Gansett Island Boxed Set, Books 1-16

by Force, Marie

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Mac said.

  “Just hush and do what you’re told.”

  His grunt of laughter made her smile. “You’ve always been such a bossy little thing.”

  “You’ve always needed to be bossed.”

  He placed his big hand on her thigh and squeezed. “Oh baby, boss me. Please boss me.”

  Rolling her eyes at him, she said, “I keep thinking one of these days you might actually grow up.”

  “That ain’t never gonna happen.”

  Which was fine with her, not that she could say so to him.

  Luke waited for them with the doors to the barn open. The surprise was covered with a tarp, and Linda couldn’t wait to see Mac’s reaction when he realized what was under the cover.

  They got out of the truck and went into the garage.

  Linda gave Luke a quick hug, and he shook hands with Mac.

  “Happy anniversary, you guys,” Luke said.

  “Thank you, honey,” Linda replied.

  “What’re you two up to?” Mac asked.

  Luke looked to her. “You ready to show him?”

  “So ready.” They’d been working on this surprise for almost a year.

  “It’s under there,” Luke said, gesturing to the tarp.

  Mac approached the tarp like it was wired with explosives, tentatively lifting it.

  “Oh, for crying out loud, Mac,” Linda said. “Just pull it off, will you?”

  He did as directed and gasped at the sight of the gleaming boat. “Is that a…”

  “Nineteen thirty-six Chris-Craft five-five-seven,” Luke said.

  Mac had a smaller classic Chris-Craft runabout that he loved, but they couldn’t sleep on that one.

  “Holy moly,” Mac said, running his hand over the shiny brightwork and creamy white paint. “What a beauty.”

  “It is now,” Luke said with a chuckle. He’d been working on the boat for six months, ever since Linda located it rotting away in a boatyard in Wisconsin. “You’ve got the pictures?”

  “I sure do.” Linda produced an album from her purse that documented the boat’s journey from broken down to fully restored.

  “Wow,” Mac said as he flipped through the photos. “This is incredible. What a great surprise.”

  “I figured we could do some cruising on this one,” Linda said.

  “We sure can.” He hugged her tightly. “Thank you so much, Lin. And Luke, you did an amazing job, as always.”

  “It was fun. The best part was pulling one over on you.”

  Big Mac laughed. “Which is not easy to do.”

  “No, it isn’t. Hope you guys are having a really great day. You surely deserve it after not only raising your own family but also helping out with a few special cases.”

  Big Mac released Linda to put both hands on the shoulders of the man who’d showed up at the marina as a fatherless fourteen-year-old looking for a job and had become one of them in the ensuing years. “You’re family to us, Luke, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Luke swallowed hard. “Thank you,” he said softly. “You’ve both meant more to me than you’ll ever know.”

  Big Mac hugged him, and then Linda did, too.

  “We love you,” she said.

  “Same,” Luke said.

  Sensing they were about to reduce him to tears, Linda took Mac by the hand. “Luke has graciously agreed to keep the boat here for the winter.”

  “You can keep it here every winter. I’ve got plenty of room for it.”

  “Thanks again, you guys,” Mac said, taking another long look at the boat. “I love it.”

  Smiling at Luke, Linda gave him a giddy thumbs-up, thrilled that their gift had been such a hit with the man who was almost impossible to surprise.

  It was still snowing when a car service delivered Adam and Abby to the Westerly airport for the late-afternoon flight home to Gansett. Since their conversation earlier, Abby had been quiet and withdrawn. Though she’d agreed to his plan to get married on New Year’s Eve, he knew their accord was fragile and could shatter at any moment.

  The same could be said for Abby. He was afraid to touch her for fear that she, too, might shatter.

  While Abby went to use the restroom, Slim Jackson, his pilot friend, met him with a bro hug. “Good to see you, buddy.”

  “You, too,” Adam replied. “How’s Florida treating you?”

  “Oh, you know, nonstop sun and fun. It gets a little boring after a while.”

  “Sure, it does.” Adam gestured to the snow that continued to fall. “This is so much better.”

