Book 15 Desire After Dark #2
They head to Martinez Lawn and Garden to get a Christmas tree.
Jenny is working in the store and pounces on Erin as soon as Slim leaves her side.
She grills Erin about what’s going on, and Erin fills her in on the latest developments.
Jenny invites them to dinner at her house later.
They stop by Ryan’s Pharmacy for lights for the tree and run into Grace Ryan as well as a woman she introduces as Fiona Connelly, a friend of Grace’s from school.
Fiona will cover for Grace at the pharmacy while Grace and her fiancé, Evan, are away for their wedding.
Slim and Erin go beachcombing to find fun things to use as ornaments on the tree.
After they finish decorating it, Slim gets a frantic call from Luke, asking him to fly Luke and his wife, Sydney, to Providence due to complications with her pregnancy.
Before he leaves to meet Luke at the airport, Slim tells Erin, “I don’t want to be anywhere but right here. ”
Owen Lawry receives a letter from his father, saying only, “Take my call and I’ll give your mother a divorce.
” It’s been two days since the letter arrived, and he hasn’t answered the phone.
His wife, Laura, tunes into his distress and finally gets him to share the torment his father’s short missive has unleashed.
She’ll take the call for him because she never wants him to be hurt by his father again.
While waiting on the mainland with Luke, Slim is anxious to get back to Erin, but he wants to be sure Sydney and the baby are okay before he leaves.
Once Luke sees Sydney and the doctors admit her for observation, Slim flies back to the island, promising to be back for them as soon as she’s released.
Erin is thrilled that Slim is back and coming to meet her at Jenny’s, which Jenny notices.
The gathering grows to include Paul, Hope and Ethan.
Jared James and his wife, Lizzie, arrive with another man, who is Jared’s brother, Dr. Quinn James.
He’s somber and buttoned down, while Jared is open and easygoing, but they resemble each other.
Lizzie is trying to convince Quinn to take the job as medical director at the health care facility she is planning to open to care for elderly residents.
Jenny encourages Erin to go for it with Slim, but Erin is scared.
Jenny puts her hands on Erin’s shoulders, forcing her to make eye contact.
“I’ve been right where you are. When Alex and his ghastly lawnmower came roaring into my life, I wasn’t in any way prepared to contend with him and all the things he wanted from me.
In fact, neither was he with everything that was going on with his mom.
But look at what we would’ve missed if we hadn’t found the courage to take a chance. ”
Oh, God, Erin thinks, I’m going to cry. She blinks furiously to keep the tears contained.
Jenny hugs her. “It’s so frightening to risk more than we can afford to lose.
I get that. I get it better than anyone else ever could.
But Toby would want us to be happy, Er. I have to believe that, or I wouldn’t be able to get through the day.
” Clinging to Jenny and her wisdom, Erin nods.
“If I can do it,” Jenny says, “so can you.”
Erin is happy and relieved when Slim walks into Jenny and Alex’s house and makes a beeline for her.
Later that night, when they return to the lighthouse, Slim gives her the opportunity to change her mind about him staying there.
She invites him upstairs to her bedroom.
While waiting for Erin to use the bathroom, Slim strips down to his jeans and sits at the end of her bed, amazed to think of how far they’d come from the night in September when he rescued her after she hurt her ankle and then slept next to her in a chair so he could be nearby if she needed him during the night.
Everything since then has been leading to this moment.
From finding out he shared a name with her late brother to attending Jenny’s wedding and meeting her parents to hours on the phone and FaceTime to their reunion last night, they’d been building something rare and fragile, something to be treasured and nurtured.
After they make love, Erin goes into the bathroom and closes the door, needing a moment alone to contend with the emotional firestorm unfolding inside her.
It had been a stupendous orgasm, but more than that, the connection she’d shared with him had been unlike anything she’d experienced before, not to mention the laughter afterward.
She laughed more with him than with any guy she’s ever known, except her brother.
Toby would’ve liked him. She has no doubt whatsoever about that.
Her brother had disliked most of the guys she’d dated, including Mitch, the guy she’d been seeing when Toby died.
