Chapter 3 #2
“That’s what he says, too. That we’ve got this, no matter what.”
“And he means it. You know that.”
“I do. I got lucky with the best husband ever, and he’s proven to me so many times that he truly loves me. I’ve even decided if we’re never able to have children, we’re still the luckiest people in the world because we have each other.”
“You’re going to have kids. I know it.”
“You do?”
“I feel it. In my bones, and you know how my feelings are usually spot-on about things.”
“I do know that. You’re clairvoyant.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I just have a sense for things and people.
” Cindy recalled the reason she’d asked her sisters to come over.
“Although it doesn’t always work as well as I’d like it to.
” When it came to Jace and the information he’d shared, there was a blackout where her intuition usually was found.
“I wish Julia would get here so you can tell us what’s going on,” Katie said.
“It’s nothing bad. It’s just a situation. I need your input.”
“If there’s one thing Lawrys have plenty of to offer, it’s input.”
Cindy laughed hard at that. “Truer words were never spoken.”
Their family group chat was nonstop all day, every day. Cindy had to make time to catch up every night before bed because she always wanted to know what was happening with them.
If she told her brothers about the “situation,” they’d flip their lids.
Owen, protective eldest, would be there in two seconds to tell her he would not allow a felon to live with her, and John, the former cop, would be looking for ways to send Jace back to prison on the next ferry.
The news about Jace wasn’t going anywhere near their group chat.
Julia came rushing in the front door, her face flushed from the heat and the natural glow she got whenever she performed.
She juggled the pizza box, the bag containing the salad Cindy had ordered and her dog, Pupwell, on a leash.
He let out a happy squeak when he saw Cindy, who had a treat for him every time she saw him.
She picked up the dog, gave him a hug and said, “Does my sweet boy want a bone?”
Pupwell’s happy yip made the sisters laugh.
“I swear he understands every word we say,” Julia said, helping herself to a glass of wine. “What’s up around here?”
“That’s what I’m waiting to hear, too,” Katie told her fraternal twin. The two of them looked nothing alike. Katie was as blonde as Julia was dark. Cindy fell somewhere in the middle, her hair a darker shade of blonde than Katie’s. Her sisters looked more like Cindy than they did each other.
“I have a crush,” Cindy said.
“Ohhhh, yes!” Julia fist-pumped the air. “Is it the sexy bartender at the Beachcomber? Jace, right? I told Deacon after the last time we were there that you liked him.”
“And you say I’m the clairvoyant one,” Cindy said to Katie.
“So, it is him!” Julia said. “I knew it.”
“Before you get too excited, let me tell you the rest.” Cindy led them outside to the patio and waited until her sisters were seated, needing the minute to get her thoughts together.
“He’s become a good friend. He never minds when I take up a seat at his bar and only drink water.
He’s super friendly and sweet and nice to everyone. ”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?” Katie asked. “Because, if you ask me, he likes you, too. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
Cindy’s belly fluttered with butterflies when she heard that. “He answered my ad for a roommate.”
“Oh,” Julia said with a knowing look. “That could be a problem, or it could move things along very nicely.”
“There’s more.” Cindy swallowed hard. “He’s a convicted felon and recovering drug addict.”
Her sisters stared at her, their expressions completely blank.
“You’re not still thinking about letting him live here, are you?” Katie asked. “Tell me you’re not doing that.”
“I might be.”
“Cindy!” Julia’s high-pitched screech startled Pupwell. “He cannot live here. And you cannot date him.”
Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with more sadness than she’d felt in longer than she could recall.
She liked Jace—a lot. She wanted to know him better.
She was attracted to him in a way she’d never been to any man.
When he smiled at her, she felt the impact everywhere.
Her nipples tightened, and she often had to cross her legs to contend with the throb of need—and all he’d done was smile at her.
What would happen if he touched her?
“Hang on, Jules,” Katie said, eyeing Cindy. “Give her a chance to tell us how she feels.”
“That’s just it,” Cindy said softly. “I feel something for him that I’ve never felt for anyone else.”
“Not even Tyler?” Katie asked, referring to the boy Cindy had dated in high school and for several years after.
“Not even him. Or Chuck or Tim or Jose or any of the guys I dated in Texas. I went through the motions with them. I didn’t feel this for them.”
“What is it you feel for Jace?” Katie asked.
