Chapter 29
Deacon couldn’t wait to get home. He stared at the horizon, trying to will the island to appear in the gloom that had his eyes watering from the effort to stay awake and on course.
Never in his life had he been more eager to see anyone than he was to see Julia.
If you’d told him a year ago that he’d be chomping at the bit to see any woman, he would’ve laughed.
Love and commitment and all that jazz were for other people. He would’ve said he was perfectly fine by himself and had no desire to go all in with anyone. Then he’d met Julia, and that was that.
He’d seen her for the first time at the clinic, after Finn McCarthy’s ex-girlfriend had gone nuts and attacked him and Chloe with a knife. Then Deacon had “kidnapped” Julia from Shane and Katie’s wedding, and that’d been the start of life as he knew it now. The sweetest life he’d ever known.
Since he was giving himself a headache staring at the horizon, he walked upstairs to the wheelhouse, where Joe was by himself at the helm. “How can you stare at gloom for hours on end?”
“I don’t even notice it anymore.”
“How close are we?”
“About fifteen to twenty miles to go.”
“How long will that take?”
“A couple more hours.”
He would die if he had to wait even that long to see Julia, a thought that instantly made him laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Joe asked.
“I feel like I’m going to die if I can’t see Julia right now.”
“That’s very sweet, and I know the feeling. Janey is in Ohio stressing out about her whole family dealing with a hurricane and her husband at sea.”
“That’s gotta suck for her.”
“It does, but she feels better now that it’s mostly passed and we’re all fine.”
“Is there any word on Jeff and Kelsey?” Deacon asked.
“Just that David did what he could to stop the bleeding for Jeff. They’re hoping to evacuate them sooner than expected since the wind has died down.”
“I really hope he’ll be all right.”
“Me, too. Also, do you know Billy, who owns the gym?” Joe asked.
“I do.”
“He’s missing. I guess he tried to ride it out on his boat in the Salt Pond. They found the boat, but no sign of him.”
“Oh no. I told him two days ago that he needed to seek shelter on land, but he wasn’t having it. He said the boat was home, and he was sticking with it.”
“Why do people take such foolish chances?”
“I have no idea. I hope they find him safe.” Deacon knew the odds of that were low, but he still had hope, especially after what he’d just survived. “How’d you meet your wife?”
“We grew up together here. Mac was my best friend since second grade.”
“So you always had a thing for her?”
“I did, but I had to keep it to myself. She was with David Lawrence for thirteen years. We got together after they broke up in spectacular fashion. She caught him cheating on her while they were engaged.”
“Damn.”
“It was bad,” Joe said. “Then her car broke down, she called me, and we’ve been together ever since.”
“That’s a great story. Do you ever wonder if you would’ve gotten together if her car hadn’t broken down?”
Joe took a puff from a clove cigarette.
Deacon hadn’t seen anyone smoke one of those in years.
“That’s a good question. I’d like to think we would have, but I think the thing that really made the difference is that we were on the mainland, away from everything and everyone out here. That made it easier for us to figure things out without an audience, like we would’ve had here. You know?”
“Do I ever,” Deacon said with a grunt of laughter. “When Julia and I started seeing each other, everyone was up in our grill—all her siblings, my buttinsky brother, Tiffany. Even my little nieces were involved.”
“That’s funny. I bet it was a circus.”
“It was, but the truly funny thing was that I didn’t care. I was so into her from the get-go that the whole world could’ve invaded, and all I would’ve seen was her.”
“I get it. Those first days are the best.”
“They really were. I keep waiting for that to subside, but it just gets better all the time.”
“It doesn’t subside when you’re with the right person.”
“Good to know. I can’t wait to see her. Did I mention that?”
Joe laughed. “A time or two. I’m getting my ass back to Ohio as soon as I possibly can. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from Janey. It totally sucks.”
“How does this even happen?” Deacon asked. “You’re going along with your life, nothing holding you down, no one to account to, and then bam, there she is, and you can’t live without her.”
Joe shook with silent laughter. “That’s about how it happened for me, except she was always there, and I always wanted her, and I’d resigned myself to being alone if I couldn’t have her. There was no one else for me but her.”