  Slim laughed. “It does make things interesting.”

  “We’re okay to fly to the island?”

  “Absolutely. It’s barely freezing, so we’ll de-ice and go. I wouldn’t want you to miss your parents’ party. Hell, I don’t want to miss it, either.”

  “Are Evan and Grace here yet?”

  “They’re about fifteen minutes out.”

  “Oh, good. When I heard the ferries were canceled, my heart sank. Months of planning and two of us might miss it?”

  “I’d never let that happen.”

  “Today I’m thankful for old friends who know how to fly.”

  “Who you calling old?”

  They were laughing and joking around the way they usually did when Abby joined them, giving Slim a perfunctory hug.

  “Nice to see you,” she said in a dull, flat tone that had Slim raising a brow in question to Adam.

  He dodged the inquiry and put his arm around her.

  “Good to be home,” Slim said.

  “Are you sticking around after the holidays?” Abby asked.

  “I’m not sure yet. Depends on a few things.”

  Adam wanted to pursue that further because Slim always had the best stories, but the arrival of Evan and Grace a few minutes later had them all heading for Slim’s Cessna Citation for the flight to the island.

  Grace was worried about flying in the storm, but Slim assured her they’d be fine.

  “I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t sure it was okay,” Slim said.

  “He’s the best pilot I know, baby,” Evan said.

  “He’s the only pilot you know,” Grace replied with a saucy grin that made Adam smile. He looked over to find Abby gazing out the window, a blank expression on her face that reignited his earlier worries.

  Though she’d agreed to marry him, her heart wasn’t in it, and that killed him after everything they’d been through to get to this point in their lives together. Both of them had overcome failed relationships and heartbreak to take a chance on each other, and he’d never been happier than since the magical week they’d spent together last summer.

  That had been the start of everything, and their wedding needed to be a celebration of their love, not a Hail Mary play to save a relationship that hadn’t needed saving before yesterday.

  As they taxied to the runway for takeoff, Abby sat right next to him, her thigh touching his, but she was a million miles from him, the gulf between them so wide it was frightening. What would he do if she permanently checked out of their relationship? Adam shook off that thought as quickly as he had it.

  He wouldn’t let her do that. Reaching for her hand, he linked their fingers and held on tight as they hurtled down the runway, lifting off into the cloud-filled sky on the short flight home to Gansett. The thick clouds made for a bumpy climb.

  Abby tightened her grip on Adam’s hand. She was unnerved by the bumps and hung on to him for comfort. How sad was it that such a small thing filled him with hope?

  He released her hand to put his arm around her, encouraging her to rest her head on his shoulder, which she did. “Everything’s going to be okay, Abby.” Adam hoped she knew he was talking about far more than the bumpy flight.

  She released a deep breath and relaxed against him.

  Adam ran his fingers through her long, dark hair. He loved her silky, shiny hair, and the thought of her losing it killed hi
m. But that would never change the fact that his heart belonged to her, completely and absolutely.

  In front of them, Evan and Grace giggled like high school kids on a first date. And then they were kissing like two people who’d spent most of the last month apart and were thrilled to be back together. Good for them. Adam would never begrudge his brother the happiness he deserved. He just wished that he and Abby could go back to yesterday morning, before they had real problems, before they knew the results of tests she’d had two weeks ago.

  He wanted to go back in time twenty-four hours, when it would’ve been impossible to imagine her saying the things she’d said this morning, things that had rocked the foundation under him. How could she think for one minute that he would leave her rather than face whatever might happen to her? How could she give voice to such a thought? How were they supposed to go forward now that she’d said such things out loud?

  Adam no sooner had these disturbing thoughts than he shook them off, determined to file them under things Abby said when confronted with a life-changing condition. It wasn’t her talking. It was the fear. That had to be it, because any other possible explanation didn’t bear consideration.

  His Abby, the woman he loved with his whole heart and soul, didn’t want to spend a day apart from him, let alone the rest of her life. The very idea of a life without her at the center of it left him feeling bereft. He would be, quite simply, inconsolable if she gave up on them.

