by Marie Force
“Stephanie wants to have everyone to the Bistro after,” Mac said. “She asked me to let you know to count on that.”
Seamus had held it together for the boys’ sake all morning, but the generosity and support from their friends had him wrestling with his emotions. It had been a long time—he’d left his home in Ireland more than twenty years ago—since he’d felt so at home anywhere else. “Thank you. Thank you all so much.”
Mac and Maddie spent a couple of hours with Seamus, Carolina and the boys. Mac and Shane even got the boys to go outside to toss a football around for a while, their puppy darting between their feet, making both boys laugh at his antics. But laughter had turned to tears when Kyle fell, skinned his knee and wailed for his mother.
His heartbroken sobs would remain with Mac long after today.
Maddie reached across the center console for his hand, and Mac took comfort in the gesture.
“Sort of puts some things into perspective, doesn’t it?” she asked after a long period of quiet.
“Yeah. Not that our grief isn’t real and valid.” It had only been a few weeks since they’d lost their unborn child, and they were both still coming to terms with the loss.
“At least we’re adults and know how to deal with it,” she said. “For the most part. Those poor babies will never understand this.”
“Seamus and Carolina will help them through it.”
“They won’t remember much about her.” Maddie wiped away a tear. “They’re too young. It kills me to know that if something happened to me today, Thomas and Hailey wouldn’t remember me.”
“Don’t even say that.” The very thought of something happening to her was enough to send Mac into a full-on panic. “Please don’t even think it.”
“This is a big reminder that we need to talk about these things, Mac. We were just recently off the island for a couple of days. What if something had happened to us? We need guardians for the kids. Hell, we need a will.”
“I have a will. I leave everything to you.”
“That’s nice to know, but what if we both die at the same time? What happens to our kids?”
“Do we have to talk about this today when we’ve just come from the saddest thing I’ve seen in a really long time?”
“No, but we do need to talk about it. I want to make an appointment with Dan to go over this stuff.”
“Okay.”
“We have to decide who’d get the kids if something happens to us.”
“That’s easy. They’d go to my parents.”
“What about my parents?”
Mac glanced across at her, and the challenging expression on her face indicated this might not be as easy as he thought.
“You see? We need to have this conversation. What if your parents don’t want to raise their grandchildren?”
“Of course they would. If they couldn’t, Janey and Joe could.”
“Or Tiffany and Blaine.”
“Are we going to fight about this?”
“There’s a very good chance we will if you automatically assume they’re going to your family, as if mine doesn’t exist.”
“Point taken. And you’re right. We do need to talk about it. Just not today, okay?”
“Okay. I know you cared a lot about Lisa, and you love those boys.”
“I really do, and Shane and I were so happy to be building that house for someone who truly deserved the break. This whole thing is so unfair.”
“It’s made me extra thankful that I have you, because if anything happened to me, you’d be there for our kids.”
“I’d be a disaster without you, so please don’t let anything happen to you. For the sake of your children, you have to stick around.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Don’t worry.”
They arrived home to an empty house. The kids were with Ned and Francine for the afternoon. Mac trudged up the stairs to the deck behind Maddie, feeling exhausted and drained after seeing the boys. He ought to go back to work at the marina, and he needed to start getting his shit together on the addition he’d promised to oversee for Seamus. But right now, he couldn’t seem to summon the desire to do anything other than be with his wife.
She made sandwiches that they took out to the deck to eat.
“It’s such a beautiful day for something this sad to happen,” Maddie said.
The day was so clear, they could see all the way to Newport from the deck, a view that was often obstructed in the summer by fog and the humidity that hung like a drape over the island. “Sure is.”
“I’ve been thinking…”
“About?”
“Trying again.”
Mac sat up a little straighter in his chair. He’d avoided the subject of trying for another baby in the weeks since they’d lost a child in utero. To hear her say she’d been thinking about trying again had his full attention. “Really?”
She bit her lip, which made her look madly vulnerable as she nodded.
“Not because you think I want to, right? Because you do?”
“Hopefully because we both do. Do we?”
“Hell, yes, I want to. I want as many kids as you’d like to have. But I’m also perfectly satisfied with the two perfect babies we already have.”
“You’ve certainly changed your tune by saying as many babies as I want. Have you forgotten your moratorium after Hailey was born?”
Mac shrugged. “Everything is different after losing one. Now the only thing that matters is that they—and their mother—are healthy. But…” He hesitated, unsure of how to say the one thing he felt he had to say before this went any further.
“What?”
“You scared me with the way you checked out after we lost Connor,” he said of the baby they had decided to name out of respect to his memory. “You scared me bad.”
“It took me a while to bounce back, but I did.”
“It wasn’t that so much as the way you punched out of this.” He moved his hand between them. “Us. That scared me more than anything. If that happened again… I don’t know, Maddie, it kinda made me crazy to feel like you’d left me even though you were right next to me. I never want to feel like that again.”
She got up from her chair and came over to his, making herself at home on his lap.
