Chapter 15
Janey was thrilled to find Maddie and the SUV in the line for the three o’clock ferry. After checking her fresh-from-the-shop car into the line, Janey skipped over to where Maddie leaned against the black truck, her arms crossed and her face set in an unreadable expression.
“Hey!”
Maddie looked up, startled. “Oh. Hi.”
Janey studied her friend. “What’s wrong?”
“My mother.”
“Ohhh.” Janey leaned back against the truck, next to Maddie. “I take it the pickup didn’t go well?”
“Let me quote, shall I? ‘You’ll marry a McCarthy over my dead body.’”
“Ouch. I resemble that remark. What did you say?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Good for you.” Janey snorted. “Where is she now?”
“On the boat. She took the ticket I bought her and stalked off.” Maddie slid her slender foot in and out of her flip-flop, an aura of weary resignation clinging to her every movement. “I knew it was too much to hope that she might be supportive, but still. . .”
“You hoped anyway.”
“I never learn. That’s my problem. I expect people to change, but they don’t.”
Janey linked her arm with Maddie’s and rested her head on her friend’s shoulder. “Do you know what I love best about you?”
Maddie tilted her head to lean it on Janey’s. “What’s that?”
“You’re always upbeat, even when you have good reason not to be. I admire that quality in you, and I know Mac does, too.”
“Thank you. That’s sweet of you to say.”
“I know she’s your mom, but I’d hate to see her take anything away from your happiness. Not when you and Mac waited so long to find each other.”
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
“She can’t ruin it for you unless you let her.”
Maddie stood upright and turned to Janey, a brilliant smile lighting up her pretty face. “I can’t wait until you’re officially my sister-in-law.”
Janey hugged her. “I can’t, either.”
“So where’s Joe?”
“On the island. He was on the one thirty. I stayed over here to do a few errands after I picked up my car.”
“How was last night?” Maddie asked with a salacious smile.
“Amazing.”
Maddie laughed. “That good, huh?”
“It’s incredible. We just have this unbelievable connection.”
“So why don’t you look happy?”
“I am happy. I’m so happy. That’s the problem.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“Not even a week ago, I was engaged to David. I had my whole life planned. I was in love, content, settled, you know?”
“Uh huh. And now?”
“Now, it’s like David’s dead to me, everything I ever felt for him is gone, and I can’t be in the same room with Joe and not want to jump him.”
Maddie giggled behind her hand.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are. You’re madly in love with Joe, and you don’t even see it.”
Janey stared at her, wondering if Maddie had lost her mind. “How can you say that? I was in love with David a week ago! When did I become this fickle fannie who loves a different boy every week?”
“You’re not a fickle fannie. You were with the same guy all your life, Janey. He did a despicable thing that you had the misfortune—or fortune, depending on how you look at it—to witness.”
“Fortune.” She shuddered, imagining what she might never have known about him if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. “Definitely fortune.”
“Is it any wonder that you instantly fell out of love with him?”
“I guess not. But how do you explain that I managed to fall halfway in love with Joe in just a few days?”
“Maybe you were already halfway there but never admitted it to yourself because you couldn’t.”
Janey sucked in a sharp deep breath. “Jeez, you don’t pull any punches, do you?”
Maddie shrugged with playful indifference. “Just calling it the way I see it.”
Janey found the insight truly astounding. “You really think that’s possible?”
“He’s always been good old Joe, there when you need him, to lend an ear or a shoulder to lean on, to make you feel good about yourself because he had something nice to say about your hair or your outfit or your smile.
What girl wouldn’t be halfway in love with a guy who always gave her his full attention—especially when her fiancé was never around? ”
Janey stared at Maddie. “How do you know all that? You just met us recently!”
Maddie snickered with laughter. “I was guessing, but judging by the expression on your face, it looks like I hit a bull’s eye.”
“You’ve certainly given me something to think about.”
“Don’t think too hard, Janey. He’s a good guy, and he loves you. He really loves you. Why does it have to be any more complicated than that?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll think of a reason.”
Maddie laughed and hip-checked her. “Just run with it and don’t ask any questions.
” Her cell phone rang, and she tugged it out of her back pocket.
“It’s Mac,” she whispered to Janey. “Hey, babe. About like I thought it would. I know. You don’t have to do that.
” Maddie laughed softly. “Okay. I’ll see you then.
Love you, too.” She ended the call and turned back to Janey.
