Chapter 1
Riley McCarthy aligned the hydraulic nail gun with the sheet of drywall held in place by his brother, Finn, and nailed it to the wooden frame.
Bam, bam, bam. Down one side, across the top, down the other side, along the bottom.
With that sheet finished, they started on the next, positioning and securing it before starting again.
The rote nature of the work suited Riley’s glum mood as he listened to the January wind howl outside the new home of McCarthy’s Wayfarer, Gansett Island’s shore dinner hall, event facility, beachfront bar and hotel.
The entire McCarthy family had come together to fund the purchase of the run-down facility that occupied prime real estate adjacent to the ferry landing.
His cousin Mac’s construction company was handling the renovations, which would take most of the time they had left in the off-season to get it ready for the summer.
Riley and Finn had come to Gansett for their cousin Laura’s wedding fifteen months ago and were still there, working for Mac as one project rolled into another.
With the winter deep freeze keeping everyone in hibernation mode lately, Riley had too much time to think about the direction of his life, his career, his living situation, his love life—or lack thereof—and whether he should move back to the mainland to shake things up.
Not that he was unhappy on Gansett Island living with his brother, near their father, uncles, cousins and friends.
He wasn’t unhappy, but he was… out of sorts.
For more than a year, Riley had been content on the island. But in the last few months, something had changed for him, and he couldn’t decide when the island had become less appealing or when the restlessness had set in that had him questioning everything.
“Riley,” Finn said.
Riley looked up. “What?”
“Are you listening to me?”
“Sorry. What’d you say?”
“I asked where you were, and when you didn’t answer, you confirmed you’re not here.”
“What? I’m right here.”
“Maybe so, but your head is somewhere else entirely, which makes me nervous when you’re pointing a nail gun at my hands. What’s up with you anyway? You’re zoned out more often than not, and you never want to go out or party or do anything.”
“It’s freezing.”
“That’s never stopped you before.” Finn held up another sheet of drywall and waited for Riley to nail it into place.
Riley could dodge a lot of people. The brother who knew him better than anyone wasn’t one of them. “I don’t know why I don’t feel like going out. I just don’t.”
“I know why,” Finn said with a smug smile.
“Can’t wait to hear this.”
“It’s because of Nikki, the roof girl.”
Riley took his eyes off what he was doing just long enough to nearly run a nail through his own hand. “What’re you talking about?”
“This funk of yours started when she left without saying goodbye.”
“What funk? And so what if she left without saying goodbye? I barely knew her.”
“But you liked her. Admit it.”
Riley shrugged, hoping he appeared far more nonchalant than he felt. “She seemed like a nice enough person.”
Finn snorted with laughter, and Riley seriously considered aiming the nail gun at his brother’s head. But only for a second. Most of the time, he liked the brother who was also his closest friend. This was not one of those times.
“She ‘seemed like a nice enough person,’” Finn said mockingly. “Is that your story and you’re sticking to it?”
Riley put down the nail gun and walked away.
“Riley!” Finn called after him. “Come on. I’m just messing with you. What the hell? Where’re you going?”
“Hey, Riley,” Mac called out to him from atop a ladder. “What’s up?”
He didn’t stop or reply to them on his way through the double doors that led to the beach, where it was about ten degrees with a wind chill of negative two hundred, or so it seemed.
The wind whipped the sand into mini cyclones as huge waves pounded against the shore.
Seagulls flew above the surf, seeming oblivious to the fact that it was too cold for any living thing to be outside.
Riley zipped up the heavy coat he wore to work in the building that was still heat-challenged, even with the new HVAC system fully installed and nearly operational.
No one wanted to spend the money to heat the vast space, so they bundled up and spent their days freezing their asses off.
He tugged work gloves from his pockets, put them on and pulled his ever-present wool hat down over his ears.
He’d rather be out here than inside listening to Finn psychoanalyze him.
They got enough of that bullshit from their father, the shrink.
Riley wished he smoked, so he’d have something to do besides shiver uncontrollably on this unscheduled break.
