Chapter 10
After the AA meeting, Mallory, Quinn and Mason invited Jace to join them for coffee at the diner. Jace had realized over weeks of meetings that Mallory, Quinn and Mason were close friends, so he was honored to now be part of their group.
The others said hello to Hope Martinez and Dan Torrington and introduced them to Jace as they were leaving.
“How did that room-for-rent thing work out?” Mallory asked when they were seated.
“Very well. I’m now Cindy Lawry’s roommate.”
“Oh, that’s great. Cindy’s the best.”
“Yes, she is. I’d already known her for a while. She comes into the Beachcomber for dinner a few times a week.”
“That’s a nice coincidence,” Mallory said, smiling as she rested her chin on her upturned hand.
“Watch out,” Quinn said. “I can tell when my wife has matchmaking on her mind.”
“You hush,” Mallory said. “Don’t listen to him, Jace. I’m just saying Cindy is a lovely person.”
Jace grinned, amused by her shamelessness. “I’m already aware of that, but thank you for the confirmation.” To Quinn, he said, “Is this why she invited me for coffee?”
“Possibly, although we’ve been saying for a while now that we needed to get you to come with us, so the timing may or may not be coincidental.”
“Good to know.” Jace’s phone chimed with a text from Seamus. He picked up the phone to read it.
Mate, we’re finally going through the things that came from Lisa’s place, and there are boxes with your name. Thought you might want them.
Yes, I do, Jace replied, surprised to hear she’d kept anything of his—and to have Seamus call him “mate.” When is a good time to come by?
Assume you’d like to see the boys, so maybe around 3:30?
He had to work at five, so he wouldn’t have much time with them, but he’d take what he could get. That works. Thank you.
See you then.
Jace put down the phone. “Sorry about that.”
“Everything okay?” Mallory asked.
“That was Seamus. He found some boxes of mine in Lisa’s stuff and asked if I wanted them.”
“Oh, that’s good, I guess. Right?”
“It’s a chance to see the boys, so yeah, it’s good.”
“Is it awful for you to have them living with people you don’t really know?”
“Mallory,” Quinn said with a note of warning in his voice.
“It’s fine,” Jace said. “And no, it’s not awful. Seamus and Carolina are great people, and by all accounts, they’ve been wonderful to my sons.”
“But?” Mallory asked.
Jace shrugged. “No buts. They were there for them when I couldn’t be, and I’ll always appreciate that.”
“What about you, though?”
“What about me? My mistakes cost me the chance to raise my kids. I don’t blame Lisa for making the choices she did when faced with a terminal illness. It wasn’t like she was going to call me in prison and ask if I’d become an upstanding citizen in the years since she’d seen me last.”
“I just want you to know that there’re people who feel for you in this situation,” Mallory said, “and I’m one of them.”
“I appreciate that, but I’m not looking to upset any apple carts around here. The boys are settled and doing as well as can be expected after losing their mom. I want what’s best for them, and that’s Seamus and Carolina.”
“This may not be the right thing to say, but I’m going to say it anyway.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Quinn asked with a grin for Mallory.
She rolled her eyes at Quinn. “You’re still a young guy, Jace. There’s time for you to have more kids while you continue to play whatever role you can in the lives of your sons.”
“You’re right, but that’s not something I’m thinking about now. I’m just trying to rebuild my life and see my kids occasionally. Those are my only priorities.”
“And stay sober,” Mason added.
“That, too. In fact, that’s first on the list, because nothing else is possible without that.”
“That’s right,” Mason said. “I’m glad to hear you say that. I find myself rooting for you, too. Maybe not as cheerleaderly as Mallory, but I’m on Team Jace.”
“Cheerleaderly?” Mallory asked him, brow raised, while Quinn cracked up.
Mason waved pretend pom-poms. “Rah, rah, rah.”
Jace laughed at their banter. “I appreciate the support, you guys. It means a lot. It’s been a long time since I had friends.”
Mallory reached across the table to put her hand on top of Jace’s. “You have friends, and we’re pulling for you.”
“Thank you.”
After he parted with the others on the sidewalk outside the diner, Jace walked home to change before heading to the gym.
Working out had saved his sanity in prison, and it was a routine he’d stuck to since his release.
