Chapter Eighteen
Aleck blinked, his heart quickening and his palms going damp. Those words were eerily similar to what he’d heard nearly twenty years ago.
“An accident?” he repeated, his words low and unsteady. “Delonna?”
“Aye.”
Aleck came around the desk, his heart going a mile a minute now. “What kind of accident. Is she all right?”
Colin didn’t answer right away, and the sick feeling of dread in Aleck’s chest exploded.
“Where is she? What happened?” he asked thickly, reaching for his keys.
“A call came in from a concerned citizen, reporting a vehicle speeding dangerously,” Colin said, his voice low and unsteady. “They were able to give a license plate right before the witness saw the car go off a cliff into the Sound.”
“No. No.” He knew where this was leading.
“Aleck…it was Delonna’s car. I’m so sorry. They haven’t recovered the vehicle yet, but are working on it. But with the time that’s passed since it sank…” Colin paused, pain and regret flashing in his eyes “…they’re now calling it a recovery, not a rescue mission.”
“I don’t believe it.” Aleck was going to be sick. He staggered around through the office toward the bathroom, but standing over the toilet, nothing came out.
Colin appeared in the doorway. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry, Aleck.”
Closing his eyes, Aleck let the denial rock through him. The rage and pain hit with the force of a tsunami.
No. Jesus Christ no.
He grabbed his keys. “Where,” he choked out. “Where is she?”
Colin gave him the location and rushed on. “You’re in no condition to drive, Aleck. Please, just stay here. Ian and Sarah are bringing the baby and coming over.”
Aleck pushed past him, keys in hand, and ran out the door. He was half blind from the tears in his eyes as he climbed into his car.
He knew exactly where the accident was said to have happened, but his mind and heart wouldn’t let him believe it as he drove to the scene.
“Please God,” he whispered. “Don’t let this be true. It can’t happen twice. It can’t.”
When he arrived on the location though, he was met with a mass of emergency responders and curious onlookers. He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to reach the edge of the cliff where the car had gone off the road.
He reached it just in time to see her car being slowly pulled from the water. Could see the shape of a body up front.
Grief ripped through him and he barely made it back to his car before falling to his knees with a sob. How was this happening? How the fook was this happening? Delonna was dead. He’d lost her. Just as he’d lost Cassie. Only this time, the pain was tenfold.
He climbed into the car and behind the wheel. This was all his fault. He may as well have driven that car off the cliff himself. Did she do it intentionally?
Not even realizing where he was going, he found himself driving toward her and Kenzie’s house. His sister had left work earlier, and maybe she would have answers. Give some light on what had happened.
She’s dead, that’s what happened.
He had to pull over when he was sure he was going to be sick. He opened the door, felt the bile in his throat, but all he could do was dry heave. His eyes burned as if rubbed with sandpaper. He closed the door and started driving again.
When he pulled up outside Kenzie’s house, he hoped like hell he’d see Delonna’s car out front. Somehow convinced himself he would. That maybe this was just some big mistake. Maybe it was a car that was the same make and model as hers.
And the same license plate?
He stumbled out of the car and went to the front door. He didn’t bother knocking, and realized it was unlocked anyway. He stumbled inside.
“Kenzie,” he cried out hoarsely, moving blindly down the hall. “Oh God. Kenzie! She’s dead. She’s fookin’ dead.”
There were soft footsteps, then: “Who’s dead?”
*
When Aleck turned around to face her in the hallway, Delonna swore he went about four shades paler.
“You’re alive,” he whispered, eyes round and pupils dilated with shock.
“I guess that’s debatable. I mean, technically, yes. I have a pulse. Emotionally, I’m a little dead.”
He stared at her as if he’d seen a ghost, then moved toward her, touching her cheek with trembling fingers. Smoothing away the moisture there.
“Tears.” The word was full of wonder. “You’re really here?”
“Yes, I’m really here. Aleck, what kind of question is that?” She pulled away, and brushed away the moisture still gathered in her eyes. “And I’m crying because one, you’re an asshole. And two, I’m out of ice cream—I had to resort to yogurt. I fucking hate yogurt…” She trailed off. “Wait, why are you crying?”
“Because I thought you were dead,” he rasped. “Your car went over a cliff into the Sound.”
“My car? I’ve been home all night. It must be someone else. My car is right out front.”
“No, it’s not.”
Delonna dropped her spoon back into the yogurt, set it down on the table in the living room and then rushed to her purse, digging through it.
“My keys are gone. After all that son of a bitch did to me, he stole my car too? Seriously?”
She turned around, ready to run outside and check to see if her car was indeed gone, but smacked into Aleck.
He had her in his arms before she could blink, pulled so tight she could scarcely breathe.
“Aleck,” she gasped.
“Please, just let me hold you for a moment.” He pressed her cheek into his shoulder as his hands moved over her back.
So confused, she tried to put the pieces together. He’d thought she was dead. James had stolen her car. Had gone over a cliff?
“Wait. James is dead?” she whispered unevenly.
“If he was the one driving your car, then aye. Someone was killed in that vehicle. I watched it being pulled from the water. Colin was the one to tell me you’d been killed.”
It sank in and her stomach twisted. The hair on the back of her neck lifted. “So there’re a bunch of people who think I’m dead right now? We need to let them know I’m okay, Aleck. Now.”
“Aye. Of course.” He pulled away, visibly struggling to compose himself. “Let me call Colin.”
She waited while he made the call, heard their low and emotional exchange. When Aleck slid his phone away a moment later, he turned immediately back to her.
“Colin is letting everyone know you’re all right,” Aleck said unsteadily. His gaze unwavering on her. “He said they think the brake lines in your car were cut. If James hadn’t stolen your car, it could’ve very well been you. He said they’ve got a pretty good idea who this bookie is, and are sending in a team to get him tonight.”
