Book 6 Season for Love #4
Pilot Slim Jackson arrives at the party to tell Owen he just flew his mother to the island, and she’s in rough shape.
Owen knows right away how she ended up that way and wants to run away and hide the way he did as a kid when his father would beat up his mother or him.
Evan, the only one who knows about Owen’s family history, offers to drive him and Laura home to the hotel, where his mother is waiting for him.
On the way, Owen tells Laura there’re things he should tell her, things she should know…
Laura insists they focus on his mother. Owen doesn’t want his two closest friends in the middle of this latest nightmare, but they won’t leave him alone with it.
Owen finds his mother, Sarah Lawry, on the steps to the hotel.
The hide-a-key is missing, so she couldn’t get inside.
He sends Evan to find Dr. David Lawrence.
When Owen and Laura get Sarah inside, he introduces the two women.
Sarah has traveled from Virginia to Gansett Island, fueled by the determination to get to her son.
If David suspects a crime has been committed, he’s required to report it.
Sarah has severely bruised ribs from her husband punching and kicking her.
David calls Blaine, who will work with the authorities in Virginia to arrest her husband.
Owen says she may change her mind about reporting the incident in the morning. That’s the pattern.
Owen wants to explain his family situation to Laura. He’s nothing like his father.
“Owen! My God, do you honestly think you have to tell me that?”
“I wanted you to know because of the baby.”
“Owen, please….”
The brush of her lips against his neck registers at the same moment he feels new dampness on his face. He hates that he made her cry.
“You could never hurt me or the baby,” she says softly. “Never.”
“I’m sorry to drag you into this. I didn’t want you to know.”
She turns his face, forcing him to meet her gaze. “I love you. I love everything about you. Everything.” Her sweet, gentle kiss is nearly his undoing. “Close your eyes. It’s okay. I’m here, and I love you. Always.”
Owen releases a deep breath and closes his eyes. Wrapped in her love, he’s able to quiet his mind and sleep.
Evan is undone by what Owen is going through, and Grace offers comfort. Owen only recently told him about his childhood with an abusive father, who was also a decorated Air Force general.
In the middle of the night, Owen fills in some of the details for Laura.
He was five the first time his father hit him across the face, and he had to stay home from school for a week because his face was bruised.
That’s his first memory. His mother, who had three children by then, couldn’t defend him out of fear of what her husband would do to her.
It took Owen a long time to realize that pretending it wasn’t happening was how she coped.
He tells her of the nightmare that unfolded throughout his childhood and how he put himself between his father and younger siblings and didn’t go to college so he could stay close to them.
The only respite they got from the hell of their upbringing was when their father was deployed and during summers with their grandparents on Gansett Island.
“Now you’ve got the whole ugly story. I can only imagine what you must be thinking.”
Laura rests her chin on his chest and meets his gaze. “I’m thinking that you are, without a doubt, the most amazingly heroic man I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.”
“Oh, please, Laura,” he says with a groan. “Don’t pin me with that. I missed so many opportunities to put a stop to it.”
With a hand on his face, she forces him to look at her.
“If I want to think you’re heroic, I’m allowed to.
You were very brave, and you stood up for your younger siblings, protecting them from the worst of it.
You sacrificed your own chance to escape to be there for them.
If that’s not heroic, I don’t know what is.
” She kisses the protest off his lips. “I hate to think about what you went through for so long. I wish I could’ve been there for you. ”
“I wouldn’t have wanted you anywhere near it.”
“If your mom hadn’t come here, would you have ever told me?”
“I suppose I would’ve had to explain at some point why I have nothing to do with my parents other than an occasional call to my mother to make sure she’s still alive.”
“Where are your brothers and sisters now?”
“Julia and Katie still live in Texas. Julia is an office manager, and Katie is a nurse. I’m really proud of both of them. They lived through the worst of it with me and came out on the other side happy and productive.” He has another sister, Cindy, and three brothers, John, Josh and Jeff.
“Are they married?”
He shakes his head. “None of us is. I’ll let you shrink the deeper meaning of that.”
After they talk more about his family and upbringing, he tells Laura about Justin’s conditions for the divorce. She’ll live in sin with Owen for the rest of her life if that’s what it takes and will fight Justin for custody of a baby he doesn’t even want.
The next day, Sarah is checked at the clinic.
Her ribs are badly bruised but not broken.
Blaine comes to the hotel to take her statement.
After Sarah decides to press charges against her husband, Owen is overwhelmed and takes off on his own.
Laura aches for him but bonds with Sarah as she tends her.
Sarah isn’t going back this time, no matter what.
Owen later tells Laura the fight was about undercooked chicken this time.
He warns her that things are apt to get ugly with his father, and he’d understand if it was too much for her.
She’s going to pretend he didn’t say that.
He tries to push her away, but she’s not going anywhere. They’re in this together—forever.
In the Epilogue, a few months have passed, and Laura gives birth to a son.
Her brother Shane joined them on the island after Christmas and has been a big help in renovating the hotel.
Sarah has healed, and her husband has been ordered to have no contact with her while the case makes its way through the courts.
She’s become Laura’s right hand at the hotel.
Laura calls Justin to tell him the baby has arrived, and they name the child Holden Francis Newsome.
Justin informs her that Frank has the signed divorce papers to give her.
They have a long talk, clear the air and agree to work together to parent their son, with Laura having primary custody.
The divorce will be final in six months, so Owen and Laura plan an August wedding on the new deck of the Sand & Surf.
Sydney and Luke are married in A Gansett Island Wedding short story. They’re thrilled to have forever to spend together.