Chapter 7 #2
Carolina stood to hug her. “Hang in there, and if you need us, you have friends here.”
“Thank you,” Victoria said softly, afraid to say anything more than that due to her shaky composure.
“I’ll walk you out,” Seamus said.
Victoria waved to the boys and preceded Seamus out the door. When she reached her car, she turned to him. “Thank you for everything. You went above and beyond. I’m sorry that I put you in this position to start with. I never should’ve come to you yesterday.”
“That’s a load of shite. You didn’t do anything wrong. You wanted insight. Who else should you have asked if you didn’t feel comfortable asking him?”
“That’s just it, though. If I didn’t feel comfortable asking him, that should’ve been a sign to me that something was wrong.”
“Maybe so, but your heart was in the right place trying to figure him out. And you suspected there were things he was keeping from you that would matter at some point.”
Victoria ran her hand over the heart that ached from the loss of the man she loved. “How long will it hurt this bad?”
“For a while, I suspect. After Caro and I first got together, she decided our age difference was too much for her to take on. We went round and round for quite some time until I couldn’t take it anymore.
I actually gave Joe my notice, intending to go home to Ireland, because I couldn’t be here if I couldn’t have her. ”
“I had no idea you guys went through all that.”
“Aye, it was a terrible situation for a long time. I know what it’s like to have your heart feel like it’s cracked down the middle and nothing can fix it except the one you love.”
“What happened? How did you end up staying?”
“Joe told his mum that I’d given notice, and that night she came to find me, asking me not to go—and not because my departure would create a nightmare at work for her son, but because she wanted me to stay.
What started out as one of the worst days of my life turned into one of the best.” He drew Victoria into a hug.
“I know it’s awful right now, but don’t give up hope.
This break might be just what he needs to get his head out of his arse and see what’s right in front of him. ”
Though she wanted to cling to Seamus’s hopeful thought with everything she had, Victoria also had to be realistic. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I appreciate you trying to cheer me up.”
He released her from his embrace. “You heard what Caro said. We’re your friends. If you need us, you know where we are.”
Victoria kissed the cheek that wasn’t bruised. “Thank you.” She got into the car and put down the window.
“Incidentally,” Seamus said, “Shannon is staying in the ferry company’s room at the Beachcomber. Just in case he left anything behind at your place.”
“Good to know,” she said, swallowing hard at the realization that he was already long gone from their home.
“I’ll check on you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Seamus? Carolina was smart to go after you.”
“I know,” he said with a shit-eating grin. “That’s another thing I tell her every day.”
Smiling, Victoria waved as she drove down the driveway toward the main road that looped around the island.
At the point where she had to decide whether to go right to go home, she faced a quandary.
The thought of going to her place to confront Shannon’s glaring absence made her feel even sicker than she already did, so she took a left and headed for David’s.
On the way, she called him to see if he and Daisy were home. He answered on the third ring, sounding out of breath.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said.
“I was wondering if you’re home, but it sounds like I might be interrupting something.”
“Ha, very funny. I ran for the phone because I was over at Jared’s and forgot to bring it with me. Daisy heard it ringing. So yes, I’m home.”
“Do you mind if I come over and maybe borrow your sofa tonight?” As she asked the question, Victoria felt pathetic for being so needy, but she simply couldn’t face her empty house. Not tonight anyway.
“Of course. Our sofa is your sofa.”
“I’ll be there in a few.”
“Sounds good.”
Victoria again had to remind herself to concentrate on her driving so she wouldn’t end up in a ditch or worse, off the side of one of Gansett’s many sheer cliffs. Somehow she managed to navigate the island’s winding roads and arrive safely at the driveway to David’s home.
Looking like the cute engaged couple they were, David and Daisy both waited for her, sitting on the steps to their apartment over the garage at Jared and Lizzie James’s waterfront estate.
Victoria cut the engine and tried to find the wherewithal to get out of the car, determined to keep it together until she could be alone again.
Her resolve lasted until David got up and came over to her, wrapping his arms around her.
Victoria broke down into heartbroken sobs.
To his credit, David said nothing. He only held her while she cried it out. Then he kept an arm around her while he walked her inside with Daisy leading the way.
