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

by Marie Force

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  His shrug didn’t tell her much, but the pain she saw in his eyes told the true story.

  She didn’t know if he’d welcome her touch, but she couldn’t contain the need to hold him and kiss him and care for him the way he’d cared for her. Tentatively, she wound her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.

  A long moment passed before his arms came around her in a looser-than-usual embrace. She realized he was so used to dealing with the pain on his own that he had no idea how to accept her comfort.

  “I’m here, Owen,” she said softly, not wanting to disturb the fragile peace. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I’m right here. You don’t have to do it alone anymore.”

  He released a deep breath and with it some of the tension began to leave his big frame. His forehead dropped to her shoulder, and his nose nuzzled her hair.

  Laura ran her hands over his back, wishing there was something she could say to make it better for him.

  “It was about an undercooked chicken this time,” he said many minutes later.

  At first, Laura didn’t understand what he meant, and then it dawned on her. The undercooked chicken had sparked his father’s rage.

  “It’s going to be different this time,” Laura said, hoping she was right. If she raised his hopes only to see them dashed, she’d never forgive herself. “She seems determined to leave him.”

  “She has been before.”

  “Have the police ever been involved?”

  He shook his head. “She’s always managed to evade them and never filed a report before.”

  “It’s a good sign that she’s allowing that to happen this time.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Have you talked to your siblings yet?”

  “I wanted to wait until she saw David and Blaine took the report.”

  “Why don’t you go on out to the porch and call them now? I’ll stay close by in case she needs anything.”

  He drew back from her, but kept a firm grip on her hands. “I was on the beach just now thinking about everything that’s happened, and it occurred to me that maybe you’d be better off taking a step back from me. Things are bound to get ugly with my father, and the situation with Justin—”

  With her heart aching at the thought of losing him, she shook her head. “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t say that.”

  “Think about it, Laura. Justin won’t give you the divorce as long as we’re together, and with everything that’s going on in my family—”

  “We need each other more than ever,” she said firmly. “I told you I love you. Do you think that means I cut and run the first time things get a little difficult?”

  He stared at her, incredulous. “A little difficult? Do you have any idea how my father is going to react to being arrested? If it goes to court, we’ll have to testify. All of us—possibly even you, too, if you stick around, since you saw her in this condition. It’s going to be a whole lot more than a little difficult for a long time.”

  “If I stick around?” She made a huge effort to keep the panic out of her voice. She told herself he was reacting to the emotion of the situation, and it had nothing to do with them. “Where exactly would I go?”

  He ran his hands through his hair, frustration rippling off him in waves. “I’m not suggesting you go anywhere. I’m just suggesting that maybe this isn’t the time for us to be together.”

  “When would the right time be? Can you tell me that?” Since he had no ready answer to that question, she bit back the panic and pressed on. “Our timing has been off from the very beginning, but that didn’t stop us from becoming friends or falling in love or making a commitment to each other.”

  “Laura—”

  “I’m holding you to that commitment, Owen. You made promises to me. You said you love me and that you’d love my baby.” Even though tears threatened to derail her, she forced them back, knowing she needed to be strong for both of them. “Didn’t you mean that?”

  “I did.” He sounded so wounded and so desperately unhappy, and she knew that neither had anything at all to do with her. “You know I did.”

  “Don’t let him take something else from you. He took your childhood and your sense of security and your chance to go to college. Don’t let him take me, too.” She stepped toward him to close the yawning chasm he’d tried to build between them and rested her hands on his chest. Under her palms, his heart beat hard and fast. “Don’t let him win, Owen.”

  “It’s going to get so ugly, Princess. You have no idea.”

  “It’s nothing I can’t handle if it means I get to be with you.”

  “You say that now—”

  “I’ll say that forever.”

  He leaned his forehead on hers. “You’re too damned stubborn for your own good.”

  “You love that about me.”

  “Yes, I do.” His arms came around her in the fierce embrace she’d grown accustomed to. “I love you so goddamned much. I don’t want you anywhere near the ugliness.”

  “I want to be wherever you are—good, bad or ugly.”

  “How’d I get so lucky to find you?”

  “We both got lucky, and if we hold on tight to this precious love we have between us, there’s nothing we can’t get through together.”

  “I’m going to take your word for that.”

  “Good,” she said, relieved and overwhelmed to know that no matter what the future might bring, they’d face it together.

  Epilogue

  “One more big push, Laura,” said Victoria, the midwife, from her perch between Laura’s legs.

  Behind Laura, Owen propped her up and wiped a cool cloth over her forehead as he had for hours now.

  “So tired,” Laura said, panting between contractions.

  “I know, honey,” he said, “but you’re almost there. I have no doubt you can do it.”

  His calm, steady support had gotten her this far, and she’d be damned if she’d let him down now. As a blizzard howled outside the warm confines of the clinic, Laura bore down on the next contraction. The pain was unlike anything she’d ever imagined, and for an instant, she wondered if the baby was capable of splitting was her in half.

