Book 7 Longing for Love #3
Kara Ballard’s launch service is now operational in the Salt Pond, but she’s annoyed that Dan Torrington keeps showing up at the marina.
Why won’t he take the hint and go away? He pays her to take him on a boat ride and nearly falls overboard when his silly loafers slide across the deck.
She knows his type—cocky and entitled—and doesn’t want to be interested in him, but she can’t help being intrigued.
She’s never been to LA, where he lives, and he says she should visit sometime.
Seamus comes by the apartment to speak to Grace about how he’s fallen in love with a woman who doesn’t want to be with him.
She can’t believe that any woman wouldn’t want him.
He tells her she’s sixteen years older and he works for her son.
Joe’s mother? Grace is shocked. He hasn’t seen Carolina since Luke and Sydney’s wedding, and it’s killing him.
Grace puts a comforting arm around Seamus, and that’s what Evan walks into when he comes home.
She invites Seamus to stay for dinner, but he has to go.
Evan wants to know what was going on, but Grace is annoyed by his attitude.
He wants to understand why she didn’t tell her parents about him.
She has a very difficult relationship with them, which is why she wanted to keep her relationship with Evan private. They ruin everything for her.
Seamus’s heartache over Carolina is so intense that he’s thinking about resigning from his job and leaving Gansett.
He returns to the ferry landing to find Carolina waiting for Joe and Janey’s boat to arrive.
He tells her he’s missed her just as Joe brings the boat into port, and his mother can’t take her eyes off her beloved Joe.
She’s chosen her son over a relationship with Seamus.
At least he has his answer, and he knows what he has to do.
Blaine attends a cookout at Mac’s, hoping to run into Tiffany.
He’s called to a domestic disturbance at Daisy Babson’s house and breaks in just in time to keep her drug-addict boyfriend, Truck, from killing her.
She’s transported to the clinic, where David and Victoria tend to her, and Maddie comes to be with her.
David is relieved that Janey plans to have her first child in Ohio, so he won’t be involved in delivering his ex-fiancée’s baby.
Daisy tells David that Truck tried to rape her, and she only wants him to treat her. David and Victoria perform a rape kit.
The next morning, Maddie, exhausted after being up all night with Daisy, runs into Tiffany and takes her to breakfast at Rebecca’s diner.
Tiffany has received her final divorce papers, and Maddie is planning to see their father to clear the way for their mom and Ned to get married.
Tiffany blurts out that she slept with Blaine. Maddie is thrilled and wants details.
Blaine is waiting for Tiffany when she gets to the shop.
He’s sorry their plans for the night before were canceled.
He wants to see her later. She has Ashleigh, so he says they’ll do it another time.
Tiffany wonders if he doesn’t want to be around her daughter.
After he leaves, Verna Upton returns to say that the advice Tiffany gave her worked to spice up her marriage.
She asks Verna to encourage her husband to take the matter about the store off the town council’s docket. Verna will take care of it.
Seamus tells Joe he’s resigning. Joe is crushed.
Seamus has been such a huge asset since he joined the company two years ago.
A personal matter has made it impossible for Seamus to stay on the island, and he’s clearly devastated, but doesn’t want to talk about it.
Joe has counted on Seamus to run the business while he is in Ohio with Janey. What will he do without him?
Dan is waiting for Kara when she returns to the dock.
He’s brought lunch and a Diet Mountain Dew for her.
She tells him she’s not interested in him.
No kidding, he says, laughing. He asks her to go to Stephanie’s restaurant opening with him, and she declines.
She feels like he’s playing some sort of game with her, and she doesn’t know the rules.
She tells him her ex dumped her for her sister, and now they’re married and expecting a baby.
He caught his fiancée in bed with his best man two days before the wedding.
After sharing confidences with him, she agrees to go to Stephanie’s party with him.
Linda McCarthy visits Tiffany’s store and buys a robe and a vibrator.
Tiffany is very good at what she does, and Linda predicts she’ll be a smashing success.
Linda will tell her friends. Tiffany appreciates the support of her sister’s mother-in-law.
Her assistant Patty arrives, having given her appearance significant effort.
