Book 7 Longing for Love #4
She shakes her head and holds up her hands, as if to protect herself from the surge of longing his words inspire in her. “You… We… We spent one night together. How in the world did you turn that into love?”
“Damned if I know. Some things just are. There’s no explaining them.”
“Seamus, please. You can’t do this to Joe when the baby is due so soon.”
His amiable expression hardens. “’Tis all about poor Joe, isn’t it? Poor Joe will find someone else. No one is irreplaceable. Especially me.”
Carolina has said the worst possible thing by pleading Joe’s case. After all, Joe is the primary reason she’s kept her distance from Seamus.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I know you can’t run your life based on what’s best for Joe—or me.”
“Are you serious? I’d rearrange my entire existence for the chance to be with you. I’d do it gladly for you, Caro. Not for Joe, but for you.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Let me ask you something.”
“What?” she asks hesitantly.
“If there was no Joe, would you give me a chance?”
“That’s a foolish question. He’s my son, my heart and soul. No matter what I might want for myself, he’ll always come first. Always.”
“And what do you want for yourself, love?”
“That doesn’t matter. The day his father died, I made a promise to him that I’d always be there for him, no matter what.”
“And you have been. You’ve made him the center of your life for thirty-seven years. Now he has a life of his own, a good life that satisfies him greatly. Do you think he’d want any less for you?”
She shakes her head. “He’d never understand this. He’d never understand us.”
If there’s no changing her mind, then she should just go, he says. Before she leaves, she says she’ll talk to Joe and tell him what she wants.
“Don’t do it so I won’t quit the business,” he says.
“This has nothing to do with the business,” she assures him.
Seamus is elated that they might have a shot after all.
The baby kicking wakes Janey. She suggests she take a year off from school to be with the baby and give Joe time to figure out a new plan for after Seamus leaves.
The closer she gets to having the baby, the more concerned she is about balancing motherhood with veterinary school.
After Joe goes back to sleep, she gets up and catches Carolina sneaking back into the house.
Janey is alarmed to realize her mother-in-law has been crying.
Carolina tells her about Seamus. Janey is shocked.
The reason Carolina couldn’t say anything is that Joe won’t approve of his mother being with a man two years older than him.
Janey promises to be there when Caro talks to Joe about it.
Big Mac is worried about Mac. Thomas has the stomach flu, and Maddie is insisting on seeing Bobby, her deadbeat father, so her mother can marry Ned.
Mac doesn’t want her anywhere near the man who hurt her so badly.
Mac and Maddie have been fighting about it.
She won’t let Mac go with her because she doesn’t trust him to behave. Big Mac offers to go with her.
Steve Jacobson is in town for Race Week. His crew is down with the stomach bug. He asks Mac and Big Mac to help him round up a fill-in crew.
Blaine stops by Tiffany’s store with Wyatt to find out how Ashleigh is feeling.
He finds out from Patty that Tiffany is home sick with the same bug Ashleigh has.
Wyatt is wowed by Patty. Blaine calls to check on Tiffany and offers to stop by later to check on her.
He tells her Wyatt asked Patty out. We meet Gansett Island Fire Chief Mason Johns when Blaine checks in with Laura at the Sand & Surf to make sure they’re ready for the hotel’s reopening.
The Sand & Surf is cleared to reopen. Laura isn’t feeling well, and Blaine tells her that a stomach bug is going around.
Blaine asks Sarah Lawry if she might be willing to visit Daisy, to talk to her about breaking the cycle of abuse and offer her support.
While he’s there, he notices something may be brewing between Sarah and Stephanie’s stepfather, Charlie Grandchamp, who works at the hotel.
Sarah has a world-class crush on the gruff ex-con. They’ve been paying attention to each other during the months of working together at the hotel. Charlie asks Sarah if she’d like to go to the restaurant opening with him. Owen overhears Charlie ask her out. Sarah wants to know if her son approves.
“Jeez, you certainly don’t need my permission to go out with a guy.”
“I don’t?”
“Mom, come on…”
“You know he was in prison, right?”
“Everyone knows that.”
“And it doesn’t matter?”
Owen thinks about what he wants to say. When he finally brings his gaze back to meet hers, Sarah aches at the pain she sees in his eyes.
“For so long, you were married to a man the whole world thought was a hero, when he’s the one who should’ve been in prison.
