by Marie Force
Frank laughed at his niece’s distress. “I don’t know if gross is the word I’d use. I was going to go with surprising.”
“They’re like a couple of teenagers lately,” Caro said.
“Good for them,” Seamus said. “That’s the way we’re going to be, too, love, so you’d better get ready.”
“Oh Jesus,” Joe muttered. “I so didn’t need to hear that either.”
“I’m sorry, honey.” Caro patted Joe’s arm. “I’ve tried to get him under control, but I’m afraid there’s no controlling him.”
“And she likes me that way, not that she wants you to know it,” Seamus said to Joe’s profound mortification.
“If you don’t stop talking right now, there isn’t going to be a wedding,” Carolina said.
Seamus smiled at her. Nothing could get him down on the day he was set to marry the love of his life.
Twenty minutes later, Mac and Linda McCarthy came rushing into the house, looking red-faced and flustered.
“So sorry to be late,” Linda said. “We had an appointment that ran late and…”
“The jig is up, Mom,” Janey said. “We know what you’ve been doing.”
Big Mac snorted, which earned him an elbow to the midsection from his wife.
“Let’s get this show on the road now that everyone is here,” Frank said.
“What show?” Linda asked.
“Shall I tell them, Mom?” Joe asked.
“Please do.”
“The Carolina and Seamus show,” Joe said. “They’re getting married today.”
Linda let out a piercing shriek. “What?”
“You heard him,” Caro said, clearly amused by her longtime friend’s reaction to their news.
“You sneaky devils!” Linda hugged Carolina and then him. “Congratulations! What a fun idea—a surprise wedding.” Linda’s face turned bright red. “Sorry if we held things up.”
“No problem,” Caro said with a warm smile for the woman who had been family to her since Joe met Linda’s son Mac in kindergarten. “You’re here now, so…” She looked at him. “Shall we do this?”
“Oh yes, please, love.”
“Excellent,” Frank said. “You two get ready, and leave the rest to me. Mac, come help me get everyone where they need to be.”
As he followed his brother to the sliding door that led to the deck and yard, Big Mac stopped to shake hands with Seamus. “You’re marrying one of the finest women I know. Take good care of her.”
“I will. You have my word on it.”
Big Mac nodded in approval and continued to the yard.
Seamus stood with Carolina, Joe, Janey and Linda and listened to the McCarthy brothers corral their friends and family into a group.
“Folks,” Frank said, “we have a bit of a surprise for you today. Where’s Seamus?”
“That’d be my cue.” Seamus kissed and hugged Carolina. Whispering in her ear, he said, “You and me forever, love. We got this.”
She sniffled as she nodded.
“See you out there. Don’t get lost on the way.”
“I won’t,” she said with a laugh as she mopped up her tears with tissues that Linda provided.
Seamus emerged into the yard, where a buzz of curiosity had their guests riveted to what was going on. They’d decided to let their actions speak for them, so he walked over to Frank and shook his hand as everyone watched him with puzzled looks on their faces.
Janey, carrying P.J., walked with her mother to the front of the group that stood around them.
“Give it up, Janey,” her brother Mac said. “What’s going on?”
“Shush,” she said. “You’ll see in a minute.”
After a long pause that had everyone straining for a better view of the house, Carolina emerged on the arm of her son. She carried a bouquet of daisies that Seamus had picked for her from their garden.
“Oh my God,” Adam McCarthy said. “They’re getting married!”
Chapter 6
Seamus laughed at the startled reactions that followed Adam’s announcement. When Carolina and Joe reached the spot they’d decided on earlier, she turned and hugged her son. After a few whispered words, both were dabbing at their eyes.
Seamus held out his hand to Caro, who wrapped her fingers around his. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and let out a deep breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding as he waited for disaster to strike. For days after they hatched this plan, he’d expected her to tell him she’d changed her mind. But that hadn’t happened, and now they were exactly where he’d wanted to be for almost as long as he’d known her.
“Friends, on behalf of Seamus and Carolina, I’m pleased to welcome you to their clambake-slash-wedding,” Frank said to enthusiastic cheers from the gathering. “It’s been an enormous pleasure to spend time with them in the last couple of weeks as they prepared for today. More than anything, they wanted their wedding to be casual and fun, and they wanted to include the people who mean the most to them. Seamus and Carolina have chosen to write their own vows, so I’ll let them take it from here. Seamus?”
Carolina handed her bouquet to Linda and turned to him.
Holding both her hands, he looked down at her, hoping he could get through this without making a fool of himself. “From the day I first met my new boss’s mum, I knew I was in for a world of trouble.”
Carolina and everyone else laughed at his opening line, as he’d hoped they would.
“You have led me on a merry chase, my love, and there was many a day when I thought we’d never get to this moment. And before I pledge my eternal love and devotion to you, I want to say to your beloved son, Joe, that I thank him for welcoming me into his family and for trusting me with his mother’s heart. I promise I’ll be careful with it. I might be only a couple of years older than you, Joseph, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do my best to be a fine stepfather to you.”
“Ah jeez,” Joe laughed and muttered as he dealt with a flood of tears he clearly hadn’t been expecting. “Crazy Irishman.”
