Love After Dark (24 page)

“I like to make things easy for you.”

“You like to make things
expensive
for me.”

“At least I’m not spending all your money on diamonds and furs.”

He glanced up at her, looking absolutely gorgeous with his blond hair still wet from his morning swim and aviator sunglass perched on his nose. “You know you could do that, right?”

“What the heck do I want with diamonds or furs when there’re so many people in need?”

“You’re the only wife of a billionaire who’s ever uttered those words.”

“I doubt that.”

“You’re the only wife of mine who ever uttered those words.”

“Make the call, Jared.”

“Yes, dear.” He pressed the green button to initiate the call. “Hey, Q, what’s up?”

Lizzie stood by and forced herself to be patient while they talked about the Yankees’ playoff chances and Quinn’s new puppy, which was apparently chewing everything in sight.
 

“Are the ladies going mad over your new baby?” Jared asked.

Lizzie rolled her hand, encouraging him to get to the point of the call.

“Apologies in advance, but my wife is breathing down my neck because she’s got a big idea that seems to involve you.” Jared explained Lizzie’s plan for a senior care facility on Gansett Island. “She’s even got the location already scouted and a builder on board to do the renovations. The one thing we need to make this happen is a staff doctor, and Lizzie’s got her heart set on you.”

She couldn’t hear what Quinn said in reply, and Jared’s expression didn’t give anything away.

“Maybe you could come out, take a look and see what you think? You’ve been promising me a visit since you got out of the hospital.” After another pause, Jared said, “Sure. Think about it. Hit me up with a text. Will do.”

He ended the call and put the phone on the table. “He said he’d think about it.”

“Did he show any interest at all?”

“You know how he’s been since he got home. He doesn’t show much interest in anything. Let him sit on it for a day or two, and then we’ll see what’s what.”

Lizzie didn’t like having to sit on anything when she had a plan. She had calls to architects she could make in the meantime, but she’d like to know for sure that she had a doctor on board.

“There’s smoke coming out of your ears from gerbils working overtime on the treadmill.”

“There are no gerbils on treadmills inside my head.”

“Something is fueling that crazy brain of yours, my love.”

“I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t mean to drive you nuts all the time.”

He gave her hand a gentle tug that brought her tumbling onto his lap. “You don’t drive me nuts. I just have to act like you do, or I’ll totally lose control of things around here.”

She raised a brow in amusement. “So you still think you’ve got the control?”

His bark of laughter made her smile. “We both know you’ve got
all
the control. You’re the boss, baby. I’m just along for the ride, and it’s a beautiful ride. I love your energy and your passion and your desire to make things better for others. You heard about Paul and Alex’s predicament the other night and you’ve already got a plan in place to fix it for them.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but it’s no fun if you’re not as into it as I am.”

“I’m into whatever you’re into. Whatever you want, whenever you want it. Don’t you know that by now?”

He touched her heart when he said such sweet things. And the best part was he meant every word he said. “So there’s never going to come a day when you say, ‘
Enough
, Lizzie!’?”

“As long as we have an occasional day off to be lazy together—preferably naked and lazy—then I’m good.”

“What’re you doing today?”

He peeked at her over the top of his sunglasses. “As in
today
today?”

“As in one and the same. I’m on hold until we hear from Quinn, and the Chesterfield is closed today. I find myself with a rare bit of free time—” The air whooshed from her lungs when he stood and slung her over his shoulder, handling her as if she were weightless when she was anything but. “
Jared!
”

“I can’t talk right now. I’m having a naked lazy day with my very busy wife. Hold all my calls.”

Lizzie laughed all the way inside, where she spent the rest of the day being naked and lazy with her husband while hoping and praying that his brother would take them up on their offer.
 

“Are you still meeting me in town at lunchtime?” Alex asked Jenny before they parted ways for the day.
 

“That’s the plan. Marriage license day.” She rolled her lip between her teeth before seeming to remember he was watching. “Noon at Town Hall?”

“I’ll be there.” He hooked his arm around her waist. “What’s with the lip?”

“The lip?”

“You bite your lip when you’re worried about something.”

She looked up at him with bottomless eyes that saw all the way through him the way no one else ever had. Sometimes it was hard to remember that she’d had that connection once before with someone else. Not that it mattered, but still…
 

“Toby died the day after we applied for our license.”

“I’m not going to die tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“Do you? Do you really?”

Tears filled her eyes. “I’m a hot mess, and I’m so sorry to do this to you when we should be worry-free and looking ahead not back.”

An idea occurred to him right then and there, leaving him breathless with the desire to see it through immediately.
 

“Do me a favor,” he said, running with it.

“Sure.”

“Wear something really pretty to Town Hall, and I’ll take you to Stephanie’s for lunch after.”

“I can do that.”

Alex leaned in to kiss her. “Everything is going to be just fine, babe. I promise you.”

“Keep telling me that.”

