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

by Marie Force

  He was lost in the music when Laura slid her arms around him from behind. Owen wasn’t surprised to realize he’d been there for ninety minutes by then.

  “I woke up and you weren’t there,” she said. “I was worried.”

  “Sorry. Couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to bother you.”

  She kissed the back of his neck. “What’s keeping you awake?”

  “Lots of stuff.”

  “The trip?”

  “For one thing.”

  “Can I say something about that?”

  “Something you haven’t already said?”

  Smiling, she came around to sit on the footstool in front of him, which was when he noticed the baby monitor she held in her hand so they could hear Holden if he woke up. “We’ve had such a crazy year, O, between Holden’s birth, renovating the hotel, your dad’s trial, the wedding and the twins on the way. I want us to have a wonderful time away from it all before the babies come. Your mom and Charlie are thrilled to have Holden for a week, and we know he’ll be in very good hands with them. Please. I just want out of here for a week, and I really want to go to my cousin’s wedding—and I want you to be there, too. Evan is your best friend. He can’t get married without you. And,” she added, waggling her brows, “a whole week alone in Anguilla.”

  “Alone with your whole family and all our friends.”

  “With our own room to flee to any time we want.”

  “I’m worried something will happen while we’re away.”

  “If it does, we’ll deal with it. I’m not being frivolous with my safety or that of the babies, Owen. I have clearance from my doctor and midwife. We are still within the range where it’s safe to travel. I really, really want to go, but not if it’s going to keep you awake at night with anxiety.”

  He put down the guitar and reached for her, bringing her onto his lap. “That’s not the only thing keeping me awake.”

  “Your father and that freaking phone call, too.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I hate him for doing this to you.”

  “I hate him for a lot of reasons, and then I feel guilty for hating my own father.”

  “He’s given you plenty of reasons to feel that way.”

  “Still…”

  “I know.”

  “So a whole week alone in the Caribbean, huh?” Owen asked, desperate to talk about anything other than his father.

  “That’s what I’m offering.”

  “It would take a stronger man than I am to turn down an offer like that from you.”

  “Yes?” she asked, her face alight with giddy excitement that made him smile. If she was happy, he was, too.

  “We can go, but you’d better not let anything happen to you or our babies.”

  “I won’t. I promise.” She kissed his lips and then his neck again. “Come upstairs. I’ve got another offer you won’t be able to refuse.”

  Owen laughed as his body reacted to her blatant come-on. “I don’t know what I ever did without you, Laura Lawry. I was in a funk when I came down here, and then you showed up and made everything better.”

  “I seem to recall you doing the same for me once upon a time.” She got up and held out her hand to him.

  Owen took her hand and brought his guitar with him when he followed her upstairs to their apartment. They looked in on Holden, who was sleeping with his arms thrown over his head and his covers kicked off as usual. Laura covered him while Owen stashed his guitar on the stand in the corner of the living room.

  They met in the bedroom, where Laura treated him to the pleasure of watching her remove her nightgown, revealing a rounded belly and breasts made large by pregnancy. He thought she was, quite simply, the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

  “Don’t look too close,” she said, suddenly shy after revealing herself to him.

  Owen pulled off his T-shirt and went to her, running his hands over her abundant curves. “Don’t ever tell me not to look at what’s mine. And there will never be a time when I don’t think you’re perfect.”

  “You’re blinded by love.”

  “Maybe so,” he said, resting his hand over the babies, “but I hope you know I mean it. I look at you, and I just see everything.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered, drawing him down to her for a kiss.

  Owen wrapped his arms around her and fell into the kiss, drowning in the sweet comfort he always found with her. He was so fully engaged with her that he almost missed the sound of his phone ringing in the pocket of his pajama pants. Withdrawing from the kiss, Owen kept one arm around her as he retrieved the phone. A quick glance showed a Virginia number on the screen.

  “Give me the phone, Owen. I’ve got this.”

  “Thank you, honey, but I’ll do it.” Her love had given him the strength to face anything, even his monster of a father.

  He took the call and accepted the collect charges. Owen sat on the bed, and Laura put her nightgown back on and sat next to him. He held the phone so she could hear, too.

  “Finally,” Mark Lawry said in a low growl that immediately put Owen on guard. Nothing good had ever followed that particular tone of voice.

  “What do you want?” Owen asked.

  “I wanted you to pick up the goddamned phone when I called you.”

  “Why would you think I have anything at all to say to you?”

  “Maybe it’s time you did some listening rather than talking. There are things you don’t know.”

  “If you’re going to tell me some sob story that you think will change how I feel about you, then you’re wasting my time—and yours.”

  “It’s not a story. It’s the truth. I… I was knocked around by my old man. I never knew anything else. They’ve got me going to court-ordered counseling here, and the guy got me to tell him that. He said I needed to tell my kids so they’d understand why I am the way I am.”

  Stunned by the confession from a man who’d never once admitted to weakness of any kind, Owen tried to wrap his brain around what he was hearing.

