by Marie Force
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Who's Who on Gansett Island
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Waiting for Love Contest
Gansett Island FAQ
Treading Water
Other Books By Marie Force
About the Author
Reviews
Published by HTJB, Inc.
Copyright 2013. Marie Force.
Cover by Kristina Brinton
ISBN: 9780985034153
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected].
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
www.marieforce.com
The McCarthys of Gansett Island Series
Book 1: Maid for Love
Book 2: Fool for Love
Book 3: Ready for Love
Book 4: Falling for Love
Book 5: Hoping for Love
Book 6: Season for Love
Book 7: Longing for Love
Book 8: Waiting for Love
For Julie and the eight-year job interview—we did it! We really did it!
Who's Who on Gansett Island
The McCarthy Family
“Big Mac” and Linda McCarthy, owners of McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina and McCarthy’s Gansett Island Inn, are parents to:
Mac McCarthy Jr., who is married to Maddie Chester McCarthy and father to Thomas and Hailey McCarthy
Grant McCarthy, living with Stephanie Logan
Adam McCarthy
Evan McCarthy, living with Grace Ryan
Janey McCarthy Cantrell, married to Joe Cantrell, owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company
Judge Frank McCarthy, brother to “Big Mac” McCarthy, father to:
Laura McCarthy, cousin to Mac, Grant, Adam, Evan and Janey
Shane McCarthy, cousin to Mac, Grant, Adam, Evan and Janey
McCarthy Friends & Family
Owen Lawry, musician and best friend of Evan McCarthy, fiancé to Laura McCarthy
Luke Harris, co-owner of McCarthys Gansett Island Marina
Sydney Donovan, interior decorator, living with Luke Harris
Ned Saunders, best friend to Big Mac McCarthy and fiancé of Francine Chester, mother of Maddie McCarthy and Tiffany Sturgil
Tiffany Sturgil, sister to Maddie McCarthy, daughter of Francine Chester, mother to Ashleigh Sturgil
Bobby Chester, estranged father of Maddie McCarthy and Tiffany Sturgil, estranged husband of Francine Chester
Jim Sturgil, estranged husband of Tiffany Sturgil, father to Ashleigh Sturgil
Seamus O’Grady, hired to run the Gansett Island Ferry Company while Joe Cantrell and his wife are in Ohio while she attends veterinary school at Ohio State University
Carolina Cantrell, mother of Joe Cantrell, love interest of Seamus O'Grady
Dan Torrington, celebrity lawyer and friend to Grant McCarthy
Kara Ballard, operator of Ballard's Launch Service, girlfriend of Dan Torrington
Abby Callahan, former girlfriend of Grant McCarthy, love interest of Adam McCarthy
Dr. Cal Maitland, former fiancé of Abby Callahan
Charlie Grandchamp, stepfather of Stephanie Logan
Sarah Lawry, mother of Owen Lawry
Mark Lawry, father of Owen Lawry
Blaine Taylor, Gansett Island police chief
Slim Jackson, Gansett Island pilot
David Lawrence, Gansett Island doctor, former fiancé of Janey McCarthy Cantrell
Daisy Babson, friend of Maddie McCarthy's
Truck Henry, Daisy Babson's abusive ex-boyfriend
Victoria Stevens, Gansett Island midwife
Rebecca, owner of the South Harbor Diner
Chelsea, bartender at the Beachcomber
Doc Potter, island veterinarian
The Children of Gansett Island
Thomas McCarthy, son of Maddie McCarthy; adopted son of Mac McCarthy
Hailey McCarthy, daughter of Maddie and Mac McCarthy
Ashleigh Strudel, daughter of Tiffany and Jim Sturgil
Holden Newsome, son of Laura McCarthy and her ex-husband, Justin Newsome
Chapter 1
“I’m absolutely, positively, totally and completely done with men,” the woman sitting behind Adam McCarthy announced—loudly—to everyone on the noon ferry to Gansett Island. “Done, done, done.”
The voice was familiar, so Adam sat up taller, hoping to overhear enough to figure out who she was without having to get involved.
“I’ve followed two men to the ends of the earth and regretted it both times. From now on, I’m off men. You heard it here first.”
A slight slur to her words had him wondering if she’d been drinking. Who cares? What business is it of yours? Ignore her.
“Did I mention I’m done with men?”
Adam had no idea who she was talking to, and figuring that out would require him to turn around. And there was no way he was turning around. He had his own problems and no desire to take on someone else’s, even if it was possible that he knew her. He knew a lot of people. That didn’t mean he had to jump to their rescue when they were on the verge of making fools of themselves.
With the day stormy and the seas rough, the woman played to a captive audience inside the crowded cabin. Adam was used to rough rides. He’d been taking the ferry all his life. Others weren’t so fortunate, and the distinctive sound of barfing soon filled the airless cabin.
