Chapter 3
“This is absolute insanity,” Carolina Cantrell O’Grady said to her husband and son as she sat with her healing leg propped on the ottoman.
The two of them ran around packing for themselves, her and the two boys she and Seamus had taken in after their mother died.
The plan was for Carolina, Jackson, Kyle and Joe’s kids, PJ and Viv, to ride out the storm with Big Mac and Linda McCarthy while the two fools took the ferries out to sea.
“We’ve already had this argument, Mom.” Joe tossed toys into a bag. “It’s the best way to protect the boats.”
“Who will protect my son and husband while they ride out a hurricane at sea?” The thought of it gave her nightmares.
“We won’t be anywhere near the storm, love,” Seamus said as he came into the room. “That’s why we’re going tonight, so we’ll be clear of it by the time it arrives.”
They were like two little boys anticipating a big adventure while playing down the risks for her sake—and Janey’s. Carolina had heard her daughter-in-law screaming at her son on the phone earlier. Suffice to say, Janey didn’t approve of this plan any more than Carolina did.
“We’ll be fine.” Seamus dropped a kiss on Carolina’s forehead and headed for the bedroom before she could respond.
They were packing food and clothes for three days, but they didn’t expect to be gone that long.
“What am I supposed to do while you guys are out in the middle of the ocean?” Carolina asked.
“Take care of yourself and the kids,” Seamus said from the bedroom. “That’s your only job.”
“How am I supposed to function while you two are at sea in a monster storm?”
“Nothing to worry about,” her charming husband said. “I swear.”
Right, Carolina thought, nothing to worry about with my husband and son at sea during a hurricane and four young children to care for with a broken leg.
Thank goodness for friends like Mac and Linda, who’d offered to take them in when they heard about Joe and Seamus’s plan to take the two largest ferries to sea.
Since it seemed there was no way to talk them out of the harebrained scheme, Carolina decided to make herself useful—or as useful as she could be on the dreaded crutches that had made her hands and armpits as sore as her healing leg.
She got up slowly and carefully and moved to the bedroom to pack for a few days at the White House, as the locals called the McCarthys’ home.
“What’re you doing, love?” Seamus asked when he returned to the bedroom they shared. “I can do that for you.”
“I’ve got it.” Sure, it would take about ten trips from the dresser to the bed, but she was determined to pitch in.
Seamus stopped her with his hands on her shoulders and an imploring look on his handsome face. “Caro, please. Let me do it so you aren’t exhausted later.”
To her great dismay, she broke down.
“Aw, love.” He gathered her into his warm embrace. “Don’t do that.”
“Can’t help it. I hate this plan.”
“I know, but we’ll be fine. Do you honestly think I’d ever do something that would take me away from you and our boys or that would endanger your precious Joe?”
“No, but—”
He kissed her before she could finish the thought.
“I would never, ever, ever do anything to mess with the sweetest thing in my life. You and our family are all that matter to me, and protecting the business your parents founded is also very important. Those two boats are our bread and butter. We’re taking them far away from the storm.
We’ll be nowhere near it. I swear on my life, the life that began the day I met you, that your son and I will be safe. ”
Carolina leaned into him, letting her crutches fall to the floor as she breathed in the familiar scent of him.
She’d spent decades alone after Joe’s father died and had never imagined she’d ever love a man again, let alone a smooth-talking Irishman sixteen years her junior. “This is all your fault.”
“How so?” he asked with a tinge of amusement in his voice.
“You made me fall madly in love with you, so the thought of you being in any kind of danger is simply unbearable to me.”
“Aw, I knew it. You do love me.”
She swatted him on the ass. “Don’t get sassy with me.”
“You like me sassy.”
“I like you here and whole and driving me crazy.”
“I’ll be back before you miss me.”
“No, you won’t. Will you be able to call me?”
“I’m not sure we’ll have cell service out there, but I packed the handheld ship-to-shore radio for you to take to Linda’s. We’ll monitor Channel 72, so you can reach us that way.”
“What do I do if you don’t answer?”
“We’ll answer.”
“But if you don’t?”
“If it’s been twenty-four hours, notify the Coast Guard.”
“Seamus…”
“You’re thinking worst-case scenario, and there won’t be any need for that. Joe and I are both seasoned professionals, and this is no big deal.”