“How long had you known that before you got together?”
“Years. Decades.”
“You didn’t date anyone else in that time?”
“Here and there, but nothing serious. How could there be when I was in love with her?”
“And all that time, she was with David.”
“Yep, and then he fucked it up, and the rest, as they say, is history. But he’s redeemed himself with us. He saved Janey and our son when she suffered a very serious complication during his birth. I would’ve lost them both without him.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. You’re indebted to your wife’s ex.”
“We owe him everything, and we never forget it. What he did that day with only the tools available to him at a remote clinic… He’s a miracle worker.”
“Sounds like he’s doing the same for Julia’s brother.”
“Jeff is a lucky man to have David Lawrence with him at a time like this.”
“Thank goodness for that, because I can’t imagine their family without him.”
Jeff came to slowly, blinking several times to bring the face standing above him into focus. He didn’t recognize them, and why were the lights so freaking bright? His mouth was as dry as toast as he fought to say the only word that came to mind.
“Kelsey.”
“She’s okay. I’m Dr. David Lawrence, Jeff. Do you remember what happened at Kelsey’s place?”
He searched his memory but couldn’t come up with anything.
“The roof collapsed on the two of you, and you shielded her. Your pelvis was fractured, and you’ve had surgery to stop internal bleeding. We’re hoping to evacuate you both to the mainland today.”
“See… See her.”
“Let us see if she’s awake. She broke her arm and has been in a lot of pain.”
Jeff winced hearing that. The low throb of pain from his midsection required his full attention when he wasn’t trying to keep his eyes open. “Hurts.”
“We’ve been giving you Tylenol and Ibuprofen, because Katie said you wouldn’t want anything stronger.”
“Right,” Jeff said, grimacing.
David gave him a shot in the IV. “That’ll bring some relief shortly.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you feel up to seeing Katie? She assisted me in surgery.”
“Mmm.” Jeff tried to nod, but his head felt like a cement block. “Yes.”
The curtain parted, and Kelsey was wheeled into the room.
The first thing he noticed were the bruises and tears on her face. “Thank God you woke up,” she whispered, covering his hand with hers. “I’ve been so worried.”
“I’m okay,” he said in a whisper that was all he was capable of. “Are you?”
“My arm hurts, but we’re both alive. That’s all that matters. You saved me. When we heard the roof collapsing, you jumped on top of me without even thinking.”
“Love. You.”
She broke down into sobs. “I love you, too.”
“Gonna be okay. Promise.”
Owen, Katie and Julia came rushing in and surrounded them. His eldest siblings looked like hell.
Julia and Katie wiped away tears when they heard him talking to Kelsey.
“You can’t ever scare us like this again,” Julia said.
“Sorry. Don’t tell Mom.”
“We didn’t,” Owen said. “But she’s coming home anyway. She texted that they’d decided to come home because they can’t enjoy the trip with everything happening here.”
“Go home and sleep. I’m okay. You guys look like hell.”
His siblings laughed.
“If only you knew what this has been like for us,” Katie said.
“Safe to go home. I swear.”
“We’re hoping the chopper can get here in the next few hours now that the wind has died down,” David said to the others. “I’ll keep you posted.”
“Johnny is going with you to the mainland,” Owen said. “He volunteered.”
“Doesn’t have to,” Jeff said as exhaustion threatened to drag him under.
“Yes, he does,” Owen said. “Someone needs to be with you guys. It’s all arranged.”
“Let’s let Jeff get some more rest,” David said. “You guys should do what he said and get some sleep while you can. He’s going to need you to be strong for him.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said, his eyes closed. “Kelsey.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m here, honey. I’m right here with you.”
Hearing that, he drifted off again.
Jack spent all day assisting in the search for Billy Weyland, the only island resident known to be missing in the storm. While the rest of Blaine’s team answered other calls from island residents, he and Jack focused on the missing-person search, assisted by the Coast Guard.
“We’re calling it for the night,” Linc Mercier said when they came together on separate boats in the middle of the Salt Pond as the daylight began to fade. “We’ll start again at zero eight hundred.”