He ran into the same guys there every day, and they spotted each other through a series of lifting sequences that kept up the muscles he’d built in prison.
Billy, the owner of the gym, as well as Duke from the tattoo studio and Seamus’s cousin, Shannon, who worked on the ferries, were some of the regulars. Over the last few weeks, they’d become friends, too.
Life on Gansett was full of a rich array of people he interacted with every day, most of whom had no idea he was an ex-con. They didn’t know he’d screwed up his life so badly that other people were raising his sons, and he hoped to keep it that way.
It’d been a relief to go somewhere that no one knew about his past, which was why it had taken him weeks to share his story at the AA meeting.
He didn’t want his new friends to view him differently.
He was thankful that after sharing his story, he felt even closer to the meeting regulars.
They’d had their own struggles and didn’t judge others the way those who hadn’t been through what they had often did.
People heard ex-con, prison, felon, drug addict and automatically assumed he was a bad person.
He wasn’t. He’d made mistakes he deeply regretted, but those mistakes didn’t make him a bad person.
As he was leaving the gym, his phone rang with a call from a 401 number he didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“Is this Jace?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Mac McCarthy. I run a construction company on the island. My sister Mallory told me you’ve done some plumbing?”
“Yes, but I’m not licensed or anything.”
“On an island, we can’t afford to be picky. Would you be interested in some work?”
“Sure, as long as I’m free by four to work at the Beachcomber at night.”
“We can accommodate that. Can you meet me at the old alpaca farm on North Point Road on Tuesday around noon? If you head out on the west side, you’ll eventually see the sign for the farm.”
“That works. I’ll call you if I can’t find it.”
“Sounds good. See you then and thank you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the call.”
“You got it.”
The line went dead, and Jace stood in the gym parking lot as the September sun beat down on him, marveling at the way things worked around here.
He certainly knew the McCarthy name and had seen the signs for their marina and hotel in North Harbor, but he hadn’t expected a call from Mac McCarthy about work.
He owed Mallory a big thank-you tomorrow morning for referring him to her brother.
Walking the short distance to his new home, Jace felt more settled than he ever had before.
It’d been years since his life was as well ordered and uncomplicated as it was in this beautiful place.
A man could put down roots here, surrounded by new friends who didn’t know all his dirty secrets.
And even if they did know, they didn’t care.
Six months after being released from prison, he was still figuring out who he was in this new life he was creating for himself.
His only goal had been to locate Lisa and the boys, which had taken some time.
And then he’d learned that Lisa had died, and his boys were being raised by her friends.
That’s when he’d contacted an attorney, who’d helped him navigate the thorny path to contacting the boys’ guardians.
He understood he’d shocked Seamus and Carolina when he’d reached out via the attorney and that they would’ve been perfectly within their rights to tell him to go to hell.
But that wasn’t what they’d done, and he’d be forever thankful for the arrangement that allowed him to see his sons—not as their father, but as a friend of Seamus’s—until they were older and further removed from the trauma of losing their mother.
This wasn’t the time to introduce their long-lost father or to explain where he’d been all this time or why he hadn’t come when their mother was sick.
He couldn’t bear to think of when they would learn the truth about him and his past or how terribly he’d let them down when they were babies.
Would they forgive him? He wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t.
Those thoughts were still on his mind later that afternoon when he jumped on the bike he’d borrowed from a colleague at the Beachcomber and rode to Seamus and Carolina’s house.
Already, there was a September chill in the air that had been warm only a week ago.
He remembered his mother saying it was like someone flipped a switch on Labor Day, and summer in Rhode Island became autumn overnight.
That was especially true on Gansett with the ocean breeze cooling things considerably.
Island roads that had been clogged with traffic and mopeds during the holiday weekend were now clear and far less treacherous for a bicyclist. When he turned the bike into the driveway that led to Seamus and Carolina’s place, he heard the delighted voices of two boys released from the confines of school and the barking of their beloved Burpy, who was always with them.
Seamus, who’d driven the boys home in his Gansett Island Ferry Company truck, waved to Jace when he saw him there, gesturing for him to come in. Jace would never have the words to tell the Irishman raising his sons how thankful he was for the grace he’d shown him.