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

by Marie Force

  “It’s tradition now.”

  “All these complaints… It wears a guy down, I tell you.”

  “I’ve discovered it’s almost impossible to wear you down—or out.”

  “Since you’re going to complain no matter what, I may as well get my money’s worth.” Without losing their connection, he arranged her so she was on her knees, bent over a pile of pillows. Grasping her hips, he moved slowly at first, always concerned about hurting her.

  “Good?”

  “Mmm, yeah. So good.”

  “Ready for more?”

  “There’s more?”

  He gave her a teasing tap on the ass that made her giggle. The sound was a balm on his wounded soul, which had finally begun to heal when she came into his life. “Such a brat.”

  “Soooo much more than your share.”

  “There it is. Now we can get really serious.”

  “We weren’t already getting serious?”

  “We were just getting started.”

  She laughed as she groaned, and then he showed her what he was capable of when he got really, really serious.

  Lying with Owen in the aftermath of magical morning lovemaking, Laura had never felt so happy or content. He was back. Her Owen had come back to her a little at a time since the trial ended. With every passing day, he’d been less broody and withdrawn. Today, though, he’d laughed freely and loved fiercely. He’d faced his greatest fears and came out stronger on the other side. His demons had been exorcised once and for all.

  “So the party was fun?”

  “It was fantastic. So many laughs. Evan went all out.”

  “Would you expect any less?”

  “Nope. He’s the best.”

  “That’s why he’s the best man.”

  “Yep.” He ran his hand up and down her arm, making her skin tingle the way it always did when he touched her.

  “Do you have a little bit of gas left in the tank?”

  His eyes opened. “Why? You want to do it again?”

  “Not right now,” she said, laughing. “I have something I want to show you before things get crazy around here.”

  “I’ve always got gas in my tank for you, Princess.”

  “I hope we’re talking about the same kind of gas,” she said dryly as she got out of bed to retrieve the photo album she’d located the night before.

  “Ha-ha, very funny.” He sat up against the pillows, watching her as she walked around naked.

  Laura hated how ungainly she felt as her pregnancy progressed, but didn’t dare move to cover herself because she knew he loved her au naturel. She brought the album back to bed and sat with him against the pillows.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “The album from my first wedding.”

  “Oh.”

  “I know it may seem inappropriate to break this out the day before our wedding, but I’ve been thinking about something, and I wanted to share it with you.” She flipped open the heavy embossed cover to a photo of her dressed for her wedding. Her hair was pulled back in an elaborate style that had taken hours to get just right. Her makeup had been professionally done and every detail seen to by a wedding planner with meticulous attention to detail.

  “Wow,” Owen said, gazing at the photo. “You look incredible. So beautiful.”

  “Thank you.” Her throat tightened. “I wanted you to see this because that’s not me. That’s not the real me. The real me is the one you will see tomorrow. Far less perfect and far less polished, but all me.”

  “That’s the only you I want, Laura.”

  “I know, and that’s why there’s no hair stylist or makeup artist or wedding planner this time around. There’s only you and me and Holden.”

  “Which is all we need.”

  “Last time, with Justin, all of this felt necessary. I don’t feel that way with you, and I wanted you to know how comforting it is that I can be completely myself with you—no pretense, no artifice, no charade. Just me.”

  “There’s nothing you could give me that would mean more to me than that, Laura.” He cupped her cheek and ran his thumb over her bottom lip.

  His tenderness brought tears to her eyes.

  “Could I see the rest of the pictures?”

  “I didn’t intend to show you the rest. I just wanted you to see that one.”

  “I’d like to see the others if that’s okay.”

  She hesitated, but only for a moment, before she handed the album over to him. What did it matter now? He knew she didn’t love Justin anymore—if she ever had to begin with. He knew she’d never loved Justin the way she loved him, and that was all that mattered to either of them.

  Owen flipped through the pages, studying each photo with intense concentration. The wedding had been glamorous and elegant and classy—all the things she’d once thought mattered so much. Until her elegant classy marriage went up in flames a month after the “I do’s.”

  “You’re spectacularly beautiful,” he said after a long period of silence. “I still can’t believe you picked me to spend the rest of your life with.”

  “That day,” Laura said haltingly, “I knew something was wrong. I didn’t know what, but I knew it was wrong.”

  “I can see that in some of the pictures.” He pointed to a photo of her with Justin. “You’re glowing and radiant, but I still see the sadness in your eyes.”

  “I was sad, but I didn’t know why then. I do now. It was because I was always meant to be with you, and I’ve known that for almost as long as I’ve known you. Please don’t look at those photos and think that’s what I really want. It isn’t.” She took his hand and brought it to her lips. “This is. You are. We are.”

  “I know, baby.” He leaned over to kiss her. “I know that.” Closing the book, he put it on the bedside table and then turned to face her, putting his arm around her. “Thanks for sharing that with me, and thanks for giving me the real you. That’s always going to be exactly what I want.”

  “Thank you for accepting me as I am, for the incredible way you take care of me and Holden, and for giving up your carefree life to take on an insta-family.”

