Book 15 Desire After Dark #3
Evan announces that he and Grace will be joining Buddy Longstreet for the second half of his tour.
Grace’s friend Fiona has agreed to run the pharmacy in her absence.
Grant and Stephanie are heading to Los Angeles after Evan and Grace’s wedding to work on the screenplay Grant is writing.
Janey tells her family she’s pregnant again, which is met with silence.
Joe reassures them that a specialist will be involved to ensure that Janey doesn’t have the same complications that nearly killed her and their son, PJ.
Mallory and Katie, both nurses, reassure the others that Janey’s complication was rare, and there’s no reason to believe it will happen again.
Abby gets up and leaves the room. Adam follows her.
After they spend a minute alone, they return to share her polycystic ovarian syndrome diagnosis and the likelihood that she will have fertility challenges.
Janey hugs Abby and tells her they love and support her no matter what.
On the ride home to the lighthouse, Erin decides this was the best Christmas she’s had in years.
When she asks Slim what he’s thinking about, he says naked boy naked girl.
They agree that it was hysterical, but he’s not thinking about the kids.
Erin chuckles, wondering how many McCarthy men are using that line tonight. They end up having sex in the mudroom.
Later, in bed, Erin asks Slim to tell her something about himself.
He tells her about his high school girlfriend getting pregnant.
He left the choice of what to do up to her, and she decided to end the pregnancy.
They broke up soon after. He’s never told anyone about that, not even his family.
After her brother died, Erin contemplated suicide.
She wrote letters and planned to end her pain, but on the designated day, her parents came to her house and invited her to brunch.
She decided that if they could return to normal activities, she could, too.
She’s spent years in therapy dealing with her grief, and other than a few OCD tendencies she still struggles with, she’s never been that low again.
When she tells him she writes the “Ask Erin” column, he says, “I read it every day. I’m a huge fan. ”
“Come on. No way.”
“I’m not kidding. I love the practical advice and the way you’re nice to even the stupid people who deserve their problems because they’re too dumb to know that their own behavior is their biggest issue.”
Erin stares at him, agape. “You really do read the column!”
“Yes,” he says with a laugh. “How have you never told me this? I can’t believe that’s you. I’m sleeping with Ask Erin.”
“You say that like I’m Judge Judy or something.”
“I have a secret crush on her, too. I love smart, sexy women.”
His use of the word love does crazy things to her insides, resurrecting the lighthearted, giddy feeling she’d experienced earlier. She rests her head on his chest, and he resumes playing with her hair.
“Hey, Slim?”
“Hmm?”
“For a very long time, my life has been spinning out of control. When I’m with you, the spinning stops. I thought you should know that.”
“That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Erin’s phone rings in the middle of the night with a call from her mother.
Her father collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
They found a brain aneurysm, and he’s in surgery.
Her mother knows she won’t fly and reassures Erin she will keep them posted.
When she ends the call, she begins to sob.
Slim offers to fly her home to Philadelphia.
Erin tells him she’s been afraid to fly since 9/11.
He convinces her to give it a try, telling her it is only an hour flight.
After taking a Xanax, Erin sleeps through most of the flight, which she cannot believe. He’s happy to be able to do something for her. “You’ve done so much,” she says. “You have no idea how much.”
“Every minute with you is a pleasure, Erin. From the minute I picked you up on the side of the road—”
“Stop saying it like that! You make me sound like a hooker!”
Chuckling, he says, “You hooked me, all right. With your determination, your sweetness, your resilience and your humor. I’ve been hooked on you ever since that night, if you must know the truth.”
“That long?”
“Uh-huh.”
Erin’s mother cannot believe Erin got on a plane, and her father won’t believe it either.
That her mother is certain her father will recover to hear about her plane ride reassures Erin, and she begins to relax somewhat.
Hours later, after hearing her father had made it successfully through surgery, Erin and Slim drove to her childhood home in Bryn Mawr.
Erin makes them food and suggests they get some rest. Later, when they’re curled up in bed in her old room, Slim asks again about her joining him in Florida.
She worries about him getting sick of her being around so much.
“Sweetheart, if I got to hold you and kiss you and make love to you every day, my life would never again be boring or routine. And the blush will never wear off our rose.”
