Gansett Island Boxed Set Books 1-16 (Gansett Island Series)

by Marie Force

  As she thought about the Sand & Surf and the huge challenge it would be to bring the old girl back to life, she was filled with excitement. A smile stretched across her face as she realized the decision had been made—as if there’d ever been a decision in the first place. From the moment Owen had mentioned it last night, she’d known what she would do.

  Tugging on her raincoat, she left a note for her uncle and cousins that she was taking a walk into town.

  She needed to see a man about a hotel.

  Chapter 14

  Maddie woke from a sound sleep to find Mac out cold next to her. Remembering that she needed to check on the baby, she shifted from her side to her back and let out a gasp of pain. Every inch of her body hurt, but the fire between her legs was excruciating.

  Instantly awake, Mac sat up. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Hurts.”

  “What does?”

  “Everything.” She tried again to find a more comfortable position without success. “Check on her, will you?”

  He peered into the bassinette they’d put next to their bed. “Still asleep.”

  “What about Thomas?”

  “My mom has him downstairs. Don’t worry.”

  “You should check on them, too.”

  “I will as soon as I take care of you.”

  Rubbing a hand over his tired face, he got up and disappeared into the bathroom that adjoined their bedroom.

  Maddie heard the water go on in the tub and was filled with anticipation. Somehow, her dear husband always seemed to know exactly what she needed.

  When he returned, he seemed full of energy and not at all like he was operating on two hours of sleep. Moving carefully, he pulled down the covers. “Let’s get this off,” he said, referring to her nightgown. “Don’t try to move. Let me do everything.”

  Since she didn’t have much choice, she let him remove the gown. She couldn’t help but wince at even the smallest of movements.

  “Sorry, baby.” He kissed her brow and then her lips. “Was it this bad last time?”

  “Probably.”

  “You don’t remember?”

  “The memories fade, which is why women are able to have more than one child.”

  “I can’t imagine how you’d ever forget. Ready for a ride?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Tell me if anything hurts too badly.” He leaned in to slide his arms under her neck and legs and lifted her very slowly.

  Maddie looped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “Feels like a million years since you carried me upstairs last night.”

  “More like two million years.” In the bathroom, he lowered her into the tub that he’d filled with steaming water and her favorite bath oil. “Good?”

  “Heavenly.” She crossed her arms over her ridiculously large breasts, which had become even more ridiculously large during her pregnancy. Left to their own devices they would’ve floated to the surface like grotesque air bags.

  Squatting beside the tub, he reached for her arms and drew them away from her chest. “Don’t cover yourself from me, Madeline. You know how that irritates me.”

  “They’re hideous.”

  “They’re beautiful. Slide down a bit to get your hair wet. I’ll wash it for you.”

  She did as he asked and was treated to a lovely scalp massage as he washed and conditioned her long hair. “Feels good.”

  “Have a soak while I check on things downstairs. Do you think you might be ready for something to eat?”

  “Not quite yet.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Watching him go, Maddie was so grateful to have such a wonderful husband and father for her children. When he’d asked about how she’d felt after Thomas’s birth, she couldn’t very well tell him that she’d been lonely, bereft and overwhelmed at the thought of raising a child on her own.

  Thomas’s father had left her after a brief affair without ever even knowing he’d fathered a son. Once he’d learned of Thomas’s existence, he’d quickly signed away his rights to the child in exchange for their assurances that they’d never ask him for money. Bastard. They were certainly better off without him. Mac’s adoption of Thomas had been final in June.

  As she floated in a sea of contentment, she thought of her sister Tiffany, who’d spent years unhappily married to a man who rarely made time for her or their daughter. Last night, she’d seen Tiffany having an animated conversation with Mac’s friend Blaine Taylor, the Gansett Island police chief.

  In all the excitement of Hailey’s arrival, Maddie hadn’t had a chance to reflect on how happy her sister had seemed while talking to the handsome policeman who’d hung on Tiffany’s every word.

  “What’re you all smiles about?” Mac asked when he returned.

  Maddie opened her eyes and looked up at him. “I never got a chance last night to ask if you noticed Tiffany talking to Blaine.”

  Mac let out a bark of laughter. “You’re totally exhausted and sore as hell but still matchmaking?”

  “Can I help it if I want my sister to be as happy as I am?”

  He knelt down next to the tub, folded his arms on the edge and propped his chin on his forearm. “Are you happy? Even after what you just went through?”

  Maddie reached out to smooth his unruly, dark hair. His eyes were rimmed with red from exhaustion, and his face was rough with whiskers. “I’ve never been happier in my life. You know that.”

  He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “That’s good to know, because I had no idea it was possible to be this happy. Two years ago, I was all alone, living far from home, doing a job that nearly put me in an early grave because I was stressed out all the time. Now I’ve got a gorgeous wife and two adorable kids, my family all around and a job I love. All because I knocked a beautiful temptress off her bike.”

  Maddie smiled at the reminder of how they’d met. “Best day of my life.”

  “Every day since then has been pretty damned good, too.” He squeezed her hand. “We have a very excited little boy downstairs who’s dying to meet his baby sister.”

