Chapter 27
Joe
The cure for most things was work. Joe figured he was better off pounding nails than beating his head against a wall.
He hadn’t seen it coming, when Britt took off. With Anne, the signs were spray-painted in letters five feet tall like graffiti on the Chicago subway. She’s leaving, stupid. Impossible to miss. Which left him with three choices.
Avoid her. Hard on the island, but he was doing his best.
Enjoy the sex for as long as she was here. She was steamed at him now, but he could fix that. Probably.
Or convince her to stay. Which was the one keeping him up at night. What could he offer her that was better than the future she could find out there?
In the meantime, he was keeping his head down, keeping busy, doing the job. He took the three steps up to the porch and knocked on Daanis’s front door. It jerked open. Anne stood framed in the doorway, blazing with warmth and energy like a fire, burning through his control.
He stared at her, his tongue and gut in knots. First choice, gone.
Her face fell dramatically. “You’re not the ambulance.”
A smile pulled his mouth. “Nope.” And then he frowned in quick concern. “Do you need an ambulance?”
“Not me. Daanis. She’s having her baby!”
He could see Daanis sprawled on the couch behind her. The little kid, Rose, was galloping a plastic dinosaur along her outstretched leg.
“Where’s Zack?” Joe asked.
“On his way,” Anne said. “He had to work today.”
Rose scrambled to her feet, still clutching the dinosaur. “I has potty.”
“Okay, sweetie,” Anne said. “Here we go.” She disappeared with the child toward the bathroom, leaving the front door open.
Joe took a cautious step forward. “Hey, Daanis.”
“Joe.” Daanis arched off the couch. “Ow.”
Sweat broke out on his forehead. “So…Congratulations.”
She sagged back into the cushions. “Thanks.”
He’d never felt so incompetent in his life. “Can I…get you anything?”
“An epidural?” Anne suggested as she returned, carrying Rose.
Daanis smiled weakly.
Anne sat real close to Daanis on the couch. “You’re doing great,” she said, stroking her arm.
How could she tell?
“I had another contraction,” Daanis said. “A long one.”
“You’re amazing. Have you called your mom?” Anne’s voice was calm and cheerful. If he hadn’t been watching her closely, he might never have noticed the flicker of worry in her eyes.
“Not yet,” Daanis said tightly.
“Why don’t you do that while I get your bag,” Anne said.
“Where is it?” Joe asked. Grateful to have something practical to do.
“Baby’s room,” Anne told him. “By the door.”
“I want Zack,” Daanis said as Joe escaped down the hall.
“I know,” Anne said soothingly. “He’s coming.”
Joe had been in the nursery before, to measure for shelves. He grabbed the bag. As he returned to the living room, he saw the red lights of the island ambulance pulling up front.
Mercy, the EMT, came through the front door. “Hi, Daanis. I hear Baby’s in a hurry.”
“We’re supposed to go to the hospital tomorrow,” Daanis said.
“Well, let’s check you out and see what’s going on.” Mercy glanced over. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Sure. I’ll call your mom,” Anne told Daanis. She held out her hand to Rose. “Come on, sweetie, let’s get you a snack.”
Mercy wrapped her fingers around Daanis’s wrist. “How are you feeling?”
Joe tucked his hands under his arms and followed Anne into the kitchen, watching as she settled the kid at the table with a handful of Cheerios and a pink cup with a straw, enjoying the way she zipped around like a hummingbird in flight.
She fished her cell from her pocket and winced. “Fudge. I forgot to charge it.”
He handed her his phone.
The flash of her smile near blinded him. “Thanks.” She turned away. “Hey, it’s Anne…”
“Momma has baby,” Rose announced. “In…” She patted her own tummy.
Joe glanced at Anne for guidance, but she was still on the phone. “That’s right,” he said. “That makes you a big sister now.”
“Yesss!” The child peeped at him with those big dark eyes. “I big. I get candy!”
He tried and failed to follow her two-year-old logic. Was she making a case for another treat? Or talking about her stomach?
“If you ask your mommy first.”
Her face brightened. “Momma!” She scrambled off her chair.
Hell. Too late, he lumbered after her, stopping dead at the living room door. “Sorry,” he said, averting his gaze from the couch. “She got away from me.”
Mercy stood, stripping off latex gloves. “We’re pretty much done here. Everything looks good, but it’s definitely go time.”
“I want to wait for Zack,” Daanis said.
