Kisses After Dark (38 page)

“I’ll make sure the boys have a good time tonight.” Luke kissed Sydney. “See you later.”

“Much later.”

“I have my orders and a few promises tucked away.” He winked at her on his way out the door.

“Promises?” Jenny asked.

“A little incentive package to make sure girls’ night isn’t crashed too early.”

“Oh, I do like how you think.”

“So does he.”

Jenny and Sydney dissolved into laughter and were still giggling when Janey, Abby, Stephanie and Grace came in together. Everyone had brought appetizers and wine. Next came Laura and Owen’s sister Katie, followed shortly after by Kara.

“Get Katie a glass of wine, stat,” Laura said, pointing to her sister-in-law.

“Everything okay?” Syd asked.

“She’s been dating Shane and having a grand time until Shane’s ex-wife showed up out of nowhere today. More than two years without a freaking word, and she has the nerve… Ugh. She makes me sick.”

Katie patted Laura’s shoulder. “I’m worried about her blood pressure.”

“The sight of that woman sends everything into the red zone,” Laura said. “I mean why, after all this time, does she have to show up right when he’s starting to seem like his old self again? Does she have an
ounce
of compassion in that skinny little body?”

Sydney had never seen Laura mad, let alone furious. “What did Shane do?”

“Sent her packing, thankfully. But God only knows how much damage she left behind.”

A knock on the door interrupted Laura’s diatribe.

“Come on in.” Sydney gasped when Maddie came in, followed by her sister, Tiffany. “You’re back.” Sydney went right over to Maddie and gave her a hug.

“I’m back, and I’m empty-handed because I didn’t have time to make anything.”

“Stop,” Sydney said. “You didn’t have to bring anything. We’re so glad to see you.”

“Do me a favor,” Maddie said, her eyes glistening. “Let’s just have a good time tonight and not talk about the elephant in the room. Please?”

“Anything you need.”

“That’s what I need.”

“How about a big glass of wine?”

“That would be good, too.”

Sydney met Tiffany’s worried gaze over Maddie’s shoulder. Tiffany shrugged as if to say she was following Maddie’s lead.

“Who’s hungry?” Sydney asked, hoping to divert the attention away from Maddie. Everyone was worried and sad for her, but tonight they’d give her exactly what she’d asked for—a night away from it all.

Shane felt like a pent-up tiger waiting for Owen to tell him it was time to go. By the time Owen knocked on his door, Shane was ready to pounce. “Where are they? Do you know?”

“Yes, I know, but we’re not going there.”

“What do you mean? I need to see Katie.”

“All in good time.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Torturing you? Yes. Seeing my sister cry? Not so much.”

“I’m really sorry about that. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

“You need to tell her.”

“Which I would if you would
tell me where she is
!” In all the time they’d known each other, Shane had never had reason to yell at Owen, who stared at him now like he was seeing someone he’d never met before.

“Don’t make me change my mind about helping you out tonight.”

“How would you feel if Laura was upset with you, and no one would tell you where she was so you could go fix it?”

“You’re comparing you and Katie to me and Laura?”

Shane refused to squirm under Owen’s intense glare. “What if I am?”

“That would make things between you two awfully serious, and you only met last week.”

“Okay.”

Owen continued to study him with that intense glare that made Shane want to squirm. But he couldn’t do that. Not with so much riding on Owen’s approval and willingness to help him fix his massive screw-up. “How can you be that serious about her already?”

“How long did it take for you to know Laura was the one for you?”

“We’re not talking about me.”

“Answer the question.”

“I knew the day I met her that she was going to change my life.”

“There you have it.”

“That fast?”

“Believe me, I’m still trying to get my head around it myself. All I can tell you is that Katie has been more right for me in five days than Courtney was in five years.”

Owen smiled then, a big, bright smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “When you see her later, make sure you tell her that. It’ll matter to her.”

“How much later will I see her?”

“A couple of hours.”

“Owen, come on. Have a heart, will you?”

“Crashing girls’ night takes finesse and strategy. We can’t just stroll in there like we meant to. We have to act like we didn’t know they were there. If I tell you where she is, you’ll go in there like a bull in a china shop and ruin it for the rest of us. I’ve got to think of my brothers-in-arms.”

“I used to like you, and now I kinda hate you.”

Owen, that bastard, laughed hard. “You’ll like me again once you fix things with Katie.
If
you fix things.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Much appreciated. You’re all smug in your newly married bliss, but someday you’ll screw up, and I promise to enjoy it twice as much as you’re enjoying this.”

“Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Your sister is
all
about me.”