“When he’s around, I’m excited. I want to hear everything he has to say. I want to know him, and I want him to know me. I’m sad on nights he doesn’t work, because I don’t get to see him.”
“I didn’t realize your Beachcomber habit had become an everyday thing,” Julia said.
“It’s a five-nights-a-week thing. He gets two nights off, and I don’t see him on those nights, even though I’d love to if he asked.”
Julia raised a dark brow. “Why haven’t you asked him?”
“I’ve still got his voice in my head saying women who are forward with men are sluts.”
“Oh, fuck him,” Julia said. “He’s dead to us. Do not let him dictate any decision you make about anything, but Cin… Seriously. You can’t take up with this guy.”
“Why?” Cindy gave her older sister a defiant look. “Because he has stuff in his past? We all do.”
“Some of us have bigger stuff than others,” Katie said in her always-gentle tone.
“I spent an hour reading everything I could find about what happened to him, and from what I was able to piece together, he and his older brother got into drugs when they were kids, and as their addiction grew, so did their need for money to pay for it. His brother pulled a gun on the owner of the store, who shot him to death right in front of Jace. He was arrested, convicted and sent to jail for ten years. He ended up serving six years. While he was in prison, he got clean and was paroled early for being a model prisoner.”
Cindy paused to give her sisters time to digest what she’d told them.
“He attends meetings every day and said his sobriety is one of the most important things in his life. And he told his story voluntarily, when he certainly didn’t have to, so I’d have all the info I needed to decide whether I wanted to live with him. ”
“We do have to give him points for honesty,” Katie said, earning a scowl from her twin.
“I don’t like this,” Julia said.
“I can see that,” Cindy replied.
“Hear me out.” Julia hesitated as she seemed to search for the words she needed.
“After everything we went through with he-who-shall-not-be-named, all I want for us is peace in our adult lives. I want every one of you to have what I do with Deacon, what Katie has with Shane, what Owen has with Laura and what Mom has with Charlie.”
“Who was also a convicted felon when Mom first met him,” Katie said softly.
Katie’s reminder of Charlie’s past seemed to take some of the wind out of Julia’s sails. “True, even if he didn’t do the crime he was accused of.”
“Right, but if we were to judge Charlie simply by the fact that he’d done time in prison, we’d be missing out on a pretty great guy who makes our mother happier than she’s ever been,” Katie added.
“Also true,” Julia said with a sigh. She glanced at Cindy. “You know that all I want for you is peace, love and happiness, right?”
“I do know that, Jules. And I hear what you were saying about how we grew up and what we deserve as adults.” It wasn’t like Cindy to be so emotional, but this was important. “I want to give him a chance.”
Katie and Julie exchanged glances.
“Tell her about Deacon,” Katie said to Julia. “About what happened to him right before you met.”
Cindy was immediately on alert for news she hadn’t heard yet.
“He spent a night in jail for getting into a fight with a guy hassling his ex-wife, who was a friend of Deacon’s.
Blaine had to bail him out, and the cops cut him a break because Deacon used to be on the job in Boston.
But they told Blaine to get him out of town.
That’s how he ended up here. Blaine thought he was reverting to the old days when Deacon used to get into a lot of trouble, but it wasn’t like that at all. ”
“I bet you’re glad you gave him a chance after you heard he’d been in jail.”
“Our situation is a little different than someone who went to prison for six years for something pretty serious,” Julia said.
“While in the throes of an addiction he’s since beaten,” Cindy reminded her. “People do all sorts of crazy stuff to feed an addiction.”
“That’s true,” Katie said. “I used to see it a lot in my old job. Addicts in all kinds of trouble with the law for what they did to score drugs and the money to pay for them. I cared for many a person who was handcuffed to a hospital bed while they went through withdrawal.”
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way.” Julia stroked Pupwell’s fur as she considered what Katie had said. “That people would break the law to get the money for more drugs.”
“They do things they’d never do outside the grip of their addiction,” Katie said.
“Jace said he didn’t know his brother had a gun, and the only reason he got caught was because he stayed with his brother after he was shot,” Cindy said.
“Of course he stayed,” Katie said. “I’m sure he could tell his brother was dying. Imagine witnessing that.”
“He lost everything—his wife, kids, brother, parents, sister, his freedom. He used the time in prison to turn his life around, get clean and learn a trade. He’s a plumber.” She’d read about his work-release program in a story in the Providence Journal.
“That’s amazing,” Katie said. “Good for him.”