Forever Mine: Callaghan Brothers, Book 9

by Abbie Zanders

  “It means, Jack, that we are partners. That we discuss huge, life-altering decisions like selling a house or throwing money away on a failing business. Where are we supposed to live?”

  “Here.”

  “You are insane.”

  “Clearly you are not seeing the potential.”

  “Clearly you need to get your head out of your arse.”

  “Enough!” he bellowed. “What’s done is done. Like it or not, I did what I thought was best for us and for our future. This is our home, and we will make it work.”

  Jack mimicked her angry stance, crossing his arms over his chest and pinning her with a no-nonsense glare. At least until he saw the moisture pooling in her eyes and her bottom lip begin to tremble. Immediately the swell of anger receded. Her next words replaced it with an icy chill.

  “Then perhaps we have both made a grave error in judgment.”

  Stunned, he said nothing as she stormed into the bathroom. She didn’t mean that. She couldn’t mean that. The slamming door, followed by the heavy snick of the lock engaging, was loud in the near silence. As were her muffled sobs.

  His heart grew heavy; his stomach twisted in knots. Physical pain was preferable to the sound of Kathleen crying; it clawed at him, taking the air from his lungs as well. He crossed the room in two long strides and struck the door with the side of his fist. “Kathleen, open the door.”

  “No. Go away, Jack.”

  “Please. Come out here and talk to me, Kathleen.”

  No amount of coaxing changed her mind; she refused to even answer him after a while. Jack sank back down onto the bed and placed his head in his hands. How had things gone from so good to so bad so quickly?

  One of the perks of buying the Pub was the inventory the old man had included as part of the deal. Jack poured himself another shot of whiskey and stared at his reflection in the dirty mirrored wall tiles behind the bar.

  He’d been married for less than twenty-four hours and he’d already managed to make a mess of things. Now that he’d calmed down a bit, he could understand why she was upset. In retrospect, he should have discussed the idea with her first.

  He could continue to rationalize, saying he hadn’t brought it up because she had enough to worry about with the wedding. Or claim that he’d envisioned it as a wedding present of sorts -—a home and a business that would be solely theirs. Both would be true.

  If he was completely honest with himself, he would also have to admit that he knew it might have been a bit of a sell, at least at first. And that had factored in to his decision to keep it under wraps.

  So yeah, he’d cocked up. He’d sprung something big on her, and she was pissed. He got that.

  But locking herself in the bathroom and refusing to talk to him? That was taking things a bit far.

  This irrational behavior was a side of Kathleen he hadn’t seen before. Yes, he’d known she was a passionate, stubborn woman. Her fire and inner strength had drawn him to her in the first place. The long, rambling letters she’d written him all those years, had painted a thorough picture of the woman. Revealed all the things he would have discovered in person had he not been shipped out so soon after they’d met. With each one, he’d fallen more in love with her. His croie had a loving heart, an intelligent mind and a giving spirit, perfect complements to her core of steel. And, until this morning, she’d always been reasonable.

  He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. Kathleen was an intelligent woman. Surely, after she’d had time to cool off and think it through, she would be able to see that he had their best interests at heart.

  Right?

  Hell. He was doing his best. A lot of things had changed, him most of all, but a man still took care of his family, didn’t he? It was how he was raised. His parents had a wonderful marriage; a true loving partnership. His father made most of the big decisions, and they never doubted that he had done so for the good of the family. Though, now that he thought about it, his father had never done so without discussing it with his wife first. Clearly, Liam Callaghan had been a smarter man than he.

  A noise from the back drew his attention. He listened carefully as the sound grew louder, finally recognizing Kathleen’s footfalls as she made her way down the wooden steps. Was she coming to accept his apology? Or perhaps to say that after further thought, she could see the potential and the opportunity of this place?

