by Marie Force
Evan scowled at Luke.
“Don’t mind him,” Grant said. “He’s pissed because his lady is talking to someone else.”
“He has a lady?” Luke asked as Mac joined them with Hailey asleep in his arms.
“Who has a lady?” Mac asked
Grant nodded to the deck. “Evan.”
“Evan has a lady?” Mac asked, incredulous.
“I like Grace,” Luke said. “Syd and I met her on the ferry. She’s great.”
“Everyone likes her,” Grant said. “Especially Evan. Right, Ev? Apparently, Seamus likes her, too. That’s making our boy good and mad.”
Since he wasn’t allowed to talk to her at the moment and didn’t feel like listening to any more of his brother’s bullshit, Evan headed upstairs to take a shower.
Their laughter followed him all the way up.
Chapter 20
Emerging from the shower, Evan blotted water from his face, which was starting to seriously hurt. He threw on shorts and a T-shirt and sat on the bed in his childhood room. Everything was just as he’d left it—surfing posters, trophies, photos of Cindy Crawford, his first celebrity crush, posters of the metal bands he’d loved back then, and the mystery novels he’d devoured as a kid. When was the last time he’d read a book? He couldn’t remember.
Looking to kill some time before he returned to the party (because he refused to hide out and he wanted to know if Grace was still talking to Seamus), Evan picked up his cell phone to return the call from his manager, Jack Beaumont.
“Evan,” Jack said, sounding relieved. “I’m glad to hear back from you.”
Jack’s unusually somber tone put Evan instantly on alert. “What’s going on?”
“I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.”
Evan sat perfectly still as he listened to Jack’s recitation of how Evan’s recording company, Starlight Records, had filed for bankruptcy over the weekend and how all its assets—including Evan’s record—were tied up in the legal proceedings.
He should’ve known. It had all been too perfect. From the first meeting with Starlight to the recording process to the demos, it had been too smooth. Something was bound to go wrong, because it would’ve been too much to hope that the CD would be released on time and launch the career he’d worked so hard for all these years.
“There is some good news,” Jack was saying when Evan tuned back in. “Are you still with me? Evan?”
Clearing the lump from his throat, Evan said, “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Word is that Buddy Longstreet’s company, Long Road Records, has been in touch with the attorneys for Starlight. Buddy wants to buy your record from them and put it out under his label. If that happens, you’re totally golden—even more so than you would’ve been with Starlight.”
He didn’t have to tell Evan that. Long Road was one of the top dogs in Nashville whereas Starlight was small potatoes. Nonetheless, Evan had been thrilled to ink a deal with them after years of trying to get noticed in the business. “And if it doesn’t?”
“Well, then I guess you’re fucked until the bankruptcy proceedings wind through the courts.”
Jack didn’t have to tell him that would take years.
“What would that mean for the tour?”
“I haven’t heard anything for certain, but I assume there’s no tour without the CD. We’ll have to wait to hear from Buddy’s people.”
As he tried to frantically process the implications, Evan’s head spun and his stomach churned.
“I know this is a huge disappointment to you,” Jack said. “Hell, it is to me, too. But there’s still a chance it’ll all work out. Say your prayers.”
“I’ll get right on that. Would it help anything if I came there?”
“Nah, sit tight and let the suits figure it out. I’ve got our attorneys working the phones. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything more. I’m real sorry, Evan.”
“Me, too.” As he ended the call and tossed the phone aside, Evan wished he’d never bothered to return the call. Ignorance was truly bliss. After a day this crappy, there was really only one thing to do—get good and stinking drunk.
With that goal in mind, Evan got up and headed back downstairs.
Grant gathered everyone into the family room, keeping a watchful eye on Stephanie. He’d been shocked when she suggested they host the party for Abby. It was awfully good of her to be so generous toward his ex-girlfriend. When he’d said as much to her, she’d replied, “She’s no threat to me. She’s in love with Cal.” Grant smiled, remembering how he’d added, “And I’m in love with you.”
Watching Stephanie interact with his family and friends as if she’d been part of their lives for years rather than months, Grant was filled with excitement about all they had to look forward to. In a few months, after they got her stepfather out of jail, Grant would ask her to marry him. Since she’d been denied so much in her life, he wanted to give her everything, including a proposal she’d never forget.
But tonight was all about Abby, so Grant gave a short whistle to quiet the boisterous group. When he had their attention, he turned to the woman who’d been at the center of his life for close to a decade, until she got tired of waiting for him to pay attention to their relationship. Grant was thankful they’d been able to maintain their friendship after they broke up.
“Abby, we’ve all come here tonight to wish you—and Cal—well in your new lives in Texas. We want you to know we’ll miss you both, and we hope you’ll get back here to visit once in a while. We’re also pulling for Cal’s mom to make a full recovery.”
“Hear, hear,” Ned Saunders said.
