Book 8 Waiting for Love #4
Adam laughs. “That’s the part you’re fixating on? Did you hear anything else I said?”
“I heard it.”
“And?”
“What’s in it for you?”
“Seriously? You’re really asking me that?”
“Yes!”
“I don’t know if you’ve looked in a mirror lately, but you’re a very sexy woman who’s looking to bust loose and have some fun. What red-blooded guy wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Besides, I could go for some lighthearted fun after what I’ve just been through with Sasha and the company.”
“And the fact that I dated your brother doesn’t factor into this at all?”
“It does. In fact, it’s one of my two conditions.”
“This I’ve got to hear.”
“Condition one is that we keep our arrangement between us. No sharing the dirty deets with Janey, Laura or anyone else. I don’t want Grant to know we’re seeing each other until I’m ready to tell him, but only because it might upset him, and I don’t want to do that when there’s something else on his mind. ”
“This is a small island. If we’re seen together, it might get back to him.”
“It might, and if it does, I’ll deal with it when and if it happens. In the meantime, I’d prefer to keep it between us.”
“Fair enough. What’s the second condition?”
His expression turns serious. “I don’t share with anyone. If you’re seeing me, you’re not seeing—or sleeping with—anyone else.”
She agrees to his conditions and wants to get the tattoos first. Adam’s next thought is holy fucking shit, getting a tattoo hurts.
Next, she wants to rent a motorcycle. She’s mad at herself for not listening to Adam and putting the tattoo somewhere people can see it.
They agree that this is just fun, nothing serious.
She’s worried about causing a rift between him and Grant with their deal.
Adam might talk to his brother about it.
Adam and Abby share a kiss at the beach that turns hot, taking them both by surprise.
Ned is getting frustrated that Francine hasn’t received the divorce papers from Bobby Chester.
It’s just paper to Francine. They have everything they need.
But Ned wants her to be his wife and her girls to be his family.
It matters greatly to him. When they finally receive the divorce papers, they learn that Bobby set up college funds for his three grandchildren.
Ned wants to invite the family over to celebrate her divorce.
Francine says he’s the best father and grandfather they ever could’ve hoped for.
Carolina is trapped in purgatory, wanting Seamus but wrestling with what people will think about her taking up with a much younger man.
This whole thing is her own fault. She never should’ve let him tempt her.
She’s known from the beginning that he’s too young for her, but that didn’t stop her from walking straight into the flame of his love, knowing all the while she would surely get burned.
And now that she knows what it’s like to be with him, to be loved by him, to be consumed by him, how can she resist the life he’s offered?
How can her mouth continue to say no when her heart and soul say yes, yes, yes?
She can’t keep saying no because living without him now would be impossible.
Carolina drives into town to the office where Seamus is meeting with Joe. She asks her son for a minute with Seamus. She tells him she no longer cares what anyone thinks of them. All she cares about is being with him. She asks him to come home with her to stay.
Joe has coffee with Mac and talks to him about his mom and Seamus.
Mac advises him to count his blessings and not sweat the small stuff.
That’s what Mac has been trying to do since the wake-up call of the accident.
Doc Potter calls to ask if Joe has noticed that Janey seems to have lost her sparkle.
Joe feels bad that he hasn’t noticed, but he’ll take her to lunch.
Doc gives her the afternoon off. Joe and Janey go home for lunch, and he tells her Doc gave her the afternoon off because he’s worried about her.
Janey doesn’t want to go back to Ohio and miss everything with the baby while she’s in school.
Joe suggests she take this year off from school and see how she feels about it next year.
He’d like to see her finish, however, because he fears she’ll regret it if she doesn’t.
She agrees. “Thank you—for this love, this life, for understanding what I need. All of it. Thank you.”
“God, Janey,” he whispers, overwhelmed by her. “It’s my pleasure. Every second of it. Thank you.” He kisses her, and for a long time, he thinks of nothing else but her pleasure.
Adam talks to Sarah at the Sand & Surf about the issues they’re having with their reservation system that he’s going to fix for them.
While thinking about the challenge Sarah presented, Adam is hit by a pang of longing for the company he founded and gave his heart to for fourteen years.