“I’m sorry to barge in on you guys this way,” Victoria said, wiping away her tears. “But Shannon moved out, and I didn’t want to be there tonight.”
“You didn’t barge in on us,” Daisy said, “and of course you should come to us. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be at home tonight. I’m sorry to hear about you and Shannon.”
“I guess your talk with him didn’t go well,” David said.
She filled them in on Shannon’s fight with Seamus and the conversation that had led to their breakup.
“Dear God,” Daisy said. “His girlfriend was murdered?”
Victoria nodded as she sank to the sofa, her legs feeling less than supportive. “Nine years ago.”
“You’ve known all along there was something,” David said, sitting next to her on the sofa while Daisy took one of the chairs. “I remember a few times when you’ve wondered whether he would ever want more with you.”
“There was definitely a wall that I kept butting up against,” Victoria said, swiping impatiently at tears that refused to quit. “And now that wall has a name, and I’m so heartbroken for her and for him.”
Daisy got up and retrieved a box of tissues that she handed to Victoria. Then she sat on the other side of Victoria on the sofa.
Victoria sent her a grateful smile. Thank goodness for friends at a time like this. She wiped her face and blew her nose. “What does it say about me that this is the first time in my life that I have ever cried over a guy?”
“It says to me that you’ve been very, very lucky,” Daisy said.
Victoria immediately felt like total shit for saying such a thing, knowing that Daisy had been beaten by the last man she’d been involved with before David. “I’m sorry, Daisy. That was insensitive.”
“No need to apologize. I mean it when I say you’re lucky if this is the first time you’ve cried over a guy. I’ve been crying over them for most of my adult life.”
“Until recently,” David said, smiling at her.
“Now they’re all happy tears,” Daisy said, returning her fiancé’s smile.
“I want what you guys have,” Victoria said. “Is that too much to wish for?”
“Not at all,” Daisy said, hugging her with one arm.
“I never should’ve gone to Seamus,” Victoria said, filled with regret over the thing that had led to their breakup. “If only I hadn’t done that.”
“If you hadn’t,” David said, “you never would’ve known what’d happened to Shannon, because he wasn’t about to tell you, and you also never would’ve had what you really want with him.
You’ve been chafing at the bit with him for a while now, Vic.
Much to my dismay, you used to joke, frequently, about how you two were all about the hot sex.
Lately, you haven’t been making those jokes.
You’ve been dissatisfied. We’ve both noticed that. ”
Daisy nodded in agreement.
“I thought I did a better job of hiding it from everyone.”
“We know you too well,” David said. “I saw it happening months ago.”
“I kept hoping if maybe I stuck it out long enough, that he’d open up to me,” she said softly. “I gave him so many chances, but he never did.”
“And he wasn’t going to,” David said. “You were right to force the issue. It was either that or spend forever in this odd state of limbo.”
“Well, I got what I was looking for. Some of it, anyway. Not that it matters now.”
“It matters, Vic,” Daisy said. “You love him, and I believe he loves you, too. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. If that’s not a man in love, then I know nothing about love.”
“And she knows love,” David said in all seriousness. “Trust me on that.”
Both women laughed.
“It helps to know you think he feels that way about me,” Victoria said to Daisy.
“I’m not just saying what you need to hear. I believe it. Give him some time to see what life without you is like. He’ll be back.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
David put his arm around her. “You’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you want.”
Victoria leaned her head on his shoulder. “The last thing you lovebirds need is me sitting between you.”
“We don’t mind,” Daisy said.
“I can’t stand to see you so sad,” David said. “I like it much better when you’re busting my balls or telling me inappropriate details about your sex life.”
Victoria laughed even as she battled more tears. “You won’t need to worry about inappropriate details for a while.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you’re going to get through this,” David said. “I promise.”
“Keep telling me that.”
“Any time you need to hear it.”
“How about something to eat?” Daisy asked.
“I’m not sure I could.”
“Cereal?” David asked. “You never say no to that.”
Victoria was about to decline when her stomach growled—loudly.
Laughing, David said, “I’ll take that as a yes. Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her up, towing her along to the kitchen. “Daisy got me Cap’n Crunch.”
Suddenly, there was nothing she’d rather do than eat Cap’n Crunch with David. “She really does love you.”
“She certainly does.”