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“I’m trying. You have no idea how hard I’m trying.”

  “I know you are. When you and I are together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

  “I was on my way to believing that when the accident happened, and I had a whole day to contemplate how I’d ever manage to live without you.”

  “Ah Christ,” he said with a sigh. “And then I came back a total wreck, and all the focus was on me when you were dying inside. I’m sorry, honey. I should’ve paid more attention to how traumatizing it was for you.”

  “It was way worse for you.”

  “That’s not necessarily true.” He pulled her in closer to him, his lips pressed to her forehead. “God, I love you so much. I had no idea it was possible to love anyone as much as I love you. And the thought of you worried or afraid for all this time, and me not even knowing it… I feel like a selfish bastard.”

  “You’re not. It’s not your fault. I went out of my way to hide my worries from everyone. No one knew until today.”

  “Will you promise me you won’t suffer in silence anymore?”

  She nodded.

  “Say it. I want to hear the words.”

  “I promise I won’t suffer in silence anymore.”

  “And do you promise to remember every day that I love you more than I love myself and all that matters to me is that you’re safe and happy?”

  “If you promise to remember I feel the same exact way about you.”

  His smile filled her with giddy joy. It was okay. He knew all her darkest worries and loved her anyway. “Promise.”

  “Me, too.” She drew him into a soft, sweet kiss. “Let’s go to bed.”

  “Not before we set a wedding date.”

  “Oh, I thought you’d forgotten about that,” she said with a coy smile to let him know she was kidding.

  “I haven’t forgotten and neither have you.” As he spoke, he pulled her top up and over her head, released her bra and removed it. “What’s it going to be?”

  “Whatever you want is fine with me.”

  Nuzzling her breasts, he said, “How about next weekend, then?”

  Her mouth fell open in shock, and she tugged at his hair to get his attention, which was fully on her breasts. “What? Next weekend?”

  He looked at her briefly before stroking her nipple with his tongue. “Why not?”

  Stephanie squirmed as desire shot through her, hot and insistent, until she throbbed from wanting him. “We can’t get married next weekend.”

  “How come?” he asked as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

  She gasped and squiggled, forcing him to release her. “First of all, that’s right before Laura and Owen’s wedding, and I don’t want to upstage them. Second of all, it’s still high season at the restaurant, and it took a lot of juggling to get today off. I don’t want to be worried about work when I should be focused on you. Third of all… I can’t think of a third reason, but the first two are enough.”

  He cupped both her breasts and ran his thumbs over her nipples until they were hard and tingling. “Okay, then Labor Day. We’ll get married on the last day of the official summer season when everyone will be headed home and we get the island back—for the most part.” The season lingered these days until Columbus Day, but things definitely quieted down on Labor Day.

  “Fine. We’ll get married on Labor Day.”

  “Where?” he asked as he unbuttoned her shorts and slid his hand down the front of her until he was cupping her sex.

  “On the beach.”

  His fingers pressed and probed until they encountered the well of moisture that awaited him. “And then what?”

  “We’ll have a party at the restaurant.”

  “Good. It’s a plan.” He sat up suddenly, pulling her shorts and panties off her in almost frantic motions that indicated how badly he wanted her. After removing his own clothes, she expected him to help her up and lead her to bed. But he came down on top of her, apparently in too much of a rush to change locations.

  “I love you, too, you know. Unreasonably.”

  “There’s not one thing about it that’s unreasonable,” he said, kissing and touching and caressing her until she was on the verge of begging him to take her.

  “You’re often extremely unreasonable, but I love you anyway.”

  His huff of laughter preceded the press of his erection against her sensitive opening.

  Stephanie raised her hips, needing to get closer, to take him in, to show him what he meant to her. She wanted to give him everything, including the family he wanted so much. If it meant making him happy, she would swallow all her remaining fears and have faith that the future he promised would be as bright and as glorious as he said it would be. As long as she had him, she couldn’t imagine her life playing out any other way.

  With a hard thrust, he entered her fully, and every thought that didn’t involve the exquisite pleasure they found together was pushed from her mind, swept away on a waves of desire that required her full attention.

  “Nothing has ever been like this, Steph,” he whispered against her ear as he pushed deep into her before withdrawing and doing it again. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  Listening to him, feeling him, surrounded by him, Stephanie finally was able to let go of the past, of the fears that had ruled her, and embrace the future that would revolve around him and the love they’d found together.

  “You can’t ever leave me,” he said. “You’d ruin me.”

  “Where would I go when the only thing I need is right here?”

  Her words seemed to light a fire in him that had him picking up the pace, until they both cried out from the power of what they’d created. She clung to him, her anchor in the storm, and took everything he had to give until he was spent and lax in her arms, his heart beating fast and his breathing rapid.

  “So Labor Day it is?” he asked after a long period of silence.

  “Labor Day it is.”

  Mac and Maddie arrived home from the day’s festivities to find a party going on at their house. Daisy and David, who’d been babysitting for them while they attended what they thought would be a clambake, were entertaining Jenny Wilks and her fiancé, Alex Martinez, as well as Jared James and his new wife, Lizzie. With them was another woman Maddie didn’t know.

