Book 3 Ready for Love
After unspeakable tragedy, will her heart take a new journey… or walk a well-worn path?
For four of the best summers of his young life, Luke Harris was in love with Sydney Donovan, a wealthy seasonal visitor to Gansett Island.
Then Sydney went off to college and never came back.
She married another man and had two children while Luke remained on the island, working at McCarthy’s Gansett Marina and wondering what had gone wrong between him and the only woman he ever loved.
Fifteen months after Sydney suffers the tragic loss of her husband and children, she has returned to Gansett to figure out what’s next, and that may very well be a rekindled love affair with the one man from her past she’s never forgotten. But is she ready for a second chance at love?
Main Characters:
*Luke Harris, partner, McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina.
*Sydney Donovan, widow of Seth, mother of the late Max and Malena, Luke Harris’s ex-girlfriend.
*Indicates recurring throughout the series
Supporting Characters:
*Buddy, Sydney’s golden retriever.
Max, Sydney’s late son.
Seth, Sydney’s late husband.
Malena, Sydney’s late daughter.
*Maddie McCarthy, mother of Thomas, married to Mac McCarthy in FOOL FOR LOVE.
*Tiffany Chester Sturgil, mother of Ashleigh, wife of Jim Sturgil.
*Janey McCarthy, engaged to Joe Cantrell in FOOL FOR LOVE.
*Abby Callahan, owner of Abby’s Attic, engaged to Dr. Cal Maitland, ex-girlfriend of Grant McCarthy.
*Dr. David Lawrence, ex-fiancé of Janey McCarthy.
*Joe Cantrell, engaged to Janey McCarthy in FOOL FOR LOVE.
*Mac McCarthy, Jr., married to Maddie Chester in FOOL FOR LOVE, father of Thomas McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Big Mac McCarthy, grandfather of Thomas McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Owen Lawry, musician, best friend of Evan McCarthy.
*Ned Saunders, island cabdriver, land-owner and giver of wisdom.
*Grant McCarthy, screenwriter in Los Angeles.
*Dr. Cal Maitland, physician, Gansett Island Medical Clinic, engaged to Abby Callahan.
Mary Alice Donovan, Sydney’s mother.
Allan Donovan, Sydney’s father.
Wendell Sturgil, Jim’s father, an old friend of Ned’s.
*Francine Chester, grandmother of Ashleigh Sturgil and Thomas McCarthy, wife of Bobby Chester, only love of Ned Saunders.
*Bobby Chester, deadbeat father of Maddie and Tiffany, husband of Francine.
*Chelsea, bartender at the Beachcomber.
*Stephanie, restaurant manager at McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina.
*Blaine Taylor, chief, Gansett Island Police.
*Slim, pilot.
*Thomas McCarthy, son of Maddie and Mac McCarthy.
*Linda McCarthy, grandmother of Thomas McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Adam McCarthy, owns a computer company in New York City.
*Evan McCarthy, musician in Nashville.
Places
Harris Boat Works, Luke’s restoration business.
Gansett Island Clinic
Gansett Island Soundtrack:
“Summer Breeze”
“Sister Golden Hair”
“God Only Knows”
“Peaceful Easy Feeling”
“Southern Cross”
Headlines from READY FOR LOVE:
Luke and Sydney talk for the first time in 20 years!
Sydney is giving herself a month on Gansett to make some decisions!
Sydney reconnects with Maddie!
Maddie is pregnant!
Luke still loves Sydney but gives her space to decide what she wants!
Sydney is tortured about whether she should be with Luke again!
Luke and Sydney spend time together and kiss!
Sydney’s dog Buddy is sad to meet Thomas, he misses her son Max!
Big Mac wants Luke to be careful not to get hurt again!
Sydney dreads the sentencing of the drunk driver who killed her family!
Luke and Sydney are nearly hit head-on in his truck, she is traumatized!
Buddy needs emergency surgery and only Janey can save him!
Ned and Francine were a couple years ago—who knew?
Hello Owen Lawry!
Grant is back on Gansett Island and can’t believe Abby has moved on!
Big Mac, Mac and Luke are injured in an accident at the marina!
Tiffany meets Blaine!
Maddie’s on bed rest!
Joe and Janey get married!
One year after FOOL FOR LOVE…
“Are you ever going to say anything?” Sydney’s question at the beginning of READY FOR LOVE shocks Luke.