  “We shouldn’t keep him waiting any longer.” She raised her arms. “Give me a lift?”

  “Any time.” By the time he got her out of the tub, dried off, dressed in a clean nightgown and back in bed, her small burst of energy was gone. She felt like she could sleep for a year, but Hailey was awake and crying, and Thomas was waiting to meet his sister.

  Mac went over to the baby and stared down at her, a look of wonder on his face. “She’s so tiny. I’m afraid to touch her. I might break her.”

  “You won’t break her, Dad. Go ahead. She needs you.”

  As Maddie watched him lift his baby daughter into his arms, she decided she’d never loved him more than she did in that moment. Hailey McCarthy was a lucky girl to have him for a father, even if he wouldn’t let her date until she was thirty.

  “She’s so pretty, Maddie. Look at her.” He turned so she could see. The baby had settled as soon as he picked her up. She had silky dark hair that Mac smoothed with his free hand. “Did Thomas have all this hair?”

  She shook her head. “He was born totally bald.”

  “I wonder if she’ll have dark hair like me or if it’ll be lighter like you and Thomas.”

  Maddie reached up to take the baby from him. “Time will tell.”

  “Let me go get the big brother.” Mac went out the bedroom door and returned a few minutes later holding Thomas.

  Maddie’s heart contracted at the sight of them—one so dark, the other so blond and fair, but father and son in every way that mattered.

  Thomas’s big blue eyes got even bigger when he caught sight of his mother holding his new baby sister.

  “Remember what I told you, pal,” Mac said to the boy. “Be very gentle with Mommy and baby Hailey.”

  “I will, Dada.” Thomas squirmed, wanting to get down.

  Mac delivered him to the bed.

  T
homas crawled right up to take a look at his sister. “She’s all scrunched up.”

  Maddie bit her lip to keep from laughing. “She will be for a week or two, and then she’ll be so pretty.”

  “She’s pretty now.” Thomas ran a gentle finger over Hailey’s downy hair. “Baby Hailey, I’m Thomas, your big brother.” He leaned in to kiss the baby’s cheek. “I’ll take very good care of you.”

  Maddie looked up at Mac and caught him blinking back tears. She held out a hand, inviting him to join them.

  He went around to the other side of the bed and crawled in with them.

  “I know it was terribly risky and we got awfully lucky,” she said, linking her fingers with his. “But I’m glad it happened the way it did, and we’re all finally home together.”

  Mac kissed her and then their children. “I am, too.”

  Francine stared at the innocuous piece of paper on which her daughter had written a phone number. She’d met Bobby’s sister Marion just twice in the four years they’d been together—once at their wedding and a second time after Maddie was born.

  Since she’d had her own young family, Marion hadn’t been able to get out to the island to see them, and Bobby had balked at the cost of taking the car on the ferry, which had kept their family tethered to the island—until the day he’d stepped on the ferry and never looked back.

  The idea of reaching out to him, even through his sister, made Francine ill. Then she thought of Ned—dear, sweet Ned who’d forgiven her for leaving him for Bobby all those years ago—and everything she wanted with him. None of that could happen as long as she was still married to Bobby.

  She took a deep breath and dialed the number on her cell phone.

  Marion answered on the first ring.

  Francine was struck dumb.

  “Hello?” Marion said a second time.

  “This is Francine.” After a long, pregnant pause, she added, “Chester.”

  “Oh, my goodness! Well, this is certainly a surprise!”

  “I’m sorry to call out of the blue this way.”

  “It’s nice to hear from you, Francine. I’ve wondered about you…and the girls. You’re all well?”

  “We are. I have three grandchildren now. The third one was born early this morning, in fact.”

  “Congratulations! That’s wonderful. I can’t imagine Maddie and Tiffany all grown up and married. They’re still little girls in my mind.”

  The comment was tinged with sorrow, reminding Francine that she and her daughters weren’t the only victims of Bobby’s selfishness. “I should’ve tried harder to keep in touch with you.”

  “I certainly don’t blame you for anything that happened.”

  “That’s good of you.” Francine’s palms were sweaty all of a sudden. “And your family is well?”

  “Everyone is good. The kids are all grown up. I’m a grandmother five times over myself.”

  “Congratulations to you, too.” Francine marshaled the courage to get to the point. “The reason I’m calling is I need to get in touch with Bobby.”

  “Whatever for, Francine?” Marion asked softly. “Certainly you’ve moved on from him a long time ago.”

  “Oh, yes, a long time ago,” Francine said. Of course, she didn’t mention that it’d taken fifteen years not to think of her long-lost husband every day anymore. Her poor Maddie had watched people coming off the ferries for years, hoping her father would be among them. For that alone Francine would never forgive Bobby Chester.

  “Then why do you need to reach him now?” Marion asked.

  “Well, it occurred to me that I’m probably still married to him. I’d like to rectify that.”

  Marion was silent for a long time. “I can’t believe he never took care of that.”

  “If he did, it was without my involvement.”

  “I doubt he bothered. Details aren’t Bobby’s strong suit.”

