Chapter 19
Janey Cantrell had worn a path in the carpet in her living room from pacing for hours as she kept one eye on the Weather Channel and the other glued to her phone, hoping for updates from home.
Since it was after midnight, the texts from family and friends had tapered off, and the last time she heard from Joe, he’d told her about rescuing Deacon Taylor and how they were now far enough east of the storm that the seas had calmed considerably.
That had been a huge relief.
Her mom had reported that the kids went to bed without a fuss.
They were worn out from playing with Kyle and Jackson, who’d been “great” with Janey’s little ones, according to Linda.
Everything was fine, but still she paced, stopping only to watch a live shot from the Gansett bluffs, where the wind was so strong, the reporter could barely remain standing.
Janey felt nauseated as she watched the wind and rain batter her beloved home, the place where her two children, parents, four brothers, their wives, her mother-in-law, nieces, nephews and so many other loved ones were taking shelter from the massive storm.
It was unbearable to be so far from them at a time like this.
She wanted to get in her car and start driving toward them, but that would mean missing classes, labs, exams. If she walked away from school again, she wouldn’t come back.
With one semester to go until she graduated, walking away wasn’t an option.
So she stayed and she paced and she worried and she drank wine.
A lot of wine.
When the phone rang, she startled and nearly spilled the wine all over herself. She fumbled with the phone and took the call from Joe.
“Hi.”
“Hey, hon.” He sounded as tired as she felt. “How’s it going?”
“Never been better. You?”
He laughed. “I’m looking at the moonlight reflecting on calm seas.”
“That must be a relief.”
“It’s much better than it was.”
“Will you get to sleep?”
“I can’t. I’m the only licensed captain on board, so I have to stay at the helm. But the guys are keeping an eye out while I catnap.”
“I’m glad you’re not alone out there.”
“Me, too. It’s been good to have them along. I couldn’t have saved Deacon on my own, that’s for sure.”
“Thank God you spotted him.”
“No kidding. That was a lucky break. I thought I was seeing things for a minute there.”
“Julia and his family must be so relieved.”
“They are. What’re you hearing from our family?”
She updated him on the report on the kids from her mother. “I’m sure they’re having a great time with the older kids.”
“They were before the storm. Jackson and Kyle are so good with them. Very patient. PJ follows them around like Burpee the dog does.”
“That’s so cute. I wish I could see that.”
“Soon enough, my love. Everything will be back to normal.”
“Not soon enough for me. I miss home and everyone, and this storm is so scary.”
“I know it’s pointless to tell you not to worry, so I won’t, but we’re all fine, and the kids are safe with your parents.
My mom is there, doing what she can. Mac is right down the road if they need anything, and the others are also nearby.
They’re in the best possible hands if they can’t be with us. ”
“And whose hands are you in?”
“The god of the sea is always with me.”
Only he could make her laugh when she was as tightly wound as she’d ever been. “Leave it to you, Joseph.”
“What?”
“To make me laugh when nothing about this situation is funny.”
“Go try to get some sleep. You don’t want to fall behind this early in the semester.”
“I can’t even think about school right now.”
“You have to think about it. The sooner you finish, the sooner we’re back where we belong.”
“I can’t wait to be back where we belong. I just hope the island is still standing after this storm.”
“It’s going to take a lot more than a little old storm to break Gansett. You know that. No matter what happens, we’ll fix it and get on with it.”
“And then you and my kids will come home to me, right?”
“As soon as we possibly can.”
At the island’s only medical clinic, Victoria Stevens, nurse practitioner/midwife, was locked in a fierce Yahtzee game with Dr. David Lawrence and his wife, Daisy.
They’d spent hours glued to the TV news coverage of the storm and had learned the storm had been upgraded to a Category 3, packing nearly one-hundred-twenty-mile-per-hour winds and a ten-foot storm surge that threatened Gansett’s pristine coastline.
An hour earlier, the clinic had lost power, and rather than deploy the full-facility generator, they’d chosen to use a portable generator only for the refrigerator where they kept perishable medications.
Since they had no idea how long they’d be without power, they were keeping the main generator available for after the storm.
“He cheats,” Victoria said bluntly as candles flickered. “That’s the only possible explanation for how he rolls exactly what he needs every time.”