It doesn’t matter to me what baggage Charlie might be dragging around behind him.
We’ve all got our share. All that matters to me is that he treats you with the respect you deserve. ”
“Owen…”
He puts his arms around her.
Sarah rests her face against his chest and holds on tight. “I don’t know how you did it, growing up the way you did, but you’re a man any mother would be proud to claim as her son.”
“You had an awful lot to do with that.”
Owen can’t wait until she’s divorced from his father, and the trial where she has to testify against him is over.
Tiffany wonders if she’s dying from the stomach flu when someone pounds at her door.
She signs for a letter from Jim’s law firm letting her know she’s being evicted from her store because her rent check bounced.
Patty deposited the store’s money into the wrong account.
Tiffany asks her mom to come and get Ashleigh.
Then she calls Dan to ask for help dealing with this latest mess.
Ned goes with Ashleigh to supervise her packing for a sleepover.
Blaine walks in and stops short when he sees Tiffany’s mother there.
“Something you want to tell me?” Francine asks.
Blaine says he’ll be with Tiffany while she’s sick, which makes Francine feel better about leaving her alone. Ashleigh comes downstairs and says hello to Blaine, who asks if it’s okay for him to keep an eye on her mommy while she is sick. Ashleigh is fine with that, and Tiffany exhales.
Blaine is on call, which means he needs to be near his home phone, a rule he set for his island-based officers.
Can he take Tiffany to his place? A girl could fall madly in love with a guy like him.
Dan calls and says he’ll be happy to deal with Jim for her—and no charge because the guy annoys him.
Blaine is furious to hear about Jim’s latest stunt and wonders what the hell is wrong with him.
She is the mother of Jim’s child. Tiffany so appreciates Blaine’s outrage on her behalf.
Kara is thrilled with the sexy red dress she bought at Tiffany’s store and the return of some of the self-confidence she lost when her sister stole her boyfriend in the “big betrayal” two years earlier.
Dan appears at her door, looking gorgeous.
He’s brought flowers for her. She’s rendered him speechless, which doesn’t happen very often. He likes making her laugh.
Three of Stephanie’s servers are down with the stomach flu, so she recruits Grace, Jenny and Sydney to fill in for the grand opening of her restaurant.
Sydney tells them she saw a doctor on the mainland about having her tubal ligation reversed.
She’s a good candidate. She and Luke are talking about it, but she’s worried about bringing another child into the world when she lost her first two in an accident. Would she be in a panic the whole time?
Grant brings Stephanie’s dress and engagement ring to her at the restaurant.
It’s been months since he proposed, but they haven’t planned a wedding.
He’s so proud of what she’s done at the restaurant.
She appreciates that he bought the rights to her story, which gave her the money to chase her dream.
“Thank you,” she says. “My whole life changed the day I met you. I had no idea it was possible to be this happy.”
Her happiness makes him happy. Mac has asked him to sail the next day to fill in for Steve’s ailing crew, which is fine with Stephanie because she needs to get some sleep before the restaurant’s public opening in two days.
Sarah is excited and nervous about spending time with Charlie and having feelings for him after what she’s been through with her soon-to-be ex-husband.
Blaine settles Tiffany in his bed while he does some work and watches the Red Sox game.
When she wakes up, water and crackers sound good to her.
She’s worried about what she must look like.
He says she’s always beautiful, even when she’s sick.
He likes being with her—even when there’s no chance of sex.
Owen wakes Laura to feed Holden after she’s been asleep for hours.
She’s bummed to be missing Stephanie’s grand opening party.
Shane, Charlie and Sarah are showing off some of the hotel’s new rooms to party-goers.
He tells her his mom is on a date with Charlie.
Owen is worried about Sarah getting hurt again.
They suspect it’ll be more than one date with those two.
Dan tries to play it cool with Kara. She compliments his Porsche, which he realizes might’ve been a mistake as it makes him look like the pretentious fool she already thinks he is.
He decides to tell her the truth. It belonged to his brother Dylan, an army ranger who was killed in Afghanistan.
Having the car makes Dan feel closer to his only brother.
Kara is so sorry for his loss. She asks why he didn’t tell her the true story about his work.
He didn’t want to seem arrogant. Far too late for that, she says, making him laugh.