by Marie Force
Victoria kissed the cheek that wasn’t bruised. “Thank you.” She got into the car and put down the window.
“Incidentally,” Seamus said, “Shannon is staying in the ferry company’s room at the Beachcomber. Just in case he left anything behind at your place.”
“Good to know,” she said, swallowing hard at the realization that he was already long gone from their home.
“I’ll check on you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Seamus? Carolina was smart to go after you.”
“I know,” he said with a shit-eating grin. “That’s another thing I tell her every day.”
Smiling, Victoria waved as she drove down the driveway toward the main road that looped around the island. At the point where she had to decide whether to go right to go home, she faced a quandary. The thought of going to her place to confront Shannon’s glaring absence made her feel even sicker than she already did, so she took a left and headed for David’s.
On the way, she called him to see if he and Daisy were home. He answered on the third ring, sounding out of breath.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said.
“I was wondering if you’re home, but it sounds like I might be interrupting something.”
“Ha, very funny. I ran for the phone because I was over at Jared’s and forgot to bring it with me. Daisy heard it ringing. So yes, I’m home.”
“Do you mind if I come over and maybe borrow your sofa tonight?” As she asked the question, Victoria felt pathetic for being so needy, but she simply couldn’t face her empty house. Not tonight anyway.
“Of course. Our sofa is your sofa.”
“I’ll be there in a few.”
“Sounds good.”
Victoria again had to remind herself to concentrate on her driving so she wouldn’t end up in a ditch or worse, off the side of one of Gansett’s many sheer cliffs. Somehow she managed to navigate the island’s winding roads and arrive safely at the driveway to David’s home.
Looking like the cute engaged couple they were, David and Daisy both waited for her, sitting on the steps to their apartment over the garage at Jared and Lizzie James’s waterfront estate. Victoria cut the engine and tried to find the wherewithal to get out of the car, determined to keep it together until she could be alone again.
Her resolve lasted until David got up and came over to her, wrapping his arms around her.
Victoria broke down into heartbroken sobs.
To his credit, David said nothing. He only held her while she cried it out. Then he kept an arm around her while he walked her inside with Daisy leading the way.
“I’m sorry to barge in on you guys this way,” Victoria said, wiping away her tears. “But Shannon moved out, and I didn’t want to be there tonight.”
“You didn’t barge in on us,” Daisy said, “and of course you should come to us. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be at home tonight. I’m sorry to hear about you and Shannon.”
“I guess your talk with him didn’t go well,” David said.
She filled them in on Shannon’s fight with Seamus and the conversation that had led to their breakup.
“Dear God,” Daisy said. “His girlfriend was murdered?”
Victoria nodded as she sank to the sofa, her legs feeling less than supportive. “Nine years ago.”
“You’ve known all along there was something,” David said, sitting next to her on the sofa while Daisy took one of the chairs. “I remember a few times when you’ve wondered whether he would ever want more with you.”
“There was definitely a wall that I kept butting up against,” Victoria said, swiping impatiently at tears that refused to quit. “And now that wall has a name, and I’m so heartbroken for her and for him.”
Daisy got up and retrieved a box of tissues that she handed to Victoria. Then she sat on the other side of Victoria on the sofa.
Victoria sent her a grateful smile. Thank goodness for friends at a time like this. She wiped her face and blew her nose. “What does it say about me that this is the first time in my life that I have ever cried over a guy?”
“It says to me that you’ve been very, very lucky,” Daisy said.
Victoria immediately felt like total shit for saying such a thing, knowing that Daisy had been beaten by the last man she’d been involved with before David. “I’m sorry, Daisy. That was insensitive.”
“No need to apologize. I mean it when I say you’re lucky if this is the first time you’ve cried over a guy. I’ve been crying over them for most of my adult life.”
“Until recently,” David said, smiling at her.
“Now they’re all happy tears,” Daisy said, returning her fiancé’s smile.
“I want what you guys have,” Victoria said. “Is that too much to wish for?”
“Not at all,” Daisy said, hugging her with one arm.
“I never should’ve gone to Seamus,” Victoria said, filled with regret over the thing that had led to their breakup. “If only I hadn’t done that.”
“If you hadn’t,” David said, “you never would’ve known what’d happened to Shannon, because he wasn’t about to tell you, and you also never would’ve had what you really want with him. You’ve been chafing at the bit with him for a while now, Vic. Much to my dismay, you used to joke, frequently, about how you two were all about the hot sex. Lately, you haven’t been making those jokes. You’ve been dissatisfied. We’ve both noticed that.”
Daisy nodded in agreement.
“I thought I did a better job of hiding it from everyone.”
“We know you too well,” David said. “I saw it happening months ago.”
“I kept hoping if maybe I stuck it out long enough, that he’d open up to me,” she said softly. “I gave him so many chances, but he never did.”