  The door to the kitchen creaked loudly, signaling her arrival on the first floor. Jack sat up straighter and waited patiently. She appeared in the doorway, looking both ridiculous and adorable in a pair of his jeans and an old flannel shirt that had seen better days. Only then did he realize he’d forgotten to grab her luggage from their car before fleeing the reception. He’d been so anxious to get her upstairs last night, and so busy defending his decision this morning, it hadn’t even crossed his mind.

  Her face was paler than it had been, her eyes puffy and red-rimmed from crying. Jack forgot all about who was right and who was wrong; he cared only to see her smile again. He went to her, wanting to crush her into his chest and make everything better, but she wrapped her arms around her body and took a step back in a clear message.

  She hadn’t completely forgiven him. His hands fell downward; he tucked them into his pockets. “I’m sorry, Kathleen.”

  “I’m sorry, too, Jack.” Still hugging herself, she took a few tentative steps past him into the bar room and stopped, looking around. Her lips pressed together, turning slightly downward at the corners, her expression grim. He knew what she saw—– the same shite condition of the place that he’d seen when Danny Finnegan first proposed the idea. Except it looked even worse now in the stark light of day.

  “Maybe you can get the money back,” she suggested quietly. “Tell him you changed your mind.”

  “But I haven’t changed my mind, Kathleen. I know it doesn’t look like much right now, but it will.”

  She shook her head, the sadness in her eyes like a knife to his chest. “I don’t want this, Jack.”

  Jack flinched as if slapped. With only a few words, she had managed to completely destroy the little bit of hope he’d been clinging on to. “What do you want, Kathleen?” he snapped. “Do you want to be married to a bartender for the rest of your life? No, wait. I wouldn’t even have that, because this place was going to be closed down.”

  Her eyes widened, but she refused to back down. “You could do something else.”

  “Like what? Work in the mill? The hardware store? Or maybe your father would be willing to hire me as a dishwasher?”

  Kathleen winced. “There must be something you can do. Didn’t they give you some kind of job training in the service?”

  Jack barked out a laugh. “Yeah, they sure did. They trained me to kill, Kathleen. A thousand different ways to end another man’s life. And I learned to do it well. Most of them never even saw it coming. How’s that for a marketable job skill?”

  Her lip was trembling again. “Stop it, Jack.”

  He exhaled heavily, running his fingers through his hair. “It’s the truth, Kathleen. Not speaking of it doesn’t make it go away, no matter how much I wish otherwise.”

  His words hung heavily in the air. Was she only just realizing what she had bound herself to? Or did she still hold to some ridiculous romanticized ideal of a war hero? There was no honor in the war he’d fought, except in the hearts of the men who believed they were doing the right thing.

  “What about starting a family?” she said finally, her hand reflexively moving down to span her belly. “Do you really think this is the place to raise children?”

  “It could be,” he said, his gaze following the movement. A family, yes. He wanted a big family. Lots of kids filling their lives with joy and laughter. Braw, strapping lads and beautiful lasses that had their mother’s hair and emerald eyes. With any luck, they’d planted the seeds of that dream last night.

  “There’s plenty of room on the upper floors, and the kitchen is big enough for an army. It will
be a respectable place, too, once we clean it up. A nice place.”

  For a moment he thought he saw it—– the light of possibility shining in her expression—– but it was fleeting, gone before he could be certain. She shook her head again and bit her bottom lip. “Is this what our marriage is going to be like? You make the decisions and I’m simply expected to follow along blindly?”

  “Of course not.” She was missing the point entirely.

  “Seven years, Jack. Seven years I’ve waited for you. And in all that time, I have been a thinking, functional adult. I’ve held down a job, I’ve attended night school and earned a degree. Living day to day, sometimes minute to minute, never knowing if you were alive or dead; wondering if you would ever come back to me.” Tears streamed down her face, unchecked. “You should have talked to me.”

  “Kathleen, please,” he said, rising from the stool to go to her, but she held up her hand in a ‘stop’ motion.

  “Don’t. I love you, Jack, but I need some time to think about this.”

