Book 23 Blackout After Dark #10
“Every one of you is crazy,” Betsy says, her dark eyes glittering with amusement, “but I know when I’m outnumbered.
Laura, I’d love to get married at the Surf.
Shane, there’s nothing you can say to talk me out of marrying your dad.
Sorry. And, Frank, stop thinking you’re marrying up.
I’m the one who’s marrying up. Not only do I get you, but I get your beautiful family, too.
So yes to late October, yes to everything, including the McCarthy family craziness. ”
Frank puts his arms around her and kisses her as if they’re alone, while the others whoop. He can’t wait to make her his wife.
While Jared, the best man, is toasting the bride and groom, Jessie appears at the reception asking for Lizzie.
When they’re alone, Jessie tells Lizzie that she can’t take care of the baby and hands her to Lizzie.
Lizzie tries to stop her, but Jessie runs off.
Jared finds Lizzie holding a crying baby girl and says they have to stop Jessie.
With Blaine’s help, they determine that Jessie made it to the six o’clock ferry.
Blaine offers to call social services but says they won’t be able to come get the baby until the next day.
“No,” Lizzie says. “Don’t call them. She’ll end up in the system.
I’ve seen that happen too many times to let it happen to her.
” She ran a homeless shelter in New York City before they were married and is well-versed in such things.
“Jessie asked me to take care of her, and I’m going to do it.
She’ll come back when she’s had a minute to calm down. She’ll come back.”
“Lizzie, we’re not keeping her.”
“I never said anything about keeping her. I said I’m going to take care of her until her mother comes back.”
“And what if she never comes back? What then?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t let her go into the system, Jared.”
Although he’s deeply conflicted about bringing this baby home with them, he loves Lizzie and supports her decision to help.
Once Jace Carson has agreed to the terms Seamus and Carolina offered, giving him two visits a year with his sons, he wastes no time asking for the first one.
Jace signs an agreement that he won’t challenge the custody agreement in exchange for access to his sons.
Seamus and Carolina meet him when he gets out of Ned’s cab.
“Thank you for having me.”
Seamus appreciates the man’s manners, even though he’s predisposed to dislike him on sight. “I’d say it was no problem, but…”
“The boys…” Jace says. “They’re doing well?”
“They’re doing wonderfully,” Carolina says, “after a rough couple of months following their mother’s death.”
“I… I didn’t know she was sick. I felt awful when I heard about what happened.”
“It was a very difficult time,” Carolina says. “But the Gansett Island community stepped up for her and the boys, and we got them through it.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help. I’ve had some…
problems, but I’m better now. I understand it was a lot to ask to see them, but I only learned that Lisa had died when I tried to reach out to her about seeing the kids.
I wanted to wait until I’d gotten my life together before I got in touch with her, and then I found out it was too late. ”
Jace seems genuinely sad about Lisa’s death. “This is a nice place you’ve got here.”
“We added on after we took in the boys.” Carolina gestures to the new part of the house. “We wanted them to have room to spread out.”
“Are they here?”
“If you listen carefully,” Seamus says, “you can hear them off playing in the trees. They love to be outside.”
“I remember that from when they were little. Always wanted to be outside.”
Seamus puts his fingers in his mouth and whistles for the boys, who come running, as they always do when he calls for them. He wonders how old they’ll be when that stops.
They burst through the brush, two towheads with sunburned noses and missing front teeth.
Burpy is hot on their trail, barking as usual.
Seamus often thinks it’s a good thing they don’t have close neighbors with all the racket the kids and dog make.
The house where Lisa and the boys had lived is the closest one to them, and it’s several hundred yards up the road. A new couple lives there now.
“Kyle, Jackson and Burpy, I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Mr. Jace. Can you say hello?”
He holds his breath, waiting to see if either of them will recognize the man, but they don’t seem to.
Both boys say hi and shake Jace’s hand the way Seamus has taught them. They’re working on making eye contact when they’re introduced to new people. So far, the handshaking is going better than the eye contact.
Over the next hour, Jace asks the boys about their life on Gansett Island, about their school, their friends, the TV shows they like and their favorite food.
Seamus has to give Jace credit for making a genuine effort to get to know the boys and truly listening to everything they had to say.
And when he asks if they will show him their favorite toys, the boys are happy to lead the way to their new playroom that Seamus had told them to clean up earlier in anticipation of their guest’s arrival.
“He seems like a nice guy,” Carolina says when she and Seamus are alone in the kitchen.
“Aye, he is. I like how he gave them his full attention.” Still wary, however, he goes to check on them in the playroom and finds Jace sitting on the floor while the boys show him all their toys.
Though he’s glad the visit is going so well, Seamus still feels out of sorts over the situation. Carolina wisely said that allowing Jace into their lives means giving the boys one more person to love them. He’s no threat, or so Seamus tells himself.
Grant greets his family and friends at the primitive Gansett Island theater.
“Good evening, everyone, and thank you so much for being here for the Gansett Island premiere of Indefatigable. As most of you know, Indefatigable tells the story of my wife Stephanie’s fourteen-year effort to free her stepfather, Charlie Grandchamp, from unjust incarceration.
After meeting Stephanie, hearing her story and falling in love with her, I thought I understood what she’d been through.
But it was only when I delved into the writing of the screenplay that I found out I only knew a fraction of it.
‘The more I learned about Stephanie and Charlie, the more I loved and respected them both for not only surviving an ordeal that would’ve ruined lesser people, but for who they are now in the aftermath of this story.
We named the film Indefatigable in honor of Stephanie’s unyielding determination to right a terrible wrong against the greatest of odds.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Indefatigable. ”
While the audience applauds, Grant leaves the stage to sit in the front row next to his parents. His dad pats him on the back and beams a proud smile as the opening credits play.
Two hours and twenty-one minutes later, the closing credits begin scrolling as the audience bursts into wild applause.
Then Grant sees them, Steph and Charlie…
in the back, standing against the wall, side by side as they’ve been from the beginning of their incredible story.
Stephanie meets him halfway, nearly leaping into his outstretched arms. She holds on tight to him as she whispers in his ear, “It was incredible. Absolutely incredible.”
It’s the best review he’s ever gotten—and the only one that matters.
A year later than planned, David Lawrence and Daisy Babson are married at the Wayfarer.
They postponed their ceremony after David’s father had a massive heart attack three days prior to their original wedding day.
With Alex and Paul Martinez and Shannon O’Grady by his side, David watches his friend and colleague Victoria Stevens come down the aisle.
She’s followed by Jenny and Hope Martinez and then Maddie McCarthy, Daisy’s matron of honor.
Then he watches Daisy, escorted by Mac McCarthy, come towards him. As she takes his hand and looks up at him with eyes full of love, David decides she was well worth the wait.