She stared at her husband, moved by the intensity in his eyes, the passion in his face. The passion that had once driven him as a lost young man prone to dark moods and a hunger for love. The same passion that now cherished and protected her and the girls every day of their lives. He was a man gifted with a wellspring of love. How could she stop the flow of his heart?
She released her surrender in one frail breath. “All right, Collin. I trust you.”
He crushed her to him in a desperate hug, his broken words muffled in her hair. “I love you, Faith, with every fiber of my being. No other woman has ever captured me like you, possessed me so completely. You and the girls . . . you’re my reason to live, the reason I rise in the morning and the breath in my lungs.”
Hot tears sprang to her eyes and she clutched him with violent devotion. “I love you, Collin, with all of my heart, and I trust you. God has used you to pour abundant blessings into my life.” She closed her eyes and allowed her trust to rest in both God and her husband. “And Evelyn’s, apparently,” she whispered against his chest.
And at the sound of her own words, peace lighted upon her soul.
9
We’re going to Kearney’s?” Katie asked in a shocked whisper. She stared up at one of Boston’s most notorious pubs with a look of awe.
Betty gave her a sideways glance and grinned. “It’s my birthday, so it’s my choice. And this is where I wanted to go.”
Katie’s tone was almost reverent. “But I’ve heard rumors it’s a speakeasy, and I’ve never been in one before. Jack promised to take me, but Father’s threats always kept me away.”
Betty glanced back at Parker and Luke, deep in conversation a few paces behind. “Don’t worry, we won’t be tipping booze if I know those two.” She looped her arm through Katie’s and stared wistfully at the charming glass-pane-and-brick storefront with its red potted geraniums and a green awning emblazoned with “Kearney’s Café.” “We’ll be sitting up front in the café, not in the speakeasy in the basement,” she said with sigh. “Although I’d give my mother’s eyeteeth for a frosty Guinness along with a hamburger right about now.”
Katie tugged on the brass handle of the ornate cherrywood door, and instantly her mouth watered at the rush of tempting smells that escaped the noisy pub. The sound of a jazz piano rag set her legs twitching while the aroma of frying fish and chips and grilled meat rumbled her stomach. She held the door for Betty. “Maybe Luke will buy you a beer for your birthday.”
Betty laughed as she sailed inside, tugging Katie along while Luke propped the door for more patrons behind them. She leaned close to Katie’s ear. “Maybe the Luke I used to know, but not this one. He’s gone all chaste on me, like Parker. Heaven forbid either of them should break the law.”
“Chaste? Luke?” Katie halted on the spot, grateful for the barrage of music, laughter, and off-key singing that covered her shock. The memory of Luke’s ravaging kiss against the wall suddenly heated her more than the sticky closeness of the crowded room, making it hard for her to breathe. Her eyes drifted closed for a moment and she swallowed hard, irritated by the heat that pulsed in her cheeks. She’d been far from successful in forgetting what happened that night. And she knew as sure as the flutter in her stomach, Luke McGee’s lips, his hands, his intent had been anything but “chaste.”
“Oh, look, those people in the back are leaving – come on!” Betty literally dragged her through the crowd to the back of the pub in the direction of a rounded booth in the corner, not quite vacated. Betty smiled and waited patiently as the party gathered their things and departed. With a smug look, she slid into the booth and pulled Katie in alongside, her lips close to Katie’s ear. “Trust me – complete bluenoses, both he and Parker.” Her eyes followed Luke and Parker as they made their way through the crowd to the booth. “But Luke wasn’t always like that, I can tell you that. Back in New York, our boy had quite the reputation with the ladies.”
“You mean . . . ?”
Betty gave her a pointed look. “And then some.”
Katie gulped. “Oh.”
For the briefest of moments, a hint of melancholy shadowed Betty’s face. “Yeah, but then he got religion,” she said with a slant of her brow, “and now he and Parker are a matched set.” Her voice softened as she watched their approach. “But you know what? Sometimes I really, really miss the old Luke.”
“What’s your rush, Galetti? You act like they’re giving away free beer or something.” Luke jerked his tie loose and shed his jacket, placing it neatly folded between Katie and him before dropping into the booth. “Man, it’s hot in here.” He rolled his sleeves and gave Betty a grin. “Are you sure you don’t want to eat somewhere we can sit outside?”
