Book 4 Falling for Love
The wrong woman rocked his world. Is fate rewriting his future?
Since he won the Academy Award for best original screenplay a few years ago, Grant McCarthy’s personal and professional lives have fallen apart.
Abby, the woman he was supposed to marry, is engaged to someone else, and Grant is back at home on Gansett Island helping to run the family marina while his father recovers from a serious injury.
While all of Grant’s focus should be on winning back the love of his life, pesky Stephanie, who runs the marina restaurant, is working her way under his skin and into his bed.
As Tropical Storm Hailey cuts off Gansett Island from the mainland, Grant suspects Stephanie is hiding something big from her past. When he finds out what it is, what will be more important to him?
Winning Abby back or helping Stephanie to right a terrible wrong?
Main Characters:
*Grant McCarthy, screenwriter in Los Angeles.
*Stephanie Logan, restaurant manager, McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina.
*Indicates recurring throughout the series
Supporting Characters:
*Ned Saunders, dating Francine Chester in READY FOR LOVE.
*Captain Seamus O’Grady, general manager, Gansett Island Ferry Company.
*Joe Cantrell, married to Janey McCarthy Cantrell in READY FOR LOVE.
*Janey McCarthy Cantrell, married to Joe Cantrell in READY FOR LOVE.
*Mac McCarthy, Jr., married to Maddie Chester in FOOL FOR LOVE, father of Thomas Chester McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Maddie McCarthy, mother of Thomas, married to Mac McCarthy in FOOL FOR LOVE.
*Laura McCarthy, daughter of Judge Frank McCarthy and the late JoAnn McCarthy, sister of Shane McCarthy, first cousin of Mac, Grant, Adam, Evan and Janey McCarthy, came to Gansett for Janey’s wedding in READY FOR LOVE.
*Owen Lawry, musician.
*Francine Chester, grandmother of Ashleigh and Thomas, wife of Bobby Chester, dating Ned Saunders in READY FOR LOVE.
*Luke Harris, dating Sydney Donovan in READY FOR LOVE.
*Sydney Donovan, interior designer, dating Luke Harris in READY FOR LOVE.
*Linda McCarthy, grandmother of Thomas McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Big Mac McCarthy, grandfather of Thomas Chester McCarthy in MAID FOR LOVE.
*Adam McCarthy, owns a computer company in New York City.
*Evan McCarthy, musician in Nashville.
*Hailey McCarthy, infant daughter of Mac and Maddie, born during Tropical Storm Hailey in FALLING FOR LOVE.
*Judge Frank McCarthy, brother of Big Mac, father of Laura and Shane, Superior Court Judge in Providence.
*Shane McCarthy, brother of Laura, son of Frank and the late JoAnn McCarthy.
*Justin, Laura’s ex-husband.
*Dan Torrington, celebrity defense lawyer, close friend of Grant McCarthy.
Jim, Grant’s agent.
Tony Zuckerman, a big-time producer, wants Grant to write a movie.
Places
Sand & Surf Hotel, owned by Russ and Adele Kinkaid, grandparents to Owen Lawry.
Gansett Island Soundtrack:
“You’ve Got a Friend”
FALLING FOR LOVE Headlines:
Tropical St orm Hailey hits Gansett Island!
Grant slept with Stephanie!
Newlyweds Joe and Janey can’t get off the island for their honeymoon!
Mac is worried about Maddie’s high-risk pregnancy when the power goes out!
Grant cuts his hand and fights with Stephanie all the way to the clinic for stitches!
Laura and Owen meet and he gives her a tour of the Sand & Surf Hotel!
Cal’s mother has a stroke in Texas—there’s no doctor on the island while he’s gone!
Francine breaks up with Ned over a big secret she’s keeping from him!
Stephanie’s stepfather Charlie is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit!
Laura’s new marriage is over because her husband never stopped dating!
Maddie is in labor early (see above—no doctor)!
Hailey McCarthy arrives during Tropical Storm Hailey!
Dr. David Lawrence’s redemption arc begins when he saves Hailey!
Laura is worried about her brother Shane, whose wife is in rehab!
Francine needs to speak to Bobby Chester because she wants a divorce!
Owen’s grandparents hire Laura to manage the Sand & Surf Hotel!
Grant calls in his uncle Frank, a judge, and his friend, defense attorney Dan Torrington, to help Stephanie and Charlie!
Owen finds Laura getting sick and finds out she’s pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby!
Bobby Chester returns to Gansett and wants to see his daughters before he’ll give Francine a divorce!
Grant is returning to LA to write a new screenplay!
Stephanie drops him at the airport!