She could’ve been dead. Her brake lines were cut. That was enough to make her start to shake.
“Also, the police will be over in an hour to question you. Not a minute sooner.”
“An hour?”
“I need at least an hour, luv.”
“An hour for what?” She gave a small shrug.
He closed the distance between them and lifted her off the ground in two seconds flat.
“Aleck!”
He ignored her panicked cry, carrying her straight back to the bedroom and depositing her on the bed.
“What the—”
He was on top of her in an instant, his mouth covering hers in a frenzied, desperate kiss. When his mouth left hers to travel down her neck she shook her head.
“Aleck,” she pleaded weakly. “We can’t do this anymore.”
He ignored her, pushing her shirt up over her breasts and making a groan of pleasure when he found them braless.
His lips closed around her nipple a moment later and she lost all ability to protest. His hands and mouth were everything. Touching her and tasting her. His gaze, every time it moved over her, a confusing mix of agony and relief.
When he thrust into her moments later, their fingers were laced, and she gave herself completely to him. Tears were in her eyes at knowing she was falling right back down that rabbit hole of love. Who was she kidding? She’d never gotten out.
Soon they were both boneless and spent, bodies intertwined and hearts pounding in near unison. But nothing had really changed, she thought. Maybe this was one last, relief-filled lovemaking celebrating the fact she was alive, but it couldn’t happen again. She wasn’t strong enough to survive it again.
She tried to pull away from him, feeling tears roll down her cheeks, but he held firm in his grip around her waist.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to love you, but in the end I couldn’t stop it any more than I could stop the setting sun.”
She closed her eyes and her heart twisted. “You’re only saying this because you thought I’d died, Aleck.”
“Aye, maybe that’s what finally made me say it. But I felt it long before I admitted the truth. I knew I loved you in Edinburgh.” He gave an incredulous laugh. “But I denied it to you, and to myself. Because I refused to go through the pain of losing someone again. And then…for nearly an hour, I thought I had.”
She stroked his cheek, touched and amazed to find a tear on it. Just like the tear on her own.
“And denying I loved you didn’t make it hurt any less in the end,” he continued raggedly. “It hurt more, Lana, because I thought you’d died without knowing the truth. That I loved you. That I loved you so fookin’ much I didn’t even know who I was without you anymore.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks and she shook her head. “I think I knew, Aleck. That you were just afraid to love again. But I thought you’d never open up. You’d never give us a chance.”
“I want more than a chance.” He flipped her onto her back and climbed on top of her again, his gaze holding hers. “I want everything, Lana. I want marriage, I want babies, and I want everything I’m so terrified of losing again. I want to take that chance that life will turn out okay. That we’ll have forever.”
“It will turn out okay,” she promised, her heart so full now.
“And, if you’ll have it, I want you to take not just my name, but half of McLaughlin’s Pub. Be a co-owner, luv. There’s no need to start your own.”
Her breath caught and her eyes rounded. “That’s huge. Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life,” he said thickly. “And I know you’re young, and if you want to wait on marriage and children, I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
“I don’t need to wait.” She gave a choked laugh. “I’ve waited this long for you to come to your senses. I love you so much, if there were a minister in the room I’d marry you now.”
She felt his body stir to life again, and a moment later he began to ease back inside her.
“You’d get married now? While we’re doing this?”
Pleasure shone in her eyes. “Why not?”
“He might be scandalized.”
“I don’t mind a good scandal.” She closed her eyes as passion took over. “Aleck.”
“Lana.”
For once she let herself think beyond the passionate moment, knew that this was so much more than just sex and lust. This was the man she loved. Her future. The father of her future children.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you more.”
“The fook you do.”
“Mmm. The fook I do.” He sank deep. “And veery well.”
“Aye, you do.” She smiled and pulled his head down for another kiss.
*
Never would she have thought it possible to be this happy. Brenda McLaughlin looked around the family barbeque and felt her heart swell with emotion.
Happiness had been a constant in her life since she’d met Rodrick and they’d made their own challenging way to a happily ever after.
But now, her happiness expanded further than her four children and amazing husband. They were still her children, but now they were all grown up and blissfully married with kids.
There were grandchildren, one old enough to be texting her boyfriend on her cell phone, another at the age where he could run from his grandpa as Rodrick chased him about the backyard, and then a bunch of chubby-faced babies. This, being a grandmother, was Brenda’s heaven on earth.
“Can I get you another glass of wine?”
She smiled as her son-in-law approached. “That would be lovely, thank you, Brett.”
When he returned a moment later with her glass, she accepted it with a murmur of thanks. He stayed by her side, lingering on the porch and staring out over the backyard as she did the same.
“Y’all should be proud of them. You raised amazing kids.”
“I am proud. And I must say, you all are doing a lovely job raising my equally amazing grandchildren.”
Pride swept across Brett’s face. “Thank you. I think we’re doing all right. And it seems like your kids learned from the best, with you and Rodrick. You’re a good solid couple.”
“We’ve had our highs and lows. Every couple does. But love, love and a determination to keep the love alive is what will keep two people together.”
“Yes, ma’am. I couldn’t agree more.”
She glanced first at Kenzie, who was carrying an infant on her chest, while chasing down their two-year-old, and then glanced at Delonna and Aleck who each held one of the newborn twins.
“Brett, a little help over here?” Kenzie cried, clearly needing assistance with their preschooler.
He grinned and dashed off, calling out, “Enjoy that wine, Brenda. We’ll catch up more later.”
She would enjoy the wine. She’d also enjoy staring both at the picturesque island town of Coupeville, which sprawled before them, and watching the generation of McLaughlins who’d all found their own happily ever afters.
Life was good indeed.
The End