McCarthys of Gansett Island Boxed Set Books 1-3 (40 page)

Her insides churned with indecision. She needed to see Joe, to find out what had driven him to
punch
David, and mostly to see if he was all right. The Joe she knew and loved wouldn’t do such a thing. So what had happened? Did David say something he shouldn’t have? Janey wouldn’t put it past him.

“Did he say anything about what happened?” she asked her father.

“Not much.”

“I’ll come by the marina after a while.”

“Is there anything I can do, Princess?” he asked in a soft voice that brought tears to her eyes.

“I could use a big hug from my daddy.”

“You got it,” he said gruffly. “I’ll see you soon.”

Ending the call, she turned back to Maddie. “I need to see David. Can you take me to the clinic?”

“Of course.”

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the entrance to the Emergency Room. Janey reached for the handle to open the car door but was hit with a sudden bout of paralysis. Waiting inside was the man she’d loved all her life, the same man who had betrayed her and didn’t have a clue that she knew what he’d been up to while continuing to profess his undying love for her.
 

“Janey? Are you all right?”

“I don’t know if I can do this. How do I go in there and play the role of the concerned fiancée when I
know
what he’s done?”

“Just take it a step at a time. Deal with the injury and what happened with Joe this morning. Later, when you’re alone, you can talk to him about the rest.”

Janey rested a hand on her aching belly. “I don’t want to be alone with him. The thought of it makes me sick.”

“Then you don’t have to be. Mac and I meant it when we told you we’ll do anything we can to get you through this in one piece.”

Janey continued to stare at the entrance to the ER. “It’s funny, you know? A week ago, if I’d heard he was hurt, I would’ve dropped everything and gone running.”

Maddie rested a hand on Janey’s, infusing it with much-needed warmth. “That was before you discovered he’d been unfaithful to you. You don’t owe him anything. If you’d rather not go in there, you certainly don’t have to.”

“If I don’t, then the whole island will be talking about why I didn’t show. Joe has already given them enough cause for speculation.”

“Are you angry with him? With Joe?”

“I’m shocked, to be honest. It’s so unlike him. I just keep wondering what David could’ve said to set him off.”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Yeah, well. . . First things first.”

“Want me to come in with you?”

“Oh! Would you? That’d be great.”

“Let’s go.”

Inside, they asked for David and were shown to a curtained cubicle at the end of a long hallway. Glancing at Maddie for courage, Janey stuck her head inside and gasped at the sight of David bruised and bloody and swollen. Damn! Joe had done quite a number on him!
 

“Well, look who it is,” David said with a bitter edge to his voice. “My missing fiancée.” His face was so distorted he didn’t even sound like himself. “Where the heck have you been, Janey? I’ve been trying to call you for days!”

As if she was meeting him for the first time, she studied the thick dark hair she’d so loved running her fingers through, the piercing blue eyes, the strong jaw and sensuous lips. David Lawrence had always made her heart race, but looking at him now, she felt dead inside. “I had. . . um. . . some stuff to take care of.”

“What kind of stuff? And what the hell’s wrong with Joe?”

“Did you say something to him?”

“I said hello. That was it. Next thing I know, I’m on my ass with a broken nose that hurts like a mother.” Under each eye was the start of what would no doubt be colorful shiners—the least of what he deserved. “What’d I ever do to him?”

Since Janey couldn’t very well answer that question, she said nothing. He didn’t seem to notice as he continued to rant.

“You didn’t tell me what ‘things’ you had to take care of that kept you from calling me back for three days.”

He sounded sulky and petulant. Did she dare remind him of the many times over their years together that she’d waited sometimes a week for a return call from him while he was doing who knows what with other women? As she studied him, she decided it wasn’t worth the bother of the argument. What did it matter now?
 

“We need to talk—”

“Where’s your ring?”

Her brain froze on the image of the buxom blonde riding him hard.

“
What the hell is going on here, Janey?
”

“It’s over,” she said softly. Thirteen years of her life. Gone. Done. Over. And she had absolutely nothing to show for them.

“What is?”

“We are.”

“What are you—”

“I saw you.”

His eyebrows knitted with confusion, which apparently pained him. Tears flooded his eyes, but Janey wasn’t naive enough to think they were for her. Not anymore. “You saw me? Where?”

Janey felt like she was floating above herself, looking down at someone who looked like her and sounded like her but wasn’t her at all. “In bed.”

“You’re talking in riddles,” he said, exasperated. “When did you see me in bed?”

“I came to your apartment on our anniversary to surprise you, but the surprise was on me. You should really lock your doors when you’re ‘entertaining.’”

All the remaining color drained from his face when he finally got what she was telling him. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re goddamned right I don’t.” Janey gave herself credit for keeping her voice down when she really wanted to shriek and rail and punch him until he hurt as much as she did. “And guess what? I really don’t want to understand.”

“Wait. Janey, listen—”

“There’s nothing you can say and nothing you can
ever
do to get the image of you having sex with another woman out of my head.”

“It’s not what you think.”

Janey laughed when she wanted to cry. “You’re probably going to tell me you were conducting medical research or some other lame story that you’ll expect me to believe.”

“It only happened once.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I swear to God!”

“Don’t swear to God and then lie to my face. You’ll go to hell.”

He touched his wounded face and winced. “Already there.”

“You don’t
know
hell!” She no longer cared about keeping her voice down. “You didn’t have to see me
writhing around in bed with another guy
!”