“I worry that you’re not being realistic. We’re not idealistic twentysomethings doing this for the first time, expecting everything to be good times and smooth sailing. We both know better.”
“For what it’s worth, I would be doing this for the first time. And do you want to know why that is?”
Erin nodded.
“Because until I found you, I hadn’t met anyone I could imagine spending every day with.
And after only a few months with you and the amazing time together this week, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.
I’ve waited a long time to take this kind of leap with a woman, Erin, and it’s not something I do lightly.
It’s something I’m willing to do because it’s you I’d be leaping with. Does that make sense?”
Overwhelmed by his words as much as the emotion behind them, Erin blinks rapidly but is unable to stop a stray tear from escaping.
He kisses it away. “Are these good tears?”
“These are holy-cow-you-blow-me-away tears.”
“You do the same for me.”
Paul Martinez planned everything for their trip and wedding, so Hope could enjoy the day. All she had to do was buy a dress. Alex and Jenny join them after stopping to check in on Erin’s dad on the way to Las Vegas. Alex makes a big production out of straightening Paul’s tie. “You ready for this?”
“You know it. Can’t wait.”
“She’s awesome, and so is Ethan. You got it right, brother.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
“I do, and Mom and Dad would’ve loved her, too.”
At the wedding chapel, Paul is dazzled by his beautiful bride, and she loves seeing Paul and Ethan in their suits. When Paul pins a flower on Ethan’s lapel, he thanks Paul for bringing him.
“Where else would you be when your mom and I get married?”
Ethan shrugs. “Sometimes kids get left at home for stuff like this.”
“Not my kids.”
“I’m not really your—”
“Yes, you are.” Paul squats down to Ethan’s level and puts his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “As of today, you’re my son.”
Ethan hurls himself into Paul’s arms, probably crushing the white rose, but who cares about such things at a time like this? “Thank you.”
“Aww, buddy, thank you. You and your mom are the best thing to ever happen to me.” He holds Ethan for another minute. “What do you say we go get married?”
Ethan nods and pulls back from Paul, subtly wiping his eyes with his sleeve and nearly reducing Paul to tears in the process.
Over the next few days, Erin and Slim take turns with her mother in making sure someone is always at the hospital with her dad as he recovers.
On New Year’s Eve, Slim has to return to Gansett for his buddy’s wedding.
He wishes Erin could join him. “I definitely want to be with you. The flying? Still not high on my to-do list but getting the first time out of the way was huge. I… I’ve been thinking I might see about an appointment with Dr. McCarthy when I get back to the island to work on my long list of issues. ”
“Your list isn’t that long.”
“It’s longer than you think. Have you noticed that I need everything just so, that I’m constantly arranging and rearranging?
Or that I have to touch things with my left hand, or something awful will happen to someone I love?
My OCD is about having control over things—or the perception of control, anyway. ”
He reaches for her hand and links their fingers. “People don’t get to our age without baggage, Erin. We’ve all got stuff. Yours doesn’t make you any less attractive to me, in case you were wondering.”
The phone call Owen has been dreading comes in the middle of the night. With Laura beside him, he answers and accepts the collect charges. “Finally,” Mark Lawry says in a low growl that immediately puts Owen on guard. Nothing good has ever followed that particular tone of voice.
“What do you want?” Owen asks.
“I wanted you to pick up the goddamned phone when I called you.”
“Why would you think I have anything at all to say to you?”
“Maybe it’s time you did some listening rather than talking. There are things you don’t know.”
“If you’re going to tell me some sob story that you think will change how I feel about you, then you’re wasting my time—and yours.”
“It’s not a story. It’s the truth. I… I was knocked around by my old man. I never knew anything else. They’ve got me going to court-ordered counseling here, and the guy got me to tell him that. He said I needed to tell my kids, so they’d understand why I am the way I am.”
His father asks Owen to share that information with his siblings and mother. When Owen agrees, Mark says he will sign the divorce papers and send them right away.
Laura tells Owen his father chose to tell him because he knew Owen would take care of the others. Owen asks, “Will you take care of me, while I take care of them?” Laura responds, “Always.”