Rough seas and rocking boats had never made him sick. The smell of vomit, however… No one was immune to that. He got up and told himself to get out of there. Walk to the door and the fresh air… But curiosity got the better of him, and he made the huge mistake of turning around.
His mouth fell open when he saw his brother Grant’s ex-girlfriend Abby Callahan scrambling for the garbage can.
While she was violently ill, Adam stood paralyzed with indecision. She hadn’t seen him, so he could still get out of there unscathed. And then, as if Adam had conjured him from a dream, Big Mac McCarthy’s voice sounded in his conscience, warning of dire consequences if Adam walked away from a family friend in her time of need.
Not for the first time in his adult life, Adam cursed the values his father had hammered into him and his brothers from the time they were young boys.
He took a deep breath he instantly regretted due to the pervasive smell of vomit filling the cabin, choked back a wave of nausea, walked toward her, took her by the arm and escorted her outside.
Naturally, she fought him off. “What do you think you’re doing?” Her words were garbled and slurred, and she smelled as if she’d spilled an entire bottle of eighty-proof something or other on her clothes.
“Did you sleep in a bar last night?” he asked when they were outside a
nd both taking deep, gulping breaths of cold, damp, fresh air.
“Adam,” she gasped when she realized who he was. “No, I did not sleep in a bar. I had two drinks on the plane this morning, and the man in the next seat spilled his tequila all over me.”
Adam cringed at the thought of tequila for breakfast. Those days were a distant memory. “As I recall, you don’t drink.”
She wobbled when the boat pitched violently to the side, and he steadied her with a hand to her arm. “I had an occasional glass of wine,” she said as she pushed him away. “I’m all done being a nice girl who does what everyone expects of her. I’m going to drink and party and curse like a sailor and have sex with strangers and…” Her chin began to quiver.
“Don’t you dare cry.”
“I’ll cry if I want to. I’ll do any damned thing I want.”
“Since you’re new to swearing, you might consider adding a ‘god’ in there.” She seemed to have no idea what he meant, so he elaborated. “Goddamned is a lot more hard-core than plain old damned.”
Her eyes were big and brown and shiny with unshed tears. “Are you making fun of me?” she asked, incredulous. “Feel free. My day can’t get any worse. My life can’t get any worse, so do your worst.”
“What’re you even doing here? Don’t you live in Texas now?”
“Not anymore.” Her chin trembled violently, and tears spilled from her eyes as if someone had turned on a faucet.
Adam was instantly sorry he’d asked. Mascara ran down her blotchy face as she sniffed and sobbed. Because he was too much of a gentleman not to, he patted her shoulder and muttered a soothing word or two, all the while wishing the deck would open up and swallow him.
He’d had a hellish few days of his own and didn’t need to take on anyone else’s problems. In the midst of a professional implosion the likes of which he’d never imagined possible, he’d received word from home that his brothers were missing in a boating accident. Thankfully, they’d all been found safe, but Adam wouldn’t be completely at ease until he saw them with his own eyes.
As for Abby, the last he’d heard, she was engaged to the island’s former doctor, Cal Maitland, and living with him in his home state of Texas. Adam took a surreptitious glance at her left hand and didn’t see a ring. Uh-oh. Even as he wondered what’d happened between her and her fiancé, he didn’t dare risk more tears by asking.
“I’m homeless at the moment,” she said after a long period of silence as the boat bobbed and weaved through the surf.
Retching noises from the deck above had Adam pulling Abby back from the rail, just in time to avoid a direct hit.
The momentum propelled her into his arms. She pressed her face into his shirt and broke down into sobs.
Oh, for God’s sake! Why had he turned around back in the cabin? Why had he allowed himself to get sucked into this situation? None of that mattered now that he was firmly in the situation. Because he’d known her all his life, because she’d very nearly married his brother, he put his arms around her and patted her back. “It’ll be okay.”
“No, it won’t.” She sniffed and seemed to be using his shirt as a tissue. Lovely. “It’s never going to be okay again.”
“That’s not true,” Adam said, though he tended to agree with her. He’d had the same feeling repeatedly in the forty-eight hours since his world blew up in his face.
“It is true. All I ever wanted was to fall in love with a wonderful man, get married, have a family and maybe a career that satisfied me. Now I have nothing. I gave up my business for him! Do you know how successful Abby’s Attic was?”
“I heard it was very popular.”
“I made a quarter of a million bucks there last year, and I walked away from it like it meant nothing to me. All for a man who wasn’t worth my time.”
While Adam knew he should at least attempt to defend mankind, he was stuck on the money. “You made a quarter million dollars selling T-shirts?”
“And toys. There’s big money in toys, especially when you’re the only toy store on the island,” she said, hiccupping loudly. Her hand covered her mouth. “Oh my. Excuse me.” This was followed by another hiccup, louder than the first, and more tears. “My life is a mess.”