“Any time you need to hear it.” He went into their room to retrieve what he needed to make his plan a reality and dropped her at the retail store on his way to work. “Kiss me.”

She reached for him over the center console and obliged him, wiping away the lipstick she left on his lips. “Love you. Be careful today.”

“I’m always careful. See you at noon. Don’t be late.”

“I’ll be there.”

The second the door shut behind her, he was on the phone with Evan McCarthy. “I need a favor, buddy.”

“Sure. What’s up?”

Alex outlined his plan to Evan and told him the reason for it.
 

“Dude, that’s seriously awesome. I’m in. I’ll meet you there at two.”

“Great, see you then.” Next, Alex called Sydney and Erin to get them on board.
 

Erin sniffled when he told her what he wanted to do and why. “Poor Jenny,” she said. “And you… You’re brilliant, Alex Martinez. I’m so happy you came into her life and made everything better.”

“That means a lot to me coming from you, Erin.”

“Toby would approve of you. And he would like you.”

“Christ, you’re going to make me bawl like a baby over here.”

“I’ll see you at two.”

“Thanks, Erin.” It totally sucked that Paul was off-island today, but Alex hoped his brother would understand. He made a call to Town Hall, spoke to the clerk about what he wanted to do and received her full support. His final call was to the mother of Ethan’s friend to ask if he could go to their house after school for a couple of hours. Hope had given him the number in case he needed it, and Jonah’s mom was happy to have Ethan and promised to pick him up from the bus stop. Another hurdle cleared. This was coming together almost too easily.

The hours at work were largely a waste as he was incredibly preoccupied with his plans. The clock inched slowly forward until it was finally eleven thirty. Feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning, Alex changed into shorts and a clean polo shirt in his truck before heading for town. He would’ve worn something nicer, but he didn’t want to tip his hand before he was ready to.

Looking gorgeous in a pretty summer dress, Jenny waited for him on the front steps at Town Hall. As they were going in, Blaine Taylor was coming out.

“Hey, guys,” Blaine said. “What’s up?”

“Marriage license time,” Jenny said.

“Wow, it’s getting close. Looking forward to the party this weekend.”

“I am, too,” Alex said. “See you there.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” He shook hands with Alex and kissed Jenny’s cheek before continuing on his way.

“I love living here and seeing friends everywhere we go,” Jenny said.

He patted her on the ass as they walked through the main doors. “I love living here a whole lot more since I met you.”

She giggled at his words and the ass grab.
 

They filled out the paperwork and emerged from Town Hall twenty minutes later, marriage license inside a sealed envelope, just the way Alex had requested. After a leisurely lunch at Stephanie’s, Alex made his move. “Take a ride with me.”

“Where? Don’t you have to get back to work? Paul’s off-island—”

“It’ll only take a few minutes. I want to show you something.”

“All right, but you can explain to my boss why I was late getting back from lunch.”

“Your boss can suck my dick.”

“Ugh, that’s so gross.”

“You love to suck my—”

Jenny’s hand over his mouth ended the sentence prematurely. “Shut up, or it’ll never happen again.”

“Shutting up now,” he said, his words muffled by her hand, which he nibbled. After she dropped her hand, he said, “Love you, Jenny Wilks-soon-to-be-Martinez.”

“Love you, too, Alex Martinez, even when you’re being nasty.”

“You love when I’m nasty.” He loved riling her up and every other damned thing about her. As they drove through the gates to the lighthouse where they’d met more than a year ago, his heart beat with excitement and anticipation and a tiny bit of fear that his big idea might not go over well with her.
 

“What’re we doing here? I saw Erin last night.”

“I have a little surprise for you.”

“What kind of surprise?”

“The kind you’re going to have to wait and see.”

She sat up straighter in her seat, but there was nothing to see—yet.
 

Alex pulled up to the spot he used to take when he was coming here to visit her and cut the engine. Then he turned to her, reaching for her hand.

“What’s going on?”

“You’re worried about something happening before our big day, right?”

She bit her lip and nodded.
 

“Today’s our big day. Right here where we first met, we’re going to get married. We’ll still have our wedding as planned, but that’ll be for everyone else. This, today, is for us. There’ll be nothing left to worry about once we’re legally and officially married.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she covered her mouth as a sob escaped from her lips.

One by one, the people he’d called earlier filed out of the lighthouse: Evan, his uncle Frank, Sydney and Erin, moving slowly on crutches.

Jenny saw them and began to cry harder.
 

“If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to. I just thought—”

She launched herself across the truck and into his arms, kissing him repeatedly. “You are the best guy in the whole world to think of this.”

“So you like the idea?”

“I
love
the idea, except Paul isn’t here.”

“He’ll understand completely, and he’ll still be my best man at our official wedding.”

“When did you think of this?”

“This morning.”

“And you made it happen for today?”

“I can’t bear to see you worrying when there was something I could do to fix it short of enclosing myself in bubble wrap for the next two weeks.”

“I’m sorry to have been worried—”