Anything to give him something to do or think about besides the truth of what Finn had said, a truth that Riley hadn’t allowed himself to entertain before his brother had knocked him over the head with it.
How could he miss someone he barely knew?
And he did barely know Nikki Stokes, granddaughter of Mrs. Hopper, one of the island’s longest-standing summer residents.
Nikki had arrived last fall with her identical twin sister, Jordan, to stay at the family’s island home.
Jordan, a reality TV star, had been hiding from the media after her malicious on-again-off-again husband released a sex tape that prominently featured her.
The roof at the Hopper house had been leaking in a rainstorm.
Mac had sent him over to fix it. He’d talked to Nikki a couple of times.
That was the extent of his so-called relationship with Nikki.
Had he been bummed when he showed up to work one day and the sisters were gone?
Sure, but that was months ago, and what did any of it have to do with him?
He’d taken a casual look online but hadn’t seen any news about Jordan in the months since they’d suddenly left.
He hoped wherever they were that Nikki was taking care of herself and not devoting all her energy to her troubled sister.
Beyond that, what did it matter to him where she was?
The icy wind beat against his face, almost like it was trying to get his attention, to make him see that freaking Finn was right. His gloom-and-doom phase had started around the time Nikki had suddenly left the island. Fucking hell.
Riley could’ve done without the realization that forced him to consider why he cared and why her departure had put him into a months-long bad mood.
He’d gone out of his way to avoid the kind of entanglements that had other men making fools of themselves over women.
It wasn’t at all like him to let a woman get to him this way.
And how, exactly, had she managed to “get to him” in the span of a couple of conversations about a leaking roof? It made no sense whatsoever.
The double doors swung open, and his cousin Shane came out, zipping his coat against the blast of frigid air. “What the hell are you doing out here?” Shane had to shout to be heard over the relentless wind.
“Taking a break.”
“In what might be the coldest place on earth?”
“Why not?”
“Riley, what’s going on?”
“Nothing. I just wanted a break. That’s allowed, right?”
“You know it is, but anyone can see you’re not yourself lately. If something’s wrong, we can help, but not if we don’t know what it is.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Riley wanted to say but didn’t. Shane was a good guy, and his offer of help was sincere. Their older cousins tended to baby him and Finn, the youngest of the McCarthy grandchildren, and most of the time, he found it funny. Today, he wasn’t in the mood for hovering or babying.
“It’s all good.” Riley had zero desire to talk about his mood or the fact that people were noticing he wasn’t himself.
Now that he knew what—or who—was causing it, he could begin to find a way past it.
He wasn’t someone who allowed himself to get mired in negativity, nor did he obsess about women.
Sure, he liked women. He liked them a lot, but there’d never been one who put him into a funk or caused him to question his life choices.
Until Nikki.
Oh my God. Just shut the hell up! I met her twice!
In his mind, he was arguing with Finn. But in reality, the argument was with himself.
His cousins had altered their entire lives for the women they loved, which was great for them, but that wasn’t his vibe. Not yet anyway. At only twenty-eight, he had no desire to be settled or domesticated or anything that smacked of commitment or responsibility. That’s what his thirties were for.
But he couldn’t deny that Finn was right. He’d become a bore lately, and that would change, effective immediately. He followed Shane inside, where the lack of freezing wind was a welcome relief.
Pulling off his gloves, he went back to where Finn leaned against the wall they’d been constructing, feeling his brother’s gaze on him as he unzipped his coat and picked up the nail gun.
“You wanna go out tonight?” Riley asked as they positioned the next piece of drywall.
“Yep.”
There. Back on track.
A night out with Finn was just what he needed to get himself righted.
Perhaps he might meet someone who could take his mind off the disturbing thoughts he’d been having lately, although in the dead of winter, there were fewer single women on the island than during the summer.
Whatever. It would be enough to go out and have some beers and laughs with his brother.
Maybe some of their cousins would join them.
They were always entertaining and good for many laughs.
That was all he needed to snap out of the funk.