by Marie Force
“You can tell?”
“Honey, everyone can tell.”
“I don’t know what to do for him. He’s so stressed.”
“Kelsey seems great, and the kids loved her.”
“Yes, she’s agreed to give us the summer to see how she feels about island life, so that’s a relief.”
“We’ll make sure she loves it.”
Mac’s sister Janey came in from the deck and sat in a chair next to the couch. “Did you ask her yet?” Janey said to Tiffany.
“Working up to it.”
“Ask me what?” Maddie said.
“We have an idea,” Janey said. “We want you and Mac to get out of here for a while, just the two of you.”
Maddie shook her head. “We have three children, Janey.”
“I know that, Maddie, but hear me out. We can all see that you two are having a tough time of it. So get in the car, take the ferry to the mainland and stay at Joe’s place for a few days to recharge.”
“Mac would be stressed being unable to get to the kids. I would be, too.” If there was a downside to island life, that was certainly at the top of the list.
Tiffany looked at Janey. “Did you ask your mom?”
“I did, and she said they can make it work.”
“Make what work?”
“We had a feeling you might not want to go off-island and leave the kids here, so I checked with my mom, and she’s holding a room at the inn starting tomorrow afternoon through Friday. It’s all yours.”
“It’s so lovely of you guys to want to do this for us, but the kids…”
“Between Kelsey and Mom and Ned and Mac’s parents and the two of us, we’ve got you covered, Maddie,” Tiffany said.
“You’re puking all day,” Maddie reminded her sister.
“I can puke at your house as easily as I puke at mine.”
Though she was touched by her sister’s generosity, Maddie shook her head. “You don’t feel up to having my kids on top of yours. Besides, you’re so busy at the store.”
“It’s fine. I want this for you. We all do.”
“Mac will never take the time off,” Maddie said. “Not at this time of year.”
“We arranged for Shane to cover the construction stuff, and Luke’s got the marina along with Dad,” Janey said. “They were more than happy to help because they’ve noticed how tense he is, too. Mom and Francine are fully on board, as are Abby, Steph and Grace,” Janey said of their sisters-in-law. “Go to the hotel. Have a couple’s massage. Sleep all day. Get breakfast in bed. Relax while we take care of everything here. You need it, Maddie. You both do.”
Maddie’s eyes filled with tears that made her feel silly, but pregnancy hormones were a bitch that way. “Everyone is stressed this time of year. We’re no different.”
Janey stared at her, astounded. “You are different. You’re expecting twins and are on full-time bed rest after having suffered the tragic loss of Connor. None of us is in that boat.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she swept them away. “It’s too much to ask of you all.”
“You’re not asking,” Tiffany said. “We’re offering. Blaine and I would move in here with our girls, and the others would help. It’s all arranged. All you have to do is agree to it.”
“Agree to what?” Mac asked when he came to check on her as he had every ten minutes since she relocated to the sofa. “And what’s wrong? Why’re you crying?”
He had purple circles under his eyes and a pinched look to him that hadn’t been there a few months ago.
Maddie held out her hand to him. “Come see me.”
Tiffany relocated to a chair so he could sit with his wife.
Mac took Maddie’s hand and sat on the sofa. “What’s going on?”
“Ladies.” Maddie gave the floor to Janey and Tiffany. This was their big idea to sell to him.
“We want to give you and Maddie a few days alone together,” Tiffany said.
Mac shook his head. “Too busy.”
“I know,” Janey said, “but we’ve got everything covered here and at work.”
Mac glanced at Maddie, who shrugged. “What’s this about?”
“You’re stressed,” Tiffany said. “Both of you. We’re worried about you, and we’ve been talking about you behind your backs. We came up with a plan to give you a break, and we hope you’ll take it in the spirit in which it’s offered.” She stopped short, took a deep breath, covered her mouth and said, “’Scuse me,” before running for the bathroom.
Janey picked up the ball for her partner in crime. “As she was saying, we see how tense you both are and thought you could use a break.”
“It’s very nice of them,” Maddie said.
“Yes, it is, but we won’t go off-island without the kids.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that, so I talked to Mom about a room at the hotel,” Janey said. “You’re all set for tomorrow through Friday.” In-season weekends at the McCarthy’s Gansett Island Inn were booked a year in advance, but the weekdays weren’t as busy.
Maddie watched Mac as he processed the information. Had he ever looked more tired and drawn than he did now? Not that she’d seen. He tried so hard to keep his turmoil hidden from her, because he always put her ahead of himself. “We gratefully accept,” Maddie said before he could come up with a reason to decline their generous offer.
Janey clapped her hands. “Excellent.”
Tiffany rejoined them. “What’d I miss?”
“They said yes.”
“Well, Maddie said yes,” Mac said.
“I can’t do it without you.” She gestured to the sofa, as if either of them could forget the restrictions she was living under. “And I really want to go.”
