Book 28 Delivery After Dark #7
Just that quickly, the dark cloud Niall has been living under lifted, and the sun came out again, bringing him out of the deep funk and filling him with the hope and optimism he’s been without since the last time he saw Johnny at the Wayfarer.
He’d left that encounter with more questions than he’d had before, but now he knows…
He hadn’t done anything wrong. It has nothing to do with him and probably everything to do with the difficult childhood Johnny endured with a violent, unpredictable father.
Niall stares at the phone, trying to think of what he should say in response. His response is two words:
I’ll wait.
“I can’t believe it’s over.” Hours after finishing her last exam and turning in her final assignment, Janey Cantrell still can’t process that she’d finally completed veterinary school.
She’d celebrated with her husband, Joe, and their kids, PJ and Vi, at dinner and had cake at home afterward, and now that the kids are asleep, she’s in bed with Joe and trying to process the momentous day. School is really over. Forever.
“I’m so, so proud of you, Dr. Cantrell.”
“I’m proud of us, because none of this happens without you.” She turns on her side to face him. “For the rest of my life, I’ll never have the words to thank you for everything you did to make this happen.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Janey. Seeing you achieve this goal is as thrilling for me as it is for you. Did you tell Doc Potter you finished?”
“I texted him, and he sent me the hourly countdown until my arrival and his retirement.”
“He’s as excited as we are.”
“I can’t wait to be home to stay.”
“Me, too. It’s been fun to live here in Ohio for a while, but Gansett is where we belong.”
“We’ll have four new nephews waiting for us, along with Dylan and Adrian and the ones soon to be born. Lots of excitement to look forward to.”
“PJ was saying today that he can’t wait to play with his cousins every day.”
“I’m glad we’re getting them home when they’re young enough to grow up together.”
He places his hand on her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb. “I’ve never been prouder of anyone than I am of you, my wife the doctor.”
“And I’ve never been prouder of anyone than I am of my husband, who shouldered far more than his share of the parenting load these last few years while teaching classes and helping to run a business from afar. You made it look easy, when I know it wasn’t.”
“It was so worth it. Every second was leading us to this day. I can’t wait to see you running your own clinic on Gansett and living the dream.”
“Just so you know, I’ve been living the ultimate dream with you for a while now. This is just frosting on the cake.”
When she wakes to total darkness, for a second or two, Monique has no idea where she is or whose warm hand is resting on her bare hip.
Then she remembers. Linc. Dancing. Kissing.
Tearing at clothes. Doing it like sex was about to be outlawed any second, and they had to get it all in before it was too late.
She closes her eyes tight against the flood of memories that has her questioning everything, the way she always does since the man she’d expected to spend the rest of her life with had let her down so terribly.
“What’s wrong?” Linc asks when she pulls away from him.
“I need to go.”
“Where?”
“Back to Dara’s.”
“I thought we were hanging out together.”
“We did, and now I have to go.”
He sits up and turns on the light.
She’s glad she has her back to him since her hair is probably wild and her makeup smeared.
“Monique.”
“Yes?”
“Will you look at me?”
She shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure I look like the Joker after rolling around in bed with you.”
He snorts out a laugh. “I highly doubt that.”
“No, really. Can you give me something to put on? I have no idea where my clothes ended up.”
He hands her his T-shirt, which is on the bed.
She puts it on and gets up to use the bathroom attached to his room.
When she glances in the mirror, she nearly lets out a shriek.
Thank God she hadn’t let him look at her.
She scrubs her face, does what she can with her hair—which isn’t much—and uses some of his toothpaste on her finger to brush her teeth as best she can.
Yet, even after all that, she still doesn’t feel ready to face him with every flaw and insecurity on full display.
A soft knock sounds at the door. “Are you okay in there?”
“Not really.”
She sits on the closed lid of the toilet and drops her head into her hands.
“Whatever you’re in there thinking, you should knock that off. I had a great time, and I can’t wait to do it again. But you’ll have to come out of there for that to happen.”
“I don’t want to come out.”
“Then can I come in?”
After a long silence, she says, “Yeah.”
He steps into the room and closes the door. Then he takes a seat on the floor next to her and wraps his arms around his knees.
Just having him close by makes her feel better. She tells him how she doesn’t trust herself anymore after what her ex-husband did to her. Linc says it would be tragic if she lets her ex-husband steal her future happiness along with her past happiness.
