Chapter 23
Nikki’s ringing cell phone woke Riley out of a dream that included her and a group of dark-haired kids running with them on a beach. There’d been a dog, too. As she took the call, he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to process the meaning of the dream.
Nothing like getting ahead of yourself, he thought, even as the dream took root in his heart, refusing to be dismissed or ignored. What would’ve been inconceivable not that long ago was suddenly within reach. He couldn’t imagine himself on that beach or in that family with anyone else but Nikki.
“Jordan’s awake.” She got up to take a shower while he ordered coffee and room service breakfast. If Zane was paying for their stay, Riley figured they ought to take full advantage.
When she was finished, he took a quick shower but didn’t bother shaving. He moved quickly, knowing she’d want to get to her sister as soon as possible.
Within thirty minutes, they were walking into the hospital rested, fed and caffeinated, prepared to support Jordan in any way necessary. They’d brought their bags with them in case Jordan got released.
Leaving Riley in the waiting room with a thriller he’d picked up in the gift shop, Nikki went to see Jordan. A few minutes later, Riley’s phone rang with a call from his father. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
“I got your text, and I saw the news. I’m just wondering how Nikki and Jordan are?”
Riley should’ve expected to hear from his dad, who would naturally be concerned. “Jordan is in the hospital with a concussion, broken arm and facial bruises. Nikki is in with her now. We’re waiting to hear how long she’ll be here and what the next step is.”
“You did a good thing going with her, son.”
“There was never a question in my mind about letting her go alone.”
“Will they come back here when Jordan is released?”
“I don’t know anything yet.”
“Well, keep me posted. I just wanted to check on you guys.”
“Glad you did. Thanks, Dad. I’ll text you and Finn when I know what’s up.”
“Sounds good. Love you, buddy.”
“Love you, too.”
Riley returned to his book and was two chapters in when Nikki reappeared, seeming hesitant. “How’s she doing?” he asked.
“Better. They’re going to release her today.”
“That’s great news. Are you bringing her home to Gansett?”
Her devastated expression stopped his heart. “She wants to go to LA.”
A sinking sensation, the likes of which he’d never experienced so profoundly, overtook him as her words registered. She wasn’t coming back to Gansett. Not now anyway. Her sister would need someone with her while she recovered, and naturally, Nikki would want to be that person.
“I’ll be back as soon as she’s on her feet again. I promise.” Her expressive eyes begged him to understand what she had to do.
Riley forced a smile even as something inside him broke at the thought of being separated from her for who knew how long. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Three hours later, Riley took off on a flight to Providence while Zane’s plane took Nikki and Jordan to LA. He’d barely managed to get a quick kiss goodbye from Nikki before she ran off to see to the details of getting Jordan home. She’d promised to text him as soon as they landed.
As the plane gained altitude, Riley had the worst feeling that he’d made a terrible mistake by not staying with her.
But he had a job and a life to get back to, not that his life on Gansett would be all that appealing without Nikki.
The time they’d spent together made up the best days of his life.
What would he do if she never came back?
He’d go after her. That’s what he’d do. No matter what, he couldn’t let her get away a second time, not before they had a chance to see what might be possible.
On the most exciting day of her life, Abby McCarthy woke with a stuffed head, scratchy throat and the starting of a cough.
Refusing to let anything as pedestrian as a common cold ruin this day, she took cold meds and was sitting next to Adam in his car as they waited to drive onto the nine-o’clock ferry.
The day was blustery and stormy, and normally, Abby wouldn’t go near the ferry on a day that promised a rough ride.
Today, she barely noticed the whitecaps or the waves crashing against the South Harbor jetty.
An infant car seat they’d borrowed from Laura, who had three of them, was mounted in the backseat.
They had spent two hours online yesterday ordering everything they needed for the baby and would make do with borrowed items until their delivery arrived.
With Adam’s siblings and cousins having babies one right after the other, they had most of what they needed.
And, if necessary, they could improvise.
After the word got out about the baby, congratulatory texts full of ideas and suggestions had come flooding in. For example, Maddie’s sister, Tiffany, had told them to use a dresser drawer until they had a bassinette.