“We’ll see you then,” Blaine said, turning the police boat toward the North Harbor dock where it was kept.
Earlier, Blaine had mentioned the need to quickly acquire a new boat to replace the one lost in the accident that’d nearly killed Deacon.
As the day went on, Jack had gone through the motions of doing his job, but his mind was a million miles from Gansett Island as he’d realized, halfway through the day, that it was Ruby’s birthday.
Her goddamned birthday, and he’d forgotten until he took a break to grab a quick bite to eat with Blaine, checked his phone and saw the texts from her family’s group chat, celebrating what would’ve been Ruby’s thirty-fifth birthday.
Each of her siblings and her parents had shared memories from past birthdays and speculated about what she’d have to say about turning thirty-five.
The messages had provoked laughter and tears from the others, while her husband hadn’t given her a freaking thought all day.
He’d been too busy wallowing in more recent memories, the ones he’d made with another woman.
He was disgusted with himself.
Sick to his stomach.
And heartbroken to have forgotten such an important date.
Sure, he could cut himself a break since the hurricane cleanup had kept them moving all day, but Ruby’s birthday hadn’t even been on his radar.
How was that possible?
The realization had sent him spiraling into thoughts and feelings he’d thought were long buried in the past. Grief, sharp and nasty, clawed at his guts with ruthless disregard for the progress he’d made, the journey he’d traveled for all the days he’d spent without her.
The grief didn’t care that he was feeling better, that he was moving on, that he had found someone else whom he might love.
None of that mattered.
“Jack?”
Blaine’s call to him dragged him out of the emotional swamp and back to the present.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. Are we done here? I need to split.”
“Yeah, we’re good until zero eight hundred.”
“See you then.”
He was gone before Blaine could ask more questions he didn’t want to answer.
All day, he’d looked forward to when he’d be able to go find Piper at the hotel and pick up where they’d left off early that morning.
But now… All he wanted was his solitary room in the building adjacent to the Coast Guard station where he could be alone with his memories and his recrimination.
“Oh, bummer,” Piper said.
She was in the salon with Laura, the kids, Dara, Oliver, Slim and Erin, all of whom had decided to stay for another night because they were having such a nice time together.
“What’s up?” Dara asked.
“Jack texted that he won’t make it over tonight. Something about having to stay late at work.”
“That’s too bad,” Erin said.
“Oh well. Duty calls.” Piper didn’t share the fact that the text had come across as brusque.
It had merely said, Can’t make it tonight.
That’s it. She’d made up the part about having to stay late at work so the others wouldn’t ask questions.
She felt foolish for telling them how much she was looking forward to seeing him again.
“They’re probably straight out cleaning up Ethel’s mess,” Slim said from his perch on the hearth where he was keeping the fire going.
“No doubt,” Piper said.
She debated whether she should text him back, but in the end decided to go with something short and sweet to match the tone of his initial message. Hope everything is okay.
The text showed up as Read a few minutes later, but he didn’t reply.
What was going on? Needing a minute to herself, she got up and left the salon.
Laura followed her to the lobby. “Everything okay?”
“It was,” Piper said. “But something must’ve happened.” She showed Laura the text she’d received. “The last time I talked to him, he said he couldn’t wait to pick up where we left off.”
“Hmm,” Laura said. “That’s odd.”
“Maybe he’s having second thoughts. Last night was a big deal to him. An even bigger deal to him than it was for me.”
“That’s possible. What will you do?”
“What can I do? He said he can’t make it.” She hadn’t been this disappointed since Ben canceled their wedding, and for some ridiculous reason, this felt worse than that.
“My aunt and uncle are having everyone over tonight. Why don’t you come with us and get a change of scenery?”
“I don’t know if I’d be up for that.”
“It’ll be fun. The others are coming, too,” she said of their guests.
“What time are you leaving?”
“Soon. Come on. There’s no sense in hanging here by yourself. Let’s go be with some fun people, get something to eat. You’ll feel better after a night with my family. They’re always a good time.”
“All right,” Piper said as a loud roar sounded outside.
“Oh, thank God!” Laura ran for the front door to watch the Life Flight chopper go over on the way to the clinic. “Thank God.”