  “Best decision I ever made. I was thinking about that day recently, watching the boats leave and remembering last Columbus Day when the last boat left without me for the first time in years. I knew then that I was committing to forever with you, and I haven’t regretted it for one second. I never will.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “You didn’t wonder, did you?”

  “Not really, but it’s still nice to hear.” With her hand flat on his belly, she kissed his chest. “I thought you’d be exhausted after being up all night.”

  “I’m too excited to sleep. My sisters get here today, the others tomorrow. We’ve got our rehearsal dinner tonight and the wedding tomorrow.”

  She was thrilled to hear him say he was excited. “And you’re going to be facedown on the table tonight if you don’t get some sleep.”

  “My little man will be awake soon.”

  “I’ll take care of him this morning so you can sleep.”

  “I don’t want to sleep when I can be with you guys.”

  “You get to be with us every day for the rest of our lives.” She kissed him. “Close your eyes.”

  “Don’t wanna.”

  “Owen…”

  His devilish smile lit up his face. “Make me.”

  She lifted herself up and over him, kissing each eyelid until he closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Now keep them closed.”

  He put his arms around her, bringing her down on top of him. “Stay with me. Can’t sleep without you.”

  “Only until Holden wakes up.”

  “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

  She placed soft kisses on his eyelids, his cheeks and lips, stopping only when she felt him begin to harden beneath her. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “I don’t have to think about it. Just happens.”

  “I’m out
of here.”

  “No! I’ll behave. I promise.”

  “That’s an empty promise if I’ve ever heard one.”

  “Stay,” he whispered.

  Only because he kept his eyes closed did she rest her head on his chest, listening as his breathing deepened and his arms loosened around her. She stayed until she heard Holden stirring in his crib, and then she extricated herself from Owen’s embrace, leaving him to sleep while she went to start her day.

  “Oh my God!” Full-on panic seized Laura. “It doesn’t fit!”

  “Yes, it does.” As Laura’s maid of honor, Grace had been the epitome of calm and cool all day, and now was no exception.

  “No, it doesn’t! How could my belly have expanded that much in three days?”

  “Um, you’re pregnant with twins, and you’ve stopped puking seventeen times a day?”

  “No one told me this would happen if I went on the meds!”

  “Laura,” Grace said with a giggle. “Are you listening to yourself? Would you honestly prefer to be puking and feeling like crap on your wedding day?”

  “I would prefer that my dress actually fit.”

  “It doesn’t fit?” Stephanie asked as she came in wearing an off-the-shoulder coral-colored dress that offset her dark red hair and deep summer tan. Along with Abby, Maddie and Janey, the girls would each wear a different style of the same color dress. Unlike the last time around, Laura had told the girls to pick whatever they felt comfortable wearing. They were gorgeous and would look beautiful no matter what dress they chose.

  “It doesn’t seem to want to zip,” Grace said, confirming Laura’s worst fears.

  “What am I going to do?” she asked. “People will be here in an hour!”

  In the mirror, she watched as Grace, Abby and Stephanie assessed the situation. The three of them had become Laura’s closest friends in the last year, and asking them to be her attendants had been the easiest decision she’d ever made. As much as she loved the girls she’d grown up with in Providence, they were part of her old life now. She’d also asked Maddie because she’d been such a great friend and an incredible help with all of Laura’s questions about Holden. Janey was the sister Laura had never had, and had been a bridesmaid last time, too.

  “How would you feel about going backless?” Abby asked.

  “Wouldn’t that also mean going braless? That’s not an option with these pregnancy boobs.”

  “I feel you there, sister,” Maddie said, making them all laugh. Her breasts were substantial when she wasn’t pregnant, and her jokes about pregnancy boobs were hilarious.

  “If we cut it here,” Abby said, “we can sew the excess fabric into a halter.”

  “And this can be done in an hour?” Laura couldn’t believe she was actually considering this plan, but what choice did she have? The dress didn’t fit. “Get Sarah. She sews! She’ll know what to do.”

  “I’m going,” Stephanie said. “Relax. It’ll all be fine.”

  Laura laughed because what else could she do? And honestly, what did it matter? She could marry Owen in a burlap sack, and it would all be fine. The pictures would give them something to laugh about in their old age.

  “You’re awfully calm,” Abby said. “You’re not in shock or something, are you?”

  “Nope. I’m good.” Trying to imagine her bridesmaids taking scissors to her dress on the day of her first wedding had Laura giggling madly. She would’ve lost her shit if this had happened then.

  “Should we call Victoria?” Grace asked, her brows furrowed with concern.

  “No! I’m really fine. I’m just laughing at how ridiculous this is.”

  “It’s going to be fine,” Abby assured her.

  “I know that, which is why I’m laughing. At the end of the day, I’ll be married to Owen. Who cares what my dress looks like?”

  “She’s going into shock,” Grace said.

  “I’m not. I swear.” Laura tried to be convincing, but she couldn’t stop laughing.

  Stephanie returned with Sarah, who’d brought her sewing kit and a sharp pair of scissors that Laura recognized from the kitchen.

  Her stomach fell when it registered that they were actually going to cut the gorgeous white silk dress.

  “Let me see it,” Sarah said.