“It’s pure skill, my friend,” David said smugly after he notched his third straight win.
“Cheater.”
“I wouldn’t even know how to cheat at Yahtzee. The dice are what they are.”
“And why is it called Yahtzee, anyway?” Victoria muttered as she tossed her pencil on the table in defeat. “Such a dumb game.”
Daisy giggled at their banter. “My husband doesn’t cheat.”
“Not anymore, that is,” David said dryly.
The two women laughed at the grimace he made.
“We don’t joke about that,” Daisy reminded him.
“Sorry, dear.”
“Those days are long behind you now.”
He took her hand and kissed her palm. “They certainly are.”
Everyone knew that he’d once cheated on island golden girl Janey McCarthy when they were engaged, and he’d been stricken with lymphoma.
Life had moved on for all of them. Janey was happily married to Joe Cantrell.
David was in remission and married the love of his life, but the journey from then to now had been difficult and fraught.
“If you two are getting romantical, I’m outta here,” Victoria said, bitter to be riding out the storm without her own love, Shannon O’Grady, to snuggle with. He’d decided to go to sea with his cousin, Seamus, over her strenuous objections. She’d been overruled and would be sleeping alone tonight.
“We’ll try to control ourselves,” David said.
“Do that.” Victoria checked her phone, hoping for something from Shannon, but she hadn’t heard anything for a couple of hours. Hopefully, he was getting some sleep, which was what she ought to be doing, too. Who knew what would be needed from them tomorrow after the storm hit the island?
“No word from Shannon?” David asked.
“Not for a while, but I’m sure they’re fine. They were well to the east of the storm the last time we talked.”
She was far more worried about whether the wedding they’d planned for the following weekend would be able to go forward.
They were getting married at Seamus and Carolina’s, but that would depend on whether they had power and water and everything else they needed—including Shannon’s family, coming from Ireland—to go forth.
There were so many unknowns at this point that she could drive herself crazy worrying about whether it would happen or if his family could even get to the island. Who knew what they’d be left with after Ethel ran roughshod over the place?
“Are you thinking about the wedding?” Daisy asked.
“I’m trying not to because I know there’re much bigger things to be worried about.” Such as her future groom at sea on a ferry during a hurricane. Not to mention the potential for power outages, massive damage and possible loss of life.
Daisy put her hand on Victoria’s arm. “It’s perfectly understandable to be concerned about something you’ve been looking forward to.”
“It makes me feel like a selfish cow to be concerned about a wedding at a time like this.”
The clinic’s windows were rattling louder by the hour as the storm got closer. She hoped they would hold when the worst of it hit overnight.
“You’re not a selfish cow, Vic,” David said. “Anyone who knows you would say you’re anything but.”
“You have to say that. You’re my maid of dishonor.”
David frowned. “I thought we’d agreed on best man.”
“I like maid of dishonor better.”
“You would.”
He was her best friend in the world, and there was no one else she would’ve asked to stand up for her when she married Shannon, but oh, how she loved to poke at him. They had a brother-and-sister relationship they both enjoyed, and she adored Daisy, who was a bridesmaid.
Shannon’s parents and aunt were due to come for the wedding, and she’d been fielding texts for days about whether they ought to cancel their plans.
Because she knew how badly Shannon wanted them there for his big day, she’d pleaded with them to hold off on making any decisions until after the storm passed and they had a chance to assess the damage.
Getting married was stressful enough without a major hurricane disrupting everything. Again, she tried to calm her racing mind and focus on the much bigger concerns facing the island and community than whether Victoria Stevens’s wedding would go off as scheduled.
“I’m going to turn in,” she said to David and Daisy. “Let me know if you need me.”
“Sleep well,” Daisy said.
“You, too.”
They’d decided to stay at the clinic in case they were needed during the storm, but so far, things had been quiet. She was thankful for that, but with nothing to keep her busy, she had too much time to fret about wedding disasters and to worry about Shannon out to sea with Seamus.
Her stomach was a churning mess as she went to lie down in one of the exam rooms. David and Daisy were sleeping on the pull-out sofa in his office. Before she tried to power down her overactive mind, she sent a text to Shannon. Are you awake?
He responded by calling her.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hi, love. How’re you holding up?”
