Book 18 Kevin & Chelsea #3
She runs trembling hands up and down her arms. “I… I don’t know what to do. She’s so fragile. The noise… It’s just too much for her.”
“Is there any way you could relocate for a short time? We’ll get it done as fast as possible.”
She shakes her head. “It was all I could do to get her here, let alone eat once or twice a day…”
“I’m really sorry. I wish I had better news for you.”
“Me, too.”
Riley has the oddest desire to wrap his arms around her and tell her everything will be okay, when he can’t possibly know if that is true.
They coexist in awkward silence for an uncomfortably long moment.
He has no idea what to say to her or even if he should say anything at all.
She clears her throat. “I don’t mean to dump my crap on you.
It’s not your fault. We’ll figure out something. ”
“I’m sorry you guys are going through such a tough time. I can’t imagine how anyone does what he did to someone they supposedly love.”
She releases a harsh laugh. “He didn’t love her. He used her to make a name for himself. Rather successfully, I might add.”
“Surely, there must be something she can do, from a legal standpoint.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot that could be done if I could get her out of bed long enough to take a call from her attorneys. In the meantime, the video gets ten million new views per day.”
Riley recoiled. “Ten million?”
“Yep. So, while my sister is bedridden, her sex tape is going viral.”
On the nine a.m. ferry, Janey, Joe, PJ, Linda and Big Mac make their way to Providence.
After PJ’s traumatic arrival, they aren’t taking any chances, so they’re moving closer to a hospital two weeks before Janey’s due date.
Joe is holding PJ, thinking about the last year, when Big Mac calls for him.
He runs as fast as he can with a baby in his arms to find Janey on the floor with people all around her.
She cries out in pain and says the baby is coming now.
Joe sends Big Mac to tell Seamus to call 911 and get them to land as soon as possible.
Linda asks the deckhands to get clean towels.
Joe and Linda support Janey while she delivers their baby. Joe catches the baby as she emerges, slimy and bloody, the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Big eyes pop open, and Joe falls flat on his face in love for the third time in his life.
“Too quiet,” Janey says, gasping. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Joe says, wrapping the baby in the cloths and a beach towel someone has given them, so she won’t get cold. “She’s absolutely perfect.”
“She?”
“She,” he says, meeting her gaze through a flood of tears. “We have ourselves a daughter.”
When Mac comes home for lunch, Maddie tells him that Janey had the baby on the ferry, which sets him off.
He demands they immediately move to Providence to wait for their baby to be born.
She convinces him to wait until after the first day of school, so they can be there when Thomas starts kindergarten, and then they will go, even though she would be fine with having the baby at the clinic.
While he’s rubbing her back, Maddie tells Mac they hired the team at the new spa to give massages to the girls at Daisy’s bachelorette party.
Mac declares that no man will be tending to his wife and her friends.
Late Friday afternoon, Kevin is getting ready to host Chelsea and her brother’s family for a cookout.
He’s cleaning the house and thinking about his new grandniece, Vivienne McCarthy Cantrell.
He takes a call from his ex-wife and asks what she wants.
She wants to talk about their relationship when she comes to visit their sons.
Kevin says there’s nothing to discuss and their divorce will be final any day now.
Deb asked her attorney to put the divorce proceedings on hold because she’s having second thoughts, but Kevin is not.
Their marriage was over before she walked out the door and took up with someone else.
He hopes they can remain cordial for their sons’ sake but asks her not to call him again.
Unfortunately, Riley overhears his end of his conversation, but he understands Kevin’s position.
Riley needs to shower and meet the boys for poker night.
The ladies are having a bachelorette party, and Maddie hired male massage therapists for the party, upsetting their husbands.
Kevin huffs out a laugh. “They’re ridiculous. ”
“I agree but try telling them that. This ought to be an entertaining evening.”
“I worry about you and Finn spending too much time with your cousins and deciding never to get married because of what you’re learning from them.”
Riley laughs. “Don’t worry. I also see that they’re stupidly happy most of the time.”
“That they are.”
“What’re you up to tonight?”
“Chelsea is bringing her brother’s family over for dinner.”
“First time you’re meeting her brother?”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly, Kevin is unreasonably nervous, which Riley picks up on. “Don’t sweat it, Dad. They’ll like you. What’s not to like?”
Kevin smiles at his son. “Thanks.”
When Chelsea and her family arrive, her brother Andrew introduces himself to Riley, assuming he’s Kevin.
Chelsea quickly fixes the confusion and introduces her sister-in-law, Lydia, and their kids, Josie and Travis.
Riley excuses himself to leave, and Andrew turns to Kevin, asking how old his son is.
“He’s twenty-eight, and his brother, Finn, is twenty-six.”
“Huh,” Andrew says as he accepts the beer Kevin opens for him. When Kevin goes inside to start dinner, Andrew follows him. “How old are you?”
Startled by the blunt question, Kevin looks him directly in the eye. “Fifty-two. You?”
“Thirty-eight.”
“What do you really want to ask me, Andrew?”
“What’re you doing with my sister, who is, if my math is correct, sixteen years younger than you?”
Kevin stares at him, shocked by his audacity. But then he reminds himself that Andrew is looking out for his sister and keeps his tone neutral when he replies. “I love her. I hope I’m making her happy.” That seems to appease Andrew somewhat.
After an enjoyable evening, Andrew invites Kevin and Chelsea to dinner the next night. Kevin told Chelsea it was a fun night.
“It really was, but I feel like I interrupted something between you and Andrew in the kitchen.”
“Just two guys getting to know each other.”
She raises a brow. “That’s all it was?”
“He was a little concerned about our age difference.”
“I almost died when he mistook Riley for you. I felt bad about that.”
“I have to wonder why you never mentioned to him that I’m quite a bit older than you.”
She shrugs. “Because it doesn’t matter to me.”
Kevin says they should consider getting a bigger place for the three of them.
“Kevin… What’re you saying?”