Book 15 Desire After Dark #4
Adam and Abby are married during a New Year’s Eve celebration at the McCarthy’s Gansett Inn. Slim, alone in his room after the wedding, sends a text to Erin. How did you ruin a successful career of sleeping alone for me in one week?
The same way you ruined me.
Slim calls her, and they end up talking for a while. They end the call deciding to be boyfriend and girlfriend, even though Erin says they’re too old for those titles.
On New Year’s Day, when Erin is pushing her father to his physical therapy, he mentions how much he likes Slim and suggests she not do what she always does by pushing him away.
Erin says she’s not doing that. Tom wants to see her happy.
She deserves happiness. He goes to PT for two hours and sends Erin to take a walk.
As she’s leaving the hospital, Slim arrives looking for her.
He missed her, and when his client changed a scheduled flight, he came to find her.
They check into a hotel near the hospital.
Slim tells Erin he loves her. Although she doesn’t say it back, she feels strongly for him and is sorting through her feelings.
When it’s time for Slim to leave the next day, he says, “Something this great? It has to work out. Don’t worry, okay?
” After he leaves, Erin realizes she should have told him she loves him, too.
A few weeks later, Erin receives a package at her parents’ house with a CD and a letter from Slim.
He tells her to listen to the CD first and then open the other envelope.
The CD is a song they both love, “Please,” by Sawyer Fredricks from the season of The Voice they watched together on FaceTime.
She opens the envelope to find a plane ticket to meet him in Anguilla for Evan and Grace’s wedding.
He texts her to ask again, and she agrees to meet him.
The night of the bachelor and bachelorette parties in Anguilla, the men are at a British Pub on the property while the women enjoy the spa and dinner.
The men discuss the prank the women pulled, convincing the men they’d hired strippers for Jenny’s bachelorette party.
Mac assures the men that his wife, who had the idea about the strippers, has been soundly disciplined for what happened.
“I sooo can’t wait to tell her you said that,” Joe says, laughing.
“It might be better if you didn’t tell her,” Mac says, sending the others into hysterics.
“I’ve only been married a couple of weeks,” Paul says, “but even I can predict trouble in your future, Mac.”
“Nah.” Mac waves his hand, sending cigar ashes flying. “She worships at the altar of Mac McCarthy.”
“It just gets better and better,” Shane says, grinning as he shakes his head at Mac.
“Son, far be it from me to tell you what to do, but if I were you, I’d stick a sock in it,” Big Mac says to howls from the others.
“He’ll never stick a sock in it,” Frank says. “He’s been this way all his life.”
“Sad but true,” Kevin says.
Finn arrives late to the party after seeing the women heading to the beach to skinny dip.
Mac convinces the others that this is their opportunity for revenge and talks them into going to the beach to steal the women’s clothes.
With the clothing in hand, they wait in the dark for the women to discover their clothes are missing.
Once the women realize what’s happening, they start issuing warnings that have their husbands and partners quickly caving to their demands.
“Ladies,” Maddie says, beating off Mac’s hands as he tries to help her get dressed. “This means war. No sex for any of them for the entire time we’re here. Who’s in?”
“Me,” every female voice, except for one, says at the same time.
“Not me,” Grace says as she presses her naked body against Evan and kisses him. He scoops her up and carries her away while the other women call her a traitor, and the guys beg them to change their minds.
But the women aren’t budging, and the guys are shit out of luck, much to Slim’s amusement. How do you spell backfire?
“Told them it was a bad idea,” Big Mac says, shaking his head. “They never listen to their old man.”
“Especially your oldest one,” Frank says.
“True, but I think his wife can handle him.” Big Mac gestures to Maddie, who was marching Mac off the beach with his arm bent behind his back.
“Looks like she won’t be worshiping at the altar of Mac McCarthy this week,” Joe calls after them.
“Did you say that?” Maddie smacks Mac’s shoulder with her free hand.
“You might want to step up the discipline, too, bro,” Adam adds. “Seems to be working out real well for you.”
“I’m going to kill you,” Maddie growls.
The next day, Slim meets Erin at the airport and sweeps her off her feet.
Once in their hotel room, Erin tells Slim about the last time she saw her brother.
They had a disagreement about her then-boyfriend, Mitch.
Toby thought she could do better and told her to hold out for something better.
When they parted, Toby hugged her and told her, “Someday, you’ll know exactly what I mean and thank me. ”
“Every time I’ve thought about that weekend since then, I’ve been annoyed with him for trying to sabotage my relationship with Mitch, but now I know he was one hundred percent right. Now I know exactly what he meant, and I’m indeed thanking him.”
“Yeah?” Slim says, his brows raised in question.
She nods and takes the plunge. “My Toby was telling me to wait for you, and as usual, he was right. I love you, Tobias Fitzgerald Jackson, Junior.”
He blinks a couple of times, as if trying not to cry, before he reaches for her, bringing her close enough to kiss. “Marry me,” he whispers gruffly against her lips.
Erin gasps. “What?”
“You heard me. Marry. Me. Erin. Please, marry me. Be my wife, my love, my everything. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. Will you please, please, please marry me and let me teach you how to fly in every possible way?”
She says yes.