Gansett Island Boxed Set, Books 1-16

by Force, Marie

  The hours at work were largely a waste as he was incredibly preoccupied with his plans. The clock inched slowly forward until it was finally eleven thirty. Feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning, Alex changed into shorts and a clean polo shirt in his truck before heading for town. He would’ve worn something nicer, but he didn’t want to tip his hand before he was ready to.

  Looking gorgeous in a pretty summer dress, Jenny waited for him on the front steps at Town Hall. As they were going in, Blaine Taylor was coming out.

  “Hey, guys,” Blaine said. “What’s up?”

  “Marriage license time,” Jenny said.

  “Wow, it’s getting close. Looking forward to the party this weekend.”

  “I am, too,” Alex said. “See you there.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.” He shook hands with Alex and kissed Jenny’s cheek before continuing on his way.

  “I love living here and seeing friends everywhere we go,” Jenny said.

  He patted her on the ass as they walked through the main doors. “I love living here a whole lot more since I met you.”

  She giggled at his words and the ass grab.

  They filled out the paperwork and emerged from Town Hall twenty minutes later, marriage license inside a sealed envelope, just the way Alex had requested. After a leisurely lunch at Stephanie’s, Alex made his move. “Take a ride with me.”

  “Where? Don’t you have to get back to work? Paul’s off-island—”

  “It’ll only take a few minutes. I want to show you something.”

  “All right, but you can explain to my boss why I was late getting back from lunch.”

  “Your boss can suck my dick.”

  “Ugh, that’s so gross.”

  “You love to suck my—”

  Jenny’s hand over his mouth ended the sentence prematurely. “Shut up, or it’ll never happen again.”

  “Shutting up now,” he said, his words muffled by her hand, which he nibbled. After she dropped her hand, he said, “Love you, Jenny Wilks-soon-to-be-Martinez.”

  “Love you, too, Alex Martinez, even when you’re being nasty.”

  “You love when I’m nasty.” He loved riling her up and every other damned thing about her. As they drove through the gates to the lighthouse where they’d met more than a year ago, his heart beat with excitement and anticipation and a tiny bit of fear that his big idea might not go over well with her.

  “What’re we doing here? I saw Erin last night.”

  “I have a little surprise for you.”

  “What kind of surprise?”

  “The kind you’re going to have to wait and see.”

  She sat up straighter in her seat, but there was nothing to see—yet.

  Alex pulled up to the spot he used to take when he was coming here to visit her and cut the engine. Then he turned to her, reaching for her hand.

  “What’s going on?”

  “You’re worried about something happening before our big day, right?”

  She bit her lip and nodded.

  “Today’s our big day. Right here where we first met, we’re going to get married. We’ll still have our wedding as planned, but that’ll be for everyone else. This, today, is for us. There’ll be nothing left to worry about once we’re legally and officially married.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and she covered her mouth as a sob escaped from her lips.

  One by one, the people he’d called earlier filed out of the lighthouse: Evan, his uncle Frank, Sydney and Erin, moving slowly on crutches.

  Jenny saw them and began to cry harder.

  “If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to. I just thought—”

  She launched herself across the truck and into his arms, kissing him repeatedly. “You are the best guy in the whole world to think of this.”

  “So you like the idea?”

  “I love the idea, except Paul isn’t here.”

  “He’ll understand completely, and he’ll still be my best man at our official wedding.”

  “When did you think of this?”

  “This morning.”

  “And you made it happen for today?”

  “I can’t bear to see you worrying when there was something I could do to fix it short of enclosing myself in bubble wrap for the next two weeks.”

  “I’m sorry to have been worried—”

  Alex placed his finger over her lips. “You have every good reason to feel the way you do. Do you care that your parents aren’t here for this?”

  “No. They’d understand, too. The only one I truly need is you.”

  “And the only one I truly need is you. So what do you say we go out there and get married?”

  “What about the rings?”

  “I’ve got them with me.”

  She seemed stunned that he’d thought of that. “And the license?” Her smile faded. “It’s dated for two weeks from now.”

  “I took care of that, too.” He handed her the envelope from the town clerk. “It’s got today’s date.”

  “Ethan!”

  “Is all set.” He explained the arrangements he’d made with Jonah’s mom.

  “Alex…” She wiped away more tears. “God, you’re amazing. Any time I’m annoyed with you for the rest of our lives, please remind me of what you did for me today, and all will be forgiven.”

  Touched by her excitement, he said, “You got it, baby. Let’s go get married.” With her still in his arms, he got out of the truck to applause from their friends. Erin and Sydney hugged Jenny, and Sydney handed her the bouquet Alex had asked her to get. “Where do you want us, Frank?”

  “Right here,” Frank said, gesturing to a spot to the left of the lighthouse with a breathtaking view of the water.

  “I see that someone has mowed the lawn,” Jenny said sarcastically, making Alex laugh.

  “And I see that Erin hasn’t planted any tomatoes this season. Bummer.”

  “Such a bummer.”

  He reached for her hand, put his ring into her palm and then rolled her hand over the ring, kissing the back of it.

