Fool for Love (9 page)

He gave himself a few minutes to make sure
the Advil would stay down before he took the hotel's front steps to the
sidewalk and crossed the street to the ferry landing. The first boat of the day
had just arrived from the mainland, and his staff was hard at work unloading
cargo and preparing the next boat. Off to the side, two of his younger
employees engaged in good-natured horseplay while they waited to supervise the
loading of the passenger vehicles that were lined up to drive onto the next
ferry.

"Hey!" Joe called to the two
young men, who immediately froze at the sound of his voice. "I'm not
paying you to fool around. Knock it off!"

His unusual outburst caught the attention
of all the employees working in the area, but Joe pretended not to notice as he
headed for the office. Screw it, he thought. Even the best of bosses was
allowed a foul mood every now and then.

"Hey, Joe!"

At the sound of a familiar voice, Joe
turned, giving his aching head time to catch up to the sudden movement. His
bleary eyes cleared to find David Lawrence coming off the ferry. Joe's hands
rolled into fists.

"I thought that was you." David
extended a hand. "How's it going?"

Joe in his right mind would've reluctantly
shaken David's hand and gone on with his life. Joe in love with the woman who
had cried her heart out over this guy didn't shake the proffered hand or go on
with his life. Rather, he raised one of those fists and plowed it into the good
doctor's handsome, smiling face.

Now that, Joe thought as David collapsed
to the pavement, had been worth getting up for.

They'd let him make one phone call, so naturally Joe
called Mac, knowing his friend would approve of the so-called "crime"
that had landed him in the island's only jail cell. A woman at the marina
reported that Mac was out on the Salt Pond. She promised to give him the
message as soon as he returned. In the meantime, Joe was left to cool his heels
on a stiff cot with an icepack wrapped around his swelling knuckles.

Images of David's bloody face and girlish
shrieks ran through his mind. Joe grunted out a laugh. It'd been worth it.
So
totally worth it
. Getting arrested for assault was a small price to pay for
seeing that pompous ass taken down a few notches. Joe's satisfaction in
exacting a tiny bit of revenge on Janey's behalf was tempered by the pounding
in his head and the lingering nausea.

Right at that moment, it occurred to
him—for the first time—that Janey might not appreciate what he'd done. An odd
twinge of anxiety danced up his spine as the rustling of footsteps outside the
cell had him sitting up straighter on the cot.

Along with Joe's high school classmate,
Gansett Island Police Chief Blaine Taylor, Big Mac McCarthy came around the
corner and stood outside the cell, hands on hips, his usually amiable face set
into an expression of supreme displeasure.

Oh, shit
.

Joe stared at the man he'd loved like a
father since he'd been a newly fatherless seven-year-old transported from the
frenetic energy of New York City to his grandparents' home on a tiny island
with fewer than a thousand year-round residents. One of the more important
residents, at least to Joe, was currently giving him the once-over and
apparently not liking what he saw. Disappointing Big Mac had never been high on
Joe's to-do list.

"What's the meaning of this, my
friend?"

"Call it an act of impulse."

"You broke his nose."

"He broke her heart!"

Big Mac's lips tightened. "So I
hear."

Joe crossed his arms and winced when his
abused knuckles made contact with his shirt. "He had it coming."

"Perhaps, but to my thinking, it was
her punch to throw, not yours." Big Mac ran a huge hand through wiry gray
hair. "Do you know I haven't been in here since you and Mac decided to
flatten half the mailboxes on the island with my truck?"

Blaine snickered, and Joe sent him a dirty
look.

Joe swallowed hard as memories of a
long-ago night came flooding back. That had been the first time he'd
disappointed Big Mac, and Joe had gone to great lengths to make it the only
time—until today.

"Remember what I did then?" Big
Mac asked.

He and Mac had never forgotten the endless
night in jail when they were just sixteen. And that, of course, had been Big
Mac's goal. While they'd still gotten into their share of mischief, they'd
never gone near another mailbox. Joe stared at the older man, incredulous.
"You're not planning to leave me in here overnight."

"That's up to you," Big Mac
said.

"What do you mean?"

"You need to apologize and kiss some
serious ass so he'll drop the charges."

Joe released a humorless laugh.
As if!
"Not in this or any other lifetime."

"Then you'd better get comfortable. I
hear the judge isn't due back until next Friday. Isn't that right,
Blaine?"

"Sure is. He'll arraign you then on
felony assault charges."

"That ought to be real good for
business," Big Mac added.

Joe swore under his breath. Stuck in here
for
six days
? That hadn't been part of the plan—not that he'd had much
of a plan before the sight of David's smarmy face sent him over a cliff he
hadn't realized he'd been teetering on. No, he didn't regret flattening the
bastard, and he'd be damned if he would apologize.

"Does Janey know about this?"
Joe forced himself to ask. His gut clenched with guilt and his mouth went dry
as sand when it dawned on him that since he last saw Big Mac McCarthy, he'd
made mad, crazy love to the man's beloved only daughter. The same daughter he'd
called Princess until she turned nineteen and begged him not to.

"I reckon most of the island knows by
now. The good doctor put on quite a show."

"Fucking baby," Joe muttered.
"It's the least of what he deserves."

"Lucky for you, I happen to agree, even
if I don't approve of you taking it upon yourself to even the score."

Oh, if only he knew
…

"You're a respected businessman, a
pillar of this community," Big Mac continued. "You've got no place
resorting to violence in front of your employees and customers."

No one had ever had been better at
building Joe up or cutting him down to size when necessary. Apparently, not
much had changed in the nearly twenty years since he and Mac had become adults.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you."

"I have a feeling I'm going to be the
least of your worries." Big Mac nodded to Blaine who opened the cell.

Before Big Mac could change his mind, Joe
made for the open door. "I thought you said I'd have to apologize
first."

Big Mac's eyes twinkled with mirth.
"I just wanted to see what you'd have to say to that."

Blaine laughed at the expression on Joe's
face. "Well played, Mr. McCarthy."

"Glad I'm available to amuse you
both," Joe said.

Laughing, Big Mac put an arm around Joe's
shoulders. "While you know damned well I don't condone violence, after
hearing about what he did, I probably would've been tempted to punch him
myself. You saved me the trouble."

Even though he was usually taller than
most men, Joe had to look up at Big Mac. "Did I really break his
nose?"

Big Mac squeezed his shoulder. "Sure
did."

"Good."

Joe had punched David. Joe had punched David
in the face
, breaking his
nose. Thirty minutes after hearing about the incident at the ferry landing,
Janey was still trying to get her head around it—and trying to decide where she
wanted to go first, to the jail to bail out Joe or to the clinic to confront
her wayward fiancé.

"I'll take you anywhere you want to
go," Maddie said after Janey vocalized her dilemma. "Mac left us the
truck."

"Don't you have to work?"

"I took a few weeks off to get ready
for the wedding." Her cheeks flushed with color. "Your brother
insisted I enjoy every minute of it."

"That's awesome. He's right. It's a
once-in-a-lifetime event, and you should enjoy it." Janey ached, thinking
about the plans for her once-in-a-lifetime day that wasn't going to happen now.

"What do you want to do, Janey?"

"What do
you
think I should
do?"

Before Maddie could state her opinion,
Janey's cell phone rang, and she took the call from her father.

"I've bailed out Joe," he said without
preamble. "He's coming to the marina to have lunch with me."

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
awhile."

"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?