Spike put the window down. “Yeah. And don't think about getting in the way. He's got things he needs to say.” Sean frowned. “Are you threatening me?”
“Pretty much. Except I'll follow through on it. So I guess it's more like a promise, huh?”
Sean laughed. “I like a man's who's up-front.”
“So you and I have something in common. Now, how about you return the favor. You going to be trouble?”
“If he hurts her, I'll put his head on a plate. If he's here to make nice, I'll be the first to shake his hand.”
Spike nodded his head. “Good deal.”
“How long you been here?”
“'Bout an hour.”
Frankly, it was a surprise the guy wasn't a Popsicle. Thecold snap that had hit earlier in the week had stuck around, driving the temperatures into the teens.
Sean glanced over at his limo. “You think you're going to be here long?”
“Hope so.”
“You got a cell he can reach you on?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to get out of the cold? Have a drink or some?thing? My place is about two blocks that way.”
While he pointed to the right, he thought it might be fun to get to know this hard-ass guy. Sure as hell there was a story to him, and like the staunch Irishman he was, Sean loved a good story.
Spike put the window up and got out.
Damn, he was tall, Sean thought. There weren't a lot of men who could meet him square in the eye, but Spike sure could.
“Yo, Ricky?” the guy called out.
Richard, the doorman, poked his head out of the lobby. “Yeah?”
“I'm leaving her here, okay? Might be a while.” “Sure thing, Spike.”
As they crossed Park Avenue, Sean said, “How do you know Richard?”
“Met him an hour ago.”
“You got a way with people.”
Spike smiled, a dark, mysterious grin. “Some of them.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alex stirred and nestled in close to the warm woman lying next to him. His hand found her stomach and rubbed it in slow circles. He'd done that a lot while she'd slept, trying to come to terms with a kind of joy he hadn't known existed in the world.
Cassandra was carrying his child. And she loved him back. And they were going to get married.
From out of the bottomless bliss, he saw his father's face, and a memory came back, rising to the surface of Alex's mind. The two of them had been standing on the dock the night before Alex was due to leave for another one of his races.
He'd had no idea that he wasn't coming back anytime soon. He'd figured it was going to be the same as all the other departures. Four weeks gone, maybe six. He cer?tainly hadn't planned on it being a final cut of sorts, the break that took him away from his family.
But his father had known. Somehow his father had known.
Alex heard his father's voice. “You know, son, life takes you a lot of places. Some good, some bad. I've always found that having a home somewhere makes the good better and the bad bearable. I hope you'll remember you can always come back here. No matter how far away you go, we'll always be here.”
Alex had shrugged off the words with all the arrogance and self-possession of youth.
It was the last time he'd seen his father alive. Four years later the man had been dead. Alex's mother, too. Both at the hands of the water.
Alex thought of the horrible night on the sea with Reese. Reese was gone, as well.
As he stroked Cassandra's belly, he felt a titanic shift in himself.
His woman stirred and lifted her head. “Good morn?ing— Alex, what's the matter?”
“I'm not going out again,” he said. "I'm not going back out there. I'm staying with you and the baby.“ ”What...the sailing? You're giving up the sailing?“ ”Yeah. I am."
A pained relief hit her face, but then she shook her head. “No, Alex, you love the—”
“I love you,” he said, kissing her. “The winning is cold and irrelevant compared to ihat. And nothing is worth the time away from you. Nothing.”
There was no way his wife and his child were going to have to fend for themselves and worry about whether he was coming home. And he didn't want his sisters doing that anymore, either.
He was owning his own life from now on, not let?ting the need to compete drive him toward an ever-unreachable sunset.
Alex shifted his body to get even closer to Cassandra, feeling her soft skin brush up against his hard places. One hard place in particular.
As her lids dropped and she started to smile, he laughed deep in his throat. The very male core of him was hungry for her again, in spite of the many times they'd reached for each other in the night.
But before his lips took hers, he pulled back. “Oh, no...” “What?”
“Oh...hell. I left Spike down on the street.” Cassandra sat up. “We better—”
Alex's cell phone rang. Because Cassandra was closer to where his pants had landed, she leaned over and answered it. When she hung up, she was laughing.
“Spike doesn't want to talk to you, but not because he's mad. He doesn't want to disturb us. He's over at Sean's and perfectly well. The two of them had a grand time last night, and they want to meet us for lunch. And Sean is thrilled, as he put it, that we came to our senses. He wants to know when the wedding is and where.”
Alex grinned. “You know, I might just warm up to that guy. And lunch sounds good”
Because he was going to need some help. He had an engagement ring to buy. Between Spike and Sean, he figured the three of them could take on the diamond district.
“Oh, and there's one other thing,” Cass said as Alex pulled her back against his body, spooning himself around her.
He reached for her breast and nibbled on her shoulder. As she shivered and warmed under his hand, he murmured, “One more thing?”
“Spike said that Sean's more of a gentleman than you are.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Um, I guess Sean didn't make fun of his Wookie?” Alex laughed and swept his palm down her body. “I'll explain later. Right now, Miracle, it's all about you.”
Epilogue
The renovations on White Caps were done in the late spring, but the bed-and-breakfast didn't open for the season until the Fourth of July. Which was a conscious choice. The Moorehouse family was expanding so fast, it was all anyone could do to keep up with the changes. There were just so many moving vans and people coming and going....
Frankie and Nate decided to turn the whole barn into their private home. With the baby on the way, and more being hoped for, they knew they were going to need the extra space. Cassandra did all the planning work and Jay Dobbs-Whyte oversaw the on-site efforts. Frankie and Nate spent the first night in their new house at the end of June, a week before the B&B reopened for business.
Meanwhile, Joy and Gray bought a lovely duplex in Manhattan's famed Dakota Building. Joy's ball gownswere so popular with the New York City fashion set that she was besieged with commissions. Unable to handle all the work herself, she opened a small atelier in the garment district and hired two assistants, one who was good with shears and the other who was good with the phone. Gray accepted a teaching position at Columbia in the universi?ty's political science department and authored a book on electoral theory that was very well received. Every weekend, without fail, the two of them flew upstate in their jet and landed at the Glens Falls airport. The drive to Saranac Lake from there was just about two hours. If Gray was behind the wheel.
As for Alex and Cass, they bought a house on the lake-shore three mansions down from Gray's and four over from White Caps. The place was in absolute disrepair, a relic of the roaring twenties that had bats in its bedrooms and sagging floors and bathrooms that didn't work. It was, in Cass's words, absolutely beautiful. They stayed at Gray's during the renovations and planned to be there until their baby was born sometime at the end of September. By early winter they hoped their renovations would be finished, but again, Cass wasn't doing any on-site work. She was on bed rest, but tolerating the immobility well. As for Alex, he and the Norwich brothers began making sailboats. Now that Alex's cast was off, he was able to drive himself wherever he wanted to go. Which somehow was never far from Cassandra.
On May 10, Alex and Frankie and Joy paid their respects to their parents by going up the mountain behind White Caps and visiting Ted's and Mickey's graves. The three of them planned to do that yearly, now.
And on the first Saturday of every month, without fail, Nate and Spike spent the afternoon cooking up a huge feast. Alex picked up Grand-Em from Evergreen Assisted Living at five o'clock sharp, and the whole family sat down together to share the ins and outs of their lives. The talk was loud, the laughter frequent, the food delicious. And houseguests and friends were always welcome, so some?times Sean showed up, too. As did Libby and Ernest.
After all, there was always a seat at the Moorehouse table for anyone who needed a place to put themselves. And the good was always better and the bad more bearable when you knew you were among friends.
Which was just as it should be.