  “I told the shrink that you kids would think I’m making excuses, and he said you can think whatever you want as long as I tell you the truth. I swear on my life I’m telling you the truth, and it’s something I’d never told anyone until I told him—even your mother has never heard any of this. She only knew that there was no love lost between me and my father. You were lucky you never knew him. The sadistic bastard died before you were born. One of the best days of my life was when he was hit by a car crossing the street. As far as I was concerned, he’d gotten exactly what was coming to him, but his rage… It was like he left it all to me. The first time I hit your mother was the day he died. I was wrong to do that. I knew it then. I know it now, but… It was like something would come over me, and I’d lose control of myself. The shrink… He’s helping me see how it’s all connected—what was done to me and what I did to all of you. I’m not making excuses. I swear that’s not what this is. I just… I wanted a chance to say I-I’m sorry for what I did, Owen, to you and the others. You all deserved better than me, and I won’t bother you anymore after this. I just… I wanted you to know. I’m sorry. Will you tell the others? Will you tell your mother?”

  Owen couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Tears flooded his eyes, blinding him. He’d never heard his father say so many words at one time, unless they were angry words.

  “Owen, are you there?”

  Clearing the huge lump from his throat, he said, “I’m here.”

  “Will you tell them?”

  “Yeah, I will.”

  “Two other things I want to say, and then I’ll let you go. The first is that if you’re ever so angry with your wife or your kids that you feel you could harm them, get help. Get help right away. If I’d done that, my life would’ve turned out so different. Tell your brothers I said that, okay? Tell them to get help if it happens to them.”

  Owen took deep breaths as the tears continued to flow. “What’s the second thing?”
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br />   “No matter how it might’ve seemed, I loved you all. I loved you very much.”

  Owen had absolutely nothing to say to that.

  “Thank you for taking my call. I’ll sign the papers for your mother right away and get them back to the lawyer.”

  “Dad…”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you for telling me.”

  “Least I could do. You’ll tell your mother I said… Tell her I said to be happy. She’s certainly earned the right.”

  Owen wiped away more tears. “I’ll tell her.”

  “Take care, son.” And then he was gone, having dropped an emotional bomb into Owen’s lap, changing everything he knew to be true in one ten-minute conversation.

  He ended the call and took a deep breath, trying to regain control of his emotions. “Sure as shit wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Oh my God, Owen.”

  That was when he realized Laura was crying, too. He reached for her, and they held each other as they tried to comprehend what his father had told him.

  “What’re you thinking and feeling?” she asked after a long silence. “I can’t even begin to know.” She raised a hand to his face to wipe away his tears.

  “I… I don’t know either. All I’ve ever done is hate him. I don’t know how to think of him as anything other than a monster. But hearing that…”

  “You believe him?”

  “I do, and you want to know why? Because General Mark Lawry would never, ever admit to anything that smacked of weakness, even to further his own agenda. There’s no way he would’ve told me something like that if it wasn’t true.”

  “Come lie down with me.”

  They crawled into bed and came together in the middle, arms and legs intertwined, her head on his chest.

  “Now I have to tell everyone else about this. How do I do that?”

  “The same way he told you. He came to you with this because he knew you’d be strong enough to handle it the same way you’ve handled everything else for your family all these years.”

  “I guess.”

  “It’s true, Owen. He chose you, despite your differences, because he has faith in you to take care of the others.”

  “Will you take care of me while I take care of them?”

  “Always.” She pushed herself up on one elbow so she could kiss him.

  Needing her desperately, Owen grasped handfuls of her long hair and held her close to him, losing himself in the sweetness and heat of a kiss that became desperate and needy in no time at all. Whenever he was drowning, she was there to save him, to anchor him, and he loved her more with every passing day.

  Without her, the bomb his father had just dropped in his lap would’ve blown the lid off his life. With her, it was shocking but manageable. They’d figure out the way forward together, and knowing that made it possible for him to cope.

  “Let me,” she whispered against his lips, rising to straddle him. Her baby belly made this the most comfortable position for her, which was fine with him. She groaned as she took him in.

  “Don’t say it.”

  “Why not? Did you or did you not get more than your share?”

  Owen wouldn’t have thought it possible to laugh or smile, but she showed him otherwise as she came down on him, taking him in until he was fully seated in her tight heat. Making love with her was as close as he’d ever come to heaven, and he couldn’t get enough.

  She shuddered on top of him, proving that while he might’ve gotten more than his share, she loved every bit of what he had to give. Rocking in a slow, sensual rhythm, she drove him mad as he tried to remain still, to let her set the pace. He was always so afraid of hurting her, so he kept his hands on her hips and tried not to lose his mind as she rode him.

  With her head thrown back and the faint glow of the lights from outside illuminating her pale skin, she looked like a goddess come to life. She was his goddess, the love of his life, his reason for being and the only one who could make him forget his painful past, even if only for a while.

  “Owen,” she whispered.

  “I’m here, baby. What do you need?”

  “You. Just you.”

  He sat up, wrapped his arms around her and held her as she came, taking him with her into bliss. There was no other word for what they found together. “Love you, Laura. I’d be losing my mind if I didn’t have you to hold me together.”

