Desire After Dark: A Gansett Island Novel (11 page)

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Let’s go have some fun.”

I
nside
, Alex poured drinks for Erin, Slim, David, Daisy, Paul and Hope while Jenny put the finishing touches on dinner.

“Alex, why don’t you show the guys what Santa brought you before dinner?” Jenny said.

“Is it something that’s going to add to my emotional scars where you two are concerned?”
Paul asked.

“You’re going to love it, bro.” Alex led the men to the basement, where a brand-new pool table was the centerpiece of the family room. “Is my wife the best, or what?”

“She’s pretty damned awesome,” Paul said, running a hand over the rich green felt. “Let’s break this baby in!”

Alex called dibs on Slim for his team, which left David and Paul to play against them.
“Jared and Quinn can play the winners,” Alex said as he racked the balls.

“How did Jenny get a pool table out here without you knowing about it?” David asked.

“She recruited Joe and Seamus to help her get it on the ferry and then have it delivered here while I was out plowing snow. Best Christmas ever.” As he said the words, Slim noted the hint of sadness in his friend’s eyes and
realized this was also the brothers’ first Christmas without their mother, who was in a memory care facility on the mainland. He wanted to ask how she was doing but didn’t want to ruin the festive mood.

David saved him the trouble by asking if they’d heard from Marion’s caregivers.

“We talked to them yesterday,” Alex said. “She’s doing very well, adapting to her new surroundings.”

“That’s great news.”

“It is until we show up and she begs us to take her home,” Alex said, grimacing as he broke, watching a striped ball head for the corner and then groaning when the ball bounced short of the pocket.

“That’s got to be rough,” Slim said.

“It blows,” Paul said bluntly. “We leave there feeling like total shit every time, and the kicker is that five minutes
after we’re gone, she doesn’t even remember we were there.”

“But we’re a disaster for days afterward,” Alex added.

“Have you thought about cutting back on the visits?” David asked as he eyed the orange number five ball and sank it in the side pocket.

“If we do that, we still feel like shit,” Alex said. “It’s a no-win situation no matter what we do.”

David moved on to
sink the yellow number one and the green number six.

“Um, Alex, the doc is kicking our ass here,” Slim said. “Is it not enough that you’re a freaking doctor? Do you have to be a pool shark, too?”

“I’m about to also be an engaged man,” David said without looking up from the table.

“Say
what
?” Alex asked.

“I’m going to pop the question when we get home tonight. Daisy
has no idea.”

“Oh my God,” Paul said. “That’s awesome.”

Whoa, that’s big news
, Slim thought. After David’s spectacular breakup with Janey McCarthy, Slim had wondered if he would ever get married. But then he met Daisy, and the two of them had fallen hard for each other. He was glad to see David taking another chance on love. Based on the way Daisy positively glowed with happiness
whenever David was nearby, Slim had a feeling this one was for keeps.

“Congratulations,” Slim said. “Happy for you.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re awfully sure she’ll say yes,” Alex said.

David shot him a disdainful look. “If I wasn’t sure of her answer, I never would’ve told you yahoos.”

“That hurts me,” Alex said gravely.

“So guess what Hope got for Christmas.”
Paul said after David finally missed a shot and their team got a turn. He lined up to put the eleven ball in a corner pocket.

“What?” Alex asked.

“Airline tickets to Vegas. The three of us are leaving tomorrow for three days there and then a week in San Francisco.”

“Hey, that’s cool,” Alex said. “Good time of year to get away.”

“Great time of year to tie the knot, too,”
Paul said nonchalantly.

Alex stared at his brother, agog. “Wait.
What?
”

“You heard me,” Paul said, amused by his brother’s reaction. “We’re going to Vegas to get married.”

“Get outta here,” Slim said. “That’s awesome.” If things kept up this way, he’d be the last single man standing before long.

“Very cool,” David said. “Was she surprised?”

“About the trip, yes,
but not about the getting-married part. We’ve been talking about doing it here, but I thought it would be more fun to get away. We’ll have a party in the spring to celebrate.”

Alex gawked at his brother, seeming stunned by his news.