Grant realizes his mistake and goes after Stephanie—the only story he wants to write is theirs—and hers and Charlie’s!
Stephanie loves him, too!
Hello Seamus O’Grady, Laura McCarthy, Dan Torrington, Judge Frank McCarthy, Dan and Charlie Grandchamp!
Grant McCarthy awakens on the morning after his sister Janey’s wedding, in bed with the wrong woman!
All he wants is a second chance with his long-time love, Abby Callahan, who’s now engaged to that overgrown cowboy, Dr. Cal Maitland.
So, what in the hell is Grant doing naked in bed with Stephanie, who manages the restaurant at his parents’ marina?
And why can’t he remember what happened the night before?
FALLING FOR LOVE begins with a bang, literally. Too bad Grant can’t remember it.
He’s housesitting and pet-sitting for Janey while she’s on her honeymoon, so he can’t exactly leave his one-night stand sleeping in his sister’s bed while he tries to fix things with his ex-girlfriend.
What a mess of his own making, and so much for trying to make Abby jealous by dancing with Stephanie.
Look at what that had gotten him. He watches Stephanie get out of bed and get dressed, desperately trying to remember how they’d ended up in bed together and what had transpired between them.
After she leaves, he finds a condom wrapper in the bed and can’t deny that more than sleeping took place. Shit!
Stephanie knows he used her to make Abby jealous, and she went along with it because he’s the first guy she’s been attracted to in years.
He rocked her world in bed and probably doesn’t even remember it.
She’s walking back to the marina in the rain when Ned pulls up in his cab and offers her a ride.
Ned says the storm is a “doozy of a Nor’easter.
” He doesn’t think the newlyweds will make it off the island that day.
Ned talks to Stephanie about Grant, how he was the smartest kid Ned had ever met, but he’s confused and has lost his way a bit. He tells her to watch out for herself in the midst of Grant’s mess. How does he know everything?
On the morning after his wedding, Joe gets a call from Seamus O’Grady, whom he hired to run the Gansett Island Ferry Company while Joe is in Ohio with Janey.
Seamus is thinking he should suspend service for the rest of the day due to the weather but doesn’t want to mess up Joe and Janey getting off the island for their trip.
Joe looks outside and reluctantly tells Seamus to make the call.
Janey is disappointed that their trip to Aruba has been delayed, but they’re both glad to spend the day in bed.
The storm is stressing Mac out since Maddie’s pregnancy was determined to be high-risk. Knowing they can’t get off the island if they need to sends him into a panic. Maddie is feeling huge and hideous, and Mac is trying to reassure her when the electricity goes out.
Memories of Grant’s erotic night with Stephanie start to come back in bits and pieces that remind him of some of the best sex he’s ever had.
He immediately feels guilty because he still loves Abby, who gave him an ultimatum after Mac’s wedding last year: If he went back to LA, they were done.
“You can write anywhere in the whole wide world, Grant. Why can’t you write in the one place where I want to be?
” He’d wanted one more shot at fixing his career in LA and had expected her to wait for him.
She hadn’t, and now she was engaged to Cal Maitland, who was all wrong for her.
While Grant gets dressed to work at the marina during the storm, Janey’s pets seem to be judging him for the way he treated Stephanie.
He arrives at the marina to find Stephanie struggling with a generator, and more memories from their night together come back to him as they snap at each other.
He doesn’t even like her. Why does she turn him on?
While he’s busy thinking about Stephanie and what to do about her, his hand gets slammed in the door of the shed.
Mac and Stephanie determine Grant needs stitches, and Stephanie says she’ll take him to the clinic.
Mac invites them to a tropical storm party at his house, where Joe and Janey will open their wedding gifts.
Grant and Stephanie do nothing but fight on the way to the clinic.
Stephanie presses harder on the accelerator.
“Easy does it. I think you’re going thirty now.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
She shakes her head, seeming regretful. “I told you it was a bad idea to sleep together.”
“When did you tell me that?” Of course, he has no recollection of that but has had plenty of other vivid memories torturing him all morning.
“Before we slept together. We got along just fine before.”
“We did not. We’ve never gotten along.”
“We got along pretty well in your sister’s bed last night, but you probably don’t remember that.”
“I remember it,” he snaps.
“You don’t need to bite my head off just because you’re pissed with yourself.”
Stepping over a downed tree, they end up falling into each other’s arms.
Cousin Laura McCarthy is in town for Janey’s wedding and is staring up at the Sand & Surf Hotel, wishing she had thirteen million dollars to buy it, when Owen Lawry finds her there. He knows the owners and offers to give her a tour.