by Marie Force
She snuggled into the sofa with the dogs while Joe prepared grilled cheese sandwiches in the kitchen. He cracked open a cola for himself, poured a tall glass of milk for Janey and carried everything into the living room. The dogs knew their rules and scattered from the sofa to allow them to eat in peace.
When they were first together, Joe had been blown away by how well behaved her pets were, but now he was used to them and expected nothing less. All of them had been abused or neglected before Janey came into their lives and showed them true love and devotion.
They did whatever she told them to do when she told them to do it. Joe called her his little dog whisperer. There was no question she had a special touch with animals, which was why he was thrilled to see her finally pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian.
“This is so good,” she said between bites. “Thanks for pampering me.”
“Any time, baby.”
“I’ll probably need a second lunch around two.”
“I’ll get it for you.”
“You’ve got better things to do than bring me food at work.”
“I’ll get it for you right here. Doc gave you the afternoon off.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “He did? Why?”
Joe finished the soda and put the can on the coffee table before he reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “Because he’s worried about you. He says you seem down about something.”
Frowning, she looked away from him, gazing at her German shepherd, Riley, who stood watch over her, as always. “So you guys really were talking about me.”
“Not in a bad way. He called me because he was worried, and he didn’t want to upset you by bringing it up. You know he loves you as much as anyone, except for me, of course. I love you best of all, which is why I’m hoping you’d tell me if something was worrying you or upsetting you or causing you to lose your sparkle.”
“Is that what he said?”
Joe brought her hand to his lips, kissing her softly. “Uh-huh, which led me to wonder why I haven’t noticed your missing sparkle. Are you keeping something from me, hon?”
“No! I don’t do that. You know I don’t.”
“I know you don’t usually, but since he’s seeing something I’m not, I can’t help but wonder. That’s all.”
“We’ve had a lot going on. With the pregnancy and the accident and my brothers and your mom and Seamus… It’s been…a lot.” Her chin quivered ever so slightly, but he saw it.
“What is it, honey? Talk to me. The accident was so upsetting, but the boys are fine—or they will be. In time. You know that, right?”
She nodded, her eyes glistening with unshed tears that broke his heart.
“Come here.” He released her hand, raised his arm and waited for her to get comfortable against him before he put his arm around her and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “What’s wrong?”
“You won’t want to hear it.”
“What does that mean? Of course I want to hear it.”
“I tried to tell you once before. I tried to tell Adam, too, but he said the same thing you did—”
“About what, Janey?” Joe asked, becoming more alarmed by the second.
“About the baby and school and how I might’ve changed my mind about some things.”
“We talked about this—”
“You talked about it. You told me I’d be making a big mistake to give up on vet school when I’m so close to being done.”
“I still think that’s true.”
“But what about what I want? Does that matter at all?”
Flabbergasted, Joe pulled back so he could see her face and was stunned to find tears rolling down her cheeks. “Of course that matters. Where’s this coming from, Janey?”
“It’s coming from me and the baby.” She rested her hand on her belly. “We didn’t plan to get pregnant yet, but we did, and now… Everything is different. I don’t want what I wanted a year ago. I want different things.”
“What things?”
“I want to be a mom. I want to be here with my family and your mom. I want our baby to be with his or her cousins every day, not just in the summer. I don’t want to miss anything.” A sob hiccupped through her as the floodgates opened. “And if I go back to school, I’ll be gone all day, and I’ll have to study all night. I’ll miss everything.”
Joe wiped the flood of tears from her face as he tried to process what she’d said. How had he missed this? How had he not seen she was this torn up?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’ve given up so much so we could spend the last two years in Ohio—”
“I didn’t give up anything. I got to be with you, which was the only thing I wanted. There was hardly any sacrifice involved in that.”
“Still, you know what I mean. You went to so much trouble, and it might be for nothing.”
“It hasn’t been for nothing, Janey. You’ve got two years of school done now that you didn’t have before. You’re halfway there.”
“But still a long way from the finish line. The baby will be running around and talking back to us by the time I’m done. I can’t spend two years being less than half a mother to this child, Joe. That’s not what I want. That’s not what he or she deserves.”
He ran his fingers through her soft blonde hair, thinking about what he should say and how he should say it. “I’m so sorry I didn’t pick up on this sooner. I hate that you’ve been this upset and I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your fault. I’ve been an emotional disaster area for months now. Victoria says it’s the hormones.”
They were quiet for a long time, each taking comfort from the closeness of the other. Joe’s mind raced with plans and implications and thoughts of the painting class he taught to freshman art students. None of that mattered when stacked up against what his beloved wife wanted and needed.
“What’ll we do, Joe?” she asked in a small voice that made him ache.
“To me, it seems rather simple.”
“It does?”
