Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,37

Deanna to squeeze through.

Chapter Eight

Joey had promised Deanna she could have Friday night off to go to Ryan’s Place with Sean, but on Friday at three o’clock, he called her at the law office and said he needed her to come in after all. Deanna thought of how hard she’d had to work to get Sean to agree to go to his brother’s pub in the first place and felt her heart sink.

“Joey, you can’t do this to me. You promised,” she said.

“I’m desperate,” Joey countered. “Pauline’s sick.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Deanna asked, instantly concerned. Joey’s wife had struggled for years with diabetes. Sometimes when things got especially hectic at the restaurant, she forgot to take her insulin.

“Just a cold, but it’s wiped her out. I don’t want her coming in here, and she shouldn’t be handling orders and sneezing all over the customers, anyway.”

Deanna sighed. She could hardly argue with that. “Okay, I’ll work.”

“I’ll make it up to you, I swear it,” Joey promised. “Next week you can have the whole weekend off. Catch up on your beauty sleep.”

“Next week’s no good,” she said at once, at least not for her plan to get Sean to visit his brother. She knew by now that Sean worked every other weekend. “I want the weekend after next. Guaranteed, okay?”

“Guaranteed. You’ve got it,” Joey said.

“Put that in writing with a penalty clause for cancellation,” she said wryly. At least thanks to working in a law office, she’d picked up a few hints about protecting her rights.

“What?” Joey asked blankly.

Deanna laughed as she imagined trying to enforce such a guarantee, even if she got Joey to sign it. “Never mind. I’ll see you in an hour.” As soon as she’d hung up, she drew in a deep breath, picked the phone back up and called Sean.

“I have to cancel tonight,” she blurted when he picked up. “But I think you should go, anyway.”

“Why do you have to cancel?” he asked, sounding suspicious. “Did you ever intend to go in the first place or was this all some scheme to make sure Ryan and I don’t lose touch?”

“Of course not,” she said indignantly. “I don’t scheme.”

“Okay then, why are you canceling at the last minute?”

Deanna had a feeling he wasn’t going to be much happier about the real reason she was backing out. “I have to work at Joey’s,” she admitted, then added, “His wife’s sick.”

“And there’s no one else he could call?” Sean asked, his skepticism plain. “There’s at least one other waitress there that I know of.”

“Adele never works weekends,” she explained, referring to Joey’s one other nonfamily waitress. “It’s usually Pauline and me. With Pauline sick, Joey’s in a bind.”

“Just this once, don’t you think he could have called Adele first?” Sean asked.

She saw no reason to explain why Adele always had weekends off, that she cared for an ailing husband on the days insurance wouldn’t pay for a nurse. “It’s not a big deal. I don’t mind pitching in.”

“You need time off,” Sean countered. “And we had plans.”

There was an odd note in his voice she couldn’t interpret. “Are you more upset because I have to work or because I have to postpone our visit to the pub?”

“Both,” he insisted. “I told Ryan we were going to be there, and I also know that you’re stretched to the limit. You need a night off.”

“Sean, you can go to the pub without me. You and your brother can spend a little time together. I’ll meet him in a couple of weeks,” she said reasonably.

“And the break you need? When are you going to squeeze that in?”

Deanna lost patience. “When I can,” she said tightly. “Sean, my life is not one of your projects.”

“I don’t have projects,” he said tightly, clearly exasperated. “And I don’t need this.”

“Well, neither do I,” she retorted angrily. “I have enough on my plate without having to defend myself to you.”

She hung up without listening to his response. Judging from the angry tone, it wasn’t the apology he owed her, anyway.

All evening long Deanna kept expecting to look up and see Sean walk through the door. When there was no sign of him, she told herself it was for the best. She’d been running her life reasonably well for a long time now. She didn’t need some man swooping in and forcing changes on her that he thought were for her own good.

Despite her rationalization, she was still feeling sick at heart when Joey dropped her off

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