The delightful notes of his Irish accent put her at ease, as always. “Better now. How about you?”
“I’m missing you.”
“For the record, I hate hurricanes.”
“Me, too. Anything that takes me away from my Vic is to be despised.”
There’d been a time, not that long ago, when she’d wondered if they had any chance of a future together with the ghost of his murdered girlfriend hanging over him.
Victoria had been forced to almost leave him to get him to commit fully to her, and since then, he’d been all in with a level of devotion she could’ve only dreamed about before him.
“Are you all right?” he asked after a long silence.
“Just thinking about you and us and everything and hoping we get to have our big day next weekend.”
“If, for whatever reason, it doesn’t happen then, it will happen. I promise.”
“I know.” She wanted to wail at the possibility of it not happening as planned, because she knew how important it was to him to have his family there. It’d been a massive operation to get them all scheduled to come, and she couldn’t conceive of having to cancel or postpone their plans.
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I’m trying not to make a massive, threatening storm all about me.”
“Of course it’s about you, love. You’re the bride.”
“It’s not about me, Shannon. It’s about getting the island and the community through this. Our wedding is an afterthought compared to that.”
“It’s not an afterthought for us, and you’re the least selfish person I’ve ever met. Don’t be hard on yourself for being disappointed by the possibility of our wedding getting messed up.”
“I’ll try not to be.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Thank you for always trying to make me feel better.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“I need you to get back here safely.”
“We will. The worst is behind us. Now we’re just floating until the storm goes by. Hopefully, I’ll see you sometime later today.”
“I hope so.”
“In the meantime, I want you to close your eyes and have sweet dreams about the wonderful life we’re going to have together and not worry about the formalities. It’ll all work out the way it’s meant to.”
“Thanks for the reminder.”
“Any time. You good now?”
“I’m much better than I was.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Rest, my love. All is well.”
The rattling of the windows and the roar of the wind and rain would say otherwise, but Victoria decided to listen to the man she loved with all her heart and try to get some much-needed rest.
David kept an arm around Daisy as they snuggled on the sofa bed. “Our mattress at home has spoiled me for all others,” he said.
“This one is a bit thin compared to that beauty you insisted we needed from the mainland.”
“I was right, wasn’t I?”
“You’re always right, dear.”
He pinched her bum.
“What?” she asked, laughing. “Most of the time, you’re right. I’ve learned to trust your gut about most things, including mattresses.”
“And I trust yours about all the important stuff, such as what we’re going to name Peanut.”
Since they’d decided not to find out what they were having, they were considering names for both possibilities and calling the baby Peanut in the meantime.
“I’m stuck on Helen for a girl,” Daisy said.
“I’m not sold on that. It reminds me of an old woman.”
“Everything old is new again. And besides, I had a great-aunt named Helen who was one of my favorite people.”
“And I love that, but still… Helen. I don’t know. What are my other choices?”
“Helen?”
David laughed. “I see how it is. How about for a boy?”
“I have no idea. Nothing stands out to me.”
“I like Myron.”
“What? Myron?”
“Myron and Helen. That’d be a perfect little family.”
Daisy turned over and used her cell phone flashlight to light up his face. “Are you playing with me?”
David winced from the bright light. “Would I do that?”
“Yes, I think you would. Myron?”
“Helen?”
“Fine.” She stuck her lip out in a dramatic pout. “If my Helen cancels out your Myron, then we’re back to the drawing board.”
“Excellent.”
“You did that on purpose, and I’m gonna tell Vic that you do cheat at Yahtzee.”
David rocked with laughter. “I did not, and I do not.”
“Did and do.”
“How does one cheat at Yahtzee?”
“I have no clue, but you’ve figured it out.”
“No way. You can’t figure out what the dice are going to do, and I like the name Myron.”
“I’m reconsidering this entire thing.”
“What entire thing?”
“Being married to you and procreating with you.”
Hearing her say that struck a note of fear in him, even if he knew she was joking. He tightened his arm around her. “You know you can’t ever leave me, because I’d die.”
“I’m not going anywhere, and you know it, even if you cheat at Yahtzee.”
“Do not.”
“Do, too.”
David was still smiling as he drifted off to sleep, wrapped up in his beloved wife, thinking of a blonde little girl named Helen and wondering what the morning would bring to their little island.