Mercy frowned. “You’re in active labor. It could be hours yet, but this isn’t your first. We don’t want you having this baby on the ferry.”
Bruno came in from the waiting ambulance. “All set?”
Anne reappeared from the kitchen. “I called your mom. She’s on the way.”
“Text her to meet us at the dock,” Mercy said.
“You show up at another emergency call, Annie, I’m gonna have to swear you in as a volunteer firefighter,” Bruno said as he hitched up his belt. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”
Daanis’s face wobbled. “Not without Zack.”
“Already raised him on the radio,” Bruno said. “He’s inbound now.”
“I’ll be with you all the way,” Mercy assured her. “The hospital in St. Ignace has already arranged transport on their side.”
Daanis gripped the arm of the couch. “Ow. Ow ow.”
“Breathe. That’s it,” Mercy said.
Shit. How did women do this?
Daanis released her clutch on the sofa. The EMT glanced at her watch. “Seventy-six seconds. That was a good one.”
Daanis’s eyes filled with tears. “I want Zack.”
Joe found himself sweating in sympathy.
But Anne was smiling, rubbing her friend’s knee. “Hey, everything’s going to be okay. You heard the chief. I bet you guys will be on the same ferry.” They exchanged a long glance. “Go have a baby,” Anne said gently. “I’ll stay with Rose.”
Daanis nodded.
Joe helped her heave herself from the couch, standing back as Rose kissed her mommy and her mommy’s tummy. Daanis cupped her daughter’s head, bending to kiss her hair. Their connection tugged at something deep inside Joe, something he didn’t let himself think about or miss.
“I love you so, so much,” Daanis said. She looked at Anne. “Love you.”
They hugged, awkwardly, fiercely, Rose between them. “Love you, too.”
They both were crying.
There was a lump in Joe’s own throat, and the tug in his chest became an ache. “Anybody can be replaced,” he’d said to Anne. Which was stupid. Cruel. A lie. There was no one like her.
Mercy assisted Daanis as she climbed clumsily into the ambulance. Joe carried out her bag, setting it carefully at her feet. There was nothing else he could do, nothing he could fix.
Anne picked up Rose. “Wave to Mommy. Say, ‘Love you!’ ”
“Love you,” the toddler said.
“Bye, Little Sister!” Anne coached. “See you soon!”
“See you,” Rose echoed.
And then Bruno closed the doors and the ambulance pulled smoothly away, a few pedestrians turning at the unfamiliar sight of a motorized vehicle on the street.
Anne wiped her eyes and caught him staring. Her hand went self-consciously to her bright hair. “What?”
Feelings crowded his throat. What came out was “You were so good with her.”
She snorted a laugh. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You were here.”
She blushed, red spilling underneath all that pale, fine skin, and he rubbed the heel of his hand over his aching heart.
The hell of it was, he wanted her to stay.
Which meant he needed to go. But the whole point of him coming over today was to get those shelves up in the nursery before Daanis came home from the hospital with her baby.
“I’ve got work to do,” he said, his voice gruff.
Anne lifted her chin. “Don’t let me stop you.”
It took him two trips, back and forth, to bring in the precut shelves and his tools. The right side of the closet was deeper than the left, creating plenty of room for storage. He’d already marked the position of the shelves.
As he worked, he could hear Anne with Rose in the kitchen, drawing a picture to welcome the new baby home. Just hearing their voices made that tug seize his chest again. He’d thought he’d have this with Brittany—the house, the kids, the chaos, the love.
He predrilled a hole in a bracket, lining it up with the stud as the TV snapped on in the living room. Some Disney thing, from the sound of it.
“We have to talk,” Anne said from the nursery room door.
Joe leveled the bracket and screwed it to the wall, keeping his hands steady, making the shelf stable. Solid. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Could have fooled me. Since you leave the shop every morning like your pants are on fire.”
Heat crawled up the back of his neck. He didn’t like the implication that he was running away. Especially since it was true. “You’re the one who’s leaving.”
“That’s what we need to talk about.”
He tightened the screws. Avoiding her was clearly not working. He was actually glad. Because that left his other two options—have sex or convince her to stay—on the table. “How about tonight? Mustang Lounge, seven o’clock. I’ll buy you a drink. For old times’ sake.”
“Not tonight. I want to,” she added as he fought to keep his disappointment from his face. “But I need to be here for Daanis. How about tomorrow?”