With tears in her big brown eyes, Abby stood to hug Grant. “Thank you, Grant—and Stephanie—for hosting this lovely party,” Abby said, wiping her eyes as she spoke. “I’m so happy to be able to see everyone before I leave but also sad to know it’ll be a while before we’re together again. Please know how much I love you and how much I’ll miss you. Any time you feel like getting off the island, come on down to Austin. Our door will always be open.”
As Abby handed out hugs to her friends, Grant noticed Evan had reappeared and was hovering in the doorway. Immediately, his brother zeroed in on Grace, who was sitting next to Seamus on the sofa. Evan, the poor bastard, looked like he’d been hit by a bus. Grant wondered if he’d looked that pathetic when he’d been fighting what he felt for Stephanie. With hindsight, he could see what a stupid waste of time that had been.
Watching her hug Abby as if they were old friends, Grant decided if he’d been pathetic, it was well worth it. She was well worth it.
The party was starting to wind down when someone pounded on the front door.
“I’ll get it,” Mac said. On his parents’ front porch was a man he’d never seen before. He was tall with gray hair and a scowl on a face that might’ve once been handsome. “Hi, there. Help you with something?”
“I’m looking for Francine Chester and her daughters, Maddie and Tiffany. Someone told me they might be here.”
Instantly on alert, Mac stood up a little straighter. “Who wants to know?”
“None of your business. Just answer the question.”
Mac pushed open the screen door and stepped onto the deck, pulling the inside door closed behind him. “Since this is my family’s home and one of the women you’re looking for is my wife, I’d say it’s very much my business.”
“So you’re the McCarthy kid Maddie married.”
The statement was said with such disdain and condescension that Mac chose not to dignify it with a response. “And you are?”
“Your father-in-law.”
Even though he was shocked, Mac went out of his way to deny Bobby Chester the satisfaction of the big reaction he so clearly wanted. “I don’t have a father-in-law.”
“You do now. I want to see my wife and daughters. Immediately.”
“They don’t want to see you.”
“And you speak for them?”
“Yo
u bet I do. The only thing they want from you is a divorce so Francine can marry the man she loves—the man she’s always loved.”
Bobby’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”
Mac caught a whiff of liquor on the older man’s breath. “It means, you son of a bitch, you can’t come back here thirty years after you left them and think you can pick right up like nothing ever happened. You’re nothing to them. In fact, you’re less than nothing.”
Bobby’s right hand rolled into a fist.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve talking to me like that. This is none of your business.”
“Anything that affects my wife and her family is my business. Now, I want you to turn around and get the hell out of here before I call my friend the police chief to come out here and take out the trash.”
The inside door swung open. “Mac? Are you out there?”
“Go back inside, Maddie. I’ll be right there.”
“Does the little woman always do what you tell her to do?”
It took all the self-control Mac possessed not to deck the guy.
Despite Mac’s overwhelming desire to protect her from ever having to see her deadbeat father again, Maddie came outside. She rested a hand on Mac’s arm, which had an instant calming effect on him. He had no idea how she did that.
“What do you want?” she asked her father.
“I want to talk to you and your mother and your sister.”
“We have nothing to say to you. You should go now.”
Bobby crossed his arms over his chest in a mulish gesture that reminded Mac of something Thomas might do. “I’m not going anywhere until I talk to the three of you.”
“Come on, Mac,” Maddie said, taking Mac’s hand. “Let’s go back inside to our friends.”
“Don’t you dare walk away from me, young lady,” Bobby said.
“Why not?” Maddie amazed Mac with her calm when he knew she had to be falling apart inside. “Isn’t that what you did to me?”
Mac could see that her comment scored a direct hit with her father.
“I need to talk to you,” Bobby said, sounding more desperate than belligerent now. “Please.”
“I’m sorry,” Maddie said, unfailingly polite even when she had no reason to be. “But that’s not going to happen.”
“Until you and your sister spend some time with me—and I’m talking more than five minutes—there’ll be no divorce.”
With that, Bobby finally got Maddie’s attention. She stared at him, agog. “You can’t be serious.”
Mac slipped an arm around her, wanting to shield her from the pain and hoping to hold himself back from physically harming her father, since he knew she wouldn’t appreciate that.
“I’m dead serious. If I give her the divorce, I’ll never see any of you again.”
“You lost the right to see us when you walked away without a word.”
“I was young and stupid and overwhelmed by the responsibility.”
Maddie’s entire body stiffened. “Do you think I’m not overwhelmed by the responsibility for my children? Do you think I wasn’t overwhelmed when my son’s biological father left me without even knowing I was pregnant? I never once, during the most difficult years of my life, considered leaving my child. Not once.”
“It’s different for mothers—”
“Like hell it is,” Mac growled. “We’ve heard more than enough. You do what you have to, but stay away from my family. You’ve got nothing we need.” Squeezing her shoulder, he said, “Come on, babe. Let’s go in.”
The second they were inside the house, she began to tremble uncontrollably, which infuriated Mac. He should’ve smashed the guy’s face in when he had the chance.
