Chapter 21 #2
“Sorry.” Janey went to her husband and put her arm around him. “You do have a bit of a history.”
“One broken nose doesn’t make for a history, and PS, that guy deserved it.”
“And I don’t?” Seamus edged closer to Carolina. No time like the present for her son to get used to seeing them together. Since Joe hadn’t, in fact, murdered him, Seamus was filled with irrational hope.
“I never said that,” Joe said. “I chose not to hit you.”
“And I thank you for that,” Seamus said gravely, which earned him yet another scowl from Joe.
When Seamus tried to take Caro’s hand, she shook him off.
Baby steps.
Carolina focused on her son. “Are you going to be able to live with this?”
“You haven’t given me much choice.”
“Actually,” Seamus said, “that’s not true.
You know as well as I do that if you disapprove or express your disappointment or in any way seem put out by it, she’ll throw me over like yesterday’s news.
So it does matter. If you’re going to do any of those things, I, for one, would appreciate you doing them now before this goes any further. ”
Carolina started to say something in protest, but the challenging look Seamus tossed her way had her closing her mouth.
Everyone looked to Joe, waiting breathlessly to see what he would say or do.
After a long moment, Joe said, “I’m not going to do any of those things.”
“Are you sure?” Seamus asked. “You don’t get to change your mind in a week or a month or a year.”
“Neither do you,” Joe said pointedly.
Seamus, who understood what Joe was saying, nodded in agreement. “Neither do I.”
“It might take me a while to get my head around it, but I won’t stand in the way.” To his mother, he said, “I’d never want to be the cause of your unhappiness. I hate that you thought I would.”
Tears filled Carolina’s eyes as she went to her son and hugged him. “Thank you.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Seamus caught Janey wiping away a tear. “Caro?”
She pulled back from her son and turned to Seamus. “Come here.”
The glance she directed at her son was filled with trepidation.
Joe nodded and squeezed her shoulder.
Carolina took a couple of halting steps toward Seamus.
He held out his arms to her. “Come to me.”
She seemed hesitant to get close to him with her son and daughter-in-law watching, but Seamus knew it was vital that she take this first most important step in front of them.
“It’s okay, love,” he whispered. “Everything’s going to be okay now.”
A sob escaped her as she moved into his embrace and buried her face in his shirt.
As his heart pounded erratically, Seamus closed his eyes, said a silent prayer of thanks to the Lord above and closed his arms around her. “Shhh, don’t cry, my love,” he said, running a hand over her back. “Please don’t cry.”
He opened his eyes to find Janey leading her husband from the room.
Joe met his gaze, and the message was clear—hurt her, and you’ll answer to me.
Seamus gave a small nod to show he understood and then refocused his attention on Carolina.
“There, love, it’s all good. Joe knows about us, and nothing bad happened. ”
She rested her hands on his hips, her fingertips pressing into his back as her sobs became hiccups. “Nothing bad happened.”
Seamus smiled and tightened his hold on her. “Do you know what that means?”
She shook her head.
“It means,” he said, tipping her face up so he could see her eyes, “there’s nothing standing between you, me and this.” He kissed her softly when he would’ve preferred to kiss her much more intently. But now they had a lovely future stretching before them, and he could afford to be patient.
Carolina, however, wasn’t in the mood to be patient and surprised him with her passionate response. Her fingers clutched his hair—almost painfully—as her tongue tangled with his.
Seamus was on the verge of doing the unthinkable at work when he came to his senses and broke the kiss. “Not here.”
“Where, then?”
Startled by the urgency he heard in her voice, he took her hand. “Come with me.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I’ve got three hours until my next run.” All thoughts of the paperwork he’d plan to do had been abandoned.
“That won’t be enough time.”
“We’ve got all the time in the world, love. All the time in the world.”
When Kara’s alarm went off at six, Dan wanted to weep.
He’d only been asleep a short time and was sincerely sorry he’d ever agreed to sail this morning.
But Mac and the others were counting on him, so he wouldn’t renege.
However, he wanted to. All he wanted was more of what he’d had during the night—the best sex of his life.
He glanced over at Kara, asleep next to him with her hair spread out on the pillow and her lips pursed in her sleep. She was so damned gorgeous, and he felt like the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth to have spent the night with her.
Where they’d go from here was the big question.
Would this be one magical night, or was it the start of something more?
He wanted very badly to know the answer to that question but wouldn’t wake her to ask.
Instead, he slid out of bed and got busy gathering his clothes, which were flung about the room.
She hadn’t changed her mind about inviting him home.
If anything, she’d been even more enthusiastic when they got to her place.
The missing buttons on his dress shirt were an indication of just how enthusiastic she’d been.
To Dan, the gaps in his shirt were like hard-won trophies.
Now he had to ensure that he didn’t mess up what had been a promising start.
“Are you leaving?”
Dan turned, surprised that she was awake. “I’ve got to be at the dock in an hour.” He sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her exposed shoulder.
She shrank away from him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You promised you wouldn’t hate me.”
“I don’t.”
“But?”
“Nothing,” she said again.
“Why do you keep saying that?” he asked as anxiety worked its way down his backbone.
“Because that’s what I want—nothing. Last night was fun. I enjoyed it very much. But it doesn’t mean we’re a thing now.”
“So you were just using me to get laid?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“How would you put it, then?” Needing to channel the hurt and anger, Dan stood and grabbed his belt off the floor, jamming it through the loops with unsteady hands.
“I don’t want to be involved with anyone,” Kara said, looking remote and closed off, the way she had for weeks, before he finally got through to her. “I told you that from the beginning.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have had sex. I suspected I’d regret it when it was happening, and now I know it for sure.”
“I’m sorry you regret it.”
“The only thing I regret is that we’re back to square one.” He snapped his watch on his arm and grabbed his coat off the chair in the corner of her bedroom. “And I regret that I don’t have time now to discuss it further because I have somewhere to be.”
“That’s fine. There’s nothing left to discuss.”
He stared at her, incredulous. “I’m disappointed in you, Kara.
I thought you had more guts than that. I guess I was wrong.
” He made the mistake of taking one last look at her face, which was how he discovered she was stunned and hurt.
Though he regretted hurting her, he didn’t regret saying it, because she’d hurt him, too.
In the car, he pounded on the steering wheel until his hand was sore. “Goddamn it!”