“He’s meeting the boat so she can see Thomas. ”
“That’s good of him.”
“It’s more than she deserves.”
One of Joe’s employees signaled that it was time to back their cars onto the ferry.
Janey started toward her car but turned back. “When we get on the boat, how’d you like to introduce your future sister-in-law to your mother?”
“You know what?” Maddie said with a big grin. “I think that would make my day.”
“Mine, too,” Janey said.
After receiving the deep chill from Maddie’s mother, Janey felt sad for Mac and the reception he’d no doubt receive from his future mother-in-law.
Why couldn’t people just be nice and get along?
She tried to imagine a scenario whereby she wouldn’t at least try to be happy for her daughter if she was marrying the man she loved.
The entire situation saddened her, and she suddenly couldn’t wait to see Joe.
He always made her feel better. Maddie had been right about that much.
The rest of their conversation kept replaying in her mind.
Had she been halfway in love with Joe even when she was still with David? Was that even possible?
With her thoughts continuing to churn, Janey drove off the ferry and parked in the thirty-minute lot next to Maddie. When her friend stepped out of the truck, Janey went over to her, squeezed her shoulder and walked with her to where Mac waited with Thomas.
Maddie stepped into his embrace, and they whispered softly to each other.
Janey stood back to give them a moment alone.
“What’s going on?” Joe whispered.
Janey startled and turned to him. “Maddie’s mom.” She nodded to the bitter-looking woman walking off the ferry. “Not good.”
Joe scowled. “What’s her problem?”
“God only knows.”
As if she owned the island and everything on it, Francine strolled over to them. “There’s my grandson! Oh, look how big you’ve gotten!”
“Mom, this is my fiancé, Mac McCarthy.”
As if Maddie hadn’t spoken, Francine reached for the baby.
Maddie stepped between them. “If you can’t be civil and say hello to the man I intend to marry, then I’m afraid your grandson isn’t available to spend any time with you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Francine sputtered. “I haven’t seen him in three months!”
“Then I would think you’d do the polite thing and say hello to the man I just introduced you to.” Maddie crossed her arms, but Janey could see she was trembling.
Apparently, Mac saw it, too, because he reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder.
The two women stood locked in a standoff for a long moment before Francine rolled her eyes and looked up at Mac disdainfully. “Hello. Now, may I have my grandson?”
Maddie shook her head with disbelief, and her eyes shone with tears, but she stepped back to give her mother access to her son.
Mac handed the boy to his grandmother.
Francine hugged the baby close to her and walked away from them to get reacquainted.
“Well,” Maddie said, her voice wavering, “that was pleasant.”
“It’s okay, babe.” Mac drew her into a hug and stroked a hand over her hair. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. I’m sorry she was rude to you.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
Feeling like she was intruding on an intensely private moment between her brother and his fiancée, Janey strolled away to lean on one of the wood pilings.
Joe followed her. “That was screwed up, huh?”
“I feel bad for Maddie.”
“I feel bad for her mother. She’s so busy being bitter that she’s willing to risk missing out on what should be one of the happiest times in her life.”
Janey studied his handsome face. “You’re a good guy, Joe Cantrell. And a generous guy to feel bad for her after the way she just behaved.”
He shrugged off her praise and glanced at the ferry preparing for departure. “I gotta go. See you at the party?”
“Yes, you will.”
“I’ll be there around eight thirty.”
“Right in time for the fireworks,” she said suggestively.
He groaned under his breath. “I really, really want to kiss you right now,” he whispered.
Janey smiled up at him. “Really?”
“Really.”
She chuckled at his tortured expression. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“Mmm, you sure will.”
The burst of heat that traveled through her body took Janey by surprise. “Hurry back.” When he walked away without touching her, Janey felt the loss just as acutely as she’d felt the desire. Oh, my.
Janey spent the few hours until the party making potato salad, taking a bath and blow-drying her hair. As she applied jasmine-scented lotion, she told herself she was not putting it on because Joe loved it so much. He went kind of nuts over it, to be honest. She couldn’t wait to be with him again.
Maybe she was in love with him. Maybe she had been for a long time but didn’t allow herself to acknowledge it while she was with David. Maybe it was time to just run with it, to throw herself wholeheartedly into a relationship with him, to tell the world and let it happen.
Then she thought of Mac and what he would have to say about her involvement with Joe.
Maybe the world didn’t need to know quite yet.