  “That’s it!” Victoria said. “You did it!”

  The baby screamed in protest as it emerged into a world of bright lights and frightening noises.

  “You’ve got a gorgeous baby boy,” Victoria said as she quickly cleared his airway and cleaned him up. “With all his fingers and toes.” She wrapped him in a receiving blanket and handed him to his exhausted mother.

  “Oh, a boy,” Laura said as she took her first look at the scrunched up face and the tiny mouth that formed a perfect O to express his outrage. She was so glad now that she’d waited to find out what she was having until he arrived. His head was covered in glossy dark hair that reminded Laura of Justin’s. She blinked back the torrent of tears that spilled from her eyes so she could see every detail of the little face.

  “My God, look at him,” Owen said, reverently. “He’s beautiful.”

  “I’d say he’s pretty close to nine pounds,” Victoria said. “Well done, Mom.”

  “We’ll give you a minute to get acquainted, and then I’ll be back with David to check on both of you,” Victoria said.

  “Thank you,” Laura said, unable to tear her gaze off her newborn son.

  Owen’s hand covered hers as she held the baby. With his free hand, he used a tissue to mop up her tears, and then grabbed a second one to deal with his own.

  “It’s true what they say.”

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “The minute you see the baby, you forget all about what you went through to have him.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever forget it. You were amazing, honey.”

  “So were you.” She tipped her head back for a kiss. “I never could’ve done it without you.”

  He caressed her face
. “Yes, you could have.”

  Victoria popped her head into the room. “We’ve got some anxious grandparents and an uncle out here waiting to meet the new arrival. Mind if I show them in?”

  “Please do,” Laura said.

  Her father and brother escorted Owen’s mother into the room a minute later.

  “Oh, let me see him,” Frank said, leaning over the bedrail for a closer look at his new grandson. “He’s beautiful.”

  “Your daughter was amazing, Frank,” Owen said. “A true warrior goddess.”

  “I have no doubt,” Frank said, kissing Laura’s cheek. “She always has been. Are you okay, honey?”

  “Never been better.”

  “What’ll you name him?” Sarah asked as the baby curled a hand around her finger.

  “I was thinking about Francis,” Laura said.

  “Absolutely not!” Frank and Shane said together.

  “Why not?”

  “That’s an awful name to pin on a little guy,” Shane said. He’d joined them at the hotel right before Christmas and had become an invaluable member of the renovation team. He was also helping Mac and Luke with the installation of new laundry and restroom facilities at the marina and had committed to staying on through the spring to help out with the new low-income houses they’d be building on the Chesterfield property.

  “I want to name him after you,” Laura said to her father.

  “And I’m honored, honey. I truly am, but don’t do that to him. Give him a good, strong first name, and I’ll allow Francis as a middle name.”

  “He still thinks he’s the boss of me,” Laura said to Owen and Sarah, who laughed.

  She laughed more often now that her bruises had healed. Her husband was prohibited to have any contact with her as the case wound its way through the courts. Laura would’ve been lost without Sarah the last few months as the pregnancy made it impossible for her to do half the things that needed to be done at the hotel. Sarah had stepped in ably, throwing herself into the project with a passion Owen said he’d never seen from her before.

  After growing up in the hotel, Sarah had many stories to share, such as the one about the second floor guestroom where a young couple had spent their only two nights as a married couple before he shipped off to World War II. He’d been killed nine months later without ever seeing his young wife again. Laura had suggested they name the room after the couple, an idea Sarah, Adele and Owen had loved.

  That had led to a mission to the basement where Adele had told Laura she would find much of the original furnishings in storage as well as logbooks full of stories about other guests who’d come and gone over the years.

  Laura and Sarah had spent many a cozy winter day in front of the fire, thumbing through the yellowed books, mining for nuggets they could use to tell the story of the fabled hotel. Each room now bore the name of a guest who’d celebrated a significant milestone there, along with a framed telling of the guest’s story inside the room.

  Enlisting the help of Evan and Grant, Owen and Shane had moved much of the original furniture out of the basement. After she returned from her honeymoon to the Bahamas in January, Syd had deemed some pieces salvageable while others were relegated to the junk pile.

  As the winter unfolded, the renovation had progressed along with Laura’s pregnancy, until Owen and Sarah had proclaimed her on maternity leave a week before the baby’s arrival.

  Since she was too big and ungainly to be of much use to anyone, she’d ceded to their wishes and allowed Owen to wait on her hand and foot, the way he had in their early months together when she’d been so sick in the mornings.

  And now, looking down at her baby son, she was filled with gratitude for the many blessings in her life and apprehensive about the phone call she needed to make.

  “I need to call Justin.”

  “Yes.” Owen disentangled himself from her and got off the bed, stretching out the kinks from hours of supporting her through the most strenuous part of her labor. He rooted around in the bag she had packed for the hospital, produced her cell phone and handed it to her. “We’ll give you some privacy,” he said, leaning over to kiss her and then the baby.

  “Thank you.”