  “Jenny and Alex,” Frank said, “I’m honored to have been asked to preside over this incredible moment in your lives, and I love a good surprise. Well done, Alex.”

  “Thanks, Your Honor.”

  “This, right here,” Frank said, gesturing to the two of them. “This is the epitome of love. What you’ve done for Jenny today, Alex, is something she’ll remember for the rest of her life. And Jenny, you’ll someday have the opportunity to return the favor for your husband by easing his worries and his sorrows. As long as the two of you can do that for each other, everything else you face will seem easy in comparison.”

  Jenny wiped tears from her eyes, while Alex was forced to do the same. The import of the moment swept down on him all of a sudden, leaving him humbled by the knowledge that from this day forward, Jenny would be his wife, his partner, his lover, the mother of his children, the center of his world.

  What had begun right here in this yard with flying tomatoes and angry shouts had become the best thing to ever happen to him. Alex couldn’t wait to have the rest of his life with her.

  Frank led them through the recitation of vows and the exchange of rings.

  Alex noticed how Jenny’s hand trembled as she put the ring they’d bought months ago on his finger.

  “It is my great honor to now pronounce you husband and wife. Alex, you may kiss your bride.”

  He swept her up in his arms and kissed her with all the love and desire he felt for her. And she returned his kiss with equal ardor.

  Only the sound of Frank clearing his throat and Evan laughing had them breaking apart.

  Alex let her slide down the front of him until she was once again standing, but he suspected it would be quite some time before their feet touched the ground.

  Chapter 16

  The Seaside Inn in Yarmouth sat directly across the street from Seagull Beach. After lunch on the waterfront in Hyannis, Paul and Hope c
hecked into their room. She was hit immediately by a bout of nerves that had her hands shaking as she unpacked. It had been years since she’d shared a hotel room—or a bed—with a man, and she hoped she remembered how to behave.

  “What do you feel like doing?” he asked.

  Hope knew a moment of pure relief that, despite the days of buildup, he wasn’t expecting to fall into bed the second they were alone. “Do you want to take a walk on the beach?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  They left the room for the short walk to the beach, where they kicked off their shoes and left them by the stairs.

  Paul reached for her hand, which was all it took to get her heart beating faster. It had been so long since she’d known the affection of a man, and before Paul, she’d been certain that this kind of excitement and anticipation was all in the past for her. Carl hadn’t liked to hold hands. He’d thought it was foolish. Only now did Hope realize how much she loved to hold hands—with the right man.

  “It’s beautiful here,” Paul said. “Almost as beautiful as Gansett.”

  “I’ve always loved this beach. We came every summer for a week with our grandparents, and we had the same room every year. It became almost a joke that we ate at the same place the first night, the same place the second night… We looked forward to that all year.”

  “Where’s your sister now?”

  “She lives in Oregon with her husband and kids.”

  “Are you guys close?”

  “We talk every week and text back and forth about the kids. I haven’t seen her in a couple of years, though. Ethan and I stayed with them for a short time after Carl was arrested. I had to get out of town, and she offered. The other side of the country looked really good to me right then.”

  “I imagine it did. What’s her name?”

  “Camille.”

  “How many kids does she have?”

  “Three boys—Sam, Michael and Josh. They’re a little older than Ethan.”

  “Is she older than you?”

  “Younger, actually. By a year.”

  “How about your folks? Are they still alive?”

  “Yeah. They live in New Hampshire where we grew up.”

  “I had no idea you were from New Hampshire. What part?”

  “North Conway.”

  “I love it there. I’ve spent a lot of weekends skiing at Cranmore.”

  “Me, too. I wonder if we were ever there at the same time?”

  He smiled down at her and then dropped her hand so he could put his arm around her.

  She liked that even better than the handholding.

  “Were your parents supportive when everything happened with Carl?”

  “They tried to be, but they were so disgusted with him, and it was hard for me to have to listen to my dad’s tirades when I had my own tirades going on inside. The sad part was that he and my dad were close until then. He used to call Carl the son he never had. He was so, so disappointed. Naturally, he aired that out with me.”

  “Which made a bad situation worse for you.”

  “It really did. I felt like I’d disappointed him by marrying the wrong guy or something.”

  “But you know it was no reflection on you, right?”

  “For the most part. I still sometimes think that maybe if I’d done something differently or been a better wife—”

  “No.” Paul stopped walking and turned to face her, keeping his hand on her shoulder. “It had nothing at all to do with you. There was something wrong with him if he thought it was okay to have sex with children.”

  “Maybe if I’d had more sex with him, he wouldn’t have done what he did with children.”

  “Hope, come on. You don’t really believe that. This was all on him.”

  “In my heart of hearts, I know that. But sometimes I wonder if I could’ve prevented it somehow.”

  “You couldn’t have. It’s not the same, but I had a similar thing happen when I was in college. One of my best friends raped a girl at a fraternity party. I remember being so shocked that he’d been accused of such a thing. I felt like I knew him as well as I knew myself. I defended him—even to the police. I said, ‘No way, no way. That’s not how he rolls.’ And then the DNA confirmed that it was him. I can vividly recall how incredibly shocking it was to realize I didn’t know him at all.”