Still no boyfriend, Patty reports. Kara comes into the shop looking for something to wear to Stephanie’s party.
She confesses she’s going to the party with Dan Torrington, and Tiffany says she so admires his career.
Kara doesn’t know what she means. Tiffany shows her search results featuring Dan’s illustrious career freeing unjustly incarcerated people.
Kara wonders why he never told her that when he was trying so hard to impress her.
Blaine hears from Billy, the gym owner, that Truck has hired Jim Sturgil to represent him.
Of course, Jim would take the case of a man who attacked his girlfriend.
While on routine patrol, Blaine notices a sign for an estate sale at the former home of Mrs. Ridgeway.
He buys new furniture for Tiffany, even as he worries he’s taken on another project.
But she’s different. She’s not looking to him to solve all her problems, which makes him want to help her.
While Maddie and Thomas are at Tiffany’s, Blaine’s delivery arrives.
Tiffany is stunned by Blaine’s gift and his sweet note that says he finds himself thinking about her all the time.
After Ashleigh is in bed, Blaine shows up with a pizza that he calls a peace offering.
He figures she might be mad that he changed the rules of their sex-only relationship.
The furniture is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her.
It made him happy to do it. Tiffany realizes this is already a relationship, whether she’s ready for it or not.
Blaine asks to see Ashleigh sleeping. She’s as pretty as her mother.
He’d like to get to know her, if that’s okay with Tiffany.
Assured that Ashleigh is asleep for the night, they take some time for themselves.
Blaine brings a blindfold and cuffs to her bedroom and makes her crazy with his creativity.
Later, he tells her that everything is different with her because she’s not out to get anything and everything she can from him the way women in the past have been.
David stops to check on Daisy on his way home from the clinic.
She’s embarrassed that she “let” the man she loves hurt her this way.
David reminds her that none of it was her fault.
He checks her ribs, and she offers him some of the food her friends have brought.
She asks why, even when he smiles, his eyes are sad.
He tells her he’s made some big mistakes and has regrets about them.
She thinks it matters that he tries to be a good person, despite his mistakes.
Carolina is making Joe’s favorite dinner for him and Janey.
She’s thrilled they’re staying with her for a few more days before moving back to Janey’s house.
Grant and Stephanie have bought a house and will be vacating Janey’s house.
They talk about Carolina coming to Ohio when the baby is born.
Joe doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about his favorite meal as usual.
He tells them Seamus leaving because of a personal matter that’s made it impossible for him to stay on the island.
Carolina has to know if it’s because of her.
The minute Joe and Janey are in bed, she’ll go find out.
Sometimes, Blaine hates being the police chief, especially when he’s wrapped up with Tiffany and has to deal with his phone.
He never ignores a call. It’s his mother trying to find out who he’s buying furniture for and hoping he’s not getting himself into another situation with a woman that’ll end badly for him.
She tells him to come by the next day. Blaine wants Tiffany he to meet his mother.
He doesn’t want to talk about the women who did him wrong.
It’s ancient history and doesn’t matter because he’s so over them.
He asks if she’s over Jim, and she says, “Definitely.” She tells him about her father leaving when she was three and how she recently saw him for the first time since then.
They both admit to being happy when they’re together. Then Ashleigh wakes up sick.
Tiffany sees Ashleigh through two rounds of vomiting and a fever. Blaine waits for her to come back to bed and says he should go so Ashleigh doesn’t find him there. It could cause her trouble with Jim. Tiffany doesn’t care about Jim, but Blaine doesn’t want him hassling her.
Carolina waits until she’s sure Joe and Janey are asleep to drive into town to confront Seamus at the Beachcomber, where the company keeps a room for him. She asks him why he quit, and he says, “You know why.”
“You can’t do this! You love that job. Isn’t that what you said?”
“’Tis indeed what I said. I do love it.”
“Then why?”
“Caro….” He runs his fingers through his auburn hair, over and over until it stands on end. “Do I really have to spell it out for ya?”
Her stomach begins to hurt as she takes in his tortured expression. “I guess you do.”
“I’m in love with you. If I can’t have you, I can’t be here. ’Tis that simple.”