Chapter 28 #2
“They came back on the five o’clock boat,” Evan said. “I left him a message to call me if he wants to come out.” His phone rang as soon as he finished speaking. He handed it to Grant. “Maybe that’s him now.”
“It is,” Grant said. “Hey, it’s Grant. Evan’s driving. You want to come? What about the kids? Okay, sure. We’ll come get you.”
“Where will we put him?” Shane asked. “In the trunk?”
“We’ll switch cars,” Grant said. “Tiffany drove Maddie, so Maddie’s SUV is at the house. We’ll have to take the car seats out, though, which will piss off Maddie. We never get them back in the way she wants them.”
Shane moaned at the thought of more delays. “And here I thought you guys were on my side.”
“We are,” Adam assured him. “But we gotta get Mac.”
“Yeah,” Shane said. “I know.”
“Who’s with the kids?” Evan asked.
“Mom came over,” Grant said. “She encouraged him to go out since Maddie went with Tiffany.”
After a long pause, Adam said, “Is it weird that she went out tonight after everything?”
“She was probably in bad need of a diversion,” Grant said.
“True.”
“I can’t imagine that scenario,” Evan said. “You go in for an ultrasound all excited to see your baby, and there’s no heartbeat.”
“It’s unbearable,” Grant said.
“Unimaginable,” Adam added.
“You think they’ll be okay?” Shane asked.
“Yeah,” Evan said. “They’re solid. I can’t picture them any other way but solid.”
They arrived at Mac’s house a few minutes later and went through the motions of removing the car seats from Maddie’s car so they could take the big SUV.
“Thanks for coming to get me, you guys,” Mac said.
“No problem.” Grant put his hand on Mac’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry. We all are.”
Mac released a deep sigh. “Thanks.” He glanced at Shane. “How’d you end up with these characters?”
“He’s a man on a mission.” Evan filled his oldest brother in on what was going on with Shane.
“So Courtney actually came here?” Mac asked as they got into the backseat together. “With no warning?”
“I had no clue I was about to run into her. She told me she went to my old job and asked my boss where I was, and he told her I was out here. It didn’t take much effort to figure out where she could find me here.
She’s just lucky that Laura didn’t see her first, or she never would’ve gotten to talk to me. ”
“That must’ve been so shocking,” Mac said, seeming eager to talk about someone else’s problems rather than dwelling on his own.
Shane was happy to indulge his cousin. “It was so shocking that I totally screwed up with Katie, and now I’m desperate to fix things with her.”
“You and Owen’s little sister,” Mac said with a chuckle. “How’s he handling that?”
“He was handling it pretty well until today when I made her cry without meaning to.”
“Ouch,” Mac said with a wince. “I remember how annoyed I was with Joe—for the first time in our lives, I might add—when he started dating Janey. There’s something about baby sisters that makes older brothers crazy.”
“No,” Adam said, “there’s something about you that makes you crazy.”
Evan and Grant joined Adam in laughing their asses off.
“Soooo true,” Evan said. “We’re her older brothers, too, and we weren’t annoyed with Joe for dating her.”
“You’re not the oldest,” Mac said. “Special responsibilities come with being the oldest.”
“You’re not the oldest anymore,” Evan reminded him.
“Speaking of our older sister,” Mac said, “I saw her last night. She brought me a pizza and a six-pack. We had a nice time.”
“That’s cool,” Adam said.
“She met Maddie, too. They really liked each other.”
“Dad said she’s coming over this weekend to spend the week before the wedding with him and Mom,” Grant said. “How do you suppose that’ll go?”
“I think it’ll be fine,” Mac said. “There’s nothing not to like about her—and believe me, I tried to find something.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Grant asked dryly as the others laughed.
By the time they finally pulled into Luke and Sydney’s long driveway, Shane had convinced himself that Katie would have gone from hurt to furious by now, making his task that much more challenging. The second the SUV came to a stop, he was out the door.
He’d been to a cookout here earlier in the summer, but he wasn’t particularly close to Luke. However, that didn’t stop him from jogging to the door on the side of the house. With one quick knock, he stepped into a room full of women, who went silent at the sight of him.
“Here they come,” Abby said.
Shane zeroed in on Katie, who was sitting between Laura and Maddie. He walked over to her and extended his hand. “Could I please speak to you outside?”
She stared at his outstretched hand for what felt like an hour while the others looked on.
Shane would never know if she took his hand because she wanted to talk to him or because everyone was watching and she didn’t want to say no in front of them.
What did it matter? She was coming with him as he led the way through the kitchen to the deck on the back of the house, where it was dark except for a string of white lights around the rail.
He took a deep breath, prepared to put it all on the line to make this right with her.