“Blissful and arrogant. A deadly combination. Don’t forget—I’ve been married, and you’re a rookie. Blissful arrogance leads to rookie mistakes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I stand warned and unconcerned.” Owen checked his watch. “Let’s go. We’re meeting the boys for dinner at the Beachcomber in ten minutes.”

“Dinner? I don’t want dinner. I want to talk to your sister.”

“I have to wonder why you don’t just pick up the phone and call her if you’re so all-fired anxious to talk to her.”

“Because. We live on the same hallway. We haven’t needed to call each other. Yet.”

Owen laughed again. He really was a rotten bastard when it came right down to it. “So you don’t even have her phone number. Speaking of rookie mistakes.”

“If I didn’t need you to get me to Katie, I wouldn’t be speaking to you right now.”

“Good to know.”

“I’m going to tell Laura how you tortured me.”

“I bet she’ll side with me.”

“I’ve known her longer.”

“I’m sleeping with her.”

“Shut the fuck up. Will you please? Just shut the fuck up.”

Owen laughed all the way to the Beachcomber, where they met up with Joe, Adam, Grant, Evan, Blaine, Alex, Paul and Dan. A short time after they arrived, Shane’s other cousins Riley and Finn joined the party. Shane was forced to sit through several rounds of beers and somehow managed to choke down the burger Owen ordered for him.

“What’s the matter with you tonight?” his cousin Evan asked. “You’re wound tighter than a drum.”

“I’m being held hostage against my will.” Shane used his thumb to point at Owen. “I need to speak to his sister, who is with my sister at girls’ night out, but my jackass brother-in-law won’t tell me where they are.”

“I know where they are,” Evan said. “We all do.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Depends. What’d you do to Katie?”

“Oh my God. Not you, too. You’re my freaking
cousin
. Whose side are you on?”

“If you did something that will make all the women mad, I’m on her side. Firmly on her side.”

“If being blindsided by my ex-wife while returning from a day in Newport with Katie counts as me doing something to piss them all off, then feel free to take her side.”

“Dude,” Evan said gravely. “Courtney was
here
?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“And I had it out with her, but not before I released Katie’s hand at the sight of her and asked her to give me a minute with Courtney. Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to do.”

“Whoa… Yeah, bad move.”

“I was
blindsided
. I hadn’t seen or talked to Courtney in more than two years. She served me divorce papers without so much as a
conversation
, and I’m sorry, but I had a few questions for her after all that time.”

Grant and Adam tuned in to their conversation, both of them listening intently.

“Did you get any answers?” Adam asked.

“Some. I guess. She says it was all done to protect me. She was in trouble, and it wasn’t going away for a while, so she set me free to spare me. Yada, yada. Now she wants me back.”

“Holy shit,” Grant said in a hushed tone. “What’d you say to that?”

“I said no. No fucking way am I going back to her after what she put me through. And if what’s his name would let me see Katie,
I’d tell her that
.” This was said loudly enough for Owen to hear.

“We know where they are,” Adam said, glancing at his brothers. “We can take you there.”

“Would you
please
?”

“It’s up to him.” Adam pointed to Evan. “His turn to be the designated driver.”

“I’m happy to help the cause,” Evan said. “Let’s go.”

They stood up and tossed money on the table to cover their tab.

“Wait,” Luke said. “Where’re you going?”

“Time to crash,” Evan said.

“Not yet. I promised Syd a couple of hours, and it’s only been an hour and a half.”

Shane would’ve sworn he’d been there for at least eight hours, or so it seemed.

“By the time we get there, it’ll be almost two,” Grant said. “That counts as a ‘couple’ of hours.”

“I was made promises,” Luke said. “
Good
promises. You wouldn’t want to screw that up for me, would you?”

All eyes turned to Shane. Under normal circumstances, he was happy to help a brother out. These were not normal circumstances. “Sorry, Luke. I need to see Katie, and I need to see her right now.”

Evan shrugged. “The man is on a mission. We’re just his wingmen.”

Bolstered by his cousins’ support, Shane got up and started to leave with them.

“Wait a minute,” Owen said.

Groaning, Shane turned to him. “Don’t start again.”

“All I was going to say is good luck. And please, don’t do anything to hurt her. She’s been hurt enough in her life.” Gone was the earlier torment and swagger. All that remained was a concerned older brother. Shane extended his hand to his brother-in-law. “You have my word that I’ll never again do anything to hurt her.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I never do.”

Owen shook his hand.

“Come on,” Shane said to his cousins. “Let’s go.” He followed them down to the street where Evan had parked Grace’s four-door sedan. The four men piled into the small car. Shane was crammed into the backseat with Adam. “This is like a clown car.”

“It’ll get us to Luke and Sydney’s house,” Evan said in defense of the car.