He put his arms around her and held her close.
“I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I didn’t mean to. I was just a mess after losing him.”
“I know. I was, too, but you turned away from me rather than toward me. That was almost worse than losing the baby, because I lost you, too.”
“I won’t let that happen again. I promise.”
“Even if the worst possible thing happens with this new baby we’re talking about having?”
“Even then.”
“You gotta promise me.”
“I do. I promise.” She sealed her sweet words with an even sweeter kiss.
“In that case, it’ll be my extreme pleasure to try to knock you up again.”
Her laughter filled him with unreasonable joy and hope on a day that had been filled thus far with sorrow.
“And this time,” he said, nuzzling her neck, “it’ll be entirely on purpose with no booze involved and no little eyes catching us in the act.”
“I never want to forget about the night Connor was conceived.”
“Neither do I, honey. That was one for the ages.”
“Yes, it was. Maybe someday we’ll be able to think of it and laugh at how funny it was without our hearts breaking over what was lost.”
“We’ll get there. And in the meantime, we get to make new memories and a new baby to love.”
“Could we maybe start on this project of ours now?”
“They said you had to wait.”
“Until I’d had a regular period. I’ve had one.” She ran her finger down the front of him, over his chest and stomach. “So what’re you doing this afternoon?”
“I thought I was going to work, but apparently I have
to help my wife with something at home.”
Her caramel-colored eyes sparkled with delight as he kissed her. “Yes, you do,” she said, “and no one else will do.”
“No one else had better do anything to you, Mrs. McCarthy.”
“I don’t want anyone but you, Mac. Take me to bed.”
Chapter 5
As they did most evenings after work, David Lawrence and his girlfriend, Daisy Babson, stopped by so Daisy could spend some time with Marion. Tonight, David came with information about the in-patient evaluation he was arranging for Marion.
Hope paid close attention to the paperwork the hospital had sent, outlining the various tests that would be performed and the timing of everything.
“You can expect her to be there for at least one night, possibly two,” David said. “They’ll let you know after the first day how it’s going.”
Hope tried to remain professionally engaged in what David was saying, but in the back of her mind was the thought of at least one night—possibly two—alone with Paul. After what’d happened between them the other night, that might make for an awkward couple of days.
“If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to call me,” David said. “Even when you’re on the mainland. I can listen in to the meeting with the doctors, too, if that would help.”
“I’m sure Paul and Alex would appreciate that.”
As she said his name, Paul came in from work, looking the same as he did every day—tired, dirty and sexy. Before she moved to Gansett, Hope would’ve said her “type” was white-collar career men. That was then. This was now. Dirty and sexy did it for her big-time. But then she reminded herself, as she often had to, that he was her boss and thus off-limits to her.
She couldn’t think of their middle-of-the-night kiss without feeling mortified by her behavior. The way she’d all but attacked him when he’d been offering comfort after Lisa died. Ugh.
“Hope?” Paul said, making her realize he’d been speaking to her while she’d been daydreaming about kissing him.
“Yes?”
He smiled, and oh, what that smile did to his already-gorgeous face. “Where’d you go?” he asked, although judging by the way he looked at her, he knew exactly where her mind had wandered. Had he been thinking about it, too?
“I was just going over what I’ll need to do to get Ethan ready for me to be gone for a couple of days.”
“If it’s too much, I can take my mom by myself.”
“It’s not. Not at all. Unless you’d rather—”
“Not even kinda,” he said, smiling again.
“I made the appointment for next week because I knew you’d want to be here for Lisa Chandler’s funeral,” David said to Hope.
“Yes, thank you for thinking of that. Have you seen the boys today?”
“I was there earlier, and they seem to be doing okay. Seamus and Carolina are taking good care of them.”
“Poor babies,” Hope said. “It’s so sad.”
“It really is. I guess I should go collect Daisy and take her to dinner.”
“Thank you again for everything, David,” Paul said.
David shook hands with him. “I wish there was more I could do. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” He walked out to join Daisy and Marion on the front porch. They wouldn’t leave without letting someone know, so Hope took advantage of the rare opportunity to relax for a minute.
The minute was short-lived when Ethan came running in through the back door, letting the screen slam behind him. “You’re home!” He nearly crashed into Paul, who moved quickly to scoop up the boy and flip him over his shoulder, making Ethan scream with laughter.
“What’s the rush, little man?”
“I wanna check the pumpkins, but Mom said I had to do my homework and wait for you. Can we go? Can we?”
Hope wanted to tell Paul he didn’t have to take him if he was too tired, but before she could get the words out, they were headed to the front door with Ethan still over Paul’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes and laughing all the way. It did funny things to her insides to see Paul with her son, to know that Ethan was completely infatuated with him. But that also scared her. Was it safe to allow Ethan to become attached to Paul, Alex, Jenny and Marion?