Mac nodded, as she’d known he would when she said she wanted to go. He went out of his way to do whatever it took to make her happy. In this case, taking care of himself would make her happy.
Janey pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Maddie.
“What’s this?”
“Check it out.”
Maddie unfolded the paper to find a gift certificate for a couple’s massage at the hotel’s spa. Over the next winter, Mac’s company would build an even bigger spa for the hotel in one of the adjacent buildings on the property.
“That’s from all of us,” Tiffany said. “We want you to relax and enjoy and not worry about a thing.”
“Thank you so much, you guys,” Maddie said, feeling tearful again.
“Yes, thank you,” Mac said, but his face was still pinched, and his eyes were weary.
Hopefully, the time away from their responsibilities would help.
“I mentioned our plan to Kelsey before she left,” Janey said, “and she’s also on board to help in any way she can.”
“All you need to do now is pack and enjoy,” Tiffany said.
Maddie smiled at her sister. “I can’t wait.” Hopefully, Mac would come around in time to enjoy their unexpected break.
* * *
Mason didn’t say anything for such a long time that Jordan worried he thought she was crazy to have asked such a question. Of course nothing had happened for him when he’d been saving her. He’d been doing his damned job.
Then they both spoke at once.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—”
“Yes, something happened.”
“Oh,” she said. “It did?”
He nodded.
Jordan dug deep to find the courage she needed to ask more about it. “Has that, um, happened to you before?”
“Not once ever.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So, um…”
“I felt like I was kissing you,” he said.
“I felt that, too.”
“I thought maybe it was just, you know, a random thing.”
She stared at him in the moonlit darkness. “It wasn’t? Random, I mean?”
“I’m not sure.”
�
��What do you mean? It was either random or it wasn’t.”
“There’s really only one way to find out.”
She thought she knew where he was going with that but wasn’t completely sure. “What one way?”
“I could ‘save your life’ again.”
Jordan tipped her head to gauge his meaning.
His gaze became laser-focused on her lips. Oh.
“I’m feeling a bit breathless,” she said in a teasing tone.
He flashed a dirty grin that did wondrous things for his arresting face. “Are you now?”
“I am. Do you know what to do about it?”
“I have a few ideas. Come with me.”
Wait. What? “Come with you where?”
“You’ll see.”
Jordan got out of the SUV and joined him at the front of the vehicle. “Is this the part where you chuck me off a cliff?”
“You have a very fertile imagination. Why would I have bothered to save you last night if I was just going to chuck you off a cliff tonight?”
“How should I know? I have no insight into sociopathic logic.”
“Is that a thing? Sociopathic logic?”
“I made it up.”
She really liked his smile and the straight white teeth it revealed. “So what’s your plan now that you’ve managed to lure me outside the safety of the car?”
He put good arm around her and lifted her onto the hood of the SUV.
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure how she felt about the way he effortlessly put her where he wanted her—with only one working arm, no less. Hello, weightlifter. Even with the advantage of the vehicle under her, he still towered over her, but she didn’t feel at all intimidated. A shiver of excitement caught her by surprise. When was the last time anything had excited her?
“Last night, something happened that’s never happened to me before.”
Mesmerized by the intense way he seemed to study her face, she said, “What was that?”
“I can’t describe it, but it started when I did this.” He touched his lips to hers. “You remember that?”
“I remember,” she said, truly breathless now for reasons that had nothing at all to do with asthma.
“All day today, I kept thinking, that couldn’t have actually happened.” He continued to gently rub his lips against hers. “But it did, didn’t it?”
She nodded, eager for more of his sweet kisses.
“I need this freaking arm out of my way for this.” He removed the sling and tossed it aside.
“Only for a minute.”
As if she hadn’t said anything, he got closer to her now that his injured arm was out of the way. “Strangest thing,” he whispered as he tipped her chin to improve the angle.
She wound her arms around his neck and buried her fingers in his hair, which drew an urgent-sounding groan from him that made her feel powerful in a way she hadn’t before with a man.
His hands slid down over her back, cupping her ass to lift her off the hood of his SUV and into his arms.
Jordan wrapped her legs around his waist and opened her mouth to his tongue, which teased and flirted with hers. Only when she felt her chest tightening from the lack of oxygen did she pull back to draw in a deep breath.
“Sorry,” he muttered, his lips pressed now to her neck and sending shivers spiraling through her.
“I’m not sorry.”
Against her neck, she felt his lips curve into a smile. “We need to make sure you can breathe.”
“I’m breathing just fine. How’s your arm?”
“Jordan.”
“Yes, Mason?”
“I, uh, I wasn’t expecting this.”
That drew a laugh from her. “Me either.”
“So, um, what should we do about it?”
She moved her hands to frame his face, encouraging him to look at her. When she had his attention, she kissed him, teasing him the way he’d teased her with soft sweeps of his lips that had him leaning in so he wouldn’t miss anything.
Mason turned to sit on the hood, keeping her on his lap. “Stop teasing me.”
“Why? It’s fun.”