The loss hits him like a tsunami, overwhelming him with sadness.
All at once, he’s ready to fight for what’s his and calls his lawyer, Rick, who’s happy to hear from him.
He tells Rick to do whatever it takes to make this right, even if that means discrediting Sasha.
Adam goes to see Grant, who seems better after getting some sleep.
He tells Grant he’d like to “hang out” with Abby.
Grant says she’s not a fling kind of woman and asks if Adam liked her when they were dating.
Of course I didn’t, Adam says. Grant doesn’t want his brother to hurt her.
She’s had enough hurt. Adam promises to have some fun and do no harm.
Stephanie hears them arguing and wants to know what it was about.
Hearing that Adam wants to date Abby, Stephanie feels like she’s been punched because Grant was arguing against it.
Grant assures Stephanie that he loves her, and he doesn’t care if Adam dates Abby.
He cares if his brother hurts his friend.
That’s all it is. For the first time since the accident, Grant makes love to her.
Laura and Owen leave the clinic in shock.
She’s pregnant with twins and is freaking out.
How will they have three babies while running a hotel?
No matter what happens, Owen says, they’ll deal with it together.
She tells him to have all the sex he can get while she’s pregnant because she’s never going near him again if he can get her pregnant this easily—and with two babies!
She’s relieved that Owen, who never wanted a family of his own, is excited about the babies.
Abby is sick of wishing she were different.
She’s bored with herself and desperately wants to shake up her life.
Sleeping with Adam, something she’d never considered before yesterday, will be a good first step.
On her way to get another tattoo in a more visible place, she runs into Tiffany and takes a tour of Naughty & Nice, in the same space that used to house Abby’s Attic.
Tiffany outfits Abby in two weeks’ worth of sexy underwear and new dresses.
While Duke gives her a second tattoo, this one on her ankle, she gets to work on plans for the gift shop at the Sand & Surf.
Abby skinny dips for the first time. Adam has been wondering where she is and is feeling jealous and out of sorts as he tries to reach her.
Is she out with one of her new guy friends?
He runs into Laura, who tells him the news about the twins.
Finally, Adam overrules his conscience and checks her location.
What the heck is she doing at the beach at night?
When he arrives, he sees her floating in a moonbeam, realizes she’s naked, and plays a trick on her by taking her clothes.
She’s furious at his practical joke until they start kissing, and all she wants is more. They head back to her hotel room.
Ned feeds his family to the point of bursting with lobsters.
He loves presiding over a family dinner in the home where he lived alone for most of his life.
They tell Maddie and Tiffany that they received the divorce papers and that Bobby set up college funds for each of the grandchildren.
He enclosed notes with them, and Tiffany cries reading hers.
Maddie doesn’t want to look at hers. Not now anyway.
Ned clears his throat and works up his courage.
“I wanta say somethin’ else. None a you kids will ever want for nothin’.
I made a lotta money buyin’ and sellin’ houses over the years and never spent much of it on anythin’.
Mac and his siblings are my heirs, but you girls have been added inta my will as well.
And yer kids don’t hafta wait for me ta kick it to have their college paid fer.
If ya don’t want the money from yer daddy, send it back to him.
Yer kids won’t suffer any if ya do. I waited a long, long time to have a family of my own, and there ain’t a one a ya that’s gonna want for nothin’.
That’s all. That’s what I wanted to say. ”
Maddie and Tiffany have waited a long time for a dad who takes care of them. They hug him and make him cry. Francine doesn’t want to talk about Bobby anymore. She wants to talk about their wedding. Tell me when and where, and I’ll be there with bells on, Ned says.
At home, Mac reads Bobby’s heartfelt letter to Maddie, who weeps upon hearing that her father always loved her and that he regrets what he did. They give him credit for owning it and not making excuses.
Tiffany reads and rereads her letter, greedy for every word she can get from the father she has no memory of.
She asks Blaine when he’s going to move in with them.
He wants to get married. She just got divorced and isn’t ready to talk about getting married again, even though she loves him so much.
He’ll do this any way she wants, as long as he has as much time with her and Ashleigh as he can get.