Operation Swift Mercy (12 page)

“I’ll go and help,
”
Del said rising from the lounge chair quickly.

“Oh no you won’t buddy. You sit back down there and write out those vows.”

“I can’t do it under
pressure,” he complained.

“He’s got performance anxiety,” Tupper chortled from the doorway.

“Shut up Tupper,” Del shot back. “This is driving me insane—I’ll do it when I get back,” he said putting the note pad back on the table.

“Peter Delaware,
sit back down and finish those vows right now
.
I am not standing up there while you wing it,” Willow told him sternly.

“Winging it’s what I do.”

“Fine!
Just g
o. Don’t worry about it,” Willow snapped, throwing her hands in the air and heading towards the door.

Del managed to get to the door at the same time she did, placing his hand on top of hers over the door knob. “Where are you going?”

“Out! Obviously this whole God damn wedding is just a big pain in the arse to you and I should just do everything on my own.”

“Baby, it’s not like that. Come on
,
you’re
overreacting.
”

“
Overreacting
?
”

The room took a collective step backwards as Willow’s voice rose a notch.

“
Okay, bad choice of words…look, it’s just not worth you being so strung out over this stuff.”

“It’s our
wedding vows
, Del! That’s pretty important.”

Del sent a glance over his shoulder and realised they had an audience. “Come on
,
we need to talk. We’ll be back,” Del said hustling his fiancé out the door and presumably back to their own room.

“Well, that was awkward,” Tupper said cheerfully after the door shut.

“They’ll sort it out
,
it’s just pre
-
wedding jitters. Maloney, can you and Tupper please go and get the
decorations
,”
Summer asked, taking
Ruby
from Tate and sending
Chase a
pleading
look
.
“Tate’s got some deliveries to make.”

Mercy saw Chase and Tate exchange a brief glance and jumped in quickly. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure I can find something to do around here to help?”
S
he asked turning toward Summer.

“There are a million things to help with
if
you’ve got the time,” the other woman smiled gratefully.

“You sure?”  Chase wore a frown as he checked with her.

“I’ll be fine,”
M
ercy said firmly. “I’ll stay right here with Summer.”

“Oh for goodness sake
,
she’s not going anywhere
. H
onestly
Maloney
you’re hovering like an old mother hen—give the girl some breathing room!” Summer laughed.

For a minute Mercy thought she saw a slight flush creep up Chase’s neck, but he turned away too fast for her to make sure.

“Let’s go dude. The sooner we do this
,
the soon we’re off wedding duty for the day
,
” Tupper grumbled. With one last look, Chase followed Tupper from the room and closed the door behind them.

Making herself useful, Mercy began packing the dishwasher and clearing the benches.

“Oh you’re a love, but honestly, you don’t have to work. Just sit down and relax…or feel free to go do whatever you have to do—I was only kidding when I said I’d put you to work,” Summer said as she searched for clothing and began dressing children.

“I don’t have any place I have to be. I’d like to help out.”

“Well we won’t turn down an extra set of hands.”

Mercy busied herself in the kitchen enjoying the
sound of children laughing and playing.
She’d never had much to do with
kids
before and found it fascinating.

Ruby was just the most adorable baby she’d ever set eyes on, while Emily was a delight.
From what she’d seen so far, t
he child could twist any adult around her little finger.

As she wiped down the bench tops her mind wondered over the past conversations with Nikkos when she’d brought up having kids. Each time it resulted in him pouting like a spoilt brat and going off in a huff. Children were not on his agenda…how could they be when he obviously felt he was the centre of the universe? She sighed sadly, if only she’d woken up to herself earlier and left him before all this…God what a mess. He would have let her go then…not now though…not once she’d seen what she had.

“You alright?”

Mercy glanced up quickly as she realised Summer had been speaking to her. “I’m sorry—what?”

“I asked if you wanted to come down to the pool with the kids and
me
for a swim.”

“Oh.” Mercy thought of Chase and wondered if he’d approve of her doing that or not.
It was
at the front of the resort, but hidden
from the
street…surely it would be okay to head down there for a while. “I don’t have any swimmers, but I’d love to come down and sit for a bit.”

“There’s a boutique downstairs, we can stop by on our way if you like?”

Swimmers hadn’t exactly been on her list of priorities while shopping for essentials the day before,
and seeing as she
was covered
in multi coloured bruises which would probably stand out and raise questions…it was probably not a good idea to go swimming just yet. “I’m not much of a swimmer
;
I think I’ll just dangle my feet in the water.”
Thankfully,
Summer didn’t push the matter and
Mercy followed
her
and the kids down to the pool.

“So now that we’re alone without those men hovering over us—tell me how you and Maloney met.”

Oh dear!
Mercy tried for a nonchalant expression,
“
Chase
didn’t tell you?”

“No…I’d also like to know how you got those bruises and why you’re favouri
ng your left side so much?”