  Which was why he was insisting on a wedding next week. He had to get that second ring on her finger before she could do something stupid like actually break up with him. He couldn’t let that happen.

  “You okay, honey?” he asked, speaking close to her ear so she could hear him over the drone of the plane’s engines.

  She nodded.

  Right next to him but still a million miles away…

  Twenty minutes after they took off, Slim began the final approach to the Gansett Island airport. And as the wheels touched down on the island, Adam relaxed ever so slightly. They were home, and he could wage war—if that was what it took—to keep Abby right where she belonged—with him.

  At six o’clock, Ned and Francine arrived at the “White House,” as the locals called the McCarthy home. Big Mac’s best friend was turned out in a blue sport coat, khaki pants, new boat shoes, a blue shirt and a tie. Ned, who preferred his clothes old and holey, had worn a tie for him.

  “Must be one hell of an occasion,” Big Mac said as he hugged his longtime best friend.

  “T’aint every day yer best friends celebrate forty years a marriage,” Ned said.

  “I suppose that’s true.” Big Mac hugged and kissed Ned’s wife, Francine, who glowed with happiness these days. Long gone was the bitter, spiteful woman who’d been knocked down once too many times by life before she ended up with her one true love.

  “Congratulations, Mac,” Francine said. “You two set the gold standard.”

  “What’s this about gold?” Linda asked as she came into the living room, where Big Mac was fixing drinks for the four of them.

  “Gold standard,” Ned said. “Ya set the bar awfully high fer the rest a us.”

  Linda kissed his cheek and hugged him for a long moment, making him blush the way she always did when she showed him affection.

  “Happy anniversary, doll,” Ned said.

  “Thanks, old friend.”

  “T’aint no one in this room is old. We’re young at heart.”

  “That we are,” Linda said, beaming with happiness. She wore a slinky, sexy black dress and sky-high heels that had made Mac want to skip the festivities to have her all to himself tonight. But he’d never do that to the kids, suspecting they’d gone to some trouble for the occasion.

  Linda hugged Francine, and Big Mac was struck by how far the two women had come from the days when Linda had had no choice but to report Francine for repeatedly writing bad checks to pay her bar bill at the hotel. Linda’s complaints—and those of other island merchants—had resulted in a three-month jail sentence that seemed like a lifetime ago now that Francine was happily married to Ned. Not to mention, her daughter Maddie was married to their son Mac. Speaking of happy.

  The women shared two grandchildren, and had managed to put the past where it belonged for the sake of their families.

  While Francine and Linda chatted about their favorite subjects—Thomas and Hailey—Big Mac took Ned aside. “I was thinking about you today.”

  “What about me?”

  “Remember when you were practically the only person I knew on this island?”

  “Sure do,” Ned said with a chuckle. “Gave ya a ride over to North Harbor to check out the marina that first time.”

  Big Mac smiled at his old friend. “I was thinking, too, about how you sold me this house for dirt cheap.”

  “Ya had yer bride sleeping in the back room at the marina. Desperate times. Someone had ta do somethin’.”

  Throwing his head back, Big Mac let out a big laugh. He put his hand on Ned’s shoulder. “Just want you to know—I never could’ve gotten through those first couple of years without Linda. But I couldn’t have done it without you, either. Getting in your cab that day was one of the best things I ever did in my whole life.”

  Ned blinked furiously. “Aww, shit…yer all sappy today. Hell, yer sappy every day.”

  “Maybe so, but I wanted you to know, just the same.”

  “Means a lot ta me. Before Francine came back ta me, this was my home as much as yours. You and Linda and yer family…my family, too,” he said gruffly. “Woulda been a lonely life without y’all ta keep things interesting fer me.”

  “This life of ours wouldn’t have been the same without you, either. My third brother.”

  Ned continued to blink back tears, so Big Mac changed the subject before they turned into a couple of blubbering idiots.

  “How big of a deal are we looking at tonight?”

  Ned’s eyes widened.