Her brother had declared Mitch not good enough for her.
That comment had led to one of the few heated fights she and Toby had ever had, the last time she ever saw him, no less.
Toby had urged her to hold out for the right guy, and now that she’s with Slim, she’s begun to understand what her brother wanted for her.
He and Slim would’ve been the best of friends.
On Christmas morning, Erin is awake before Slim and spends time on her primary job as the author of the Dear Erin advice column.
A reader asks how to determine if the new guy she is with is the real deal and worries she’ll push him away and then regret it.
The question strikes close to home for Erin.
She hadn’t been in a real relationship in years.
How will she decide if Slim is as wonderful as he seems?
As Erin writes to her reader that she hopes the woman will open her heart to the possibility that the new guy could be her happily ever after, she decides it’s time to take her own advice and give Slim a real chance.
On the way to Jenny and Alex’s for Christmas dinner, Slim asks Erin to spend New Year’s Eve with him as his date to Adam and Abby’s wedding.
He also reminds her about his invitation to join him in Florida for the rest of the winter.
Erin isn’t ready to decide about that yet.
Alex takes Slim, David, Paul, Jared and Quinn down to the basement to play pool on his new table.
Paul announces that he gave Hope a trip to Las Vegas for Christmas, and they plan to get married while they’re there.
Alex invites himself and Jenny to join them.
David is going to propose to Daisy when they get home.
They tease Slim that they’re going to send him running for his life with all the talk of commitment.
Slim laughs it off, but he’s starting to think he wants Erin in his life, maybe even forever.
Kevin McCarthy invites Chelsea Rose to Christmas dinner with him and his sons, Riley and Finn.
After an awkward meal, the brothers leave as soon as they can to meet some friends but promise to meet Kevin and Chelsea later at Big Mac and Aunt Linda’s gathering.
Kevin says his sons aren’t usually so quiet.
Chelsea understands how they feel. Her parents divorced when she was in high school due to an affair her father had with a classmate’s mother.
Kevin’s marriage may not have ended in that kind of scandal, but it’s still an end to the family Riley and Finn had growing up.
She encourages him to be patient with his sons as he figures out his own new life.
Quinn plays on the floor with his puppy, Brutus, while asking more questions of Lizzie and Jared about the facility.
If they’d handle the business end, including insurance and licensing, he’d make all the medical decisions, and they have a deal.
Quinn is ready for a change and accepts the position.
Jared tells his brother he made Lizzie’s day by seeing her plan come together.
Erin and Slim join the party at Big Mac and Linda’s home. A shriek from the stairs preceded Thomas and Ashleigh running naked through the crowd.
“What the heck are you doing?” Mac asked his son.
“We playing naked boy naked girl, Dada.”
While everyone else howls with laughter, a horrified Maddie grabs her son while Tiffany corrals Ashleigh.
“I’m not getting to play naked boy naked girl,” Mac grumbles. “Why should they get to?”
“Shut up, Mac,” Maddie says, blushing as she takes Thomas upstairs to find his clothes.
“That’s officially my new pickup line,” Grant says to Stephanie. “Hey, baby, wanna play naked boy-naked girl?”
“Is that just for me, or will any girl do?”
“Only you, my love,” he says, smiling as he leans in to kiss his wife.
“This is Mallory’s first Christmas with us,” Linda says. “We’re going to scare her off.”
“Not a chance,” Mallory says, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m mortified,” Maddie says when she returns with Thomas, dressed in pajamas.
Mac reaches for his son and takes him from Maddie. “That won’t be the first time a woman leads you astray, son.”
“Hey,” Blaine says. “There’s no way that was Ashleigh’s idea.”
“I’m afraid it was,” Tiffany says, chagrinned as she returns with her daughter.
“God, she’s more like her mother than I feared,” Blaine says, earning himself a smack upside the head from his wife while the rest of the room loses it laughing again.
“Ashleigh doesn’t have a pee-pee, Dada,” Thomas announces.
“Oh, my God!” Maddie takes Thomas from Mac and heads for the front door while everyone else screams with laughter. “Time to go home!”