“And he wasn’t going to,” David said. “You were right to force the issue. It was either that or spend forever in this odd state of limbo.”
“Well, I got what I was looking for. Some of it, anyway. Not that it matters now.”
“It matters, Vic,” Daisy said. “You love him, and I believe he loves you, too. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. If that’s not a man in love, then I know nothing about love.”
“And she knows love,” David said in all seriousness. “Trust me on that.”
Both women laughed.
“It helps to know you think he feels that way about me,” Victoria said to Daisy.
“I’m not just saying what you need to hear. I believe it. Give him some time to see what life without you is like. He’ll be back.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
David put his arm around her. “You’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you want.”
Victoria leaned her head on his shoulder. “The last thing you lovebirds need is me sitting between you.”
“We don’t mind,” Daisy said.
“I can’t stand to see you so sad,” David said. “I like it much better when you’re busting my balls or telling me inappropriate details about your sex life.”
Victoria laughed even as she battled more tears. “You won’t need to worry about inappropriate details for a while.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you’re going to get through this,” David said. “I promise.”
“Keep telling me that.”
“Any time you need to hear it.”
“How about something to eat?” Daisy asked.
“I’m not sure I could.”
“Cereal?” David asked. “You never say no to that.”
Victoria was about to decline when her stomach growled—loudly.
Laughing, David said, “I’ll take that as a yes. Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her up, towing her along to the kitchen. “Daisy got me Cap’n Crunch.”
Suddenly, there was nothing she’d rather do than eat Cap’n Crunch with David. “She really does love you.”
“She certainly does.”
* * *
While Daisy got
Victoria settled on the sofa, David took a shower and thought about the terrible situation his friend had found herself in. He had no doubt whatsoever that Vic loved Shannon and had for quite some time. That said, however, he’d been increasingly concerned by Shannon’s seeming inability to commit to anything more than what appeared, from the outside looking in, to be a somewhat casual domestic arrangement. Knowing Victoria wanted and needed more than that, David had worried about her getting hurt.
It was, he’d discovered, a tricky proposition to warn a friend about the man she loved. Daisy had advised him to tread lightly with his concerns out of fear of Victoria deciding to marry the guy knowing David had reservations. The last thing he’d wanted was to put any more doubts in her mind when she already had her own.
So he’d kept his mouth shut even as he watched her get more and more involved with Shannon as the last year unfolded. Now that she had, in fact, been hurt by the guy, he wondered if he should’ve done more to prepare her for that possibility.
He took those concerns to bed with him, where he waited for Daisy to join him.
She came in a few minutes later, closing the door behind her.
“How is she?”
“Not great. She’s going to watch some TV and try to sleep.” Daisy sat on the bed and kicked off her flip-flops. “I feel so bad for her. I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been to find out what’d happened to Shannon and then to lose him over it.” She turned so she could see him. “You saw this coming.”
“I didn’t see this particular scenario, but you know I’ve been worried that he wasn’t as invested as she is. I should’ve said something.”
“No, I still believe you really shouldn’t have. What if, down the road, she ends up married to him? Then you’re the friend who doubted the man she loves. Take it from me. I’ve been the girl in a relationship where everyone in my life hated the guy. With good reason, as it turned out in all instances, but no one could’ve told me that when I was in it. Love makes people blind.”
“Is that so?” He reached for her hand. “What are you blind to when it comes to me?”
“The fact that you’re thirty years old and still eating Cap’n Crunch.”
David laughed and feigned offense. “I love my Cap’n Crunch.”
“I know.” She leaned in to kiss him. “And I love you, which is why I buy it for you.”
David drew her into bed with him. “What else are you blind to?”
“That sometimes you forget to put the seat down.”
“I do not! I was raised with sisters. I know better.”
“Once in a blue moon.”
“I require proof of this character flaw.”
Daisy giggled at his outrage. God, he loved her so damned much. Witnessing Victoria’s heartbreak up close made him so thankful for Daisy and the life they had together.
“I’ll take a picture next time.”
“You do that. Is there anything else?”
“No,” she said, smoothing her fingers through his hair.
“Would you tell me if there was?”
“If it was something important. Would you tell me?”
“You’ll never be anything other than perfect to me.”
She snorted with laughter. “That is such bull. How about last week when I saw a perfectly good chair by the side of the road that I wanted to bring home, and you said we don’t need other people’s junk?”
“What about it?”
“You don’t think my attachment to other people’s junk is a character flaw?”
“Not at all. I think it’s a throwback to a time in your life when you couldn’t afford better. Now you can buy your own junk brand new.”
“But why would I waste money on something brand new when there’s a perfectly good free version right in front of me that I can clean and paint and make new again?”
“So what you’re telling me is you’re always going to be a frugal Fannie?”
“Yep, and you’re going to have to live with it.”
“Most men would say that frugality in no way counts as a character flaw in a potential wife.”
She raised a brow. “A potential wife?”
