Book 9 Time for Love #2
Daisy is worried that she can no longer trust her gut when it comes to men.
Only she can decide if she can live with whatever David needs to tell her, and there’s no shame in walking away if need be, Sarah says.
She’s absolutely right, but the thought of walking away from David fills Daisy with an aching sadness.
Carolina Cantrell is getting ready for Seamus’s mother to arrive.
Seamus comes home to find her obsessively cleaning and carries Carolina outside to a campsite he set up to stop what he calls the “madness” that’s overtaken her in preparing for his mother’s visit.
Carolina is furious that he disrupted her work.
They’ll soon have a house full of guests, and they need the night to themselves, he says
Janey and Joe invite Big Mac and Linda over for lunch so she can tell them she’s taking a year off from veterinary school in Ohio and staying on Gansett with the baby.
Linda catches Janey up on family gossip.
“Grant is almost done with the screenplay, Evan is recording at the studio for the first time this week and Adam is officially moving into your old house with Abby.” Joe glances at Janey and nods at her to share their news with her parents.
“So, there was a reason I wanted to see you guys today,” Janey says tentatively. “I want to talk to you about school.”
“What about it?” Big Mac asks, his brows furrowing. He’s always touchy on the subject of veterinary school because no one wanted to see her become a vet more than he did.
“I’ve decided to take this next year off from school.”
Her parents are thrilled to hear Janey, Joe and the baby will be staying home this year, even though they hope she’ll go back to Ohio to finish school eventually.
Janey isn’t sure if she’ll go back. Everything has changed since she got pregnant, and now she wants some time to think and enjoy being a mother. Her parents and Joe support her in anything she decides to do.
While waiting for her date with David, Daisy hears a noise on her front porch and looks out to see a woman sitting in one of her rockers.
The woman’s hair is standing on end as if it hasn’t been brushed in days.
She’s wearing a sweatshirt with flannel pajama pants.
Daisy notices the woman’s feet are cut and bruised and wonders how far she walked before landing on Daisy’s porch.
The woman is Marion Martinez, and she’s waiting for her husband, George, to pick her up.
Daisy goes inside to get Marion a glass of water and decides to call Blaine Taylor.
He tells her Marion has dementia, and her sons are going crazy looking for her.
When Blaine arrives, he and Daisy convince Marion to go to the clinic to get her feet checked.
David has texted to say he’s back on the island but was called into work to check on a patient. Daisy will meet him at the clinic.
When they pull up to the emergency entrance, two dark-haired young men run up to Blaine’s police SUV.
Alex and Paul Martinez have brown eyes and skin so tanned it might’ve been August rather than June.
They have to keep reminding their mother that their father died quite some time ago.
Every time they tell her, she’s heartbroken all over again.
After tending to Marion and sending her home with her sons, David and Daisy get on with their plans for the evening.
He shares his biggest shame, that he cheated on Janey, and how she caught him in bed with someone else.
David had been diagnosed with lymphoma and never told Janey about it.
He went a little crazy during that time and made a lot of mistakes.
David wants to give Daisy the chance to end things with him if it’s too much to hear what he did to Janey.
Daisy surprises him when she tells him how her father cheated with a friend’s mother and how that ended her parents’ marriage.
Daisy got married at eighteen in defiance of her parents.
At nineteen, she got pregnant, lost the baby and then got divorced.
Eventually, she made her way to Gansett.
Everyone has a past, and it means a lot to her that he didn’t let her hear about his from others.
“I’m sure there were plenty of people trying to warn you away from me,” he says bitterly, even though he knows he deserves nothing less.
“I wouldn’t let them warn me away from you, and I won’t let you warn me away either.”
Seamus’s mother, Nora O’Grady, arrives on the island with his cousin Shannon.
After Nora is introduced to Carolina, Joe, who captained the ferry that brought them to the island, comes over to say hello.
Nora is shocked that the love of her son’s life is significantly older than Seamus and has a son almost the same age as Seamus.
Carolina is upset that Seamus didn’t tell his mother about their age difference before she arrived.
