When A Man Loves A Woman (Seven Brides Seven Brothers Book 7) Read online

Mac had planned such a beautiful, elaborate dinner. Everything had been sheer perfection. After they finished eating Mac suggested a walk on the beach. With a big fat moon sitting proudly in the sky and illuminating their path, they set off to walk the beach. Once they reached the rocks they sat down side by side in the sand and stared out across the black patch of ocean.

  “So, what made you go into social work?” Mac asked.

  “When I was in college I did an internship with a social services agency. It changed my life.” She dug her toes into the sand. “I’d always known that I’d wanted to be of service somehow, but seeing the lives of children improve and develop made the choice really easy. I love knowing that I make a difference.”

  “It’s a noble vocation. I’ve benefited first-hand from social services. Frankly I don’t know what my fate would have been without those agencies.” He turned toward her and grinned. “So thank you, Delilah, for being one of the good guys.”

  “What about you? Woodworking is such an intricate craft. How did you become interested in it?” Delilah asked.

  “As a kid I needed to find something to absorb my attention. I wasn’t the most adjusted child.” He played with his thumbs and looked down. “Because of everything I’d been through before being adopted I was disruptive when I came to Breeze Point.” He let out a harsh laugh. “I’m not sure why Mom and Dad hung in there for so long. I had a lot of blow ups and I used my fists to do my talking for me. They hung in there. They stood by me.”

  “Of course they did. They love you,” Delilah said. Her heart broke at the thought of all Mac had endured. Of course he’d been confused when he had arrived in Cape Cod. Abuse. Separation from his beloved sister. Passed from foster home to foster home. The murder of his mother at his abusive stepfather’s hands. It was a miracle Mac’s life hadn’t been demolished. It spoke incredibly well of his fighting spirit and his will to survive and thrive.

  “I like you.” He blurted the words out.

  Delilah let out a surprised laugh at his blunt statement. His gray eyes skimmed over her face. He was dead serious. She prayed that she hadn’t hurt his feelings by laughing.

  “I like you too,” she admitted.

  “The thing is, I don’t feel this way very often.”

  “No?” Delilah asked as butterflies did pirouettes in her stomach.

  “No,” he said in a firm voice. The expression on his face was intense. “I just wanted to let you know. I don’t want to scare you off, but I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “Why would that scare me off? Most women love to hear that a man is thinking about them.”

  “You’re not most women Delilah. Not even close.”

  She knew the kiss was coming. It was almost as if she had willed it into being. That’s how much she wanted Mac to kiss her. A giddy feeling swept over her as he leaned over and placed his lips on hers. She let out a sigh as his lips moved tenderly over hers and she kissed him back with equal measure.

  Oh, it had been a long time since a man had kissed her.

  And never like this! Not ever. Mac placed his palms on her cheeks and centered her to the kiss. His lips were warm and sweet and it felt as if she would be perfectly content to let it go on forever. As the kiss ended Mac pulled back a little so that their lips weren’t touching but their foreheads were lightly resting against each other.

  A buzzing sound interrupted the tranquility of the moment. Mac let out a groan. He pulled away from her and took his phone out of his shirt pocket. “Sorry, but I have to take this call. It’s Parker.”

  For the next few minutes Delilah listened to a one-sided conversation. She had no idea as to whether Mac was receiving good news or not. When he finally concluded the call she was bursting to find out if Parker had made any progress in the investigation.

  “Don’t leave me hanging. What did he say?” she asked in an excited voice, earning herself a grin from Mac.

  “He hit a dead end with the photographer. He passed away five years ago.”

  “I’m sorry, Mac,” she said. “That’s a tough break.”

  Mac’s face lit up with a smile. “But there is good news. It’s Mrs. Worther. Parker has managed to track her down.” He wagged his eyebrows at Delilah. “It looks like I’m going to be taking a trip to New Hampshire.”

  “Oh, Mac! I’m so happy for you,” Delilah cried. She reached out and hugged Mac, inhaling the fresh woodsy scent that hovered around him like a halo.

