CelebrationAfterDarkKobo Page 13

  “Before we do that…” When the boys were between songs, she cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Dad and I just want to say thank you all for a lovely celebration. We’ve had a wonderful forty years together, thanks mostly to our children and the ones they love. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day, and I just wanted to say thank you.”

  “It was all my idea,” Mac said predictably, earning groans and sofa pillows thrown at him, all of which he dodged as he laughed.

  “We have an announcement, too,” Adam said, glancing at Abby, who seemed to grimace.

  “Well, don’t leave us hanging,” Joe said.

  “Abby and I are getting married on New Year’s Eve, and you’re all invited.”

  Linda hadn’t seen that one coming, and why did the bride-to-be look less than thrilled by her fiancé’s announcement? The room erupted into congratulations, and while she accepted everyone’s good wishes, Abby looked like she was about to shatter.

  What the heck was going on?

  Chapter 13

  “You shouldn’t have told everyone until we’re sure,” Abby said an hour later when she and Adam were in their room upstairs.

  “Until we were sure of what?” he asked as he unbuttoned his shirt.

  She hated that baffled tone of his voice and hated that she’d given him reason to be baffled. She hated that both their lives had changed forever in that doctor’s office yesterday. What had seemed so certain one day ago now was anything but.

  “Until we’re sure of what, Abby?”

  “Our wedding. Everything.”

  “I’m sure, and you were too this morning when you said you’d marry me on New Year’s Eve.”

  “I just… I… I can’t seem to process any of it. The diagnosis, the wedding…” She shook her head in frustration and anguish.

  Adam crossed the room to her, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on her chin, compelling her to look at him. “You don’t have to process any of it today or even tomorrow. We’ve got the rest of our lives to process anything that comes our way.”

  She couldn’t bear to see the hurt and confusion in his beautiful blue eyes, so she looked away.

  He gathered her in close to him. “Everything is going to be okay, Abs. If we stick together, we can get through this. I promise.”

  God, she wanted to lean on him. She wanted to hold on to him and never let go, but in the back of her mind was the nagging fear that it simply wasn’t fair to shackle him to her when everything was so uncertain. He was saying and doing all the right things, and she appreciated his support so much, but that nagging doubt wouldn’t be silenced.

  “Let’s get some sleep, honey. Tomorrow we’ll make plans.”

  Abby let him lead her to bed, where she settled in her usual place—with her head on his shoulder, his arms around her. The thought of sleeping any other way but wrapped up in him was too painful to consider.

  “I really loved the video,” she said softly in the darkness, eager to think and talk about anything other than the elephant that sat squarely in the middle of the room. “You did such a great job.”

  “I’m glad you liked it.” He ran a hand over her hair, trailing down to her back. “Someday we’ll have our own video, packed with forty years of happy memories.”

  In the fog of her despair, Abby couldn’t see that far into the future. She was having a hard time seeing next week or next month. She wanted to curl up in a ball and retreat from life, but Adam would never let her do that.

  He turned to face her, keeping her head cushioned on his bicep. “I can hear your brain working a mile a minute.”

  “You cannot hear that.”

  “Yes, I can. I know you better than anyone else ever will, and I hear you thinking about all the ways this situation sucks and how unfair it is to me and all sorts of other things that would totally piss me off if you said them out loud.”

  Okay, so maybe he could hear her thoughts.

  His lips found hers in the dark, and all the despair in the world couldn’t keep her body from responding to him the way it always did. As his tongue slid between her lips to stroke hers, a sharp sting of desire between her legs had her squirming to get closer to him.

  Under the T-shirt of his that she wore, his warm hand found her breast, rolling and teasing her nipple between his fingers as he continued to kiss her as if his life depended on reminding her of the fiery passion they shared.

  Her T-shirt disappeared over her head. His shirt landed on the floor next to hers. When he brought his bare chest down on hers, Abby drew in a sharp breath at the glorious feeling of his skin rubbing against hers. That was one of her favorite things.

  Adam broke the kiss and buried his face in the curve of her neck, making her shiver from the caress of his warm breath against her skin. “I love you more than anything else in this world, Abigail. If you leave me, you’ll ruin my life and yours. Please don’t leave me.”

  His softly spoken plea broke her heart. Adam, her Adam, didn’t beg. He didn’t plead. He didn’t grovel. That she’d reduced him to all three was almost more than she could bear. Tears filled her eyes and slipped down the sides of her face, wetting her hair.

  He kissed them away. And then his lips were closing around her nipple, making her moan from the pleasure that stripped away her worries. When Adam loved her, there was no space left in her mind for anything other than him and the exquisite way he made her feel. Her pajama pants and panties slid down her legs, which he pushed toward her chest as he bent to love her with his tongue.

  Oh my God. “Adam.”

  “Yeah, baby. I’m right here. I’ll always be right here, and I’ll always love you no matter what happens.”

  A sob hiccupped through her as he caressed her clit with his tongue and drove his fingers into her, sparking an orgasm that made her scalp tingle as she throbbed with aftershocks.

