propelled backward for a few feet then tipped over. Oh, God, was her last conscious thought.

o0o

Joe had volunteered to work the night shift for one of his guys because the girls were with Leona and his house was too empty to go home to. So he was sitting at his desk, doing the endless paperwork associated with his job, when the call came into the office. “Sergeant Moretti.”

“Hey, Sergeant, this is Bill Jordan. I’m a captain from the Fairfield Police Department. We’ve had a break in of sorts at a dance studio here in town. The woman who was there at the time asked us to call you.”

His heart dropped to his stomach. “Dana?”

“Ah, yeah. Dana Devlin.”

“Is she all right?”

 “She’s really shaken. Somebody threw a brick through the window. It hit her, of all things.”

Oh, dear God in heaven. “Hit her?”

“She was lookin’ out the window because she saw a light out back.”

He glanced at the clock. “At midnight? What the hell…”

“I know. Women! She should have called nine-one-one if she suspected something amiss. Anyway, we’re at the studio now and she asked us to call you. We tried the cell number she gave us and got no answer, so we thought we’d try your precinct.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Gotcha.”

He made the twenty-minute drive to the studio in fourteen with the help of the bubble on top of his sedan. Police lights blinked on three cars parked at angles in the lot. He swerved into a space on the grass and bolted out of his vehicle.

“Hey, wait a second,” a uniform called out.

He flashed his star and circled around the side. “Shit,” he said when he approached the shattered windows. He walked right through the jagged glass and stood at the edge of the room. Dana was seated in her wheelchair, a blanket around her, while a medic worked on her head. Despite his acute fear, his police instincts surfaced. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, we’ve processed the crime scene.” A man crossed to him. “I’m Jordan. I called you.”

“I owe you.” Joe acknowledged the guy, then strode to Dana. Kneeling down, he grasped her hand. The other was bandaged. “Honey, I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes were full of fear. “I was so scared, Joey. The brick hit me and threw me backward so hard. I was completely powerless. And exposed.”

“Oh, baby.” He noticed the medic held an ice bag to the back of her head. “How is she?”

“Might have a concussion. Some bruises on her hands, scrapes on her neck. Miraculously, there doesn’t seem to be any glass embedded in her anywhere.”

“Th-the…impact threw me to the floor.” She shivered in the chill of the night air coming in through the shattered window.

The medic smiled indulgently. “You must have covered your face with your hands.”

“Jesus.” All Joe wanted was to hold her.

“I think you should go to the hospital and get checked out,” the medic added.

“I will, tomorrow, if I’m sore.”

“Oh, you’ll be sore Ms. Devlin. You could also get something for the pain.”

 She looked up at Joe. “Sh-should I go to the hospital?”

Joe stood. “Yeah, honey, you should.” He faced the medic. “I’ll go with you.”

The guy stood back; Joe bent over, picked up Dana and cuddled her close to his chest. “I’ll ride with you in the ambulance. Get her chair,” he said to the medic.

A drop in adrenaline made his knees weak, but Joe held Dana close and strode out of the studio.

o0o

Dana let Joe make the decisions, carry her to the ambulance, demand to be seen at the ER and eventually bring her to the safety of her home. She never wanted to leave this haven again. He’d helped her wash up and dress in pajamas, then settled in bed next to her. Propped up on pillows, holding her close to his side, he brushed his hand down the hair that had haunted his midnights.

“I was so scared, Joey,” she whispered again.

“Of course you were. I would be, too, if somebody threw a brick at me.”

Still in disbelief, she shook her head. “Why would anybody vandalize a dance studio?”

“I see buildings vandalized all the time in the city for no good reason. Kids on a dare. Somebody high on drugs. A disgruntled patron.”

“I can’t believe it.”

He kissed her head. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt any worse. And that you called me.”

Nosing into his chest, she tucked in her chin and stayed there. “You were the first person I thought of.”

“I’m glad.”

She sighed heavily. “I’m tired. I want to sleep.”