  Mac was finally putting the pieces together and taking huge steps forward in his quest to find Callie. Reconnecting with Mrs. Worther was a step in that direction. At this moment Delilah felt extremely grateful to be part of the journey.

  **

  Mac looked at the clock on the dashboard as he adroitly maneuvered the winding curves of the back roads by Breezy Beach. He’d just delivered two of his Adirondack chairs to a new customer who had settled in to a beach house and had fallen in love with his work. Customers like Carson Steeves made him feel like a real craftsman. He felt incredibly blessed to be able to make a decent living doing what he loved most. But, in all the excitement about delivering the chairs, he’d forgotten all about boys’ night out with his brothers. He needed to talk to them about his trip to New Hampshire to meet up with Mrs. Worther and find out if any of of them might want to join him.

  Who was he kidding? Ever since last night he had been floating amid the clouds due to his date with Delilah. Everything had worked out seamlessly. He had enlisted Nick for the food and the waiter. His brother had helped him out immensely, and because of it, Mac had confided in him the identity of his special date. Nick had been surprised and happy for him. He’d promised not to spill the beans to their brothers. Mac just wanted to enjoy the relationship for a while before it became a buzzed about topic in his family. There was no telling where things were going between him and Delilah.

  What if everyone made a big fuss about it and things took a bad turn? Or what if Delilah only wanted to go out with him a few times? He had been in relationships before where the women had turned out not to be who he thought they were. Anything could happen, good or bad. Relationships were unpredictable by their very nature.

  Mac parked his truck outside Sully’s Tavern and rushed inside. He immediately spotted his brothers sitting at their usual table and made a bee-line for them. There was one seat open for him at the end of the table. An empty plate and a tankard sat there waiting for him. He sat down in the last open chair with Ryder and Remy on either side of him.

  “Hey!” Brandon said. “We were wondering what was taking you so long to get here.”

  “Last brother here pays the tab,” Ryder teased.

  All the brothers chuckled. The tab was always split evenly between the brothers although they always joked one another about the bill.

  “I was making a delivery of some chairs. It’s amazing how my orders are really starting to take off,” Mac said, pride oozing from his voice. “If this momentum lasts I might really make a living at this.”

  Ryder put his arm around him. “We’re proud of you, bro. You’re incredibly talented. Woodworks is really causing quite a buzz here in town.”

  Blue held up his tankard of beer. “Here’s to Mac. May all of his dreams come true with Woodworks.” All of the brothers leaned in and clinked glasses.

  Mac leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. “So, guys. Parker managed to track down Mrs. Worther. She’s in New Hampshire and I’m driving up tomorrow to see her. I’m hoping she can remember something more about Callie.”

  “Wow,” Nick said. “I’d love to take the ride with you. My memories of Mrs. Worther are such good ones.”

  “Hey. Me too,” Wyatt said. “She was our guardian angel.”

  “Count me in,” Brandon said. “Without her where would we all be?”

  “I think we all want to come,” Remy said. “The gallery is closed tomorrow so I don’t have anything on my plate if we drive up and stay the night.”

  “So…are we
all in?” Blue asked, looking around the table.

  Each Donahue brother nodded their heads. Mac grinned. He’d thought a few of his brothers might join him, but he’d had no idea that they would be a caravan of seven making the trip to Hanover, New Hampshire. It was awesome, he realized. All seven of them reuniting with the woman who had steered them toward Maggie and Alec Donahue.

  “How was your date?” Nick asked just as Mac began pouring himself some frothy ale.

  Mac sent Nick a pointed look that urged him to keep his mouth shut.

  “Date? What date?” Blue asked, whipping his head between Nick and Mac.

  Blue and Ryder looked at each other, their faces lit up with curiosity. Five pairs of eyes swung in Mac’s direction. Nick hung his head in a guilty fashion.

  “Hmm. Holding out on us, are you?” Remy asked, his eyebrows raised.

  “Thanks, Nick,” Mac muttered. “What part of keep it to yourself don’t you understand?”

  Nick shrugged and mumbled an apology. “I forgot.”

  “Hey! No secrets in the Donahue family,” Brandon said.

  Wyatt leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on the table. “Fess up, Mac, or we’ll never stop pestering you about it.”

