Page 21 of Delivery After Dark (Gansett Island #28)

T his , Sierra thought, was the thing she’d often witnessed happen with other couples but had never experienced herself.

It was the thing that’d made Duke fall headfirst into love with McKenzie and her son, Jax, without a single hesitation.

It’d happened to Jace and Cindy, as well as Kevin and Chelsea and countless other friends.

If she hadn’t seen it unfold, up close and personal, among her circle of friends, she might not have recognized the significance of this moment.

Every cell in her body was attuned to him sitting two feet from her, gripping the steering wheel with both hands as if he didn’t trust himself to touch her while he was driving.

He stared intently at the road as a muscle in his cheek pulsed with tension.

Knowing he wanted her so much made her acutely aware of her own power, which was another thing that was new to her. Sure, she felt powerful in her own little domain at the studio, but in the rest of her life? Not so much.

The five-minute ride from the hotel to her home was among the most erotically charged interludes of her life, and they didn’t so much as look at each other or exchange a single word.

It was the knowing… What they were capable of together, what would happen the second they were behind a closed door… And the wondering… What might this become? Was this what she’d been looking for all this time?

As they went up the stairs to her place, she felt his urgency moving her forward from behind. Her hands didn’t want to cooperate as she tried to put the key into the lock.

He took the key from her and got them inside with the same haste he’d shown on the stairs, nudging her forward and following her in, kicking the door closed as he reached for her.

Nothing like this had ever happened to her.

Not even close. She wanted to fully experience every second of it, but it was happening so fast, she almost couldn’t keep up with him as clothes were tossed aside and hands were touching her everywhere he could reach as they fell to the floor right inside the door.

Holy. Shit.

Julia had been on pins and needles since her noon appointment at the clinic when she’d gotten confirmation of what she already knew. Her set at Stephanie’s had seemed endless as she counted down to Deacon coming to pick her up and take her home so she could finally tell him the news.

Her heart did a happy little jolt when she saw him come in, smiling at her the way he always did.

No one had ever been so happy to see her.

While she was working, he’d been over to visit their new nephew at his brother’s house.

Julia couldn’t wait to hear how that had gone.

She looked forward to meeting baby Adrian tomorrow on her day off.

Soon, Stephanie’s would close for the winter, and his harbor master duties would be vastly reduced for the off-season.

The winter had become her favorite time of year because they had more time to hibernate together.

He oversaw police department training in the fall and winter, so he was still busy, but not like he was in the summer.

As she did every night, she ended her set with “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” the song she thought of as theirs, especially since she’d sung it for him at their secret wedding after the storm in which she’d nearly lost him.

Hearing that song, Pupwell lifted his head off the bed she kept for him under the piano, knowing it was time to go home. She loved that he recognized the song and knew what it meant.

This season with Deacon and Pupwell was the happiest time in a life that’d been full of trauma, starting with her abusive father and continuing through an eating disorder that’d nearly killed her once upon a time, not to mention a few terrible relationships with men who turned out to be far too much like her father.

All that felt like a long time ago now that she had her little family to go home to.

And it was about to get even better. She couldn’t wait to tell him the news.

“Thank you so much for coming in, everyone,” she said to the full house. “I’ll be off for a couple of days but back at it on Thursday. I’ll see you then.”

She never got tired of the applause from an enthusiastic audience. At one time, she’d been afraid to perform in front of people, which was another thing her asshole father had tried to take from her.

He was in prison, where he belonged, and she tried very hard to never think of him or the way he’d treated her, her mother and siblings for years. Each of her siblings had carried deep trauma into adulthood—and each of them had found a way to overcome it, for the most part, anyway.

Everyone was worried about Johnny, though. He hadn’t been himself since he’d come back from the mainland after taking care of their youngest brother, Jeff, who’d been seriously injured during the hurricane. And Johnny wasn’t talking to any of them about what was wrong.

She emptied the tip jar that overflowed with cash and tucked the bills into her purse to count later.

Deacon met her at the stairs to the stage, taking Pupwell’s leash from her and leaning in for a kiss. “Hi, honey.”