  Nothing that smacked of responsibility was Bobby’s strong suit. “I wondered if you might ask him to call me,” Francine said, even though there was no one she wished to speak with less than him.

  “I haven’t talked to him in months, but I’ll call him for you.”

  Francine recited her phone number for Marion. “Thank you very much. I appreciate your help.”

  “If you think of it, I’d love to see some pictures of the girls and their children.”

  “I don’t have your address anymore.”

  “Let me give it to you.”

  As she rattled it off, Francine remembered visiting her sister-in-law’s home. “I’ll put some in the mail to you this week.”

  “It was good to hear from you, Francine. Call me again sometime, will you?”

  “I will.”

  Laura was disappointed that Owen didn’t seem to be around the hotel when she got there. Her hair was soaked from the rain, and the wind had battered her all the way from North Harbor. As she stood dripping on the hotel porch, relieved to be out of the elements, she had no desire to venture back into the storm. Since she wouldn’t dare make use of his secret key, she did what any future innkeeper would naturally do in this situation and started looking into windows, imagining how the lobby might look after some elbow grease and paint.

  “Peeking in my windows, Princess?”

  Owen’s deep voice startled her.

  Laura spun around to find him standing right behind her. His close proximity caused her belly to flutter with nerves.

  As usual, his gray eyes were filled with amusement as he studied her.

  “I wasn’t peeking,” Laura said, embarrassed to have been caught. “I was thinking.”

  “About?”

  “What I might do to spruce up the lobby.”

  A big smile lit up his face. Judging by the crinkles around his eyes, he did a lot of smiling. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

  “Yes, indeed,” Laura said, elated by the decision, the challenge and the fact that she no longer had to live in the Providence apartment she’d lovingly furnished for her and Justin.

  “My grandparents will be thrilled.”

  “You can tell them I am, too, and I look forward to talking with them. Please also thank them for the opportunity for me.”

  He withdrew a cell phone from his coat pocket as he used his badly hidden key to get them into the hotel. “You can tell them yourself.” As he held the phone to his ear, he kept his gaze on her. “Damn. They’re not picking up. Hey guys, it’s Owen. I have some great news for you. Give me a call when you can.” He returned the phone to his pocket and took off his wet coat. “Why are you always out walking around in the storm?”

  Laura trailed her fingers through the dust on top of an antique table. “Because I don’t have a car, and I like being outside.”

  “Even in a tropical storm?”

  “I love a good storm. Thunder, lightning, snow, rain.”

  He leaned on the mahogany banister and watched her, his expression open and inquisitive. “What do you love about it?”

  “The excitement, the drama, the disruption. People make plans that can’t be kept because of the weather. How often these days does anything get in the way of our plans?”

  “Something got in the way of your plans, and it wasn’t the weather.”

  Amused by the insightful comment, Laura turned to face him. “Ouch.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be flippant about what happened to you.”

  “No, you’re right. In my case, I’d equate the storm to a tornado—an F5, in fact. Metaphorically speaking, the wreckage it left was similar to the pictures you see on TV.” As she spoke, Laura walked around the room, examining the furniture, viewing the yellowing wallpaper and imagining what it would take to breathe new life into the musty, faded lobby.

  “Do you find it exciting to be without power for days on end?”

  “In some ways. I made coffee on a gas grill this morning, and it was damned good, if I do say so myself. In fact, my uncle confirmed it.”

  He cr
ossed his arms over the sage cable-knit sweater he wore. The color made his gray eyes seem green. “Anyone who can make coffee on gas grill can survive the other stuff, you know.”

  “I have every intention of surviving.” As she brushed the dust off her hands, she realized she’d moved past the fury and into the acceptance stage at some point during her stay on Gansett Island. “What were you doing out in the storm?”

  “Looking for coffee, ironically enough.”

  “Did you find any?”

  “Nope.”

  “Got a gas grill?”

  “As a matter of fact I do. I’ve got coffee, too. But because I’m not as clever as you, I didn’t think of combining the two.”

  The silly compliment pleased her more than it probably should have. “Then allow me.” Feeling lighter than she had since the F5 shattered her life, she gestured for him to lead the way.

  Chapter 15

  After spending most of the day in bed, Grant and Stephanie shared a lukewarm shower and ventured into the storm to visit his new niece and then check on the marina. They refilled the generator’s gas tank and battled their way down the main pier to check on the boats.

  “I’ve got some things I need to do here,” Stephanie said when they stepped back into the dark building that housed the restaurant and office. She flipped on a flashlight. “Would you mind too much if I stayed here tonight? I can plug some lights into the generator.”

  “Yes, I’d mind.”

  “Seriously, Grant—”

  “Seriously, Stephanie. I don’t want you here alone.”

  All she could think about was the ticking of the clock and the thousand dollars she needed to come up with to pay the lawyer before the end of the month. Not to mention the more time she spent with Grant, the harder it became to remember she was leaving soon and would probably never see him again. She crossed her arms, prepared to dig in. “I’ll be fine.”

  “What if I won’t? Did I ever tell you I’m afraid of wind?”

  Stephanie smiled at the ridiculous comment. “No, I don’t think you mentioned that.”