  “Can I at least get something to eat first? It’s better to discuss this on a full stomach,” Mac suggested. He hadn’t eaten since this morning and his stomach was rumbling like a storm on the horizon. A chorus of groans rose up at the table.

  “I took out Delilah,” Mac grumbled. “Are you satisfied?

  “Delilah who?” Blue asked, his hazel eyes wide.

  Ryder jabbed him in the side. “How many women named Delilah do you know?”

  “Oh. I see,” Blue drawled. “The same Delilah you swore you would never go out with, huh?”

  “Give him a break,” Remy said. “He’s allowed to change his mind.”

  Blue rolled his eyes. “You could have at least told me. Sarah would have done cartwheels on our front lawn if she heard that news.”

  “That’s precisely why I didn’t tell you,” Mac said with a snort. “I don’t want my dating life to be the topic of your dinner table conversation. And judging by the fact that Delilah didn’t tell Sarah either, she feels exactly the same way as I do.”

  “So how was it?” Wyatt asked. He sat back in his chair as if waiting to be entertained with the details. “Inquiring minds want to know.”

  Mac reached across the table for the bucket of chicken wings. He deposited a few on his plate and focused on the task for a few moments rather than on his brothers. This was new territory for him. He had barely put his big toe in the dating pool, so dishing out the details of his amazing date with Delilah felt awkward. He wanted to keep it private, something to be shared only between himself and Delilah. He had no idea of where things were headed with her, but the way she made him feel was something new in his world. No one had ever caused his pulse to race. And he couldn’t stop thinking about her. But there was no way he was confessing these things to his six brothers. No way in the world.

  “It was…nice,” he finally said, earning groans from around the table.

  “Ouch,” Brandon said. “Nobody ever wants to be described as a nice date.”

  Feeling confused, Mac looked around the table. “What’s wrong with nice?”

  “Nice implies it was nothing out of the ordinary. Basic,” Nick explained. “Take it or leave it.”

  “Nice is kind of like the kiss of death,” Ryder chimed in. He let out a chuckle. “At least as far as women are concerned.”

  “It was nice,” Mac insisted. “She’s…different than I expected her to be. Thoughtful. Kind. She’s beautiful. I like the way her hair swirls around her face when she’s talking in an animated way. And she thinks of others before herself. At first I thought we might just talk about Callie, but we didn’t. There were so many other things we discussed. I had this feeling of comfort, like knowing you’re with an old friend.” He shook his head, still awed by the strong connection he’d felt. “We were finishing each other’s sentences which has never happened to me before, except with you guys.”

  He stopped talking. You could have heard a pin drop at the table. All he could hear was the noises emanating from customers at other tables. The clinking of glasses. The low rumble of laughter. Waitresses explaining the menu items.

  “So there you have it,” he said, trying to fill up the silence.

  “It sounds like it was more than a nice date, Mac,” Remy said, flashing him a brilliant smile. “From where I’m sitting it seems like you guys had the perfect date.”

  Perfect. There hadn’t been a lot of perfect things in his life, except for the Donahue family. As a family Lord knows they weren’t really perfect, but the love they held for one another was sheer perfection. No woman had ever made him feel the things Delilah was making him feel. Longing. Yearning. It confused him. Excited him. More than anything, it terrified him. For a man who had lost faith in ever finding romantic love, it felt like being blessed with something wonderful that you didn’t deserve. Something he hadn’t seen coming in a million years.

  “So,” Blue said as he poured beer into Brandon’s mug from the pitcher of ale, “When are you going out with her again?”

  Mac felt his brows drawing together. “Let’s not turn this into an inquisition.”

  Six pairs of eyes stared him down. He let out a tortured groan. It was already beginning. By the time each of his brothers arrived at their respective homes, news of his date with Delilah would be shared with each of their wives. And even though Wyatt wasn’t yet married to Kaitlyn, he knew he too would share the news as quickly as possible.

  He wasn’t used to all this focus on his love life. Lately it had been all about Mac finding someone to walk through life with. He’d always been private. It felt strange to suddenly have to share his romantic feelings with his brothers. He let out a sigh. Fair was fair. For a long time now his brothers had been sharing all aspects of their love lives with him. He owed them a little nugget of information.