Adam had referred to that as “good old Yankee ingenuity.”
“What’re you thinking about over there?” he asked.
“Yankee ingenuity.”
“The dresser drawer idea is brilliant.”
“Even if it’s not how I pictured bringing home a baby, it is a pretty good idea.”
“It doesn’t have to be perfect, Abs. The only thing that matters is we already love him. He’s not going to remember that we brought him home to a dresser drawer.”
“True.”
He reached for her hand and held on tight until he had to let go to back the car onto the ferry. She was always glad that he was the one to do that, as she was sure she’d drive the car right into the harbor if she had to do it.
They were seated in one of the passenger cabins when Adam took a call from his father, putting it on speaker so Abby could hear, too. “Hey, Gramps, how’s it going?”
“Daddy! Where are you guys?”
“On the ferry and getting ready to leave.”
“Mom and I could not be more thrilled for both of you.”
“Thanks, Dad. We’re pretty thrilled, too.”
“We can’t wait to see pictures and to hear his name.”
“We’ll send both as soon as we can.”
“We’ll be waiting. Love you guys. We’re so, so happy for you.”
“Thanks, Dad. We love you, too. We’ll text pictures.” Adam ended the call and stashed the phone in his pocket. “I think he might be as excited as we are.”
“I’m not surprised. That’s how he is.”
“I got a text from Ned, too, letting me know that he couldn’t be happier for us.”
“Our son will be surrounded by more love—and grandparents—than he knows what to do with.”
“And cousins. Lots and lots of cousins.”
“They’ll keep him from being a lonely only child.”
“He’ll never be lonely in this family.”
“Aye, there’re the happy parents,” Seamus O’Grady said in his lilting Irish brogue. “We’re all so delighted for you both.”
“Thanks, Seamus.” Adam shook Seamus’s hand. “We’re a little excited, to put it mildly.”
“I can only imagine. I just want to say…” He paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. “Despite how it transpired, becoming a parent was one of the greatest things to ever happen to me. I have a feeling it will be for you two as well.”
Adam and Abby both stood to hug Seamus. He and his wife, Carolina, had taken in two young boys after their mother passed away.
“Thank you,” Abby said, dabbing at tears. “We so appreciate all the support we’ve been getting.”
“It might be a little tossy out there today, but we’ll get you to your wee one safely. Don’t worry.”
“We’re in good hands with you at the helm,” Adam said.
“See you on the other side.”
After a long blow of the horn, the ferry departed from its South Harbor berth a few minutes later. Once outside the breakwater, the ferry bobbed and weaved, cresting the waves and then sliding into the trough in a stomach-turning drop.
“You okay?” Adam asked.
“Yep. I’ve got my eyes on the prize.” Glancing at him, she said, “Remember the last time we shared a rough ferry ride?”
His grin lit up his sinfully handsome face. “When you were drunk and swearing off men? How could I forget it? That day changed my life forever.”
“I was tipsy, not drunk.”
“Whatever you say.”
“That day changed my life forever, too. Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d taken an earlier boat or you’d taken a later one.”
“Thank goodness we ended up on the same boat.”
Resting her head on his shoulder, she held on tight to his hand as the seas seemed to get rougher the farther away from the island they got. “I found you when I was at the end of my rope when it came to men and romance and all the nonsense that went along with it.”
“I was right there at the end of the rope with you. Perfect timing.”
“This feels like perfect timing with Liam, too. Nothing is working on the medical front, so now we have a chance to be parents another way.”
“It is perfect timing. He needs us. We need him. We’ve got this.”
“You think so?” she asked, raising her head off his shoulder.
“I know so. We’re going to be awesome parents.”
“I sure hope you’re right.”
“When have you ever known me not to be?” he asked with that cocky McCarthy grin he shared with his father, uncles, brothers and cousins.
The hour-long ferry ride and the forty-five-minute drive to Providence seemed to take two days.
When they finally arrived, Adam carried the car seat inside, where they were met with hugs from Maura, the social worker who’d been to visit their home on Gansett Island and had walked them through the reams of paperwork involved in the application.