  The other girls stepped aside to give Sarah room to work.

  “What’s going on?” Adele asked when she joined them.

  “Dress disaster,” Laura told Owen’s grandmother. “Compounded by a rapidly growing set of twins.”

  “Oh no,” Adele said.

  “Not to worry,” Sarah said confidently. “I know just what to do.”

  Since she couldn’t contain her burgeoning waistline, Laura decided to have faith that her new mother-in-law would take care of it.

  Chapter 28

  With an hour to kill before his sister’s wedding, Shane McCarthy decided to go for a swim. He could shower and get dressed in ten minutes, and with the hotel overrun with wedding guests and preparations, the beach was the one place he could hope to find a few minutes of peace and quiet.

  He was thrilled for Laura—and Owen, a terrific guy who’d become a close friend to Shane since he’d moved out here to live with them at the hotel. However, Shane couldn’t help but think about his own wedding day, three years ago now, and everything that’d happened since then.

  He missed Courtney. He missed having a wife and a companion. He’d loved being married. Discovering his wife had a raging drug addiction had been the single most shocking moment of his life. Losing her and their marriage to that addiction had nearly broken him.

  He still thought about Courtney every day, but he focused on the bad times so he wouldn’t forget why he couldn’t be with her. He rarely, if ever, thought about the good times. Floating on his back, looking up at the cloudless blue sky, he indulged in memories of better times, such as the day he’d married the woman he’d expected to spend the rest of his life with.

  They’d had one great year before it all fell apart. Or at least he’d had one great year. All that time, she’d been battling a foe bigger than both of them. It’d begun with a routine surgery to relieve a compressed disc in her back.

  He met her six months after the surgery, from which she’d fully recovered—or so she said. It had taken two years for him to discover that she was addicted to the pain medication she’d taken after the surgery. She’d kept her dependence on the meds well hidden from him, and by the time he’d uncovered the web of lies and financial ruin she’d left in her wake, he was nearly ruined, too.

  His happy life blew up in his face during one twenty-four-hour period that still ranked among the worst days of his life—second only to the day his mother died when he was seven. Left shocked, despondent and nearly bankrupt, Shane had done what he could to get help for her. A year later, after months of rehab he was still paying for, she’d asked for a divorce and crushed him all over again.

  What was that old expression? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Yeah, he was an idiot, and she’d played him every way it was possible to be played by a woman. First by getting him to believe she truly loved him and then by lying to him about everything else that mattered.

  So while he was very happy for Laura and Owen, he was done with love and marriage and all that shit. He was happy to leave that to his sister and cousins, who’d fallen one right after the other in the last couple of years, leaving him and his cousins Riley and Finn still unattached. In his opinion, the three of them were the lucky ones.

  He was about to swim for shore when a scream caught his attention. With the sun still high in the afternoon sky, it was difficult to see where the sound had come from. But then he heard thrashing and another cry for help coming from a distinctly female voice.

  Shane swam in the direction of the cries while hoping this rescue mission wouldn’t make him late for his sister’s wedding. Following the sound of splashing and struggle, Shane swam faster until he reached the woman.

  �
�Hey,” he said, “relax. I’ll help you.”

  Panicked, she latched on to him, her arms tightening around his neck as she climbed on to him.

  Holy shit, Shane thought as he was sucked under water so quickly he barely had time to close his mouth before the water rushed over him. The woman had such a tight grip on him that he couldn’t do a thing to help himself—or her. Am I going to drown out here?

  They went down together, the darkness surrounding him. This could not be happening… With a sudden realization that he couldn’t save himself and her, too, Shane began to fight back, pulling frantically on the arms that wrapped around his neck like a noose. His lungs began to burn for air, but he never stopped fighting until he managed to free himself.

  Surging to the surface, he sucked in greedy breaths as his heart pounded and his head spun from the lack of oxygen. He looked all around him for the woman but didn’t see her. Did he dare dive down for her and risk his own life again, or should he head for shore while he had the chance?

  How could he leave her and live with himself if he did? His conscience won the debate, and after taking a huge breath, he dove under the water. He spotted her floating peacefully and grabbed for her, coming back with only the top of her bikini. He swam for the surface, took another breath and went back down, this time wrapping his arm around her middle and dragging her up with him.

  Either all the fight had gone out of her, or she was unconscious. He suspected the latter as he dragged her with him to the shore, which now seemed like a mile away. Every muscle in his body ached from the effort to keep his head and hers above water while pressing forward against a strong current.

  After what felt like an hour of epic struggle, his feet finally made contact with the sand. He shifted the woman so he had his arms under her back and legs and carried her onto the sand, where he deposited her carefully before collapsing next to her. He needed to make sure she was breathing, but he couldn’t seem to catch his own breath.

  Where the hell were all the people who were always on this beach? Rising to his knees, he glanced at her face, which was lost under a mask of blonde hair. His gaze traveled down to where her breasts were fully exposed. Summoning first aid training from years ago, he pushed the hair back, plugged her nose and opened her mouth to blow a steady stream of air into her lungs. He did that twice before she began to cough. He rolled her to her side when she began to vomit up saltwater.