Chapter 1 #2
Shane had expected to have a couple of kids of his own by now. That’d been the plan anyway, before he discovered his wife had been hiding a raging addiction to pain meds. What if she’d gotten pregnant while she was still addicted? He shuddered thinking now about the bullet he’d dodged.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he gave his full attention to his nephew. As long as he stayed focused on the present, the past couldn’t catch up to him. At least that was what he told himself as he moved through every day, still trying to outrun the relentless pain.
She’d dreamed about drowning. The reality Katie Lawry was still processing, hours after she’d nearly drowned on her brother’s wedding day, was how quiet it had been under the water.
It had drawn her in a like a lover, stealing over her with its awesome might, pulling her down, down, down into endless darkness.
A small part of her had welcomed the quiet darkness, not that she’d ever admit that to anyone.
She’d seen the harshness, lived with it for much of her life, thus the slight temptation to let go and surrender.
She’d struggled, she realized now, because of Owen.
Because she couldn’t do that to him, especially not on a day on which he would finally get the happiness he deserved more than just about anyone she knew.
He’d always been there for her, and she’d fought like a tomcat to be there for him, nearly killing Laura’s brother in the throes of battle. In the shower afterward, she’d trembled so violently she’d been afraid it wouldn’t stop in time for her to attend the wedding.
She trembled just as violently as she relived the entire episode and allowed herself to imagine what could’ve happened if Shane hadn’t been there to save her.
She trembled to think about what it would’ve meant to her mother, brother, siblings and grandparents to lose her so suddenly, especially after all they’d been through lately with her father’s trial.
The Lawry family finally had a reason to celebrate.
Mark Lawry was going to prison—for years—after having abused his wife and children for decades.
Katie would never forget the feeling she’d experienced upon hearing the news that her father had pleaded guilty to the charges rather than allow an old family friend to testify about the years of abuse he’d inflicted upon his family.
General Lawry would rather plead guilty than allow his family’s dirty laundry to be aired out by the wife of one of his former subordinates.
Thank God for his arrogance. Thank God for his hubris.
Thank God it was over for all of them, although she’d often had reason to wonder if it would ever really be over.
Owen was the first of the seven Lawry siblings to find love and get married.
The rest of them had chosen to remain stubbornly single rather than chance the kind of relationship their mother had found herself in after marrying their father.
Katie admired Owen more than just about anyone she knew.
He’d taken many a fist on behalf of her, her twin sister, Julia, their sister Cindy and their brothers John, Josh and Jeff.
Owen had looked out for all of them, had sacrificed his own dreams to stay close to them after their father kicked him out of their home.
And now he’d taken the huge step of committing himself to Laura and their children for the rest of his life. That took guts when you came from what they did. Katie wished she had the guts to take that kind of risk, to let someone in, to allow herself to have feelings for a man.
She wouldn’t know what that was like because she’d never even been on a date.
Sure, she’d been asked plenty of times, but she always said no.
How was she to know if that perfectly nice drug rep who’d come to the doctor’s office where she worked would turn into an abusive monster the minute he had her under his thumb?
It was easier to say no than it was to take that kind of gamble.
Except… Last night, watching Owen dance with Laura, seeing the love they had for each other, knowing what they’d been through to get to this day, realizing he hadn’t let fear rule him…
Katie had begun to wonder if the fortress she’d erected around herself was keeping the heartache out or trapping it inside.
She suspected the latter. As long as she kept the doors and windows locked, nothing could get in, but nothing could get out either. And now that her father was gone from their lives forever, now that he would be locked away and made to pay for what he’d done, perhaps now…
“No,” she said emphatically. “Absolutely not. Just because he’s out of the picture doesn’t mean his kind aren’t still out there looking for their next victim.
” She said the words out loud, hoping they’d permeate the unreasonable longing her brother’s wedding had generated in her.
She wanted what he and Laura had. Anyone would, especially a thirty-two-year-old woman who’d never been kissed.
Her thoughts wandered back to Laura’s ridiculously handsome brother who had saved her life and stared at her breasts like a hungry man who’d just found a thick, juicy steak.
The memory of his hands on her, bringing her back to life after the near miss, carrying her up the stairs when her legs had been too unsteady to hold her…
She trembled, with embarrassment now, as she recalled the heat in Shane’s eyes when he’d stared at her bare breasts as if he’d never seen breasts before.
And then later, in the white shirt he’d worn to the wedding that had offset his deep tan and the blond sun streaks in his hair. The way he’d looked at her, as if trying to forget he’d seen parts of her that no man had ever seen, not that he could possibly know that.
Her nipples tightened under the lightweight T-shirt she’d slept in, making her squirm in her bed, trying to get comfortable.
A needy ache between her legs took her by surprise, reminding her that while she might’ve sworn off men forever, she was still a young, healthy woman who had no control over her body’s decision to rebel.
She tamped down those urges the way she always had, determined to steer clear of men and all the trouble that came with them. Her brother’s wedding had shown her what she might be missing, but it hadn’t made her forget the many reasons she’d taken this path to begin with.
Katie would never forget her upbringing at the mercy of a violent, unpredictable man and couldn’t risk letting that nightmare back into her life—even if it meant spending the rest of that life alone.