It was a very big deal to her, but she’d said enough. He and Joe wouldn’t change their minds about this, so she would have no choice but to go along with the plan and hope for the best. Jackson and Kyle would help with PJ and Viv, and so would Big Mac and Linda.
In the next room, Carolina could hear Joe on the phone with Janey’s brother Mac, telling him there was nothing to worry about, and no, they couldn’t be talked out of the plan. Janey had probably asked her brother to try to talk some sense into his best friend.
Carolina recognized defeat when it was staring her in the face. “Let’s get going,” she said, resigned now to days of worry.
“Will you be all right?” Seamus asked.
“Not until you and Joe are back, so you’d better keep your word that everything will be fine.”
He hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. “My only goal will be getting home to you and the boys as fast as possible.”
Since she couldn’t ask for anything more than that, she clung to him and his assurances, knowing she’d be a nervous wreck until they had safely returned.
Jared James held one end of a sheet of plywood while his brother Quinn operated a nail gun that would secure it over the windows of the Chesterfield, the wedding venue Jared and his wife, Lizzie, owned. “I’m glad I listened to Mac when he told me to have supplies ready for a hurricane,” Jared said.
“I’m sure a lot of people are glad they listened to him. He’ll be even more smug than usual after this.” As Quinn was married to Mac’s older sister, Mallory, he was allowed to say stuff like that about his brother-in-law.
Jared laughed. “Probably so, but he’s allowed to be smug as far as I’m concerned. He saved our asses with that advice and by telling us to install whole-home generators.”
“Indeed.”
With the Chesterfield thoroughly buttoned down, the brothers got into Quinn’s pickup truck to head over to the senior care facility.
“I’m also thankful for the generators we invested in at the senior home,” Quinn said. “I wouldn’t want to deal with a storm like this without auxiliary power for the people on oxygen and other monitors.”
“No kidding,” Jared said. “That was money well spent.”
“Since you’ve got a generator at home, too,” Quinn said, “Mallory and I are coming to your place if the power is out after the storm.”
“My home is your home. You know that.”
“Thank you. Any word from Coop lately?” Quinn asked of their younger brother, who’d recently moved to Los Angeles with his new love, Gigi Gibson, a reality TV star.
“Just that he and Gigi are living it up in LA, and they’re looking forward to coming back next summer to get his business launched.”
“A party boat for bachelor and bachelorette parties,” Quinn said with a chuckle. “Because nothing can go wrong there.”
“He’s got a great business plan and has covered all the bases with insurance. They’re limiting guests to two drinks each. I think it’ll be a big success.”
“If you think that, I’m sure it will be.”
For so long, his older brother had been somewhat of an enigma to Jared.
Quinn left home when Jared was in seventh grade and had never come back.
After college and med school, he’d done a tour as a trauma surgeon in the Army.
He’d lost a leg in Afghanistan, which he’d kept private from the family for a long time.
He was so mobile that Jared had to remind himself at times that his brother relied on a prosthetic leg.
Now Quinn lived a couple of miles from Jared on Gansett Island, was married to Mallory and was the medical director for the senior facility Jared and Lizzie had founded on the island.
Jared loved having Quinn close enough to see regularly and was delighted with the friendship that had grown between them over the last few years.
“How’s the baby?” Quinn asked.
Jared couldn’t help but smile when he thought of his baby daughter.
“She’s amazing. It seems like she does something new every day.
” Violet had come into their lives when Lizzie helped her mother, Jessie, after the child’s birth.
Later, Jessie had abandoned the baby with Lizzie and Jared, who were now adopting her.
“What do you hear from the birth mother?”
“Nothing.”
“I guess that’s for the best.”
“It is for now. Lizzie promised to keep her updated with photos.”
“When will it be final?”
“Not for a few more months.”
As Quinn tightened his grip on the steering wheel, a muscle in his cheek pulsed with tension.
“What?” Jared asked.
“I’ll be glad when that’s legally settled for you guys once and for all.”
“Me, too, but we’re not worried about something going wrong. Jessie has no interest in being a mother.”
“Still… The people who love you and Lizzie will sleep better at night when it’s final.”
“Thanks for caring, Quinn. I appreciate it.”