“Congratulations, Mom and Dad,” Maura said, smiling.
“Thank you so much,” Abby said. “When can we meet him?”
“I just need a few final signatures, and then I’ll take you to see him.”
They signed the forms and waited while Maura notarized them and made copies for the file she handed them. She’d explained that it would take six months for the adoption to be finalized, and they would be notified of a court date in the next few weeks.
“Are we allowed to know about his biological parents?”
“They’re a teenage couple unequipped to care for him, but they want you to know they love him very much. This was a difficult decision for them, but they believe it’s the right thing.”
“They aren’t going to change their minds, are they?” Adam asked, giving voice to their greatest fear.
“I have no way to know that for sure, but I don’t believe that’s a concern in this case.
You’re aware of the six-week period during which the biological parents can change their minds.
If you’d prefer for us to care for him until then, we can do that.
We’ve had other adoptive parents do that so there’d be no chance of them getting attached before the six weeks are up. ”
Filled with despair at the thought of that scenario playing out, Abby glanced at Adam and noticed tension in the set of his jaw. He didn’t like the thought of that any more than she did.
“What do you want to do?” he asked her.
The thought of going home without their baby was unimaginable after the excitement of the past few days. “I’m willing to risk it if you are.”
He nodded. “Whatever you want is what I want.”
Even knowing they could be setting themselves up for disaster, Abby wanted to meet her son.
Adam took her hand and held on tight as they followed Maura to a conference room, where another member of the agency staff was waiting with the baby.
Abby took one look at the tiny bundle, wrapped in a striped receiving blanket and wearing an oatmeal-colored knit cap on his tiny head, and fell in love with his scrunched little face.
Later, she wouldn’t have been able to describe the woman who put the baby into her arms. From the second she set eyes on his little red face, she couldn’t see anything but him—and his father, who put his arms around her as tears ran down his face.
“Hi there,” Adam whispered, running a fingertip gently over the baby’s cheek.
His tone perfectly matched the way she felt—awestruck.
“He’s so beautiful.” Abby raised the cap to reveal a thatch of dark hair.
“He even has dark hair like we do.” She had no idea how long they were in that conference room, staring and touching and drinking in the sight of the baby they had longed for.
When she thought back to that day, it would be a blur.
The only thing she would clearly remember was his face.
Liam’s face, and his big gray eyes looking up at her with questions and curiosity and wisdom.
Adam took a selfie of the three of them and sent a quick text to his family and Abby’s, introducing them to Liam Callahan McCarthy. His phone began chiming with responses, but he tucked it into his pocket. They had better things to do than respond to texts.
“Do we really get to take him?” Abby asked Maura without taking her gaze off the baby. A feeling of disbelief continued to envelop her. Was this really happening? Would she wake up to find it had all been a lovely dream?
“You get to take him and keep him,” Maura said, amused by the questions. “Congratulations to the new family.”
“Thank you so much for everything you did for us, Maura,” Adam said.
“It’s been a pleasure to help make your family complete.
We’ll be checking in with you, and we’re required to do two more home inspections before the adoption is final.
I’ll call you next week to schedule them.
According to the chart, he’s been fed and changed, so he should be in good shape for the journey home to the island. ”
“Well, here goes nothing,” Adam said with a nervous laugh.
Abby’s usually calm, cool and competent husband was anything but as he took the baby from her and placed him in the carrier.
Working together, they made several attempts before they had him properly strapped in. The baby didn’t seem to mind that they had no idea what they were doing.
Abby sat in the backseat with the baby while Adam drove them back to the ferry.
She kept waiting for the baby to get fussy, but he seemed content to watch the world go by.
He was a trouper all the way to the island.
Whereas the high seas made her feel queasy, the motion lulled Liam to sleep.
He snoozed on his mother’s shoulder for most of the ride home.
“This wasn’t how I pictured it happening,” she said to Adam, “but I can’t imagine anything more exciting than this day has been.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Best day of our lives.”
“Tied for first with that other day on the ferry.”
He leaned over the baby to kiss her. “I’ll give you that.”