  “All right. I like her. I want to go out with her again,” he confessed. A chorus of hoots and whistles rose up at the table. He glared at his brothers and held his hands up to stop their commotion. “But I don’t want my personal life to be gossiped about at the Donahue dinner tables. Delilah and I are just getting to know each other. Who knows whether this will fizzle out or go somewhere? I haven’t been very good at relationships, and something tells me she hasn’t been either.”

  “Mac and Delilah sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.” Wyatt’s off-key singing drew stares and elicited a few chuckles from his brothers.

  Mac shook his head. “Are you serious? You sound like a first grader. What’s wrong with you?”

  Brandon shook his head at Wyatt. “Yeah, man. That’s something I would expect to hear from AJ’s mouth, not a grown man.” AJ, Brandon’s son, had been officially adopted by his brother after he married Rose. Brandon was crazy about AJ. He couldn’t have loved him any more if he’d been his biological son.

  “We can’t take you anywhere, can we?” Ryder asked, giving Wyatt a poke in the side with his elbow.

  “I’m the funny Donahue. You guys need to lighten up,” Wyatt responded. “You take yourselves way too seriously,” he grumbled.

  “Spoken by the guy who was in a perpetual bad mood until he met Kaitlyn,” Mac said.

  After Wyatt suffered a knee injury last year he’d been blindsided a few months later by another injury he sustained in a car crash. His career as a professional baseball player for the Bay State Bombers had come to a grinding halt. His fiancée Kaitlyn had been hired to help him recover. In the process of getting Wyatt healthy again, the two had fallen head over heels in love. And now Wyatt was working toward returning to baseball full-time. Meeting Kaitlyn had inspired Wyatt to shed his fears and give his recovery a fighting chance. As soon as Wyatt got the medical clearance he
was moving back to Boston for part of the year to continue his pro career. He and Kaitlyn were determined to get married before the big move. Neither one wanted to live together until they exchanged their sacred vows. It simply wasn’t an option for them.

  Mac looked around the table. “So guys, is there any way I can persuade you to keep this under wraps for a while? I’m calling Donahue code of silence.”

  Donahue code of silence. It was something that was rarely brought to the table by any of the Donahue brothers. Each of them knew that it was sacred. They didn’t have a choice. It couldn’t go past this table.

  Remy let out a whistle. “Wow. You must really like Delilah.”

  Nick leaned his elbows on the table. “So? Do you?”

  Mac heaved a huge sigh. He put his head down, then slowly lifted it up. “I like her. More than I’ve ever liked a woman before. And if you repeat this to your wives I’m never speaking to any of you again.” He stroked his jaw. “I feel a little shaken up about this. It came out of nowhere, just the way they always say it happens.”

  “Tell me about it,” Remy said with a shake of his head. “It still stuns me that I fell for Gabrielle so quickly. It was a whirlwind.”

  “Kaitlyn wrapped me around her finger so tightly it made my head spin. Matter of fact, it still does,” Wyatt said with a chuckle. “It happens to the best of us.”

  “If we’re lucky,” Ryder said with a shake of his head. “I’m still wondering how I got the girl of my dreams and my best friend all rolled up into one.”

  Mac marveled at all his brothers. Each and every one had a unique love story that had unfolded before his very eyes. They were all so very blessed to have found wonderful, God-fearing women. Love and fidelity were part of the fabric of their lives. Truth. Beauty. Joy. Friendship. They had it all with their partners. He could only hope and pray that he too would find a love to last a lifetime. Although he’d always been skeptical about finding the other half of his heart, he was suddenly full of something that he hadn’t always had a whole lot of in his life. Hope.

  **

  Delilah couldn’t stop her mind from straying toward Mac. She had spent the evening at home watching an old black and white movie starring one of her favorite actresses of yesteryear. The movie was one she’d seen countless times and had always enjoyed. Tonight, Mac Donahue was the main attraction. Last night had been truly amazing. Just the thought of Mac going to so much trouble on her behalf made her feel wonderful inside.