Betty pursed her lips. “Nope, it’s my birthday, and you and Parker promised me dinner anywhere I want.” She folded her hands on the table. “So I suggest you stop grousing, McGee. I could have just as easily chosen Frankie & Johnnie’s and set you both back a pretty penny.”
“She’s right, you know,” Parker said, tie still intact but jacket discarded on the seat. He sifted a hand through sandy brown hair as he scanned the café. “Anybody see a waitress?”
Luke leaned back against the cherry-wood booth with arms folded and eyes closed. “Yeah, Shirl knows we’re here – she waved when we came in.”
“You mean when you came in,” Betty said. “Come on, McGee, wake up! This is a party.”
One of Luke’s blue eyes edged open. “Can’t help it – the heat’s putting me to sleep.”
“I’ll bet a nice, frosty Guinness would wake you up,” Betty said with a wiggle of brows.
The slitted eye closed once again. “How ’bout a nice, frosty Bevo instead?”
“Come on, Luke – make me a happy woman just once – embrace the moment. I want to celebrate my birthday with alcohol, not near beer.” The pout was evident in Betty’s voice.
“Bevo has alcohol, Bets,” Parker said with a patient smile. “One-half of one percent in the finest malt beverage Anheuser-Busch makes.”
“You guys are hopeless,” Betty muttered. She gave Katie a look. “See what I mean?”
“You spinning tales about your superiors to this innocent young woman, Galetti?” Luke’s eyes opened to reveal a hint of a tease.
“Humph, nothing to spin. You guys make the Hardy Boys look like Capone’s thugs.”
“Sorry for the wait.” A perky brunette with unusual green eyes plopped four menus on the table. She scanned the booth with a bright smile. “It’s good to see you again, it’s been too long . . . Parker, Betty . . . Luke.”
It was obvious from the look in the waitress’s eyes that it was particularly good to see him again. Katie frowned, taking an immediate dislike to the woman.
A heart-melting grin lit Luke’s face as he crossed muscled arms on the table. “Hi, Shirl. Yeah, it’s been brutal at work lately. No rest for the wicked, I guess.”
Miss Perky pressed her order pad to her ample chest and smiled. “You? Wicked? Now why do I find that so easy to believe, Luke McGee?”
“Because you’re a Dumb Dora,” Betty whispered to Katie behind her menu.
Katie giggled, and Luke shot them a look of warning before inflicting further charms on the waitress. “Well, ‘wicked’s’ not on the agenda tonight, Shirl, so just bring Parker, Betty, and me a round of Bevos while we look over the menu.” He glanced at Katie. “What’ll you have?”
“Well, since a Guinness is out of the question . . . I guess I’ll have a Bevo too.”
He turned back to Shirl. “Bevo all around, then.”
“Sure thing,” she said with a sultry smile. She stacked the few dirty plates left on the table, then leaned to wipe it clean with a wide stretch that Katie felt sure was for Luke’s benefit.
“So, when’s Bobbie Sue coming?” Parker asked after Shirl left, his attention focused on the menu.
Betty glanced at her watch. “As soon as she gets the kids fed and watered, I suppose.”
“I hope she doesn’t take too long – I’m starved.” Katie flipped her menu on the table and glanced at Betty. “I just may order two hamburgers.”
Luke glanced up. “Settle down, Katie Rose, this isn’t Jack you’re stiffing with the bill, you know. Just two impoverished lawyers.”
“You can fit two hamburgers into that tiny body?” Betty asked, mouth gaping.
Katie nodded. “And a chocolate milkshake, if I’m really hungry.” She tilted her head and gave Luke a smirk. “Like tonight.”
Luke glanced at Parker with a groan. “I don’t have enough cash. Did you bring enough?”
“For the girls, but not for us to eat too,” Parker said with a serious face.
Katie placed a hand on Luke’s arm, her face the picture of innocence. “Don’t worry, McGee, something tells me ol’ Shirl will take something other than cash.”
His gaze flitted to the hand on his arm before it rose to settle on her face with a lazy smile. “You think?” he asked in a husky tone.