“I mean future wife. Nothing potential about it.”
“That’s much better.”
David reached up to frame her sweet face with his hands. “I’m extra thankful for you tonight. I wish everyone we love could be as happy as we are.”
“I wish that, too, but we worked long and hard to get where we are now. It wasn’t always easy.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Are you remembering the same things I am?”
“I remember every minute of it, and it has always been easy to be with you. It was other things, outside stuff, that made it complicated.”
“True.”
David dropped one of his hands to her leg, teasing the hem of her sundress, raising it up until his hand cupped one of her ass cheeks.
“Stop,” she said, wriggling. “We can’t misbehave when our friend is heartbroken in the next room.”
“Yes, we can. We just have to be really, really quiet.”
“David…”
“Yes, Daisy?”
“We can’t.”
“We absolutely can.” In one smooth move, he had the dress over her head and her on the bed under him. Then he reached over to shut off the bedside light. “Shhh.” He brought his lips down on hers and knew he had her when her arms curled around his neck.
“We could go one night without, you know,” Daisy whispered, her lips pressed against his. He could feel the curve of her smile.
“No, we can’t.”
“Yes, we can!”
“You’re being quiet, remember?”
She poked his ribs, making him gasp and then laugh.
Looking to regain the upper hand, he sat back to remove her panties and bra and get rid of the pajama pants he’d worn to bed. Then he came down on top of her, taking a moment to gaze at her lovely face, visible to him in the nightlight coming from the bathroom.
She looked up at him with big eyes gone soft with love and desire.
“Even after all this time,” he whispered, “you still take my breath away.”
“Same here,” she said in the same whisper. “I love you so much. More every day.”
He made slow, sweet love to her, taking his time and reveling in her soft gasps and the quiet moans that he muffled by kissing her. Afterward, he held her in his arms, caressing her back and marveling at her soft skin. “That was so much hotter because we had to be quiet.”
“I can’t believe you talked me into that when we have a guest.”
“I didn’t exactly have to twist your arm.”
“I’m far too easy where you’re concerned.”
“No, sweetheart, you’re absolutely perfect where I’m concerned.”
She kissed his chest and snuggled in closer to him. “She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
“In time.” It had taken him a very long time to get over the explosive end to his engagement and to put his guilt over the pain he’d caused Janey in the past. And Daisy had suffered terribly in the violent aftermath of her relationship with Truck Henry. “We know how that works, right?”
“Mmm. All too well.”
“We’ll take good care of her and get her through it. Try not to worry.” He said what Daisy needed to hear, but he too was worried about Victoria. He’d never seen her anything other than upbeat and happy. Her tears had really gotten to him, and he could only hope she’d bounce back from the heartbreak. She’d been such a good friend to him and Daisy that he’d do whatever he could to help her through this.
Chapter 8
Shannon unpacked his bag in the small room the company kept on the third floor of the Beachcomber. The room contained only a narrow bed, a dresser and a tiny bathroom, so it took him all of five minutes to empty his bag. At the bottom of the bag, he noticed the envelope he’d put there before he left Ireland, the envelope he had
n’t once touched since landing on Gansett.
He withdrew it now and held it in both hands for a full minute before he could bring himself to open it. Inside were the photos of Fiona he had brought with him, for no other reason than he wanted to know he had them if he needed to see them. For an entire year, they had remained in his bag, under the bed he’d shared with Victoria.
In all that time, he’d never once felt the need to retrieve them or to look at them. Realizing how long it had been since he’d seen her face, he felt guilty and sick at heart. He carefully extracted the priceless photographs from the envelope and sucked in a sharp deep breath, as if that could somehow assuage the streak of pain that traveled through him at the sight of her achingly familiar face.
How could he have gone so long without needing to see her? That was proof he’d let this thing with Vic get way out of hand. Fiona, his Fiona, deserved so much better from him than a whole year without once looking at her photo. Not that he needed pictures to remember every detail. As he gazed down upon her face with the adorable sprinkling of freckles across her nose and the gorgeous green eyes that had always danced with such mischief, he was flooded with memories. For years after her death, he’d relied upon these images and many others to wipe away the ghastly memories of her violent death.
He’d been haunted by the horror he’d encountered in their cozy flat the night he returned home from work to find her dead. As he ran a finger over the golden curls that fell to below her shoulders, he was transported back in time to those awful first days. A shudder traveled through him, and he shook his head as if that could snap him out of the unwelcome trip down memory lane.
Shannon kissed one of the photos and returned them to the envelope. Then he put it back in his bag and zipped it closed, as if that could keep the memories contained in the past where they belonged.
“I need a drink,” he said to the empty, lonely room. In the bathroom, he splashed water on his face and combed his hair. The face gazing back at him in the mirror reminded him far too much of the way he’d looked for a long time after Fiona died—haunted and hollowed, as if someone had cut the very heart of him out of his chest.