Season for Love Read online

  Published by Marie Force

  Copyright 2012. Marie Force.

  Cover by Kristina Brinton

  ISBN: 9780985034122

  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.mariesullivanforce.com

  The McCarthys of Gansett Island

  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

  Author’s Note

  Welcome back to Gansett Island for the long-awaited story of Owen Lawry and Laura McCarthy. Owen and Laura have been on “slow burn” status since book 4, Falling for Love. They met after her cousin Janey’s wedding and formed an immediate friendship that has, over time, turned to love. How can you not love a guy who scrapes you up off the floor after a bout of morning sickness, especially when the baby isn’t even his? Ah, Owen, how do we love you? Let us count the ways! Laura’s estranged husband isn’t going quietly, and some challenges from Owen’s past will surface as well. Along the way, we’ll catch up with all our favorite couples and catch a glimpse of some future romances in the making.

  Next up are Tiffany and Blaine in LONGING FOR LOVE, followed by Adam McCarthy’s story. I was going to call that LOOKING FOR LOVE, but looking and longing are a little too similar, so I’ll be giving Adam’s book a different name. More to come on that.

  Writing about this family and their life on an island so much like my beloved Block Island has been the most fun I’ve ever had as a writer. Thank you for embracing my fictional family and for all the lovely reviews you’ve posted. I appreciate your e-mails and Facebook posts more than you’ll ever know. I always love to hear from readers. You can reach me at [email protected]. If you’re not yet on my mailing list and wish to be added for occasional updates on future books and launch-day notifications for new books, let me know with an e-mail. Also, join us on Facebook at Marie Force Book Talk where we chat about my books, other books we love and lots of stuff that has nothing to do with books! You can also join the fun at the McCarthys of Gansett Island Reader Group where we cover important topics such as which of the Gansett Island men we wouldn’t kick out of bed and what actors would play the McCarthy brothers in our fictional movie. When each new book is released, we form a separate group to dish about the new story. You can find the Season for Love Reader Group. Come join the fun!

  While SEASON FOR LOVE is intended to be a stand-alone story, you will enjoy it more if you read MAID FOR LOVE, FOOL FOR LOVE, READY FOR LOVE, FALLING FOR LOVE and HOPING FOR LOVE first. Be sure to turn the page after the Epilogue for a special Gansett Island short story AND a sneak peek at book 7, LONGING FOR LOVE.

  Thanks as always to my brilliant behind-the-scenes team: Linda Ingmanson edits for me, and Kristina Brinton does my beautiful covers. Thank you to my beta readers extraordinaire, Ronlyn Howe, Kara Conrad and Anne Woodall, as well as my writing buddy, Jessica Smith, who did a proofread.

  This is the first book I’ve written in my new life as a self-employed author. I give thanks every day for all the readers who’ve made my new job possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  xoxo

  Marie

  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

  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

  Dan Torrington, celebrity lawyer and friend to Grant McCarthy

  Charlie Grandchamp, stepfather of Stephanie Logan

  Blaine Taylor, Gansett Island police chief

  Slim Jackson, Gansett Island pilot

  David Lawrence, Gansett Island doctor, former fiancé of Janey McCarthy Cantrell

  Victoria, Gansett Island midwife

  Chapter 1

  Owen Lawry stood on the porch of the Sand & Surf Hotel to watch the last ferry of the day leave South Harbor for the mainland. He and his van were supposed to have been on that boat. With his obligations on Gansett Island over for the season, he’d planned to be heading for a two-month gig in Boston, the same autumn engagement he’d had the last five years. It paid well, and, after all this time, the club owners were friends.

  His gaze was riveted to the ferry as it steamed past the breakwater into open ocean, where it dipped and rolled in the October surf. As the sun set on Columbus Day, officially ending another summer season on Gansett, Owen wondered what the hell he was still doing here when he was supposed to be on that boat, leaving for good-paying work on the mainland.

  “You know why you’re still here,” he muttered, thinking of the blonde beauty who had him all tied up in knots. He was at the point where he wondered if a man could actually die from pent-up desire.

  It might’ve been better for them both if he’d left as scheduled, if he’d taken the gig in Boston and gone about his carefree existence with the same lack of responsibility that had marked his entire adult life.

  What was he doing here pining after a woman who was still married to someone else and carrying her estranged husband’s child? What was he doing spending every waking moment with a woman who’d made it clear she was unavailable for all the things he suddenly wanted for the first time in his thirty-three years? He was driving himself slowly mad. That was the only thing he knew for certain.