“Hi there. How was the visit with Adrian?”

“Awesome. He’s so cute. Wait until you see him.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Tiffany said to come over any time tomorrow.”

“I want to sleep in, and then we can go over there.”

“I can’t wait to sleep in. I’ve been thinking about that all day.”

He’d been incredibly busy in recent weeks as they hauled and winterized most of the harbor master boats and prepared to hunker down for the long, cold winter.

Deacon put an arm around her as they left the hotel and walked outside into the bitter chill.

The scents of woodsmoke and seaweed filled the air. They were among the scents of “home” to her since she’d lived full time on Gansett, where she and her siblings had spent idyllic summers with their grandparents as kids—in the very hotel where she now worked, doing the thing she loved the most.

Deacon held the door to his police department SUV for her and then helped Pupwell into the back seat, clipping him into his seat belt for the ride home.

The second they pulled out of the parking lot, Deacon reached for her hand, the way he always did.

She wrapped his hand inside both of hers.

After the dreadful scare of him being missing for hours during the storm, she’d never miss a chance to hold on to him with everything she had.

The horror of those endless hours, of fearing she’d lost the love of her life, would stay with her forever.

Every second with him felt like a miracle after that, and she loved him even more than she had before—if that was possible.

“When we get home, I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of surprise?”

“The kind you’ll like.”

“I already knew that because I like everything with you.”

“This is an extra good surprise.”

“You have my attention, Mrs. Taylor.”

Keeping their marriage a secret until the wedding they had planned for next summer had made being married even more special, because it belonged only to them and the few people who knew they’d tied the knot after he’d been found.

They’d wanted to be married right away after learning how quickly they could lose everything.

Since she’d be hugely pregnant by the summer, she planned to scale back the wedding to a big party to celebrate with their family and friends.

At home, Julia went directly to the bathroom to retrieve the positive pregnancy test she’d hidden three days ago. She’d wanted it confirmed by Victoria before she told Deacon the happy news.

Deacon and Pupwell were curled up together in a snuggle on the sofa when she joined them.

“Where’s this surprise I was promised?”

Julia held up the stick with the two lines.

His eyes went wide. “Yes?”

She smiled and nodded. “Confirmed today by Victoria. We’re due in late July.”

Deacon let out a loud whoop that scared the dog. “Sorry, buddy, but Mommy just told us we’re having a baby. You’re going to be a big brother!” He reached for her over the dog and kissed her soundly. “This is the best news ever.”

“We did a crap job of family planning, though. The baby will arrive during our busiest time of year.”

“Who cares? We’ll figure it out.”

Pupwell got tired of being squeezed between them and got down from the sofa to settle in his bed on the floor.

Deacon brought her in closer to him, placing a hand on her still-flat abdomen. “I can’t believe our baby is in there. He’ll be close in age to Adrian.”

“Or she will be.”

“I think he’s a boy.”

“How come?”

He shrugged. “Just a feeling I had when I was holding Adrian that I was going to have one just like him before long.”

“I’m thinking she’s a girl, but either way, the cousins will be best friends.”

“Or they’ll bicker like Blaine and I did until recently.”

“Nah, cousins don’t fight like brothers do.”

“That’s true.”

“He’ll be close in age to Shane and Katie’s baby, too, and the new quads and Mac and Maddie’s twins. So many kids.”

“They’re going to have to add on to the school.”

“Seriously.”

“The town council is already talking about it.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

Julia laughed. “That’s funny. The great Gansett Island baby boom.”

“Our baby will be lucky to grow up with so many friends.”

“That crew will be something as teenagers.”

“I can’t wait for a front-row seat to that show.”

On the advice of her husband, Charlie, Sarah had given her son Johnny space to deal with whatever he was going through.

“If he needs you, he’ll say so,” Charlie had said when John first retreated from them.

But Sarah wasn’t so sure of that. Her children had become experts at hiding their true feelings during an upbringing marred by violent outbursts from their unpredictable father.

She wasn’t at all convinced that Johnny would ever tell her—or anyone else, for that matter—what was making him so desperately unhappy.