“Come here, baby,” Mac said, bringing her into his embrace. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”
She clung to him. “Why would he come here? Why does he want to see us? I don’t get it.”
“He’s feeling guilty, and he’s probably all alone.”
“Which is his own fault.”
“I’m sure he knows that.”
“God, Mac, what if he meant it when he said he won’t give Mom the divorce unless Tiffany and I—”
“Unless you and Tiffany do what?” Francine asked.
Mac and Maddie broke apart and turned to her.
“Nothing, Mom. It’s nothing.”
“Was your father here?”
Maddie seemed to be weighing what she should say to her mother.
Mac reached for her hand, nodding in encouragement.
“He…um, he said he wants to spend some time with Tiff and me or—”
“Or there’s no divorce,” Francine said. “Right?”
“Something like that.”
“Then there’ll be no divorce.”
“But then you and Ned can’t get married!”
Francine shrugged. “We’ll still get to spend every day together for the rest of our lives. We don’t need a piece of paper to make it official.”
Ned came up behind Francine and put his arm around her. “That’s right, doll. Fuck him and his divorce.”
As the other three laughed at Ned’s bluntness, Mac was filled with affection for the man who’d been like a second father to him and his siblings. He’d said just what the women needed to hear.
Francine embraced her daughter. “No matter what, you’re not spending any time with him. I’d never ask you to do that on my behalf.”
“What about me?” Tiffany asked as she joined them. “Do I have any say in the matter?”
“Honey,” Francine said, reaching out a hand to her younger daughter. “You don’t have to see him, either.”
“What if I want to?”
Francine was clearly caught off guard by the question.
“I have nothing of him,” Tiffany said. “Not a single memory. I know what he did was horrible, but I can’t help being curious about him.”
Francine considered that for a long moment. “Then you ought to see him if that’s what you feel you need to satisfy your curiosity.”
“And you wouldn’t mind?”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”
“I don’t know if I’ll actually do it,” Tiffany said, “but it’s good to know you wouldn’t mind.”
“I’m ready to go home,” Francine said to Ned. “Let’s go say our good-byes to Abby and the others.”
“Lead the way, doll.”
Tiffany went with them, leaving Mac and Maddie alone in the front hall.
“So if Tiffany sees him and gives him what he wants, then it would just be me standing in the way of my mom and Ned being able to get married,” Maddie said.
The dull, flat tone, which was so out of character for her, pained Mac. This whole situation pained him. Why did her father have to show up now when she was finally happy and settled and at peace with the past?
“You certainly don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, babe.”
“I know.” She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Thanks for what you did out there.”
“Any time.”
“Let’s get our kids and go home.”
As Mac followed her into the family room where his cousin Laura kept watch over their children, he was filled with worry over what his wife might be willing to sacrifice to ensure her mother’s happiness.
Chapter 21
If it hadn’t been for the fact that she couldn’t take her mind or her eyes off Evan McCarthy, this would’ve been one of the best nights of Grace’s life. In addition to the abundance of attention she’d received from Seamus, she was now engaged in a fascinating conversation with Gansett’s sexy police chief, Blaine Taylor.
His brown hair was streaked with blond highlights, and his skin was deeply tanned from hours in the sun. He had soft brown eyes, what her mother would call “kind” eyes, and they’d been focused on her for the last fifteen minutes.
They were talking about
Oxycontin and the problems pharmacies were having with people breaking in, looking to steal the pain medication to feed their addiction.
“I was on a task force on my old job,” he said. “It’s a real problem in the cities.”
“We’ve seen it in our small town, too.” Grace appreciated the way he gave her his full attention rather than that halfhearted, patiently indulgent thing guys often did when they couldn’t care less about what a woman was saying. She’d been on the receiving end of that treatment far too often when she was heavy.
“At the hospital where I work, we have all sorts of special protocols for keeping that—and some of the other more popular addictive prescription drugs—locked up where no one can get to them even if they manage to breach the pharmacy itself,” she said. “We’ve also been involved in a lot of community outreach projects with the local high schools.”
“Remember the good old days when cocaine and heroin were our biggest problems?”
Grace laughed. “Those were the days.”
He lowered his voice. “Did I hear a rumor in town about you and Gold’s?”
“Wow, news travels fast around here.”
“I saw the transfer in ownership on the docket for the town council meeting next week.”
“Mrs. Gold tells me it’s just a formality, to make the council aware of the change. I don’t even have to be there.”
“Should be no big deal.” He touched his beer bottle to the glass of wine she’d been nursing all evening. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
“Maybe we can work together on a program for the kids at the island school. We don’t have a lot of drug issues here, but most of the kids will be leaving the island for college, and it would be good to send them out into the world prepared for what they might face.”
While there was nothing overtly flirtatious in Blaine’s words or expression, Grace sensed that he might be interested in getting to know her better. At least she thought she might sense something. What did she know about such things? “I’d love to do that.”