  He swallowed hard; his heart had become a solid, heavy mass in his chest, keeping him from taking a full breath. “What is there to think about?”

  She didn’t answer. She turned away, averting her eyes. “I’ve called Erin. She’s going to pick me up and take me back to the house so I can get my things.”

  The pressure eased slightly. She wasn’t leaving him, she only wanted her things. Thank God.

  “I can take you.”

  She glared pointedly at the open bottle of Irish whiskey sitting on the bar. “No, you can’t.”

  “I’m not drunk.”

  “And I’m not willing to take the chance your self-perception is skewed.”

  He clamped his lips together. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, she was right. He hadn’t been drinking a lot, but it was more than he should have had before even thinking about getting behind the wheel.

  A late-model Chevy pulled up outside the front of the bar and honked the horn. “She’s here,” Kathleen said, her voice uncharacteristically flat. “I have to go.”

  It took everything he had not to reach out and keep her from leaving, but one look at her face and he knew it would only make things worse. “When are you coming back?”

  She paused at the door without turning back. “I don’t know.”

  And then she was gone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Darkness had fallen, and it had been snowing for the past several hours. Jack’s mood darkened as it became increasingly likely that Kathleen wouldn’t be making it back anytime soon. He was torn between wanting to see her walk through the door and worrying that she would try to drive in the deteriorating weather conditions.

  “Tell me again why you’re shooting pool with me instead of making love to your beautiful bride?” Brian said, lining up his shot.

  “Because you picked the lock and forced your way in.”

  “You hung up on me. And you have my car. Do you have any idea how long it took me to rip off all those damn cans?”

  Jack grunted. Hell yes he’d hung up on him, because he wanted to avoid this. While he appreciated Brian returning the Galaxie can-free, he wished he would have left it in the lot and used the keys Jack had left under to floor mat to reclaim his own.

  “She was pretty pissed about the bar, huh.”

  “Yeah.”

  Jack waited for the “I told you so”, but it didn’t come. Good man, Brian.

  He leaned over and missed his shot. Brian stepped up and cleared the table before racking up again. “It’s hard, isn’t it?” Brian said without looking at him. “Coming home. Pretending as though nothing’s changed. Trying to remember how to be normal, when in your gut, you know that it’s just not possible.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But when I’m with Adonia, I don’t feel quite as ... broken.”

  Jack nodded. Yes, that was it exactly. Kathleen made him feel whole again, or as close as he’d ever come. Her love and the dream of making a life with her were the only things that had gotten him through Hell. Kathleen was his croie. His heart. “Same.”

  “So? What are you going to do about it?”

  “What can I do? Kathleen’s really pissed. She left, man. And I can’t say I blame her.”

  Brian looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You’re kidding, right? This is Jack Callaghan I’m talking to, isn’t it?” Jack curled his upper lip, baring his teeth, but Brian was not intimidated. “You do what any man would do. You get your ass in gear and go after your woman. You tell her you fucked up big time and ask her forgiveness.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?”

  “You go down on your knees and beg. Not where anyone else can see you, though,” he added with a smirk. “Don’t want anyone thinking you’re completely pussy-whipped, even if it is the truth.”

  Despite his foul mood, Jack’s lips quirked.

  “Oh, and promise her you’re going to take her to that place in the Poconos as soon as the check clears. Then bring her back here and make love to her till walking away again isn’t an option.”

  The plan had merit. “How’d you get to be so smart?”

  “Experience. I’ve fucked up a lot. Hey, you okay to drive?”

  “Yeah.” He hadn’t had anything stronger than water since she left; maybe, in the back of his mind, he’d known he’d go after her all along. Maybe that’s what she wanted –—a demonstration of sorts.

  “Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go get your woman!”

  The roads were worse than he’d thought. The freak March snowstorm caught everyone off guard, and the road crews were already dangerously low on salt and cinders because of the worse than normal winter. Jack was glad he’d put the snow tires and chains on the Galaxie, but even they weren’t much help on the slick metal grate of the bridge spanning the river.