“I do care. I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I didn’t. I was so caught up in my own shit for so long… And, well, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t owe me any apologies. It’s all good.”
“It is now, but for a lot of years, I didn’t have much to do with you or the rest of the family, and I regret that. I mean, Coop went and became a man on me. What’s up with that?”
Jared laughed. “That was a tough one for me, too. Seemed to happen suddenly.”
“For real. What do you hear from Kendall?” Quinn asked of their sister.
“She’s filing for divorce and moving out with the kids.”
Quinn’s deep sigh said it all. “I’m so sorry to hear it’s come to that.”
“It’s been coming to that for a while,” Jared said. “Phil refuses to get help. What’s she supposed to do?” Their brother-in-law’s issues with drugs and alcohol were no secret to any of them, but only recently had Kendall started talking about leaving.
“Nothing she can do, I guess. Thank God for the Jared James trust fund that makes it so we can all do whatever we want. I’m sure you’re making it possible for her to leave a difficult situation.”
“Anything for you guys. You know that.”
“Not everyone would’ve been as generous as you were, Jared.”
“I couldn’t imagine having what I do and not sharing it with the people I love the most. Kendall was thinking about coming out here for a bit, until the storm started threatening. She might come after it passes.”
“I hope she does. It’s been too long since we’ve seen her and the kids.”
Jared’s phone rang, and he took the call from Lizzie. “Hey, hon. What’s up?”
“Violet and I were wondering how it’s going.”
“We’ve got the Chesterfield boarded up. On to the senior center now. I’ll be back soon to board up the house.”
“We’ll be here.”
“You’d better be.” He loved her laughter. “See you shortly.” After he ended the call, he glanced at his brother. “Lizzie is so happy since we settled things with Jessie. She was born to be a mother.”
“Yes, she was.”
They arrived at the Marion Martinez Senior Care Facility a few minutes later and were surprised to find Mallory, the director of nursing, engaged in a verbal altercation with an older man.
Quinn brought the truck to a stop at the curb and jumped out. “What’s going on?”
Jared followed him in case he needed backup.
“Mr. McDade is insisting on taking his wife to their home for the storm,” Mallory said, sounding exasperated. “I recommended against that since we’ll have medical staff on hand during the storm should the need arise.”
“She’s my wife, and I can take her out of here any damned time I want!”
“Mr. McDade, it’s our job to care for your wife,” Quinn said. “In our professional opinions, it would be a mistake to remove her from the center with the storm coming. If you have an emergency during the storm, EMS may not be able to get to you.”
The older man’s expression was full of outrage, his eyes flooded with tears. “I can take care of her. Who do you think did it for five years before she came here?”
“And I’m sure you did a wonderful job,” Mallory said gently. “But the fact is, her condition has deteriorated considerably, and it wouldn’t be safe to take her home. Not anymore.”
Mallory’s kind tone seemed to get through to the older man.
“I want her with me,” he said in a softer tone. “She belongs with me.”
“Yes, she does,” Mallory said. “You’re welcome to ride out the storm here with her, if you’d like to, that is.”
His well-lined face brightened when he heard that. “You’d let me do that?”
“Of course we will,” Jared said. “I’m Jared James, the owner. You’re more than welcome to stay here for the storm.”
“I, well… I appreciate that. I, um, didn’t mean to get so hot under the collar. I apologize.”
“No problem,” Mallory said. “Why don’t you go pack what you need for a day or two, and we’ll get you settled with Mrs. McDade.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you again.”
After Mr. McDade walked away with a new spring in his step, Quinn glanced at Mallory. “Are you okay, hon?”
“All good. I feel sorry for him. He was probably afraid to be alone during the storm.”
“No doubt.”
“You two are quite a team around here,” Jared said, impressed by their handling of the situation.
“Thanks,” Quinn said. “We love what we do. That helps.”
“And we love who we do it with,” Mallory said with a saucy grin for her husband. “That helps, too.”
Jared covered his ears.
Laughing, Quinn said, “Not in front of the boss, babe.”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “I forget he’s the boss.”
“I’ve clearly lost control around here,” Jared said, smiling.
“Did you ever have it?” Quinn asked.
“Good point. Let’s get this place ready for the storm so I can get home to my girls.”
“Right this way,” Quinn said.