  Before he met Laura McCarthy, he was perfectly satisfied with his life. He spent summers playing his guitar and singing on the island—the closest thing to a real home he’d ever had—worked autumns in Boston and winters in Stowe, Vermont, playing to the ski crowd. In the spring, he headed for a few months off in the Bahamas. It was a good life, a satisfying life. Watching the last ferry of the day fade into the twilight, Owen had the une
asy sensation that he was also watching that satisfying life slip through his fingers.

  He usually felt sorry for guys who allowed themselves to be led around by a woman. His best friends, Mac, Grant and Evan McCarthy, Joe Cantrell and Luke Harris, had fallen like dominoes lately, one after the other finding the women they were meant to be with. Only Adam McCarthy remained untethered and seemed happy that way.

  Owen, on the other hand, was stuck in purgatory, caught between the single life he’d embraced with passionate dedication and the committed life he never imagined for himself. He wasn’t with Laura, per se. He just spent all his free time with her. Weeks ago, they’d shared a couple of chaste kisses that had been hotter than full-on sex with other women.

  Since then, there’d been nothing but an occasional hand to his arm or a brief hug here or there. He’d continued to collect her off the bathroom floor each day until the relentless morning sickness suddenly let up as she entered her fifth month of pregnancy.

  As he leaned against the railing he’d recently replaced on the hotel’s front porch, Owen realized he actually missed that time with her in the mornings when she’d been so sick and he’d been there to prop her up. “You’re such a fool,” he said to the gathering darkness.

  The autumn days were shorter, the nights longer and the chilly air a harbinger of things to come. Shivering in the breeze, Owen questioned his decision to stay with Laura this winter for the millionth time. Did she even want him here? Did she want company, or did she want him? If she wanted him, she was doing a hell of a job hiding it. For a while there, he’d thought they were at the start of something that could’ve been significant for both of them. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  She treated him like a platonic buddy when all he did was fantasize about getting her naked and into his bed. Was he sick to be having such fantasies about a woman who was pregnant with another man’s child? Probably. But as she rounded and swelled and glowed, he only wanted her more. At times, he even let himself pretend they were married and the baby was his.

  “You’re one sick son of a bitch,” he said to the breeze. Sick or not, he wanted her with a fierceness that was becoming harder and harder to hide from her. One of these days, he was going to grab her and pin her against a wall and show her exactly—

  “Owen?”

  He sucked in a sharp, deep breath, ashamed to have been caught having such uncivilized thoughts about a woman he truly cared for. Making an attempt to calm himself, he turned to her. “Yeah?”

  “Aren’t you cold out there?”

  Actually, he was on fire thinking about her, not that he could confess such a thing to her. “Not really. It’s nice.”

  Laura tugged the zip-up sweatshirt of his that she’d “borrowed” around herself and joined him on the porch. Even though the oversized jacket swallowed her up, she was still his regal princess. She snuggled into his side, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to slip his arm around her.

  Resting her head on his chest, she let out a contented sigh. “It’s so pretty this time of day.”

  His throat tightened with emotion, and his entire body ached from wanting her. “Sure is.”

  “It’s pretty every time of day. I never get tired of our spectacular view,” she said as a shiver traveled through her.

  “You shouldn’t get too cold.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “It’s a good night for a fire.” Now where did that come from? He’d no sooner said the words than he wanted to take them back.

  “Oh, can we? I’d love that!”

  Owen wanted to moan as he imagined how gorgeous she’d look in the firelight. With her around to look at all day, every day, he never ran out of ways to torture himself. “Sure we can. Mac inspected the chimney last week and declared us good to go.” Owen had collected a ton of driftwood off the beach that had been drying on the porch for weeks.

  “I got marshmallows at the store. We can have a campout.”

  Perfect, Owen thought. More torture. Her childlike glee at the simple things in life was one of the qualities he liked best about her and part of what made him want her with a burning need unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

  “Will you play for me, too? You know I love listening to you.”

  Here, wrapped around him, was everything he’d never known he wanted. And wasn’t it ironic that he couldn’t have her. He would’ve laughed at the lunacy of the situation if his growing ache for her hadn’t been so damned painful. “Absolutely,” he managed to say. “Let’s go in before you catch a cold.”