He thought she didn’t know he was lurking next to her parents’ front porch, like he has many times before, since she tragically lost her husband and children to a drunk driver.
Sydney knew he was there but wasn’t ready to talk the summer before.
Now it’s a year later, and she’d like to see the man who was her first love.
She tells him she’d know the sound of his rowboat scratching on the shore anywhere, as it was a sound she used to listen for when they were together.
She invites him to the porch and mentions her parents are away for a few weeks for a family reunion.
Sydney apologizes for the way she left him without a word seventeen years earlier.
She says the summers they spent together were magical, and she was an idiot to treat him the way she did.
“I had this idea, you know, of how my life should be. Who my husband should be. What he would do for a living. Where we would live—I was a snobbish fool.”
“I suppose the boy you’d left behind on the island, who worked at a marina and never made it to college, didn’t quite fit the bill.
” Luke tries to keep the bitterness out of his tone, but after so many years of suspecting what had driven her away, hearing confirmation of what he’d most feared is hardly a balm on the still-open wound.
“I know there’s nothing I can say to change what happened all those years ago, but I want you to know I regretted the way I treated you. I always regretted it.”
She fears the accident was payback for how she treated Luke, but he says no, that’s not possible. He accepts her apology, says they’ve got a clean slate to be friends again, and promises to come back and see her.
She’s never forgotten him. She thought of him, missed him, and regretted their parting. God, what does that mean?
She’s no longer married. Her husband and children had been gone for more than a year. Luke could tell just by looking at her that she was doing much better at accepting the awful hand life had dealt her than she was last summer, when the pain of her loss was still so fresh and new.
“Ugh,” he says out loud as he rows away from her. “Don’t go there, man. It was over and done with years ago. Leave the past where it belongs.”
But even as he tells himself there’s no point, a pesky burst of hope refuses to be ignored.
Sydney has come back to Gansett Island, her favorite place in the world, to make some decisions about her future.
She can no longer bear to work as an elementary school teacher in a school full of kids the same ages as her late children.
She resigned from her teaching job and is now trying to figure out what’s next.
Sydney has given herself a month on Gansett Island to make plans for her future.
She regrets how she treated Luke once upon a time, when she was influenced by her parents, hoping she’d marry someone other than a marina worker on a remote island.
Sydney is delighted to see her old friend Maddie Chester, who’s now Maddie McCarthy after marrying Mac McCarthy.
She’s expecting her first child with Mac.
Later, after dinner, Sydney tells herself she’s not waiting for Luke to come back, but she’s thrilled to hear the distinctive scrape of his boat on the beach.
All day, he’d told himself to stay away.
He had the closure he needed, so why go back for more?
Big Mac McCarthy had noticed his disquiet and asked if he was okay.
Luke is worried about getting attached to her again, only to watch her leave the way she did before.
He realizes he still loves her, even after all these years, and having to stand by while she married someone else.
He tells her he can’t be just friends with her when he wants so much more, but he doesn’t want to be her rebound or transition guy.
Sydney shares that a year ago, the thought of moving on or starting a new relationship would’ve been unimaginable, but she’s in a better place now.
Luke can’t resist the urge to brush a soft kiss over those perfect lips that have dominated his fantasies for such a long, lonely time.
The moment their lips connect, her eyes fly open with awareness.
“Think long and hard, Syd. Be sure it’s what you really want. Be sure you’re ready.”
“Luke—”
He rests a finger over her lips. “If it’s tomorrow or next week or next summer or two summers from now, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be here, and you’ll always be welcome. If you never feel ready, that’s okay, too.”
“That’s crazy,” she says. “You can’t wait forever for me.”
“I already have. I’ve never met anyone I like better than you. After a while, I stopped looking.” He kisses her forehead because he didn’t dare kiss her lips again. If he does, he might not be able to stop kissing her. “You know where to find me.”
Before he can let the possibility of never seeing her again set in, he gets out of there. Without looking back, he goes down the stairs, across the yard and into the reeds. Only when he’s rowing his boat across the pond does he breathe again. What the hell has he done?
Sydney spends a long week thinking about Luke’s offer, tormented by the push-pull of past and present.
She’s invited to a girl’s night out with Maddie and her friends.
Mac, Joe and Luke crash the party, and Luke asks Syd to dance.
They admit to being miserable over the last week, and when they go outside together, Luke kisses her.
He invites her to his house for dinner the next night, even as she confesses to being scared to start things up again with him when she doesn’t know what’s next for her. He’s willing to risk it.