Nodding, he said, “You’ll take this year off from school, spend it with the baby, and then next summer, we’ll see how you feel about going back to finish. With your perfect grades, they’ll probably let you do whatever you want.”
“And you’d be okay with dragging out our time in Ohio even more than we already are?”
“If it means you’ll be happy, I’m fine with it. So what if it takes one more year than we’d planned. I would, however, really like to see you finish, but only because I suspect you might regret it someday if you don’t.”
“I probably would,” she said with a sigh.
“So we’ll take this year off from school and let you settle into being a mom?”
“I’d like that more than anything.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
She let out a happy squeal and hugged him as tightly as she could with the big belly in the way.
After a minute, Joe realized she was crying again. “What? I thought you’d feel better now that we figured out a plan.”
“I do.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“I’m happy,” she said with a laugh. “I’m so happy.”
She killed him when she looked at him that way. “That’s all that matters.”
“You need to be happy, too.”
“If you are, then I am. That’s all it takes.”
Her hand on his face took his breath away. “I love you so much. I have to be the luckiest person in the whole world.”
“Nope. That’d be me.” He brushed away the last of her tears and kissed her.
She smiled at him as her hand moved from his face to the back of his neck. “Do we really have all afternoon free?”
“Mmm-hmm,” he said against her lips, reluctant to end the sweet kiss.
“You know what I could really use?”
“What’s that?”
“A nap.”
Intrigued, he
said, “What kind of nap?”
She let loose with her sexiest grin. “The really good kind.”
“I could be talked into that.”
Her laughter warmed his heart as it always did. “You’re so easy, Captain.”
“Only with you. Put your arms around my neck and hold on tight.”
When she did as he directed, he slid his arms under her, scooping her up with a grunt and groan for effect that had her pinching him. “Not funny.”
“Yes, it was.” He stole another kiss as he carried her to the bedroom, where he was more than happy to help her out of her clothes and into bed.
When he joined her, she snuggled up to him as best she could. Wanting to get in on their embrace, the baby thumped around between them, making them laugh.
“Joe?”
His hands and eyes were on her belly, watching the baby move around inside her and marveling at the miracle of it all. “What, honey?”
“Thank you—for this love, this life, for understanding what I need. All of it. Thank you.”
“God, Janey,” he whispered, overwhelmed by her. “It’s my pleasure. Every second of it. Thank you.” He kissed her then, and for a long time, he thought of nothing else but her pleasure.
Chapter 11
Adam left Abby at the Beachcomber with a promise to call her in a couple of hours. They both had things they needed to do, and in his case, he had someone he needed to see. At first he’d thought the best thing would be to keep his growing friendship with Abby a secret from Grant.
Now that he’d had time to rethink that plan, he could see it would be the worst way to proceed. He enjoyed a harmonious relationship with his siblings because they didn’t play games with each other. When Grant had so many other things on his mind at the moment, surely this wasn’t the time to make things worse by being less than honest with him.
With that in mind, Adam left the Beachcomber and stopped at the Surf, hoping first to see Laura about the work she wanted him to do on the reservation system.
“She’s at a doctor’s appointment,” Sarah told him when he found her at the reception desk. “The poor thing can’t seem to kick the flu.”
“I hope she’s okay.”
“I’m sure she will be. I’ll tell her you stopped by.”
“She can call my cell whenever she’s ready to talk about the reservation system.”
Sarah’s eyes lit up with delight. “Oh, are you going fix that for us?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Thank goodness.”
“Maybe you can tell me what the problems are, so I can be thinking about what needs to happen.”
“Well, one of the biggest challenges we have is that families have been coming to the Surf for several generations now, and they have traditions tied up with the place. Take the Morton family, for example. They come every summer and have since I was a kid growing up here and my parents were running the place. They ask for the same rooms every year with several amenities and upgrades. My mom used to keep track of all that in a notebook she carried with her everywhere she went, but she also has a photographic memory that I don’t have—and neither does Laura. We need to be able to better manage those requests now that we’re fully computerized. Does that make sense?”
“It does,” Adam said, his mind already racing with custom programming ideas that might fit their needs. “Let me think about that and talk some more with you and Laura.”
“That’d be great. We’ll take whatever help you can give us. I’ll tell her to call you.”
“Thanks, Sarah. Have a good day.”
“You, too. It’s so nice to have our own computer whiz back in town.”
Adam smiled at the compliment. “That’s nice of you to say. See you.” He left the Surf buoyed by Sarah’s confidence in him as well as the project she’d outlined. He’d always enjoyed the challenge of finding creative solutions to his clients’ vexing issues. There was nothing more satisfying than hearing that something he’d done had helped a business to achieve new efficiencies or economies.