Blood rushed to her cheeks. She jerked her hand away and placed it in her lap. “I meant washing dishes, McGee. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
He grinned and leaned back against the booth. “Can’t. It’s where I was born, remember?”
“So, what’s it going to be?” Shirl reappeared, suddenly smelling a whole lot more like gardenias than chicken-fried steak. She unloaded their drinks on the table, took their orders, and then disappeared again with a final smile in Luke’s direction.
Katie cradled the icy mug in her hands and allowed her thoughts to drift as Betty, Luke, and Parker bantered over the strengths and weaknesses of the Red Sox vs. Yankees. She took a sip of near beer and felt contentment in her bones, as if she belonged here, an integral part of these people she’d come to love and admire. Not like with Jack and the gang, where her sharp tongue and driving ambition always set her apart, elevating her to a point where she felt removed. True, she liked the control she seemed to have over her old group, but this – this was different. A caring, a depth that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Relationships that were less surface and more substance, providing a connection that was so new to her. She released a quiet sigh as she settled back in the booth, smiling as Betty took a potshot at Luke.
And speaking of “new,” she thought with a sideways glance, her feelings for the man beside her were totally unprecedented. Even Jack couldn’t flutter her stomach with a look or a word like Luke McGee, and she was very careful to admit that the thought still scared her silly. But true to his word, since the night they had sealed their friendship with a handshake, Luke had treated her with the same unassuming warmth and camaraderie he enjoyed with Parker and Betty. And Katie had reveled in it. A loner by nature, suddenly she didn’t feel so alone anymore.
Of course, initially Parker hadn’t been happy about her and Luke’s newfound friendship, just as Luke had predicted, and Katie wasn’t really sure why. She took another sip of her drink and studied him now, this strong, silent man who was Luke McGee’s best friend. He’d begun to open up with her over the course of her term at the BCAS, and Katie knew without a doubt that Parker Riley was both a high-caliber man and the true definition of a friend. He was the quietest of the three, but somehow Katie sensed he was also the strongest, possessing a fierce allegiance to Luke and a protective kinship with Betty. A silent support, who unlike Luke with his charismatic personality or Betty with her dry wit, was more than content to fade into the background while his two best friends took center stage.
“Oh, no, you two aren’t going to start talking shop on my birthday!” Betty’s threat disrupted Katie’s train of thought.
Luke reached for Betty’s hand, stroking it with his thumb. “Come on, Bets, this is Gabe we’re talking about here. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Parker since his meeting with Carmichael.”
Betty’s lower lip jutted, prompting a smile and a plea from Luke.
“Just a few minutes more, I promise,” he said with a boyish grin, “then I’ll kiss your feet for the rest of the night.”
Betty’s lips pulled into a faint smile. “Throw in a back rub, and you have a deal.” She leaned close to Katie as Luke turned to Parker. “Royal suckers for a woman’s pout, both of ’em.”
“No, he can’t do that!” Luke’s outburst recaptured their attention. “We can barely keep tabs on her here in Boston – it’s sheer suicide to send Gabe on a train to the Midwest by herself.”
“She won’t be by herself, she’ll be with ten other orphans and the Tuttles, remember?”
Luke groaned. “I forgot about the Tuttles – Gabe will eat them alive! No, Parker, we can’t let Carmichael do this to her – or to them.”
“We don’t have a choice, Luke, Carmichael’s made up his mind.” Parker’s eyes reflected the same pain as his friend’s. “Unless you can find an iron-clad arrangement for Gabe before the end of the month, she’ll be on that orphan train to the Midwest whether we like it or not.”
A faint hiss of a swear word parted from Luke’s lips. “It’ll kill her,” he whispered, “not to mention what it’ll do to me.”
“Maybe not,” Parker said quietly. “As long as she’s in Boston, Gabe has her heart set on living with you, which we both know is impossible. The Midwest might be just what she needs.”
Luke stared, his face a study in anguish. “God knows how I wish I could adopt her.”
“You know better than that. For one, Carmichael wouldn’t allow it, and two, Gabe needs a solid home with both a mother and father.”
“I know,” he whispered, his gaze lost in the murky depths of his near beer.
Betty reached over to tug at his hand. “Come on, Luke, cheer up. You’re always harping on me to pray about every little thing. So pray for Gabe – that God finds her the perfect home. Then trust him to do it – isn’t that what you always tell me?”