He shouldn’t ask. It was none of his business. And yet… “What happened with Cal?”
She used her own sleeve—thankfully—to wipe her nose and eyes, which smeared the mascara into dark smudges under her eyes. “His ex-girlfriend happened. Apparently, he’s not completely over her, or some such baloney.”
“You mean bullshit.”
“What?”
“If you’re going to swear now, you want to say bullshit rather than baloney.”
“Oh, right. Yes, it’s a big pile of bullshit.”
“Much better.”
That drew a tentative smile from her.
“So what’s the deal with the ex?”
“She comes sashaying up to him every time she sees him and makes sure to flip her fake blonde hair and bat her fake eyelashes and rest her fake boobs on his arm, and he acts like it’s no big deal that she’s totally flirting with him. This goes on for weeks. She’s over at the house every day, supposedly to check on his sick mother because they’re so very close, you see, but really it’s all about more chances to hang all over Cal. I finally got sick of it and confronted him about it. That’s when…” Her chin quivered anew, but she managed to blink back the tears this time. “That’s when he admitted he still thinks about her. Candy. Her name is Candy! Can you stand that? She makes me sick. It’s all so…so…”
Nearly breathless with anticipation, Adam raised his brows.
“Screwed up,” she said.
He shook his head. “You can do better.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You’re a whole new woman now, remember?”
Her face turned bright red, and in that moment, he discovered she was rather adorable, raccoon eyes and all. “Fucked up,” she whispered, turning a deeper shade of scarlet as the curse passed her lips.
Adam rewarded her with a big smile. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” The ferry passed the buoy that marked the island’s northern coast, but the mist was so thick he could barely make out the bluffs. “So you really think you can have sex with strangers?”
The question clearly caught her off guard. “Of course I can.”
“I don’t think you can. You’re not that kind of girl.”
“How do you know what kind of girl I am?” she asked, indignant.
“Um, you dated my brother for ten years. I think I have a slight idea.”
“You don’t know me at all. He never knew me either. No one does.”
“Abby… Come on, that’s not true. You and Grant were the real deal for a long time.”
She shook her head. “No, we weren’t. I thought we were—I thought Cal and I were, too, but I’ve never had the real deal.” Turning her big eyes up at him, she said, “Have you?”
The question hit him like an arrow to the heart. “I thought so until recently, but no, I haven’t either.”
“What happened to you?”
Adam smiled and shook his head. “Not worth talking about.”
“I told you all my bad stuff,” she said between persistent hiccups. “It seems only fair that you tell me yours.”
Adam hadn’t intended to tell anyone at home about what’d happened in New York. He’d planned to see his brothers, make sure they were okay, check on his parents and get back to the city to resurrect his career before the damage became irreparable. But here was Abby looking up at him with her liquid brown eyes, and suddenly the whole sordid tale was pouring out of him. When he was done, she stared at him, openmouthed, until a hiccup lurched her out of the trance.
“That’s… It’s… It’s horrible.”
He tilted his head, urging her silently to try again.
“Seriously fucked up.” This was said with no hint of whisper or blush, which made Adam want to cheer. “Ho
w long had you been seeing her outside of work?”
“Seeing her for three years, living with her for two of them.”
“And no one at work knew?”
“Nope. My own company policy of no fraternizing at work had come back to bite me in the ass, so we went way out of our way to keep it quiet. From what I can gather, one of the employees saw us somewhere, and we were…we were kissing…and reported us to the board. The funniest part, if you can consider any of this funny, is that it all came down to a dentist appointment.”
“How do you mean?”
“The chairman of the board called both of us. I was at the dentist. She was at the office and took the call. Before I was out of the chair, she’d accepted a deal to force me out of the company I founded. I’d lost my company and my girlfriend in the time it took to get my teeth cleaned. Hilarious, huh?”
“No,” she said, her tone hushed and the hiccups gone. “It’s not funny at all.”
“It’s kinda funny.” He hated to think what he might do if he didn’t laugh.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, Adam.” Her hand on his arm was strangely comforting. He’d felt very alone during the last few unbelievable days. “You’ve worked so hard to build that company.”
“Fourteen years, and the only mistake I made was taking on a partner four years ago.” He leaned against the rail as the breakwater for South Harbor came into view. “You know what the best part is?”
“What’s that?”
“I’m the only one with the first clue about the actual work we do. She runs the business side. I oversee the technical end. She and the board have no idea what they’re in for without me there to take care of the technical stuff. I’d love to be a fly on the wall.”
“They’ll be begging you to come back in no time at all.”
“Probably.”
“Will you go?”
He shook his head. “I gave that company everything I had, and this is the thanks I get? They can kiss my ass.”
“I don’t blame you for being bitter. You got royally screwed—in more ways than one.”
“Yep.”
“So what’ll you do now?”
“I’m not sure exactly. After the accident, I wanted to come home and see my brothers—”