As the adrenaline pumped through his veins, he remembered all at once that he no longer had clients or a booming business or a host of daily challenges to work through. The loss of his company seemed to finally hit him right in that moment, stealing the breath from his lungs and sending him reeling. The pain of it was physical, gripping his chest in a fierce hold that had him dropping onto the stoop of the building next to the Surf, which was, thankfully, abandoned at the moment.
Adam had no idea how long he sat there waiting for his heart rate and respiration to return to normal as the whole thing came crashing down on him. Computronic Solutions Incorporated, or “the Other CSI,” as they had called it, was gone. The company he’d built from scratch—at first from the living room of the loft he’d rented in Lower Manhattan—was no longer his.
With his elbows propped on his knees, Adam dropped his head to his hands, combing his fingers through his hair absently as he thought about the long struggle that had led to CSI becoming one of the top computer consulting companies in the city. He thought about what his dad had said about fighting for what was his, and what Abby had said about how he must not care anymore if he didn’t put up a fight.
As days of numbness and shock finally wore off, Adam discovered that he did care, and he was very, very angry. Not just at Sasha. That was only part of it. He was equally furious with the board of directors he’d hand-chosen who’d turned on him in favor of his so-called partner, who’d apparently sold them a bill of goods.
All at once, it became clear to him that he was a fool not to fight for what was his. Even if he never got back what he’d lost, he could, at the very least, make life difficult for the people who’d screwed him over.
He drew his phone from his pocket, wincing when his tattooed bicep protested the movement, and found his lawyer’s number on his list of contacts.
“Adam,” Rick Levinson said when he came on the line, sounding relieved to receive Adam’s call. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you. Where’ve you been?”
“Licking my wounds,” Adam said with a laugh.
“Dude, you got royally screwed. I couldn’t even believe it when I heard the news. I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
“I needed a couple of days. It wasn’t only the company that screwed me over.”
“I heard that, too. I didn’t know that you and Sasha were a couple.”
“No one did. We kept it quiet for obvious reasons.”
“I have to say, though, I wondered a few times when I saw you two together. There was definitely something…”
Whatever it had been was definitely over now. Adam thought about the morning he’d spent with Abby. Now that was something—something sweet and fun and sexy—and yet pure, too. He already knew with one-hundred-percent certainty that she’d never treat him the way Sasha had.
“Adam? Still there?”
He realized he’d punched out on Rick. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to fight for what’s mine.”
“Right there with you. Since I had a feeling you might say that at some point, we’ve been all over it for a couple of days now. I think you’ve got a very solid case, and with your approval, we’ll move forward with filings.” Rick outlined the strategy his team had put together to fight Adam’s ouster from the company. They had come to the conclusion that discrediting Sasha was the first step in what might be a long battle.
It would get ugly, Adam thought. Someone he’d once cared deeply about would become his enemy. If he succeeded in regaining control of the company, he’d have a mountain to climb in restoring CSI’s reputation in the business community while also repairing the damage done to the morale of their workforce. The question became—how could he not pursue it?
“Do it,” he said to Rick. However it turned out, he’d figure out the way forward the same way he always had—one step at a time.
“I’l
l keep you posted.”
Adam ended the call and took a few minutes to regain his equilibrium and then got up and continued on to Grant’s house. He pounded on the door for several minutes before Grant appeared with a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair dripping.
“What the hell?” he asked Adam as he pushed open the door to let him in.
“Thought you were sleeping the day away again.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve been up since eight and actually getting some work done, which is a welcome relief.”
It was a welcome relief to Adam, too, to hear that Grant was having a better day. “That’s good news.”
“You know it. Want something to drink?”
“I could use a drink drink, if you’ve got anything.”
Grant stopped and gave Adam an inquisitive look. “What’s that all about?”
“I just agreed to file suit to get back the company my now ex-partner and ex-girlfriend stole from me.”
“I’d say that warrants a midday drink.” Grant rooted around in a kitchen cabinet and produced a bottle of whiskey. “Will this do the trick?”
“Bring it, brother.”
Grant poured several fingers worth in a short glass and handed it to Adam.
“Join me so I’m not drinking alone?”
“Not today. Not when I’m finally getting back to work.”
“Fine. Be that way.” Adam downed the shot in one big gulp, feeling it burn its way through his insides.
“More?”
“In a minute maybe.”
“So what gives with the company?”
Even though he hadn’t come here to talk to Grant about that, he told him anyway. And when he was done, Grant reached for Adam’s glass, poured him another shot and pushed it toward him on the counter.
Adam tipped his head back and downed it.
“Feel better?”
“Surprisingly, yes, I do. Sorry to unload on you when you’ve got enough of your own shit going on.”
“Trust me, I’d much rather focus on your shit than mine.”
“You know… The McCarthy brother bartending skills work both ways. Whenever you’re ready to talk about it.”