  Giving her no time to recover and no chance to check out, he entered her slowly, grasping her ass in his big hands as he drove into her. She who had once had trouble taking a man into her body took this one like he was made for her, which he had been. She who’d had trouble having orgasms with other men had multiple orgasms with him, because he had accepted her completely and utterly, loving her exactly the way she was from the very beginning.

  That thought finally broke her, and her deep sobs echoed through the small room.

  Fully embedded in her, Adam wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried. He had wanted her when she couldn’t stand herself or her life and needed to shake things up. He’d wanted her after Cal rejected her. He’d wanted her when she had trouble reaching orgasm and when her body clenched up with nerves when they tried to have sex. He’d never given up on her, and he wouldn’t give up now, either.

  “Baby, talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “I’m a f-fool,” she said, hiccupping on the sobs.

  When he started to withdraw from her, she stopped him with her hands on his ass, keeping him buried deep inside her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve always accepted me for who and what I am. That’s why I fell in love with you.”

  He brushed the hair back from her face, and in the darkness, she could see the sparkle of his eyes as he gazed down at her. “I’ve never wanted you to be anything other than exactly who you are—flaws and all. Everyone has them, Abby. I’m not looking for perfect. I want you to come to me next week and marry me and take the plunge with me.” As he spoke, he began to move in her again. “I want us to face down this health challenge together, and if necessary, adopt lots of babies to love and raise. We will have a family. I honestly don’t care how it happens as long as you’re the mom and I’m the dad.”

  Tears continued to leak from her eyes as his words washed over her like a balm, soothing the open wound inside her.

  “We’ll find you the best doctors in the country, and we’ll keep you healthy no matter what we have to do. I need you with me for the rest of my
life. You have no idea how much I love you. No idea at all.”

  Except she did know. He’d shown her every day for more than a year now, and he’d never wavered in his acceptance of her. That was the one thing that had been lacking in her other relationships. She’d never felt truly accepted. Until Adam had rescued her from herself last summer and shown her what it meant to be truly and completely loved.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “For what?”

  “For thinking that you’d be better off without me.”

  “Don’t ever think that. When I say you’d ruin me if you left me, I’m not kidding.”

  She ran her fingers through his thick, dark hair and kissed him. “I know.”

  “Tell me you love me, too. Tell me you believe me when I say I’ll stand by you no matter how bad it gets. I need to know—”

  “I love you, Adam, and I believe you.”

  “Tell me you also believe that I’d rather have you and any challenges you may face because of your diagnosis than a perfectly healthy woman who isn’t you.”

  “I do. I believe that.”

  His lips curved into a smile on top of hers. “Let me hear that first part again.”

  “Which part?”

  “The ‘I do’ part.”

  Abby returned his smile. “I do, Adam. I choose you to be mine, and I believe you when you tell me how much you love me.”

  He turned his face away and blew out a deep breath that sounded an awful lot like relief to her. “Thank God for that. You’ve had me freaking out all day about what I’d do if you tried to run away from me.”

  “You wouldn’t let me get away.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  She raised her hips to remind him of what they’d been doing before her emotional meltdown.

  With his arms tight around her and his lips devouring hers, he rocked into her, thrusting deep the way she liked it best, until she broke the kiss to cry out from the pleasure that shot through her body.

  Adam groaned and got impossibly harder and bigger inside her before he came, his fingers digging into her shoulders.

  “Love you forever, Abby.”

  “Love you forever, Adam.”

  “So, New Year’s Eve? Yes?”

  “I can’t wait.”

  Chapter 14

  New Year’s Eve on Gansett Island dawned sunny and cold, the perfect sort of day for a winter wedding. Linda carried mugs of coffee upstairs for her and Mac to enjoy in bed. With nowhere to be until later, they had time for a lazy morning.

  Adam is getting married, she thought with a sigh. He was her baby who wasn’t a baby anymore and hadn’t been for a very long time. No matter. He would always be her baby.

  “What’re you sighing about, my love?” Mac asked when she handed him one of the mugs. He was propped up in bed, reading the morning headlines on the iPad the kids had given him for Christmas. With glasses propped on the end of his nose and his hair tousled from sleep, he looked sexy and adorable.

  She slid into bed next to him, careful not to spill the coffee on the crisp white sheets. “Adam is getting married.”

  “So I’ve heard. This is a good thing, no?”

  “Of course it is, but I’m still allowed to feel a little melancholy about another of my babies taking the plunge.”

  “Should I not mention that Evan will take the plunge in exactly nineteen days?”

  Linda moaned. “No, you shouldn’t.”

  He chuckled at her foolishness. “I love that they’ve each found their perfect match.”

  “So do I. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just…”

  “They grew up way too fast.”

  “Yes. That.”

  “I know, babe. I think about that all the time. Seems like five minutes ago, we had a house full of screaming rug rats, and now…”

  “Silence.”

  “And while silence can be golden, it happened fast.”

  “We haven’t had much of a chance to talk about what Adam told us last night.”

  “I’ve been reading up about this condition Abby has.” He turned the iPad so she could see. “It’s difficult but manageable from all accounts. Fertility can be a big challenge.”