Linc’s father was like her ex, and she’ll never have to worry about him cheating on her. “You’re beautiful and funny and sexy and smart, and did I say funny? Don’t let him ruin a good thing for you. He’s not worth it, and I promise you I will be.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I have never, ever, ever felt like this about anyone, and all I want after tonight is many more nights just like this one.”
He extends his hand to her.
Monique eyes it as she tries to decide if she’s ready for him and for this. “There might be more steps backward.”
“I’m here for that.”
She reaches out to him.
He curls his hand around hers and kisses the back of it as he looks up at her. “I might be the safest bet you could ever make, because there’s no way in hell I’d ever do to anyone what my father did to us.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
In Providence, Abby’s doctor and the neonatologist have declared mother and babies cleared to go home the next day.
Adam and Abby look at each other in complete terror at the thought of being entrusted with the care of four tiny humans without the assistance of the incredible nurses who’ve been such a godsend to them.
“You’ll be coming with us, right?” she asks Ellen, their daytime nurse, who’s quickly made herself essential.
Ellen laughs. “You’ve got this, Mama.”
“Do I, though?”
“I have faith in you.”
“We do, too, honey,” her mother, Carol, says.
“You have to say that. You raised me.”
Linda McCarthy laughs. “You’re doing great, Abby. You’re ready to take this team home.”
“I wish I felt as confident as you all do.”
“We’ve got this, babe,” Adam says.
“No, we don’t.”
“You’ll have lots of help,” Carol reminds her. “Linda and I will take turns spending the night until you find a groove.”
“Thank goodness for the grannies,” Adam says. “They’ll save us from messing up too bad.”
When Mac hears that Adam and his family will be coming home soon, he calls his father-in-law, Ned, and asks if he and his wife, Francine, can watch the kids so Mac and Maddie can get away for a night.
Grandparent support will be hard to come by in the upcoming weeks with the new babies coming home.
With the help of his office manager, Julia, Mac reserves a room at Sand and Surf for the night and orders flowers and dinner to be delivered.
Ned and Francine are happy to help him and Maddie get some time alone together.
After Sierra closes up for the day, she wanders over to Duke’s tattoo studio and finds McKenzie in his chair.
Duke has drawn a beautiful unicorn to tattoo onto McKenzie’s arm.
Sierra holds McKenzie’s other hand and massages her arm, so she won’t tense up while Duke is working.
Evan and Owen are playing at the Wayfarer, and they make plans to go.
Sierra tells them she had a great night with Morgan and that neither of them wanted it to end, so it didn’t.
While talking about it, she gets a little emotional, which is silly considering it was one night.
McKenzie tells her that’s what happens when you meet “the one.” While she tries to say it was just fun with Morgan, her friends give her something to think about.
Could this be it? Was he the one she’d been waiting for?
Jared and Lizzie have been on edge since Kendall told them about Violet’s biological father. Jared’s phone rings, startling them. Lizzie’s heart can’t handle the jolt of fear that accompanies every phone call since they first heard about Violet’s father.
“It’s Kendall. Hey, you’re on speaker with both of us.”
“I’ve just gotten off the phone with the attorney for Violet’s biological father. He’s in medical school at Yale. He dated Jessie for a few weeks last summer and had no idea she was pregnant until he ran into a mutual friend who told him about the baby.”
Lizzie’s heart is pounding so hard, she wonders if Jared can hear it. “Wh-what does he want?”
“He wants to meet her.”
The floor drops out from under her.
“Is he going to contest the adoption?” Jared asks.
“The attorney said he’s not sure what his intentions are beyond meeting his daughter.”
“Does he understand the nightmare this is for us?”
“That’s been conveyed to him, and he’s sorry about that, but he still wants to meet her.”
“When?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Let’s do it this weekend and get it over with. Lizzie and I can’t live in this unbearable purgatory indefinitely. What’s your gut saying, Kendall?”
“I think it’s good news that he’s in medical school and has no time to care for a young child. That said, he probably has parents who could, so I don’t know what to think. We have to take this one step at a time, as excruciating as it is.”
“It’s the most unbearable thing either of us has ever been through.”
Jared’s tears gut Lizzie. He’s always so strong, and to see him break down is heart-wrenching.