When he finally reached her location, Joe wanted to die when he saw her sitting in the front seat of her old blue Honda Civic, hunched over the wheel. Janey didn’t hunch. She barreled through life with exuberance and optimism that brightened every room she entered.

He had to drive past her to the next exit, where he endured two of the longest red lights of his life before he was able to merge onto the southbound ramp. By the time he came to a stop behind Janey’s car, his hands were sweaty, his heart was racing and he realized he had absolutely no idea what to say to her. Women in crisis were hardly his forte. He took a deep breath and got out of the truck.

She didn’t seem to know he was there until he opened the door and squatted down.

Turning to him, her ravaged face was like a knife to his heart.

Tears pooled in her pale blue eyes. “Joe.”

“What happened, honey?”

“He was. . . He. . .”

Joe reached up to caress her soft blonde hair. “Take a deep breath.”

She gulped in air as a sob hiccupped through her. “He was with someone else. In our bed. In the bed I helped him buy. The bed he was going to bring with him when he moved home to the island to marry me.”

“Okay, honey,” Joe said through gritted teeth, not wanting to hear another word. If she kept talking, he wouldn’t be able to contain the white-hot rage that possessed him, and he’d become an expert at hiding his every emotion from her. “You don’t have to talk about it now.”

“It’s all I can see. She was on top of him, and he had his eyes closed. He didn’t see me. I couldn’t move. I just stood there watching—”

“Stop.” Joe simply couldn’t bear the raw pain he heard in her voice. He wanted her for himself. He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath. But not like this. Never like this. “Let’s get you out of here.” Joe slid his arms under her and scooped her out of the seat.

She clung to his neck, and in that one instant with her soft and pliant in his arms, everything was right in his world.

“I can’t leave my car here.”

“I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry. You probably had better things to do tonight.”