  “I hate that for them. They’d have such beautiful babies.”

  “Yes, they would, and it’s very possible they will. It’ll just take some doing.”

  “If anyone can get through this, it’s those two. They’re so perfect for each other. It’s funny how I never would’ve thought so back when she was dating Grant, but now…”

  “You can’t picture her with anyone but Adam and vice versa.”

  “Right.”

  He put his iPad and mug on the bedside table and turned to her. “Speaking of babies, what do we think about Janey being pregnant again?”

  “We think it’s very scary.”

  “I gotta be honest—as much as I want another grandbaby, I sort of wish they’d quit with P.J.”

  “They planned to, but you know what happens when people make plans.”

  Mac reached for her hand. “Joe said they’re going to the mainland early and she’ll be admitted for the last few weeks so there’s no chance of what happened last time happening again.”

  “There’s always a chance, but at least she’ll be already in the hospital if it does. Then there’s Maddie.”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s pregnant again, even if they’re not saying so yet.”

  “How do you know that?”

  She gave him her best withering look. “Hello? Because I know everything.”

  “You’re getting a little full of yourself over there,” he said with a teasing smile.

  “You mark my words. She’s pregnant, or my name isn’t Voodoo Mama.”

  “What do you think of Evan and Grace’s plan to ride the music wave?” he asked. It had been a rather eventful holiday season for the McCarthy family.

  “As much as I want them here with us, I think they’re doing the right thing. He would’ve always wondered what might’ve been if he didn’t seize this moment.”

  “I agree. It’s not every day an artist has a song go to number one. He would wonder, and she would feel like she kept him from chasing his dream. That they found a way to chase it together is fantastic. I love that she found someone to manage the pharmacy for her and Josh agreed to take on the studio while Evan is on the road.”

  “It all worked out perfectly. I also hear that Stephanie decided to go to LA with Grant after all.”

  “Oh, that’s good news. I wasn’t happy about the idea of them spending all that time apart when they’re newlyweds.”

  “Me either, but we couldn’t blame her about being hesitant to relive the nightmare of Charlie’s incarceration.”

  “No, definitely not.”

  “So five children happily married or soon to be. That leaves Mallory.”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about her since she went back to Providence,” Mac said. “She doesn’t say much about her past or her love life, but I get the feeling she hasn’t had it easy when it comes to men.”

  “She said she’s not married ‘anymore,’ but that’s all she’s said to me.”

  “Me too. I’m dying to know more, but I don’t want to push her to confide in me until she’s ready to.”

  “That’s a wise approach. Baby steps, my darling.”

  “That’s not really my style,” he said with a sheepish grin.

  “No, really?” she asked, laughing. “This is no time for your bull-in-a-china-shop approach to fatherhood, Mac.”

  “That’s not nice.”

  “Is it untrue?”

  “It’s not completely untrue.”

  Chuckling, Linda said, “What time does she get in today for the wedding?”

  “She worked last night, so she’s on the four o’clock boat. I’m picking her up.”

  “We’ll have this weekend with her and then the week in Anguilla for Grace and Evan’s wedding.” T
hankfully, they’d managed to relocated their wedding to another resort when the original one had been closed down for repairs after a storm. “You’ll have a chance to get to know her even better without overwhelming her.”

  “Yes, dear.” He kissed the back of her hand. “What do you feel like doing today?”

  “As little as possible. I’m still recovering from the madness that is Christmas around here.”

  “Another spectacular job from Linda McCarthy holiday productions.”

  “I’m glad you thought so. Thank God Maddie did Christmas Eve and that everyone pitches in to help on Christmas Day. All that help makes it easier on Mom than it used to be when everything fell to me.”

  “You make it look easy.”

  “Weren’t the kids so cute?”

  “So cute. I forgot how fun it is to have little ones underfoot on Christmas. You want to see the pictures again?”

  “I sure do.”

  They spent the rest of the morning scrolling through the hundreds of photos he’d taken with his new toy during the holidays—and they watched the video Adam had made for their anniversary for about the hundredth time. It never got old, and every time she watched it, Linda saw something she hadn’t noticed before.

  Adam was getting married…

  As her eyes filled with tears, she hoped that by the time six o’clock rolled around, she’d be ready to once again be mother of the groom.

  Adam and Abby had overtaken the McCarthy’s Gansett Island Inn for their wedding. Copying Laura’s idea, they’d arranged for rooms for everyone at the inn so family members could party the night away without having to drive home afterward. The inn was still beautifully decorated for the holidays, and everything was in place for the wedding.

  Daisy Babson, head of housekeeping, had stepped up to help finalize their plans since the hotel’s event coordinator was on vacation. They couldn’t have pulled off the wedding on such short notice without Daisy’s able assistance.

  “To say event planning isn’t your specialty, you sure arranged a miracle,” Adam said he and Abby walked with Daisy through the downstairs rooms that would be used for the wedding.

  “I’m so glad you’re happy with it.” Daisy glowed with happiness after getting a big engagement ring from Dr. David Lawrence for Christmas. “It’s been good practice for planning my own wedding.”