Sydney is on the mainland for a tubal ligation reversal surgery.
Maddie’s sister, Tiffany, calls Maddie, upset that her ex-husband, Jim Sturgil, is threatening to sue her for full custody of their daughter, Ashleigh, because Blaine Taylor is moving in with them.
Maddie encourages Tiffany to contact her attorney, Dan Torrington.
David takes Daisy to his apartment to change and salvage their date. They decide to stay at his place and order pizza instead of going to Dominic’s. They watch baseball and HGTV.
Blindsided by Seamus not telling his mother about their age difference, Carolina takes a walk after Nora goes to bed. Seamus chases after her. After they’ve argued and made up, Carolina teasingly runs away from him and accidentally falls into a thorn bush, injuring herself.
When David and Daisy finally have their date at Dominic’s, they run into Big Mac and Linda McCarthy.
Janey passed out, and they’re concerned about her and her pregnancy.
David offers to check on her. Their dinner is interrupted when he gets a call that Janey needs him.
With Daisy’s blessing, he goes to check on his ex-fiancée.
David puts Janey on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy.
Janey has forgiven him. It’s time for him to forgive himself and be happy.
With Jim hassling her for custody of Ashleigh because of their plans to live together, Blaine and Tiffany get engaged and decide to marry in two days at the lighthouse. Mac and Maddie’s cookout will serve as their reception.
David and Daisy encounter David’s billionaire landlord, Jared James, who is upset on his back deck.
His girlfriend turned down his proposal.
He’s heartbroken and hiding out on the island.
They offer him friendship and consolation.
Later, Daisy and David take a walk on the beach, where she mentions that she’s been approved for one of the new affordable housing units and will be getting her own home.
David has been offered a job in Boston, but he’s not taking it because he is happy with her on the island.
David and Daisy visit Marion and Alex Martinez at their home on the grounds of Martinez Lawn & Garden.
David talks to Alex about hiring professional help for Marion.
Alex agrees that it’s time. David offers to help them find someone qualified to work with dementia patients.
Alex thanks him and reminds David how grateful he and Paul are to have him nearby to help them navigate their mother’s illness.
Alex’s praise helps to solidify David’s decision to stay put on the island, where he’s needed by people he’s known all his life.
Blaine and Tiffany get married at the lighthouse, with Judge Frank McCarthy officiating, Evan McCarthy providing music, and photography by Jenny, Grace and Stephanie.
Mac, Maddie and Thomas stand up for the new family.
When it comes time to exchange rings, Blaine includes a ring for Ashleigh and promises to be the best stepdad to her.
Blaine and Tiffany ride away in Ned’s vintage Rolls-Royce.
David and Daisy arrive at Mac and Maddie’s as they’re setting up for the party/wedding reception.
Janey is upstairs taking a nap and is mostly sticking to the bed rest that David prescribed.
They’re outside when a shout from inside catches their attention.
Janey won’t wake up. She’s hemorrhaging, and the baby needs to come out right away, even though it’s too soon.
They rush her to the clinic in Mason’s fire department SUV.
Joe begs David to save Janey. David suspects placental abruption, which can be fatal to mom and baby.
The island clinic is ill-prepared for an emergency of this magnitude, but he’ll work with what he has.
David has never performed a cesarean section on his own but has assisted in plenty of them as a resident, so he knows what to do.
He’s worried about complications that are beyond his skills.
The thought of Janey dying on his watch is unfathomable, so he can’t let it happen.
No matter what, he has to save her life.
He asks Mason to call for a Life Flight helicopter with neonatal support.
David has trained for the last decade for situations just like this one.
However, being on a remote island when disaster struck wasn’t part of his training, all of which occurred in well-equipped, inner-city hospitals.
In this case, he’ll be relying on instinct as well as training.
Janey’s life and that of her baby are in his hands, and even in the midst of a crisis, the irony of that isn’t lost on him.
He owes her one. Hell, he probably owes her more than one.
He owes her his very best, and that’s what she—and her baby—will get from him.