  Frank, Sarah and Shane kissed Laura and the baby before they followed Owen from the room.

  “What do you think?” she whispered to the baby, who watched her every move with unseeing eyes. She’d read that it would take a while for his vision to become clear. “Should we call your other daddy and let him know you’ve arrived?”

  Even all these months later, the idea of speaking to Justin filled her belly with butterflies.

  He answered on the first ring. “Laura?”

  “Yes, it’s me, and a brand new baby boy calling to say hello.”

  “Oh. Wow. Are you okay?”

  “We’re great.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the miracle in her arms who pursed his tiny pink lips, as if engaged in deep thought. “He’s got your dark hair.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Don’t get too excited. I read that the hair they’re born with often falls out in the first few months.”

  “Will you send me some pictures?”

  “Of course.”

  “What will you name him?”

  “I was going to name him Francis after my father, but he won’t hear of it. He says it’s an awful name to give a little kid.”

  “I have to agree with him.”

  “I figured you might. Any suggestions?”

  “I’ve always been partial to Matthew or maybe John.”

  “Matthew Francis Newsome?” Laura said, gauging the baby’s reaction. “I don’t think he likes it.”

  “It does sound kind of boring. What do you like? Didn’t you have a list of names going from the time you were a little kid?”

  “Yes,” she said, touched that he’d remembered. “I like Holden and Austin.”

  “Both good strong names. What does he think?”

  Laura smiled at the way Justin was accommodating her whimsy. They’d come a long way in the last few months and were trying to work out their differences amicably. Laura suspected he’d met someone new, which had facilitated his newfound willingness to compromise—that and the pressure the senior partner at his firm had put on him to not further irritate Judge Frank McCarthy.

  “I got a gurgle on Holden but not much of a reaction to Austin.”

  “Then Holden it is. Holden Francis Newsome?”

  “Holden Francis Newsome,” she said to the baby and watched in delight as he tried to kick his legs within the tight confines of the blanket. “I think we’ve got a winner.”

  “Thanks for allowing me to be a part of that, Laura. I know I haven’t done much to endear myself to you in the last nine months, but I’m glad to hear you and the baby are well.”

  “Thank you,” she said, moved by the effort he was making.

  “Your dad has something with him that I asked him to give you after the baby arrived.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Signed divorce papers.”

  Laura gasped. Despite the effort they’d both been making to be more civil, she’d thought they were still a long way from brokering a settlement in the divorce. “What changed?”

  “You won’t believe it, but my mom had a come-to-Jesus conversation with me,” he said, sounding sheepish. “Apparently, she heard about what happened between us from Mrs. Harrigan.”

  “Ahhh,” Laura said. Mrs. Harrigan’s daughter Tamara had been one of the bridesmaids who’d set up the phony date with Justin.

  “She was extremely disappointed, and by the time she was through with me, I was ashamed of myself.”

  Laura winced, imagining the scene. “Your mom is one to be reckoned with.”

  “Indeed.” He released a deep sigh that sounded almost regretful. “She also reminded me that we’ve got a child to consider, and it’s best for him if we make an attempt to be civil.”

  “I completely agree. Thank you—and
your mom.” Laura couldn’t believe this was happening. “What about the custody arrangement?”

  “I agreed to your request—occasional weekends when he’s older, alternating holidays, two weeks in the summer. I want to be part of his life, even if I’m no longer a part of yours.”

  “As long as we share a child, you’ll always be part of my life, Justin.”

  “I suppose you’ll want to marry the surfer dude once you’re free of me.”

  She smiled at the way he described Owen. If only he knew how much substance the “surfer dude” brought to their relationship. “We haven’t gotten that far.” As long as she was still married to Justin, there hadn’t been much point in discussing their future.

  “I’d like to come see the baby in the next week or so. Whenever you’re up for it.”

  “Of course. I’ll call you when we’re home and settled.”

  “Thank you for giving me a son, Laura. I’m sorry for what happened between us. I regret that I hurt you—and I felt that way before my mother laid into me.”

  “Things work out the way they’re meant to.”

  Owen stuck his head in the door, and Laura waved him in.

  “I really believe that,” she added to Justin.

  “Don’t forget to send pictures.”

  “I won’t.”

  He paused for a moment before he said, “You may not believe this, Laura, but I did love you, and I married you for the right reasons. Afterward, I don’t know what happened. . . I freaked out, I guess. I couldn’t believe you actually left me.”

  Astounded, she said, “What did you think I’d do when I found out what you were up to?”

  “I never expected you to find out. It was stupid. In hindsight, I wasn’t ready to be married, but I was so afraid of losing you. And then when I did. . . I behaved badly, and I’m sorry about that. I really am.”

  “It’s in the past now,” Laura said, filled with relief that they were finally moving past the ugliness. “All that matters now is this beautiful baby who needs both his parents in his life.”

  “He’ll have us both,” Justin said. “Take care of yourself. And the baby.”

  “I will.” Laura ended the call and realized she had tears streaming down her cheeks.