  “Hey,” Daisy said when they came in through the sliding door. “Mom and Dad are home, and we’re in so much trouble for having a party.”

  “Oh stop it,” Maddie said to her friend. “As long as no one was drinking, there’s no trouble.” The kitchen table was littered with beer bottles, wineglasses and snacks.

  “Um, well,” Alex said, trying to hide his beer bottle.

  Mac laughed at his lame effort. “Are there more of those somewhere?”

  “In the fridge,” David said. “Help yourself.”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” Mac said.

  “It is your house after all,” David replied.

  “Do you want us to go?” Daisy asked Maddie when she pulled up a chair to the table.

  “No need to break up the party,” Maddie said, even though she was beyond exhausted. Since discovering her third child was on the way, exhaustion had been her closest friend. She’d never been this tired with Thomas or Hailey. “How were they?”

  “Thomas didn’t want to go to bed, as usual, but he’s out cold now.”

  “He didn’t give you a hard time, did he?”

  “Nothing like that. He and Uncle David were having fun with the trucks, and he didn’t want to stop playing.”

  “I can picture that. We have the same issue with Daddy most nights. How was Hailey?”

  “An angel, as always.”

  “That’s good to hear. She is a nice, easy baby.” Maddie rested her hand on her belly, which was just starting to expand. “I hope this one is, too.”

  “Maddie and Mac,” Jenny said, “this is my friend Erin Barton. She’s interviewing with the town council Monday to take my place at the lighthouse.”r />
  Erin had long, light brown hair that she wore in a ponytail that made her look younger than her age, which Maddie estimated to be in her mid-thirties. “So nice to meet you, Erin,” Maddie said.

  “My dad is on the council,” Mac said. “I’ll tell him to be nice to you.”

  “He’s nice to everyone,” Jenny said.

  “That he is,” Mac said with a smile for Erin. “I’m sure if Jenny is recommending you, you’re a shoo-in.”

  “I’m still not a hundred percent sold on this change Jenny insists I need,” Erin said, “but she can be hard to resist when she gets something in her head.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Alex said drolly, winking at his fiancée.

  “You love when I get something in my head,” Jenny said with a meaningful smile that made everyone laugh.

  “TMI,” Erin said, covering her ears.

  “I’m sorry,” Jenny said with a somberness that took Maddie by surprise. Jenny had obviously been joking around. Why would she feel the need to apologize to her friend?

  Sensing Maddie’s confusion, Erin said, “I’m Toby’s twin sister. The original fiancé.”

  “Oh,” Maddie said as the import settled in on her. Toby had been killed on 9/11. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “That’s very kind of you. It was a long time ago, and no one is more thrilled for Jenny than I am. Truly.”

  Jenny gave her friend a one-armed hug. “Thanks.”

  “I might be happier for Jenny than you are,” Alex said, which had them all laughing again.

  “I like him,” Erin said.

  “So do I,” Jenny replied. “And the best part? He has a brother who’s almost as handsome as he is.”

  “He is nowhere near as handsome as I am,” Alex said. To Erin, he added, “I’d hate to see you get your hopes up only to have them dashed.”

  “Oh my God,” Jenny said. “You’re insufferable. Paul is every bit as gorgeous as you are, isn’t he, ladies?”

  “Absolutely,” Lizzie said.

  Her new husband glared at her playfully.

  “What? He is. Just because I’m married now doesn’t mean I’m suddenly blind.”

  Maddie giggled behind her hand.

  “What’s so funny over there, Mrs. McCarthy?” her husband asked.

  “That you all think we get hysterical blindness or something once you put a ring on our fingers. My eyes still work just fine, and Paul Martinez is hot.”

  Alex cringed as Mac glowered.

  “You’ll pay for that later,” Mac said.

  “I’m not afraid of you. I have things that you want.”

  “Damn straight you do.”

  “And that,” Jared said, “is our cue to move along, people.”

  They got up and gathered the empty bottles and glasses.

  “Was it something I said?” Mac asked.

  “You know it was.” Maddie rolled her eyes at her husband, who was never shy about his desire to spend time alone with her. She loved that about him, not that she’d ever tell him that.

  They said good night and thank you to Daisy and David for babysitting and saw them out the door.

  Mac locked up and turned off the outside lights once they were safely in their cars.

  “You didn’t have to run them off,” Maddie said as they went upstairs together.

  “I can tell you’re about to fall over, but you’d never say so.”

  “Don’t act like you know me so well.”

  “I know you better than anyone, and I also know this pregnancy is kicking your ass big-time.”

  “Yes,” she said with a sigh, “it is. I’ve never been so tired in my entire life. I can’t figure out why this time is so different than the last two times.”

  “Um, maybe the fact that you have two other kids to contend with while you’re pregnant might have something to do with it?”

  “Could be.”

  “I need to be doing a better job of helping you out around here.”

  “This is your busy season at the marina. You’re doing what you can.”