If the doctors on the mainland recommended in-patient care for Marion, where would that leave her? Out of a job and out of a home, too. Her stomach ached at the thought of starting over—again. They were so happy here on Gansett, which felt like home after only a couple of months. Ethan was happily settled in his new school and making friends who didn’t know about their painful past.
It would be awful to have to leave this island that had begun to feel like home, not to mention the family that she, too, had become attached to. Paul, Alex and Jenny were more than just her employers. They were new friends, too, the first new friends she’d made in years, as were David, Daisy, Erin, Jared and Lizzie, among others.
David stuck his head in the front door. “We need to run, Hope.”
She shook off the melancholy and got up to see to Marion. On the porch, Daisy was hugging Marion. Thank goodness for Daisy, who brightened Marion’s days with her sunny disposition and ability to roll with whatever Marion tossed her way. They all looked forward to Daisy’s daily visits as a respite in the storm of Marion’s illness.
“Thanks again for coming by, Daisy—and David,” Hope said.
“We enjoy our time with Marion,” Daisy said.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Marion asked.
“Yes, you will.” Except for their recent week off island, Daisy never missed a day with Marion, not since the day Marion turned up, barefoot and confused, on Daisy’s front porch in town. The incident had led to Hope’s hiring, and she was careful to keep a close eye on Marion, knowing her penchant for wandering.
Hope and Marion waved to David and Daisy as they drove off.
“Such a nice girl,” Marion said with a sigh. Then she looked over at Hope, her smile fading. “Who are you?”
“I’m Hope, and I’m here to help you.”
Marion sniffed with indignation. “I don’t need your help, so you can just go back to wherever you came from.” She got up and went inside, letting the screen door slam the same way Ethan had. Hope was about to get up to go after her when Paul came around the corner from the fields with Ethan on his shoulders. Her little boy was laughing hysterically.
Paul was smiling, too, and the sight of the two of them laughing together filled her with giddy feelings of gratitude and hope. She liked him. She’d liked kissing him. And despite all the reasons why she shouldn’t, she was looking forward to two days alone with him on the mainland.
On Saturday night, Jared, Lizzie, David, Daisy and Erin came to the Martinez home for a cookout. Marion’s friends had taken her to a spaghetti dinner at the church hall, and Ethan was spending the night with one of his new school friends, so Hope was officially off duty and could enjoy a relaxing evening with her own new friends.
Jenny had the blender going at full speed and produced a frothy salted margarita that she handed to Hope. “You’ve earned this times ten today,” Jenny said.
Marion had been in a foul mood all day, until her friends showed up and her disposition sweetened considerably. Hope certainly understood that the moods were part of the illness, but it wasn’t easy to be on the receiving end of hours’ worth of frustrated rage.
Hope took a big sip of the delicious drink and let the heat of the tequila warm her from the inside.
“Good?” Jenny asked.
“Perfection.”
“Excellent! Erin, Daisy, Lizzie! Come get your margaritas.”
The guys had opted for beers and were on the front porch messing with the grill, as men did.
“Really good, Jenny,” Lizzie said.
“So how’re the wedding plans coming?” Erin asked.
“Excellent, thanks to Lizzie,” Jenny said. “She’s got everything under control.”
“Or at least I
hope I do. This is our first really big wedding at the Chesterfield, so Jenny and Alex know they are our test subjects.”
“Since you guys bought the place for us, the least we can do is be your guinea pigs.”
Lizzie wrinkled her nose. “I never said anything about pigs, so don’t tell anyone that. It wouldn’t be good for business.”
The others laughed.
“You know what else this island needs?” Hope said.
“What’s that?” Lizzie asked.
“A home for the sick and aged. Where are people supposed to go when their families can’t care for them at home anymore? They have to go to the mainland, which separates them from their families.”
“That’s so true,” Jenny said. “Alex and Paul wrestle with that every day. They know Marion probably needs to be in a place devoted to the kind of care she needs, but to do that, they’d have to put her somewhere far away from them.” She raised her glass in toast to Hope. “Thank God for Hope. We say that every day, but she works nonstop because dementia never takes a day off.”
“This is very interesting,” Lizzie said. “I’ll talk to Jared about it.”
“I didn’t say that expecting you guys to do something about it,” Hope said, slightly horrified that Lizzie had taken her so literally when she’d been venting.
“I’m not sure we can do anything, but it’s worth a conversation. Besides,” Lizzie added with a saucy grin, “you all know my favorite thing to do is spend Jared’s money on worthwhile causes.”
“She’s very good at that,” Daisy said. “The way you guys mobilized help for Lisa Chandler made her final days so much better than they would’ve been otherwise.”
“Jared and I both believe there’s a responsibility that goes with having the kind of resources he has,” Lizzie said. “It made us happy to help Lisa and her boys. If you don’t use your money to do good for others, you’re just another rich billionaire asshat, and I won’t let him become an asshat.”
“You’re too funny,” Erin said.
“Well, it’s true,” Lizzie said. “I’m all about keeping it real, and I will look into the possibility of starting a place on the island for people like Marion.”