  Was she reluctant to step out of his embrace, or was that wishful thinking on his part? As he followed her inside, he took a last look at the horizon where the ferry was nearly out of sight and hoped he hadn’t made a huge mistake by letting it leave without him.

  Laura’s alarm dragged her out of a deep sleep the next morning. Ever since she’d moved to the island right after Labor Day to renovate and manage the Sand & Surf Hotel, she’d been sleeping well again. That was a welcome relief following months of sleepless nights.

  Discovering that her new husband hadn’t quit dating after their May wedding had shocked the life out of her—almost as much as discovering she’d been married just long enough to get pregnant. Months of restless nights, mounting anxiety and relentless morning sickness had taken a toll. By the time she arrived to start her new job, she’d been a wreck.

  A month later, she was restored, energized, loving her job and falling more into something with her sexy housemate with each passing day. She thought about the evening they’d spent together in front of the fireplace, roasting marshmallows and singing silly songs and laughing so hard she’d had tears rolling down her face at one point.

  What would she have done without his steady presence to get her through these last few weeks? His care and concern had been a balm on the open wound her husband Justin had inflicted on her heart. And while she had no doubt Owen wanted more than the easy friendship they’d nurtured since they met over the summer, she didn’t feel comfortable pursuing a relationship with him when they were on such vastly different paths. Not to mention, she was still technically married, which wasn’t likely to change any time soon with Justin refusing to grant her a divorce.

  With her baby due in February, her life would be all about responsibility for the next eighteen years. Owen’s life was all about transience. He loved his vagabond existence. He was proud of the fact that everything he owned fit into the back of his ancient VW van. Other than the Sand & Surf, which his grandparents had owned and run for more than fifty years before their retirement, he had no permanent address and liked it that way.

  His world simply didn’t fit with hers, even if she liked him more than she’d ever liked any guy—including the one she’d married. Despite their significantly different philosophies on life, their chemistry was hard to ignore. She wasn’t immune to the heated looks he sent her way or the overwhelming need to touch him that was becoming almost impossible to resist.

  Standing with him on the porch last night, looking out over the ocean as the sun set, had been a moment of perfect harmony. They had a lot of those moments. Whether it was picking out paint colors for the hotel or discussing furniture options or reviewing advertising strategies, they agreed on most things. And when they disagreed, he usually said something to make her laugh, and she’d forget why she didn’t agree with him.

  She turned on her side to look out on the glorious view that was now a part of her everyday life. She’d loved the old Victorian hotel since she visited the island as a young girl after her mother died. Then it had reminded her of an oversized dollhouse. Those summers with her Uncle Mac and Aunt Linda had been the best of her life. They—and their island—had saved her from the overwhelming grief that had threatened to consume her. The island had saved her from the same fate earlier this year when she’d come for her cousin Janey’s wedding and discovered a whole new life, thanks in large part to Owen.

  With Justin fighting the div
orce and still unaware he was soon to be a father, Laura should be spectacularly unhappy. As she got out of bed and dragged herself into the shower, she couldn’t deny that the only reason she wasn’t spectacularly unhappy was because she got to be with Owen every day.

  She thought about that fact of her new life as she dried her hair and got dressed to meet her Aunt Linda for breakfast at the South Harbor Diner. Maybe it was time she and Owen had a heart-to-heart about what was really going on between them. But how exactly did one broach such a subject? Did she say, “Listen, I know you want me, and you know I want you, but that’s where our similarities begin and end. We can’t build a relationship based on chemistry alone.” Or could we?

  That question stayed with her as she went downstairs, where Owen was sanding the hardwood floors in the lobby. At some point over the last few weeks, her project of renovating the old hotel had become their project, which was fine with her. Everything was more fun with him around to share it with, and besides, his grandparents owned the place, so it seemed fitting to have him involved in the decisions.

  Owen turned off the sander, removed his respirator mask and hustled her outside to the porch. “You shouldn’t be breathing the dust.”

  When he was always taking care of her in one way or another, how was she supposed to remember they wanted different things out of life?

  He took a closer look at her. “You look nice. What’s the occasion?”

  On regular workdays, she tossed her hair up in a ponytail and didn’t bother with the light bit of makeup she’d applied to meet her always well-put-together aunt. “Breakfast with Linda, but I won’t be long.”

  She felt guilty about leaving him to work when she was the one being paid to oversee the renovations. That reminded her she wanted to speak with his grandmother about getting him on the payroll. Since he’d given up his gig in Boston to babysit her this winter, it was the least she could do for him.