At Mercy’s surprised look, Summer smiled briefly. “I’m a casualty ward nurse. I see bruises and beaten women far too often.

Mercy immediately went into a silent panic. Beaten women? Well okay,
technically
she’d been beaten …but she wasn’t beaten as in
domestic abused
.
“I was in an accident a few days ago—it’s not what you think.”

“I’m not judging you Mercy
,
I hope you didn’t think I was. I just wanted you to know you can talk to me if you need to…that I’d understand.”

“Thanks Summer
,
but
i
t really isn’t like that—I had a fall—”
Damn it—stop talking Mercy! You’re making it worse!
“A
real
fall…not like I walked into a door…ha ha,” she stammered awkwardly and groaned silently.
Just. Shut. Up!

Summer gave her what looked like an understanding smile and Mercy bit the inside of her lip angrily. Damn it—she used to be a pro at deflecting nosey people, she’d had a life time to perfect the art, growing up in her household.

“So is Willow okay?”
She wasn’t sure how they were all handling the bride to be having a
meltdown
so calmly
.

Summer waved a dismissive hand, “She’s fine. My sister, bless her cotton socks, doesn’t handle emotional stress very well. It’ll be okay, Del will calm her down and everything
’ll
be back on track again. So do you have something picked out to wear tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

Summer sent her the kind of smile one reserved for a slow witted person and instantly Mercy squirmed beneath her gaze. “To the wedding
,
silly.”

“Oh no,” she shook her head quickly
.
“
N
o, I can’t go to the wedding.”

“Why not?”

“Because…well I mean, I wasn’t invited.”

Summer gave a low chuckle, “Well of course you’re invited. You’re M
a
loney’s plus one. Mind you—we never thought we’d actually
see
a plus one…but here you are,” she smiled war
m
ly.

“But…you don’t even know me.”

Summer tilted her head, much like her sister had done the previous night at the restaurant. “Are you intending to hurt
Maloney
in any way?”

“Hurt him? Of course not,” Mercy stammered uncertainly.

For a long moment Summer didn’t speak—she just eyed her across the short distance between them calmly. “Then we know all we need to know,” she shrugged.

And apparently that was all there was to the interrogation!

****

“They expect me to go to the wedding,” Mercy said in a voice that sounded almost accusing as Maloney walked into the room later.

It took a minute for him to realise that
she didn’t exactly looked thrilled by this prospect. He hadn’t been expecting to find Mercy angry—he’d just been praying he’d find her in the
room
.

Having completed all the errands in record time and pretty certain that the
uptight
woman he and Tupper had picked up from arrivals was right this very minute giving Willow an earful on his defensive driving skills he’d needed to pull out
in order to get back here ASAP. H
e’d barely stopped to hear Summer
’
s answer to Mercy’s whereabouts
, running up
the
six flight of stairs, too impatient to take the elevator and had been taking his first relieved sigh as she’d made her annoyed announcement.

“Of course they do…why wouldn’t they?” He heard her frustrated sigh and frowned. What had he done now?
Surely he hadn’t been gone long enough
to
put his foot in it
…had he?

“What’s
wrong
with you people?”
S
he asked but he didn’t think she was expecting a reply. “They don’t
even
know me! Who invites people to a wedding they don’t know?”

“You’re with me
,
”
h
e shrugged.

“But I’m not…not really.”

“Yes. You are
.”
He didn’t like the fact she was back peddling so fast after last night…damn it! He knew he shouldn’t have left her alone this morning. He should have ignored Willow’s summons and made sure they talked over what happened.
What happened
…a twitch way down low made him shift uncomfortably as he recalled what had happened last night in that bed behind her. “Look…we need to talk about—”
 

“No. we don’t. We need to
not
talk about what happened.”

Maloney let out a frustrated cross between a chuckle and a groan as he massaged his forehead with one hand irritably. This was all new territory for him. He didn’t usually meet women that he felt a need to get into talking about feelings with. He wasn’t a man-whore like Tupper—not that Tupper was as badass as he liked everyone to believe.

He
just
tried to avoid one night stands, but it was a fine line between casual sex and not leading some woman on when he wasn’t in a position to put down permanent roots any time soon. He didn’t like complications and he didn’t like hurting women, so his often forced celibacy was
self-inflicted.

Not this time though.

This time he’d somehow fallen for a woman who didn’t want anything to do with him and damned if it didn’t sting like a bitch
,
to realise it.

“I don’t want you to think I
was taking
advantage of you or something…I wasn’t intending it t
o
be some cheap…” he let the sentence drift off, what had
it been then? He’d practically
taken her right there against the wall for God’s sake.

“Nothing happened that I hadn’t wanted to happen
,
”
she told him in a tone that sounded calm, but the fact she wouldn’t look at him made him uneasy.

“I don’t want you to think that you had some obligation…you know…after everything that’s happened over the last few days.”

“Chase, I’ve been thinking, I have money now—I’m not destitute anymore, I think I should get my own room,” she said in one quick breath.