“Sure. Tomorrow works,” he said easily.
He would have said anything, agreed to almost anything, if she would just keep looking at him the way she was right now. Glowing. Hopeful.
Maybe he could talk her into staying after all.
—
The dinner rush was clearing at the Mustang. A few locals relaxed over beers or watched the Tigers game on the big flat-screens. The usual first responders occupied a table under a wall of patches from fire and police departments.
Joe nodded to Cindy, wiping down the bar, on his way to a table in the back.
Anne wanted to talk, they’d talk. No point in sharing their personal business with Mackinac’s bravest and finest. As he sat, Mercy caught his eye and waved.
He wondered how the trip to the hospital had gone.
Anne had texted updates throughout the day yesterday.
8 cm dilated!!! A shot of Rose putting her “baby”—a stuffed pink pig—to bed.
D’s 30 mins from PUSHING!!!! Which, yeah, was more detail than he needed, but her enthusiasm made him grin.
Made him hope. And then this morning a pic of Daanis, smiling and exhausted, and Zack, smiling and stunned, and their red-faced baby in a hipster beanie hat squished between them. One happy family.
That ache was back in his chest. He needed a drink.
A coaster was dealt down in front of him like a playing card, followed by a pint glass. He looked from the beer to his server, a hot blonde in a red thirst responder T-shirt.
“Hello, Joe,” she said.
Hell.
“Brittany,” he said cautiously.
She tipped her head toward the glass. “Blackrocks, right?”
“Good memory.”
She gave him the slow smile he used to think promised everything. “I know what you like.”
Good old Britt. Never subtle when it came to sex. It was hot when they were both nineteen. He waited for the old stir of lust or amusement and felt mostly…nothing. Kind of a surprise, that.
“Thanks for the beer,” he said.
Her eyes widened and then narrowed slightly. Like his lack of reaction surprised her, too. “You look good.”
“You, too.”
It was true. She was a little thinner. Blonder, maybe. Definitely more tan. She slid into the opposite seat and reached for his glass. “Mm.” She licked her lips.
Joe frowned. “Don’t you have…”
“Better things to do?” She aimed another of those smiles at him. “Maybe.”
“…work,” he finished.
“I’ve always got time for you, babe.”
Not always. Not when she left for Vegas. Not for most of their brief marriage, when there was always another shift, another friend, another distraction more worthy of her attention. But the old anger wasn’t there anymore, either.
“I’m waiting for somebody,” Joe said evenly.
“Ooh, a date. Should I be worried?”
“Yeah, no. Since we’re not married anymore.”
She raised penciled brows. “You’ve changed.”
He glanced at the door. No Anne. At the table full of firefighters, Bruno raised his glass in a silent toast, and Mercy slugged his shoulder. The others were nudging, chuckling. Probably taking bets on the odds he’d leave alone tonight.
“What do you want, Britt?”
“I’ve missed you, Joe. I thought we could…catch up. Remember old times.” She stroked a finger down the condensation on his glass. “Make new memories.”
“We’re not getting back together.”
“Not with an attitude like that.”
He didn’t smile.
She put her hand on his arm. Her fingers were wet from the glass. “Relax, Joe. I know we didn’t work out. Not long term. But we were good together, right? I figure as long as I’m here…”
Here, on the island. Here, at loose ends. Here, until something better came along.
Something he’d thought buried burned, an ember under the ashes.
The door opened and Anne blew in like a wind off the lake, a swirl of energy, a blast of cool air.
“Hey. Oh, hi.” Her wide gaze darted between them. “You’re Brittany.”
Britt smiled, wide and mean. “The wife.”
“Ex-wife,” Joe said.
“Whatever, babe.” She slithered out of her chair. “I didn’t know you were babysitting for extra money these days. Can I get you anything?” she asked Anne before he could react. “Juice box? Sippy cup?”
“I’ll take a Corona.” Anne smiled sweetly. “With a straw, please.”
Joe bit the inside of his cheek, containing his grin. There was a pink smudge on the rim of his glass from Britt’s lipstick. “And I’ll have another beer. Thanks.”
He exhaled in relief as she moved away, the smell of her perfume heavy in the air, and Anne took her empty chair. She’d dressed up like this was a date. But over her pretty top, she wore his old flannel shirt like a jacket.
He felt his jaw relax, the tension leaching from his shoulders. “How’s Daanis?”