  When the back end started sliding out behind him, he compensated without thinking by turning the wheel hard, bringing the car back in line with the road (or where he thought the road was). Only a few more miles and he’d be at O’Leary’s Diner. That was where he’d likely find Kathleen, but if not, he’d go to her parents’ house next.

  A plow pulled out in front of him, which was both good and bad. Good, because it improved the immediate road conditions in front of him, and bad, because it would take even longer to reach his destination.

  Jack heaved a huge sigh of relief when he arrived at O’Leary’s and found Conlan and his son-in-law, Seamus, shoveling the lot. Conlan straightened and rested his hands on the shovel. By the displeased look on his face, he already knew about their disagreement.

  “Mr. O’Leary,” he greeted respectfully. “I need to see Kathleen.”

  After pinning him with the glare of a father whose daughter had been wronged, Conlan informed him that Kathleen had gone back to the house with her mother earlier. “I don’t know how ye managed te cock it up so badly so quickly,” his father-in-law told him, “but doona fash, lad. My Katie-belle loves ye, and she’ll forgive near anything if yer apology is sincere enough. Ye are goin’ te apologize, aren’t ye, son?”

  “Aye. And I’m thinking perhaps some groveling will be involved as well, sir.”

  The older man’s lips twitched. “I knew you were a smart lad.”

  Jack thanked him for the vote of confidence and proceeded to the house. Unfortunately, Kathleen wasn’t there, either. “She left about an hour ago,” Kathleen’s mother told him, wringing her hands, her brow creased in worry. “She said her place was with you. I didn’t want her to go with the weather turning so foul, but there’s no stopping that one when she sets her mind to something.”

  His heart swelled; then fear wrapped around it and squeezed, constricting it to smaller-than-normal size. Kathleen was out driving on these roads alone? Had he passed her on the way, so focused on staying on the road until he could get to her that he hadn’t even noticed?

  His heart fell every time his low-beams fell on another vehicle off the side
of the road, but none looked familiar. At one point, the car in front of him slid off the road and down into a ditch as he watched helplessly. He stopped to offer assistance, and was extremely glad he did when he saw that the vehicle contained a young mother and two little kids. They only lived a few miles out of his way, so he made sure he got them home safely.

  By the time he got back to the Pub, it was very late. A great wave of relief washed over him when his headlights revealed Kathleen’s little Chevy Vega in the lot, covered with snow. How the thing had even made the trip was beyond him. He made up his mind then and there. The first chance he got, he was going to pay his friend Harry a visit and trade both cars in for a reliable, used four-wheel drive vehicle.

  The place was completely dark, which was somewhat surprising. He’d left the outside carriage lights on (at least the ones that were still working), and a few over the bar, but there was no sign of them now. A brief glance up and down the street assured him that there had not been a widespread power outage; only the Pub seemed to be affected. It was unlikely that Kathleen would have turned off all the lights, which meant that given the age of the Pub and its current state of disrepair, he would be adding yet another expensive item to his ever-growing to-do list.

  But if the electricity had failed in the Pub, why could he not spot the flicker of candles in any of the windows? Why was there not a wisp of smoke curling up from any of the chimneys?

  The frigid temperature was nothing compared to the cold fear that gripped his heart. Had something happened to Kathleen? Had she tried to navigate her way through the place in the dark and gotten hurt? Or, God forbid, had she attempted to descend the rickety steps into the dirt-floored basement in search of the breaker box and fallen?

  He hurried quickly to the back entrance, slipping and sliding on the way, only to find the back door wide open. A new chilling possibility entered his mind. What if someone had seen Kathleen go in alone and followed? Or what if someone had seen the closed Pub as an easy target, and Kathleen had gone in unsuspecting and... Jack clamped a wall down on those thoughts before they took over. No matter what the situation, that kind of thinking wasn’t going to help anyone.