Carolina smiled brightly at him, seeming pleased with what he’d said to Joe.
“My beautiful Carolina, there are no words to adequately tell you what you mean to me, how much I love you or how much I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you. So I’ll simply vow to love, honor and cherish you all the days of my life and thank you for taking this journey with me. There’s no one else I’d rather travel with.”
Caro had tears on her cheeks by the time he finished, so he leaned in and kissed them away.
“Not yet,” Frank said, making everyone laugh. “Caro?”
She took a deep breath and gave Seamus’s hands a squeeze. “You, Seamus O’Grady, have been the source of my greatest vexation as well as my greatest love. You drive me crazy most of the time, which I think is deliberate on your part.”
Grinning, Seamus shrugged. “You’ll never get me to confess to that.”
“I had no idea how empty and bereft my life really was until you came swooping in and forced me out of my comfort zone in every possible way. You won me over with the force of your belief that we absolutely belong together and nothing, not even a few years between friends, could keep us apart when we were meant to be. It took me a while to come around to your way of thinking, but once I finally gave in to you, I’ve been happier than I ever imagined I could be. So thank you for not giving up when the going got tough. Thank you for making me laugh and for sticking around long enough for me to figure out that since I can’t murder you, I should probably marry you.”
“Is that the first time the word murder has been used in wedding vows?” Seamus asked Frank.
“Definitely a first for me,” Frank said with obvious amusement.
“Excellent.” Seamus beamed at his bride, pleased with every word she’d said to him, because he had no doubt whatsoever that she loved him with everything she had to give.
“I love you,” she said, “and I will honor and cherish you and
what we have together for the rest of my life. And when you do finally drive me crazy, I’ll go happily, knowing I was fully and completely loved by the most amazing man.”
Damn if she didn’t reduce him to tears with her heartfelt words. He leaned his forehead against hers, dying for the moment when Frank would tell him she was his wife and he could kiss her.
“Rings?” Frank asked.
Seamus reluctantly released one of Carolina’s hands and withdrew the rings from the pocket of the khaki pants he’d ironed for the occasion. They’d gone to the mainland two weeks ago to buy the matching platinum rings. He held them out in the palm of his hand, and Carolina took his.
He slid hers onto her finger, and then she returned the favor, the cool metal wrapping around his finger, the awareness of what it represented humbling him like nothing else ever had.
“By the power vested in me by the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” Frank said, “I’m pleased to pronounce you husband and wife. Seamus, you may kiss your bride.”
Seamus wrapped his arms around her and planted a deep wet one on her as their friends and family cheered.
She held on to him for a long moment that belonged only to them, and when he reluctantly ended the kiss, they were both in tears as the magnitude of what they’d just done seemed to register all at once.
“Mrs. O’Grady.”
“Mr. O’Grady.”
“We have a party to get to.”
“So we do.”
“Thank you for this, Caro. You have no idea how happy you’ve made me.”
“I think I know.”
Seamus hugged her again, holding on for as long as he could before others demanded their attention. He let her go reluctantly, counting the hours until he could be alone with his new wife.
“What a fantastic surprise this was,” Maddie McCarthy said to the group of friends and family sharing four picnic tables pushed together as they enjoyed lobsters and clam chowder.
Under normal circumstances, these were Laura’s favorite times—surrounded by her cousins, their significant others and the friends who’d become like family to her since she moved to the island. But there was nothing normal about a day when Owen was sitting next to her but a million miles away, lost in his own troubled thoughts.
To her sister-in-law Janey, Maddie said, “Did you guys know about it?”
“We found out an hour before you all did.”
“Such a cool way to do it,” Grant McCarthy said, glancing at his fiancée, Stephanie. “Don’t you think, hon? No muss, no fuss. Just get married.”
Stephanie shrugged. “I guess.”
“There’s a lot to be said for no muss or fuss,” Laura said.
“Funny,” Owen said, “I was thinking the same thing, although ours will be pretty low fuss.”
“That’s all I’m capable of at the moment,” Laura said with a wry grin for him as she rested a hand on her belly. She was relieved to see him making an effort to engage with their friends.
“Still sick every day?” Abby Callahan asked.
“Every single day without fail,” Laura replied. “It took five full months with Holden, so three months to go.”
“Ugh,” Laura’s cousin Adam McCarthy said. “That’s gotta be awful.”
“It’s not the most fun I’ve ever had. That’s for sure.”
“So I guess our destination wedding is the exact opposite of no muss, no fuss,” Evan McCarthy said.
“Your destination wedding is going to get us all out of here in the dead of winter,” Blaine Taylor said. “I’m all for it.”
“Absolutely,” his wife, Tiffany, said. “Bring it on.”
“Until today, you guys had the record for the lowest-fuss wedding,” Evan’s fiancée, Grace Ryan, said. “I think Seamus and Caro have your three-day engagement beat, though.”
“Wouldn’t change a thing about the way we got married,” Blaine said with a smile for his wife. “It was just what we wanted.”
“I’m all for eloping and skipping the whole production,” Grant said.
“Mom would kill you if you did that,” his brother Evan replied. “Like she did when you forgot to tell her you were engaged.”