His gaze shifted to Betty. “You mean you actually listen when I spout off? I always thought you were just humoring me.”
She patted his hand with a sympathetic smile, then took a sip of her drink as she eyed him over the rim. “I am, honey, but you seem to eat that stuff up, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
“Move over, people, the party is here!” Bobbie Sue blew in with all the bluster of a Georgia hurricane. She sidled in next to Luke, promptly butting him into Katie who elbowed Betty to move over. “Sweet Robert E. Lee, y’all look like somebody died.” She sniffed at Luke’s half-empty Bevo and wrinkled her nose. “No wonder. Too cheap for the real stuff downstairs, eh, boss men?”
Parker smiled and nursed his drink. “We don’t need alcohol to have fun, Mrs. Dulay, at least not with you here. And yes, we are too cheap. Not to mention it’s against the law.”
“Tsk, tsk. Well, I figured as much, so I came prepared.” She winked at Betty and lifted her skirt to reveal a hidden flask tucked into the garter on her leg.
“Come on, Bobbie Sue, this is a dry party.” Luke tried to grab the flask, but she held it away.
“It may be dry for you and the boss, Mr. Priss, but this here birthday girl and I are going to celebrate the way the good Lord intended.” She leaned to toss the flask into Betty’s lap. “When the Good Book bans liquor from its pages, I suspect I will too. But till then, Miss Betty and I plan to have a proper toast on her birthday.”
“Bless you,” Betty said with a chuckle and poured a touch of the flask into her half-empty Bevo, ignoring both Luke and Parker’s looks of disapproval.
“You’re a big girl, Galetti,” Luke said. “If this place gets raided, I’m not bailing you out.”
She grinned and quickly slipped a hefty pour of the flask into Katie’s drink before Luke could object. “If this place gets raided, McGee, you’ll be in the cell next to mine. Only you’ll be stone-cold sober while I’ll be warm and gloriously tipsy.”
“With a glorious headache in the morning, no doubt,” Parker said with a wry smile.
Luke reached for Katie’s glass, but Katie
jerked it away, clutching it to her chest like it was the nectar of the gods. “Oh no you don’t, McGee, I’m a big girl too, remember?”
His eyes narrowed. “Eighteen doesn’t qualify as ‘big girl’ to me, Katie Rose, and besides, while you’re with me, I have a responsibility to your father. Give me your glass – now.”
“You’re not my father.”
“No, but I’m the man who has his ear and your employer. Hand it over.”
“Come on, Luke, don’t be such a fuddy-duddy. It’s my birthday, and I want Katie to have a toast.” Betty shifted closer to Parker, inching Katie along with her.
Ignoring Betty’s plea, Luke trained his eyes on Katie. “Give me the drink, or so help me, I’ll be forced to tell your father.”
“You wouldn’t . . . ,” she whispered.
The blue eyes never blinked. “Try me.”
Heat blistered her cheeks and suddenly all she could see was Cluny McGee, besting her once again. With a quick flick of her wrist, she downed half a spiked beer in three horrendous gulps before Luke could jerk the glass from her hand. Betty chuckled and slapped her on the back while Bobbie Sue whooped loudly, both ignoring the fire in Luke’s eyes.
Katie choked, the alcohol burning her throat in a delayed reaction, and Luke shoved his near beer into her hands. She took a long gulp and handed it back, chest heaving.
He seared her with a look. “You’re a brat, Katie Rose, and two and a half months confinement is not near long enough.”
“Well, I’m quite sure you’ll remedy that,” she said with a defiant tilt of her chin and suddenly realized she could care less. A relaxing warmth oozed through her that made her feel almost giddy. Whenever Jack had tried to get her to drink alcohol, she’d adamantly refused, determined that no man or substance would ever control her. But now, when Luke had ordered her to turn over her drink, she found herself less concerned with the substance than the man. It was bad enough her father had license to order her around; the last thing she needed was for Luke McGee to think he could do the same. A shiver traveled Katie’s spine. Sweet saints, deliver her from a husband like that! Thank heavens for Jack, because no man – other than her father – was going to order her around. Especially Luke McGee.