“What?” Paul asked him. “You aren’t mad, are you?”

“I’d kinda like to be there when you get married.”

“Then why don’t you and Jenny come
with us?”

Alex seemed to think that over for about two seconds. “Don’t mind if we do.”

“I don’t mind at all. We’d love to have you.”

“All this talk of weddings is going to make Slim jealous,” David said.

Slim’s first impulse was usually to cringe when people used the words
wedding
and
Slim
in the same sentence, but after the nights he’d spent wrapped up in Erin’s arms,
the thought of it didn’t seem as repulsive as it once would have.

“It’s okay,” Slim said, affecting a grave expression. “I think I can handle it.”

His dad had told him a long time ago that someday he’d meet a woman who would make settling down seem like the most natural thing in the world. Slim had spent most of his life in skeptical disbelief that it would happen to him as women
passed through his life without sticking.

Until now.

Was Erin the woman his dad had told him he’d find? He couldn’t say for sure yet, but he felt more “settled” in her presence than he had with any other woman he’d known before her. That much was for certain. At times, he had to remind himself he’d known her only a couple of months and not years. He was so comfortable with her, it
was easy to forget their relationship was still new in many ways.

Up until a few days ago, it had been a nice friendship with the possibility of more. Now it was so much more, and he still had no idea where it was leading. The good news was nothing had to be decided immediately, but a week from now when it was time for him to head south again, he hoped they’d be ready to make a decision
or two about the path forward.

He wanted her in his life. It was that simple. And he wanted her badly enough to play by her rules for the time being.

Just as David sank the eight ball in the corner pocket, Jenny called them upstairs for dinner.

“We never stood a chance against him,” Slim said to Alex. “We got hustled.”

“I want to be on his team next time,” Alex said.

“Now don’t fight over me, boys,” David said, grinning. “It’s Christmas.”

They trooped upstairs, still sparring about the pool game.

“Daisy,” Alex said, “you ought to know that your boyfriend is a hustler.”

Daisy put her arms around David. “Aww, did you kick their butts, honey?”

“I put a hurt on them.”

“That’s my guy.” She kissed him square on the mouth.

“Ugh,” Alex said. “Get a room.”

“Can we choose any room we want upstairs?” David asked, waggling his brows at Alex.

“Not at
my
house. Gross.”

“Alex, come help me with dinner and leave David alone,” Jenny said.

“He humiliated me at my own pool table on the first day,” Alex said. “I’d think you’d have more sympathy for your husband.”

“I’ll massage your wounded
ego later. For now, I have people to feed.”

Slim laughed at Jenny’s saucy reply.

“He’s still such a baby,” Paul said.

“I heard that, asshole,” Alex called from the kitchen.

“
Shut it
,” Jenny said while the others laughed.

Baby
, Paul mouthed.

Slim smiled at Paul while Hope placed a hand over his mouth. Their bickering made Slim miss Jack. He was long overdue
for a visit with his brother’s family, and he’d love to bring Erin with him.

“Leave your brother alone,” Hope said.

“He invited himself and his wife on our trip,” Paul told her when she’d removed her hand.

“Oh yay! That’s great. We’ll have so much fun.”

Paul hooked his arm around her waist and drew her in close to him. “As long as I get to marry you, I’ll put up with
him crashing our party.”

Hope’s smile lit up her pretty face.

Jenny came rushing out of the kitchen and threw herself at Hope. “You’re getting married! And we’re going with you! Oh my God! This is huge! When were you going to tell me?”

“I was waiting for Paul to tell Alex.”

“We’re going to be
sisters
!” Jenny said, tears making her eyes shine.

The two women clung
to each other.

Slim glanced at Erin in time to see a stricken expression on her face. Ah,
damn
. Jenny was supposed to have been her sister, too. He crossed the room to Erin, put his arm around her and let her know he understood.

She leaned her head into his chest in a moment of silent unity that did funny things to his insides. What the hell was that? He was hungry, and the smells
coming from the kitchen were making his stomach growl. That was all it was.

But when he looked down to find Erin gazing up at him with affection and appreciation and a million other things he couldn’t easily identify, he knew it was far more than hunger. It was something else, something altogether new.