“I didn’t realize you were so mean.”
“Now you know.”
The low rumble of laughter that came from him thrilled her. She loved making him laugh.
He grasped the back of her head and anchored her lips to his, taking control of the kiss, and holy moly, the man could kiss.
She liked that he didn’t grope her or do anything other than kiss her and pull back after a minute to check on her.
“Are you breathing?” he asked, sounding a little breathless himself.
“Not as well as usual.”
He studied her face intently, taking a visual inventory. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She laughed at the concerned expression that had his brow furrowing. “It’s you that’s making me breathless. Not the asthma.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.”
“Uh-huh.”
He nuzzled her neck and held her even closer, if that was possible. “You want to take this somewhere more comfortable?”
She wished she felt ready for that, but she needed a minute to process this unexpected development with the sweet, sexy fire chief who’d saved her life. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“I didn’t say never. Just not tonight.”
“I shouldn’t have even asked. You were in the clinic last night.”
She kissed the words off his lips. “I’m glad you asked. It’s nice to feel wanted.”
He pushed the impressive length of his erection against her core, sending a jolt of heat zinging through her. “You’re definitely wanted.”
They kissed again, the rush of desire leaving her spinning as he made her feel very, very wanted.
Jordan began to question her decision to call a halt before things went any further.
He ended the kiss in slow increments and then held her until they both were breathing normally again. “So tomorrow night, then? Yes?”
“Absolutely.”
Chapter 12
Jordan woke early the next morning, and the first thing she did was take a deep breath to check to see if her chest was hurting less than it had the day before. It was much better, but her lips were sore from kissing the face off her sexy rescuer. Smiling, she ran her fingers over her sensitive lips, recalling the wild desire he’d inspired in her. Knowing he wanted her so fiercely had done amazing things to her self-confidence, which had suffered a hard hit lately.
She reached for her phone to call Gigi.
“Oh my God, bitch,” Gigi moaned when she accepted the FaceTime call. “It’s four thirty in the morning here!”
“Whoops.”
“Don’t whoops me. You knew that.”
“I also knew that you’d take my call no matter what time it was.”
“Yeah, yeah. Clearly, I’ve spoiled your ass.”
They’d been best friends since grade school and had been through everything together. Jordan considered herself lucky that Gigi had stuck with her through the Brendan mess, because she, too, had been furious when Jordan went back to him after the video nightmare.
“What’s up?”
“Where are we with the divorce?”
“Still on hold. I talked to Davy yesterday about the timeline. He said Z is due to be released from rehab in the next few weeks, and he’ll get the papers to him then.”
“I want it to happen sooner. Why do we have to wait for him to be done with rehab?”
“Davy said he’s doing really well, and the divorce papers might be a setback for him.”
“I honestly don’t care if it causes a setback for him. I’m done putting his needs before mine. I want a divorce, and I want it now.”
“Whoa, what’s brought this on?”
A hot, sexy firefighter with the softest lips she’d ever experienced. “You really have to ask me that?”
“No, but why the sudden incre
ased urgency?”
“I’m ready to move on with my life, and I can’t do that while I’m still married to him.”
“And that’s all it is?”
Freaking Gigi knew her as well as Nik did. “There might be a guy.”
“Ah-ha! I knew something was up. Do tell, and leave nothing out.”
“I thought you were busy sleeping?”
“I was, but I’m awake now, and I want to hear all the dirty details.”
“The details aren’t that dirty. Yet.”
“Oh, this is very interesting. How’d you meet him?”
“By nearly dying.”
“What? What the hell, J?”
Jordan told her the story of the fire on the roof, the smoke in the chimney, the asthma attack and Mason’s rescue, leaving out the part about the sizzling connection they’d both experienced when he’d saved her life.
“Damn, J. You just scared the living fuck out of me. Are you okay?”
“I am now, but the asthma attack freaked me out a bit. It’s been years since I last had one.”
“I remember how terrifying they were.”
One attack had occurred during a sleepover at Gigi’s house. That’d been a bad one that had put Jordan in the hospital for a week.
“Does the doc think the asthma is back?”
“Not necessarily. He said it was almost definitely triggered by the smoke.”
“So fucking scary. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure. Mason saved my life. He said I was barely breathing when he showed up after seeing the flames when he was out riding his mountain bike. And get this, when he saw the flames, he got distracted and crashed his bike. He rescued me with a bleeding head wound and a dislocated elbow.”
“Wow. A true hero.”
“Yep.”
“What’s he look like?”
“He’s six and a half feet tall.”
“Holy cow! He must tower over you.”
“He does, and he’s a former competitive weightlifter, so he’s very fit and muscular. He’s got brown hair that’s streaked by the sun and warm brown eyes.”
“He sounds dreamy.”
“He’s very handsome and sweet, and he makes me laugh.”
“Aw, Jord. This is the best news I’ve had in years.”
“Don’t get too excited. I’ve only seen him a couple of times.”