  “Did you really think they were fooling Voodoo Mama?”

  “Suppose not,” Ned said with a chuckle. “Y’all will act surprised so they don’t think I spilled the beans, woncha?”

  “Of course. So, big deal, small deal?”

  “I ain’t tellin ya nothin’, so quit askin’.”

  “We should get going,” Francine said. “Our reservation is for six-thirty.”

  “After you, my dear.” Ned followed his wife to get their coats in the foyer.

  “Ready for this?” Linda asked as she took hold of Mac’s outstretched hand.

  “You bet. How about you?”

  “It’s already been an amazing day. I’m looking forward to an amazing evening with our family.”

  Mac held her coat. “It was a pretty great day, wasn’t it?”

  “The best. The ring, the trip, the memories… Doesn’t get much better.”

  Mac couldn’t agree more. It had been a fantastic day, and now he couldn’t wait to see what their kids had planned for the evening.

  Chapter 10

  Dashing through the snow, the foursome made their way to the front porch of the Sand & Surf Hotel. Mac kept a tight hold on Linda’s arm so she wouldn’t fall on the slippery sidewalk or stairs with those crazy shoes on. They entered through the main doors of the hotel, where their family waited to greet them.

  “Surprise!”

  Adam, Abby, Mallory, Janey, Joe, Evan, Grace, Mac, Maddie, Stephanie, Grant, Thomas, Hailey and P.J. made up the welcoming committee.

  Thomas stepped forward to present a wrist corsage made of white roses to Linda and a white rose for Big Mac’s lapel. “Are you surprised, Papa?” Thomas asked.

  “So surprised, pal. How did you keep this a secret?”

  The blond boy smiled widely. “I promised Daddy I wouldn’t tell.”

  Big Mac hugged the little boy who’d made him a grandfather when Mac married his mother. “You did a good job keeping the secret.” Standing upright, he accepted a hug from Evan, who’d spent the last three
weeks touring with Buddy.

  “So good to have you home, son.”

  “Good to be home. Happy anniversary.”

  “Thank you.”

  After lots of hugs and kisses and congratulations, Stephanie said, “Ready to go in? We’ve got a table all ready.”

  “Ready when you are,” Linda said, reaching for Big Mac’s hand.

  Though he was prepared for a party, he was floored by just how many people had braved the elements to come celebrate with them. The main dining room of Stephanie’s Bistro was packed with friends and neighbors and extended family, who broke into a long round of applause as he and Linda entered the room.

  Overwhelmed by the outpouring, his heart expanded in his chest. His brothers Frankie and Kevin hugged him, as did his adorably pregnant niece Laura, his nephews Shane, Riley and Finn, Linda’s sister Joan and her family, Alex and Jenny Martinez, Dan Torrington, Kara Ballard, Luke and Sydney Harris, Paul Martinez and his fiancée Hope Russell, Shane’s fiancée Katie Lawry and her brother, Laura’s husband, Owen Lawry. Katie and Owen’s mother Sarah and her fiancé Charlie Grandchamp were there, as were Carolina and Seamus O’ Grady, Maddie’s sister Tiffany and her husband Blaine Taylor, David Lawrence and his girlfriend Daisy Babson, and Jared and Lizzie James. Everyone who was anyone to them had come. Even Mayor Upton and his wife, Verna, were there.

  He saw Linda receive a tearful hug from Mallory.

  Though a hundred people wanted to talk to him, he stayed with Linda, needing her close to him as much today as he had on their wedding night night forty years ago. While they visited with their guests, Stephanie’s waitstaff delivered glasses of champagne that were replaced the minute they were empty. After a while, they were shown to a head table that included the members of their original wedding party, including Frank and Kevin and Linda’s friends from Providence College. Frank’s beloved wife Joann, who died of cancer more than twenty years ago, was the only one missing.

  And then someone handed their son Mac a microphone, and everything went downhill from there in the most hilarious way possible.

  “Oh, dear God,” Linda muttered as Mac cleared his throat dramatically to get everyone’s attention.