The moment was broken when Jared, Lizzie and Quinn came in the front door, apologizing
for being late and bearing side dishes that they handed over to Jenny.

“You’re not late,” she said. “You’re just in time for dinner.”

Quinn handed Jenny a bottle of wine. “Thanks for having me.”

“We’re so glad you could join us. How are you enjoying the island so far?”

“It’s beautiful, but a little quiet for my liking.”

“Wait until summer,” Paul said. “You won’t
believe it’s the same place.”

“That’s what everyone tells me,” Quinn said. “But how do you not go nuts out here in the winter?”

“Oh, we find ways to keep ourselves entertained,” Paul said, smiling at Hope.

Her entire face turned bright red as she swatted him. “Knock it off.”

“I see how it is,” Quinn said, using his thumb to point to Jared and Lizzie, “living with these
two. They ‘disappear’ frequently.”

“We do not!” Lizzie said.

“Um, yeah, we do, babe,” Jared replied, earning a glare from his wife.

“On that note,” Jenny said, “let’s eat.”

Slim held a chair at the dining room table for Erin, who was far more subdued than usual. He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.

She sent him a grateful smile, but he sensed she was
unsettled. He couldn’t wait to be alone with her again later when he’d try to get her to talk about it.

E
rin felt
foolish for allowing such a simple thing to send her reeling, but witnessing Jenny’s joyful celebration with Hope had felt like a punch to the gut. Jenny was to have been
her
sister, and while Erin was truly happy for Hope and Paul—and Alex and Jenny by extension—the
incident was just another reminder of what’d been lost.

And now she could feel herself falling into the black hole of despair that struck at the oddest of times, like today when she’d been having a really great day with people she adored. All it took was one sentence, one comment, one second to change the dynamic for her.

She ought to be used to it by now, having suffered through
frequent mini-crises since Toby died, but she was never prepared for the darkness to swoop in to remind her that while her life and Jenny’s had somehow moved forward, Toby was gone forever.

Slim’s hand wrapped around hers was a comfort until he was forced to release her to take the serving dish that Paul passed to him.

Jenny served a delicious meal of tenderloin, red bliss potatoes,
asparagus, mixed vegetables and freshly baked bread, but Erin couldn’t get anything past the lump in her throat. She dabbed at her lips and mumbled an “excuse me” before she got up and went to the bathroom in the hallway to try to get herself together.

The last thing she wanted was to ruin Jenny’s first Christmas with her new husband and family with reminders about a past they’d both sooner
forget than dwell on, especially on a holiday.

Life is for the living
. That was what Toby would say if he were here to see her melting down over him more than fourteen years after his death. They’d lost their grandmother a few years before he died, and when Erin said she felt guilty for rarely visiting her gravesite, that had been Toby’s reply. He’d said their grandmother wouldn’t want
them to feel guilty about not going to the cemetery, because they’d been devoted to her in life, which was what really mattered.

Erin reached for a tissue from the box on the counter and dabbed at her eyes, hoping she could get this situation under control so she wouldn’t have to reappear with red eyes. She took a deep breath, held it for a long count and then released it. Earlier in the
day, she’d talked to her parents, who were visiting with her other grandmother for Christmas.

Over the years, they’d gotten out of the habit of making a big deal of holidays, because it was just too painful. They preferred to spend time together on regular days that weren’t so fraught with memories and regrets and family expectations.

A soft knock sounded on the door. “Er? You okay?”

Erin checked her appearance in the mirror and took another deep breath before she opened the door to Jenny, forcing a smile for her friend’s benefit. “Hey, sorry. I’m fine.”

Jenny took a careful look at Erin, tilting her head. “No, you’re not. What is it?”

“Oh, the usual holiday thing,” she said, affecting nonchalance. “I just had a little moment, but I’m fine now.”

“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Jenny said softly.

“I don’t want to ruin our lovely day.”

“You’re not ruining anything. It sneaks up sometimes when we least expect it. Happened to me last night.”

“Really?” Erin was ashamed to realize she’d assumed Jenny was so happy with Alex that she rarely thought of Toby anymore.