“You don’t get it, Janey. Work is so stressful, I miss you so much, and there’s this other thing going on. . . I just needed to take the edge off.”

She stared at him, incredulous. “I offered to move to Boston so I could ‘take the edge off’ anytime you wanted, but you said I should stay on the island. At least now I know why you were so anxious to keep me tucked away where I couldn’t ‘surprise’ you anytime
I
needed to take the edge off.”

“Janey—”

“You’ve made a fool of me and a mockery of all the years I spent waiting for you. I was
always
faithful to you.”

“She means nothing to me. You’re the one I love. I’ve always loved you, and you know that.”

Images of Joe making sweet love to her chose that moment to pop into her overworked brain. “If you really loved me, you wouldn’t have ‘taken the edge off’ with other women while you were engaged to me.” Deciding she wanted nothing to remind her of all the years she’d spent so foolishly devoted to him, Janey dug the ring out of her bag.
 

She dropped it on the bed and took one last long look at the man she’d loved all her life. “Don’t get any ideas about pressing charges against Joe. You’re lucky he
only
broke your nose. He and Mac were quite prepared to kill you after they heard what you’d done. I told them you weren’t worth the trouble. Turns out I was right about that. Have a nice life.”

Turning, she battled her way through the curtain to the hallway, where Maddie leaned against the wall looking embarrassed to have overheard the exchange.
 

“Janey!” David called. “Wait!”

“Get me out of here,” she muttered to Maddie. Her legs suddenly felt like spaghetti, and Janey wasn’t sure they’d support her weight for much longer. “Please just get me out of here.”

“I’ve got you.” As Maddie put an arm around her and hustled her through the waiting room, Janey felt every eye in the place on her. She and David hadn’t been quiet. News of their broken engagement was probably already burning up the island phone lines.

“Oh, God, my parents,” Janey whispered. “They should hear this from me, not the gossips.”

“I’ll take you to them. Just hang in there. The worst part is over.”

“How’d I do?”

“Better than I would have. You held yourself together and got through it with your dignity intact.”

That might be true, Janey thought, but hearing him casually confess to being unfaithful had broken what was left of her heart.

Chapter 9

Maddie called ahead to let Janey’s mother know they were coming, so Janey wasn’t surprised to find both her parents, Mac, and Joe waiting for her at “The White House,” the nickname the locals had given the McCarthy’s two-story colonial that overlooked North Harbor. Down the hill from the house was McCarthy’s Gansett Inn and McCarthy’s Marina.

The first thing she noticed when she and Maddie stepped into the kitchen was Joe’s swollen right hand. Before she could say anything about it, however, her mother rushed her. Janey could see her mother had been crying, which made her mad all over again at David.

“Oh, sweetie! I don’t know what to say.”

“I’m sorry you heard it from someone other than me.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Linda said, stroking a hand over Janey’s back. “All we care about is that you’re okay.”

“I suppose I will be. Eventually.”

“These things take time, honey,” Big Mac said.

Janey absorbed the comfort of her mother’s embrace for a long, quiet moment. When she opened her eyes, she found Joe watching her intently. An odd current of awareness zipped through her, reminding her once again of the connection they’d shared during their time together.

She wanted a moment alone with him but knew it couldn’t happen now.

Big Mac was next in line for a hug, and he lifted Janey off her feet. Surrounded by her father’s familiar scent and overwhelming love, Janey finally broke. “Aww, baby,” he said, holding her tight against him. “It’s gonna be all right. I promise you’ll be just fine. We’ll see to that, won’t we, Lin?”

“You bet we will.”
 

Her parents guided her to a sofa in the family room and sat on either side of her. The others followed, hovering on the perimeter of her disaster.

“So will we,” Mac said, standing with his arm around Maddie, who nodded in agreement.

Joe remained a quiet observer, but upon another quick glance, Janey noticed a tick of tension at work in his cheek. She looked away, unable to process all the emotion she felt coming from him. He no doubt wanted to scoop her up and take her away somewhere until she stopped hurting so badly.

“What happened at the clinic, honey?” Linda asked.

As Janey relayed as much of the conversation with David as she could bear to repeat, she watched Joe slip from the room and wished she could go after him. She hated that he was hurting, too.

Mac kissed Maddie’s forehead and followed his friend.

Janey swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “We’ll have to cancel the wedding. You’ve spent all that money—”

“Don’t give it a thought,” Linda said. “We’ll worry about that when you’re ready to.”

“I hate him for doing this to me,” Janey whispered. “For ruining everything.”

“So do we, honey,” Big Mac said, squeezing her shoulder. “So do we.”

Joe couldn’t take another minute of listening to Janey’s heartbreak. He’d already endured more than he could handle. Flexing his bruised hand, he winced at the shaft of pain that greeted the movement.

“Takes about a week,” Mac said.

Turning to his friend, Joe said, “What does?”

“The hand. It took about a week for mine to heal after I flattened Darren Tuttle.”

Joe smiled. “Ah yes. I remember now. Another broken nose to our credit.”

“Both times, they had it coming.”

Darren, the loser who’d already ruined Maddie’s reputation with false rumors in high school, had made an off-color comment about her voluptuous figure that Mac hadn’t appreciated.
 

“Except you’re not known as the hothead of this duo,” Mac reminded him. “In fact, I suspect this might be the first broken nose to your credit.”

“You suspect correctly.”

“What gives, man?”

Joe stared out over the expansive view of North Harbor. “I saw his smug, smiling face and something snapped.”

“So he didn’t even say anything?”