  “I love you, too, and I’ll always be here to hold you together if you do the same for me.”

  “Nothing else I’d rather do.”

  Chapter 23

  Adam danced with Abby to “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith, singing the lyrics in her ear as she giggled from the champagne they’d consumed over the course of the unforgettable evening. The wedding they’d thrown together in just over a week’s time had come together perfectly, with everyone they loved best in attendance, the winter wind howling outside while a huge fire burned in the fireplace in the dining room of the McCarthys’ Gansett Island Inn, which had been transformed by the hotel staff for the wedding.

  “So how’d we do?” Adam asked Abby. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being the best.”

  “I’d give this night a one thousand.”

  “I was thinking more like one in a million.”

  “One in a billion.”

  He smiled down at her. “Are you happy?”

  “You can’t tell?”

  “Just making sure, since your happiness is my sole reason for being.”

  Sighing, she rested her head on his shoulder. “Sometimes I still think I dreamt this whole thing—from that first day on the ferry and every day since then. There’s no way this can possibly be real.”

  “Oh, it’s real, sweetheart. It’s as real as it gets.”

  “After what happened two weeks ago, with the doctor and the diagnosis and everything, I wanted to give up, but you wouldn’t let me. Thank you for that and a million other things.”

  “Thank you for marrying me and giving me a whole lifetime to share with you.”

  “I apologize in advance for the hard parts.”

  “No apology needed. We’ll figure it out as we go. As long as I have you and you have me, the rest is easy.”

  “You really think it’ll be that simple?” she asked, looking up at him with gorgeous brown eyes gone liquid with emotion.

  “Probably not, but I really believe there’s nothing we can’t handle as long as we do it together.” He kissed the top of her head and breathed in the bewitching scent of his love, feeling the silk of her hair against his face. No matter what came their way, he would do whatever it took to protect her from hurt or disappointment. She’d already had enough of both in her life. Now was the time for happily ever after.

  They were surrounded tonight and in life by the people they loved best—his parents and siblings as well as their partners, his cousins, their friends, Abby’s family and their larger island family. That community would celebrate with them during the good times and prop them up through the tough times. Adam truly believed they would successfully weather the storm of her illness, and they would find a path to parenthood, too. Maybe it wouldn’t be the conventional path, but it would be their path.

  Next to them, Dan danced with Kara, Evan with Grace, Grant with Stephanie, Mac with Maddie, Joe with Janey, Shane with Katie, Tiffany with Blaine, Seamus with Carolina, Adam’s dad with his mom, his Uncle Frank with Betsy, his Uncle Kevin with Chelsea, and Luke with Sydney. Others had come and gone throughout the evening, but the core group remained and would be there for them through it all.

  “What do you say we get out of here, Mrs. McCarthy?”

  “Ready whenever you are.”

  His reply was a not-so-subtle tug on her hand, leading her in the direction of the lobby.

  “Shouldn’t we say good night to everyone?”

  Adam took a look around to find all the happy couples engrossed in each other. “Nah. They’ll figure out for themselves that we split.”

  “
That’s kind of rude.”

  “I’m kind of horny for my wife.”

  “Honestly, Adam. Did I marry a man or a teenage boy?”

  “I’m all man, baby. Let’s go upstairs, and I’ll show you.”

  She was still giggling when he steered her through the lobby and up the stairs. His mother had assigned them the hotel’s top-floor honeymoon suite, and their bags had been delivered earlier. It’d been years since Adam had been up here, and he couldn’t remember what the room looked like. However, with his mother managing the hotel, he knew the room would be first class.

  Adam used the key card she had given him to open the door. “Wait a second,” he said to Abby when she would’ve gone in ahead of him. He could tell he surprised her when he swept her off her feet to carry her across the threshold, making her giggle some more.

  He loved that champagne made her giggle, and he loved the lighthearted sound of her laughter, especially in light of the trauma of her diagnosis. He’d worried for a while that she might never laugh again, but his resilient Abby had bounced back after a few rough days, determined to battle her illness and fight for the life they both desperately wanted.

  Adam swung her around in a big circle before setting her down in the middle of the sitting area, in front of another fireplace that had been lit for them. When he was certain she was steady on her feet, he went to open the glass doors to let the heat and scent of the fire into the candlelit room.

  Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure a romantic setting for the newlyweds. Adam fervently hoped it was Daisy and not his mother. It was Daisy. That was his story, and he was sticking to it. Then he looked down at Abby, saw tears in her eyes and was instantly on alert. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong. Everything is absolutely perfect. This is beautiful.” Her gaze took in the fire, the candles, the four-poster bed with the crisp white linens that had been turned down for them, the red rose petals scattered over the bed and the champagne chilling in a bucket next to the bed.

  “So are you,” he said, running his fingers through her dark silky hair. He’d been so glad she left it down the way he liked it best. It might be safe to say he was obsessed with her hair, constantly touching it, burying his face in it, breathing in the scent he’d know anywhere as hers. “How do you like being married so far?”