  “I could spend more time at home. We’re not that busy, and I have partners who can help me so I can help you.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Mac. So I’m a little tired. I’ll get through it. Taking care of the kids and the house is my job.”

  He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s our job, and I don’t mind taking on more around here while you’re busy growing Malcolm the third in there.”

  She raised a brow. “Malcolm the third? First of all, how do you know it’s a boy, and second of all, Malcolm? Really?”

  “Is this your way of saying you don’t like my name?”

  “I like Mac a lot better than Malcolm.”

  “So do I. So we’ll call him Mac.”

  “There’re already too many Macs in this family, and Janey still wants to name a kid McCarthy and call him Mac. That’ll be mayhem.”

  “Then we’ll call him M.J.”

  “Along with P.J?” she asked, reminding him of his new nephew.

  “We have to come up with something. I grew up hating my name, but now that I’m older, I love that I was named after my dad. I love being the oldest son and the one who got to carry on the tradition. I want the same for this guy, even if he’s not my oldest son.”

  “You have no idea what it does to me when you talk about Thomas that way.”

  “How else would I talk about him? He is my son. He’s been my son since the day I met the two of you.”

  She bit her lip and shook her head.

  “What?”

  “I should be used to it by now.”

  His brows knitted with confusion. “Used to what?”

  “You and the amazing way you love us. Almost two years married, and you’re still taking my breath away.”

  He put his arms around her. “You do the same to me. Every damned day.”

  She slipped her arms around his waist and held on tight to him.

  “Let’s get you in bed.”

  Determined to fight through the powerful exhaustion so she could spend some more time with her husband, Maddie changed into one of the silky nightgowns he loved, brushed her hair and teeth and got into bed with him.

  “Come here,” he said, reaching for her.

  She curled up to him and relaxed into his embrace. “I can’t remember what it was like to sleep alone.”

  “Neither can I, but I suspect it was kind of boring and lonely.”

  “Compared to this, anything else would be.”

  “Mmm, so true.” He rubbed her back in small circles. “Go to sleep, honey.”

  “You don’t want to…”

  “Not tonight. You need the sleep more than you need me.”

  “That is never true.”

  “Shh. Go to sleep. We’ve got millions of nights when we can do all sorts of naughty things.”

  “Like what? Tell me about them.”

  “Well, first…”

  Maddie fell asleep to the familiar, comforting sound of his voice.

  Chapter 10

  “A bride should not ever, ever, ever do dishes on her wedding night,” Seamus declared as he came into the house after seeing off the last of their guests. He shut the door, locked it, turned off the outside lights and then leaned against the door.

  Tomorrow, they would face a frightful mess in the yard, and Carolina had decided to try to make a dent on the equally frightful mess in the kitchen sink, but apparently her new husband wasn’t having it.

  Husband… She hadn’t had one of those in more than thirty years. How odd it was to use that word again so long after her dear husband Pete had been killed in an accident. Carolina dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned to him. “Where did you hear of this rule?”

  “It’s in the marriage bible under part B subsection two point two: a bride should never, ever, ever do dishes on her wedding night. Rather, it reads, she should service her husband in any way he sees fit and show him ho
w truly grateful she is to have had the good fortune to marry him.”

  If they each lived to be a hundred years old—of course she’d get there way before he did—he’d probably never stop making her laugh. “You just made that up.”

  “I had to do something. I thought you were in here making yourself ready for me, and I find you doing the dishes. This called for drastic measures and rulebooks.”

  “How were you expecting me to ‘make myself ready’ for you?”

  “By getting naked, for one thing.”

  “So you expected me to be standing naked in the kitchen, waiting for you to tell me how best I can service you?”

  “That would’ve been an excellent way to begin our marriage.”

  “Let me know when you wake up from this dream you’re having and are ready for a dose of reality.”

  “I never want to wake up from this dream I’ve been having, even when you don’t honor and obey me with your nakedness in the kitchen.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re incorrigible and delusional?”

  He pushed off the door and started toward her, his green-eyed gaze fixed on her. “You have. Many times.”

  Carolina felt like prey caught in the crosshairs. “And yet you still come back for more.”

  He stopped when he was merely an inch away from her. “I’m a glutton for punishment.”

  “Today you signed on for a lifetime’s worth of punishment.”

  “Yes, and thank Christ for that.” Wrapping his arms around her neck, he kissed her as if he’d been dying to for days, weeks, months, a lifetime, completely losing himself in the kiss.

  Surrounded by him, Carolina could only hold on and go along for the ride the way she had since the last of her defenses had fallen, allowing him into her heart and soul where he was now so firmly entrenched she couldn’t picture a day without him at the center of it.

  Carolina had no idea how much time had passed when he finally withdrew from the kiss in small increments, keeping his lips touching hers as he gazed into her eyes. “God, I’ve needed that since Judge McCarthy said I could kiss my bride.”

  “You behaved very admirably all afternoon.”

  “Which means I should be rewarded for my good behavior.” He slid his hands from her shoulders to her hands and tugged her along behind him as he left the kitchen and headed for their bedroom. “We should’ve gone somewhere tonight. Somewhere special.”