Grant winced. “She was pretty pissed.”
“Mom believes she has an inalienable right to see us all get married,” Mac said. “As the oldest and wisest, I firmly recommend against elopement.”
His comment led to paper napkins from his three unmarried brothers flying through the air, hitting him squarely in the face. Laughing, Mac batted them away.
“You’re such a windbag,” Adam said.
“He does get a little windy at times,” Maddie said of her husband, who glowered at her playfully. “What? You do! It’s Mac’s way or the highway.”
Sydney Donovan and her husband, Luke Harris, carried their plates to the table.
“Push over and let us in,” Syd said.
“You’re just in time to join the conversation about what a windbag Mac is,” Grant said to Luke.
“Oh, I’m in,” Luke said. “What’s he pontificating about now?”
“The perils of eloping when Linda McCarthy is your mother,” Maddie said.
“Yikes, I hate to ever agree with Mac,” Luke said. “However, in this case, I’m afraid I might have to.”
“Gee, thanks,” Mac said to his longtime friend and business partner. “How painful was that for you?”
“Excruciating,” Luke said with an engaging grin. “So who’s eloping?”
“I’d love to,” Grant said. “How great would that be? Just me and Steph and an Elvis impersonator in Vegas?”
“I’m going to get another glass of wine,” Stephanie said as she got up from the table. “Anyone need anything?”
The others declined, and she walked away.
“Was it something I said?” Grant asked.
“Call me crazy,” Abby said, smiling at the man she’d spent ten years with before realizing her true love was his brother Adam, “but most women don’t grow up dreaming about the day they say ‘I do’ in front of an Elvis impersonator.”
“Call me crazy,” Grant said, his gaze firmly locked on Stephanie, “but I may be the only one in this twosome who actually wants to get married.”
“That’s not true,” Grace said gently. “She’s totally in love with you. Everyone can see that.”
“Maybe so, but she’s in absolutely no rush to get married.”
“Have you talked to her about it?” Laura asked her cousin.
“I’ve tried to bring it up a few times to no avail.” Grant pushed his plate aside, apparently no longer interested in his lobster. “Anyway, I shouldn’t be airing the dirty laundry in public.”
“This is hardly public,” Janey said to her brother.
“Still. She wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“Do you want us to talk to her?” Grace asked. “Laura and I could try to pin her down a bit. Maybe she’d talk to us about things she wouldn’t want to say to you.”
“Well, shit,” Grant said, “if there’s stuff she doesn’t want to say to me, maybe we shouldn’t be talking about getting married.”
“Don’t say that, man,” Evan said.
“Making it an all-or-nothing proposition won’t get you anywhere,” Mac added.
“I hate when he makes sense,” Adam said, “but I gotta agree with him. Don’t lay down ultimatums or anything you might later regret.”
“If you guys want to talk to her,” Grant said to Grace, “that’s fine with me. At this point, I’m not really sure what to do. I don’t want to push her, but I’m sort of at a loss over how best to proceed.”
“We’ll talk to her,” Laura said. “Try not to worry. She loves you.”
“I know,” Grant said, but he didn’t seem entirely convinced.
“When you asked me to be your date to a clambake, I had no idea I’d get to see you do your judge thing, too.”
Frank McCarthy chuckled at Betsy Jacobson’s dry co
mment. They had brought plates laden with seafood to a table for two in the corner of Seamus and Carolina’s yard. “I’m full of surprises.”
“Yes, you are. It was a lovely ceremony.” Tall and willowy, she had curly dark hair that usually fell to her shoulders. Today it was contained in a ponytail that showed off her strikingly pretty face.
“Officiating at weddings has always been one of my favorite parts of the job.”
“I can see why. So have you known for a while they were going to do this?”
“They asked me two weeks ago.”
“Good to know you’re so adept at keeping secrets.”
Frank laughed. “Only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I’m a fairly open book.”
“Retirement is looking good on you, Your Honor. You seem very relaxed.”
“I love it. Laura told me I’m so tanned that my colleagues at the court wouldn’t recognize me. I guess I’ve been rather pasty-faced for the last thirty or so years.”
“You’ve worked hard and have earned your free time.”
“It still feels strange to have nothing much to do when I get up in the morning except go have coffee and doughnuts with my brother and the guys at the marina.”
“I bet Mac loves having you there.”
“He does, and it’s great to be able to see him every day. He’s helping me learn how to relax. Had me out fishing in the middle of the day on Tuesday like it was no big deal to run off for a few hours.”
She leaned in a little closer to him and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “It is no big deal, Frank.”
“Keep reminding me.”
“Happy to.”
“Have you decided yet what you’re going to do at the end of the summer?” he asked, hoping the question sounded casual when his feelings for her had become anything but during the time they’d spent together over the summer. So far that time had consisted of lots of dinners, days at the beach, cookouts with his family and babysitting his new grandson. He was hoping what had begun as a promising friendship might turn into something more, which was a first for him since he lost his wife so long ago.
Betsy was still fragile after the tragic loss of her son in a boating accident earlier in the summer, so he was proceeding with caution where she was concerned.