  “I know that feeling.”

  With his arm back around her shoulders, they started walking again. “The worst part is that I was at that party and never saw anything amiss. I liked to party with the best of them, but I never blacked out or passed out or anything like that. I paid attention, kept an eye out for my friends. In a way, I felt responsible for what’d happened right under my nose. Took a long time for me to understand there was nothing I could’ve done to prevent or stop something I didn’t know was happening.”

  “I still wrestle with that one. You feel clueless and naïve and stupid. Everyone assumed I’d known, even my own family, when no one was more shocked than I was to find out what he’d been doing.”

  “Your family thought you knew about it and didn’t say anything? Your friends thought that?”

  “They never came right out and said as much, but I got the ‘how could you not know?’ vibe from a lot of people, including my parents and sister. Carl and I were like a lot of busy parents—we went to work, we took care of Ethan, we tried to squeeze in some family time and occasionally some couple time. Where, in the midst of that busy schedule, did he have time for sex with minors? That’s the part I still can’t reconcile.”

  “He must’ve told a lot of lies.”

  “Lies that I believed because I had no reason not to.”

  “You trusted him. You loved him. Why would you ever think he was capable of something like this if there was never anything to indicate he had such a thing in him?”

  “I wouldn’t, I guess. After it all went down, I spent many a sleepless night going over every detail—every text message, every phone call, every night together. He never slipped up. Or if he did, I missed it. I wasn’t the kind of wife who felt the need to look at his text messages when he was in the shower. I had friends who did stuff like that, but I never did.”

  “You respected his privacy—and you trusted him. That’s the way it should be.”

  “I’ve had a hard time talking about this stuff with my closest friends, but for some reason, it’s easy with you.”

  “I’m glad you told me about it, and I’m sorry it happened to you. You deserve way better than you got from him.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “How much longer will he be in jail?”

  “Another couple of years, but it could be less. Naturally, he’s been an exemplary prisoner, so he’s apt to get out early for good behavior.”

  “Oh the irony.”

  They reached the end of the beach and turned to head back.

  “And then there’re the lawsuits,” she said.

  “What lawsuits?”

  “The ones filed by the families of the girls he slept with.”

  “Are you tied up in that, too?”

  “Thankfully, no, but I had to start from scratch financially after we divorced because our assets were frozen and our house was taken by the bank. They even came after my ten-year-old car because we owned it outright. Lucky Carl was in jail when phase two of the nightmare kicked in.”

  “Jesus, Hope. I hope someone kicks the shit out of him in jail. That’ll be the least of what he deserves.”

  “That’s not likely to happen. He’s in a minimum-security facility with a lot of white-collar criminals.”

  “How in the hell did that happen?”

  “He used most of our savings to get himself a really, really good lawyer.”

  “Is it okay to say I hate him?”

  She laughed. “It’s absolutely fine.”

  “How much does Ethan know?”

  “Very high-level stuff. Daddy got in trouble and had to go to jail. He asks sometimes if he’ll get to
see him after, but I dodge those questions. I have sole custody, and if I have my way, he’ll never see Carl again.”

  “What if he wants to see him?”

  “I’m hoping by the time it actually happens, Ethan will have moved on and won’t ask. I don’t know. I guess I’ll deal with that when it happens, but I hope it’s a long way off.”

  “I hope so, too.” He squeezed her shoulder in a show of support that she greatly appreciated. “I have to tell you what Ethan and I talked about on the way to the bus the last couple of days.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  “Yesterday he asked if I like his mom, and I said yes, I like her very much. Today he was concerned about something happening to you, the way it did to Jackson and Kyle’s mom. I assured him that you’re perfectly healthy and he didn’t need to worry. He asked me to promise him that I’d take good care of you while we are away.”

  “Oh God, the poor kid. I hate to think of him worrying about stuff like that.”

  “It’s natural that what happened to Jackson and Kyle’s mom would worry him. I remember meeting Joe Cantrell when he first moved to the island after his dad died and asking my mom if that was going to happen to my dad, too.”

  “Thank you for reassuring him.”

  “I care for him just as much as I care for you, which is a whole lot.”

  She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and none of this will have happened. It’ll turn out to be nothing more than a lovely dream.”

  “I feel the same way. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve been envious of Alex because he found someone who made him so happy, not that he doesn’t deserve it. But I kept wondering if I was ever going to get my turn. And then you kissed me.”

  “Ugh,” she said, sputtering with laughter. “Don’t remind me of that. I’m still mortified.”

  Once again, he stopped walking, but this time, he drew her in close to him, gazing down at her with a tender, amused expression on his face. “Why are you mortified?”

  “Because I kissed my boss! My nursing school professors would freak out if they knew that.”

  “You kissed me. I wasn’t your boss in that moment. And I’m not your boss now.” Caressing the faint bruise on her cheek, he said, “Does it hurt?”