Book 11 Gansett After Dark #2
“Try and stop me.” He looks away from her for a second, seeming to rein in his anger. “That might not be the right way to put it in light of what you’ve been through. I want to be with you and support you through the trial. I hope you’ll let me do that for you.”
After dinner on the beach, Laura’s brother, Shane, takes Holden up for his bath.
Owen has been quiet all evening, so Laura leaves him to his thoughts and goes to put Holden to bed.
Later, Owen finally tells Laura that while he never wants her to be exposed to Mark Lawry or to what happened in his past, he’s afraid he won’t be able to get through the trial or seeing his father again without her with him.
Since all she wants to do is support him, he doesn’t have to go through this alone and she’ll be by his side through it all.
Seamus O’Grady and Carolina Cantrell are hosting an authentic New England clambake that’s going to double as a wedding. They ask Janey and Joe to stand up for them, which, of course, they agree to. Everyone is excited and surprised as the clambake turns into a wedding.
Grant tries to get Stephanie to commit to a date for their wedding, going so far as to suggest they elope.
This finally prompts her to tell him she’s afraid to have a family because no one ever showed her how, but Grant calms her fears, and they talk about how she’ll be a great wife and mother.
Betsy and Frank decide to pursue a relationship.
Charlie and Evan are both coming to Virginia. Owen is mortified that people will know the ugly story of his family. “You don’t understand how hard it is for the people who love you to watch you suffer,” Laura says.
He lets her put her arms around him, but he seems to be merely tolerating her, which is unusual.
“And you all don’t understand how embarrassing and humiliating this entire thing is for me.
” Laura and Evan, who were raised by great men, can’t possibly understand what it was like for him.
Laura helps him see that he has no reason to be ashamed.
Owen is nothing like his father and would never hurt their children or her.
Big Mac is enjoying the morning meeting at the marina with Ned and Frank, who’s now retired and back in Big Mac’s daily life.
A striking dark-haired woman approaches them and asks to speak to Mac McCarthy.
Big Mac and his son both reply, “That’s me.
” She asks for a moment in private with Big Mac.
After they walk down the main dock, she introduces herself as Mallory Vaughn.
She’s the daughter of Diana Vaughn, a woman Big Mac dated before he met Linda.
Mallory has recently found out that Big Mac is her father.
Kara Ballard’s parents, Judith and Chuck, host an engagement party at the Summer House for Kara and Dan, much to Kara’s dismay.
Even though she hates being the center of attention, she’s beginning to enjoy the party with their friends when a disruption erupts.
Jim Sturgil, drunk and disheveled, wielding a butcher knife, threatens Dan and then Blaine when he intervenes.
Jim stabs Dan. Blaine arrests Jim. Dan jokes with Kara as the EMTs tend to his wounds that at least he got her out of the party she never wanted to have. She’s not amused.
Adam and Abby get engaged and talk about having a baby as soon as possible. She wants a short engagement.
The next day, as their mother requested, the five McCarthy children arrive at their parents’ home to discover that Big Mac had fathered a daughter before he met Linda.
He was unaware of Mallory’s existence until she came to see him the day before.
The kids are overwhelmed by the news. When Big Mac announces that Mallory is on her way to meet them, Janey cannot be there and leaves.
Although the brothers want to go after Janey, Mac in particular, doesn’t want to disappoint their father.
They stay put for the uncomfortable meeting.
The McCarthy brothers spend some time getting to know the older sister they didn’t know they had.
A few days later, Sarah, Charlie, Owen, Laura, Holden, Frank, Dan, Slim, Blaine, David and Evan leave the island for the trial in Virginia.
Upon arrival, Sarah, Owen, Dan and Frank head to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, where they learn Mark Lawry is willing to plead no contest to one felony count of domestic assault and battery in exchange for the other charges being dropped.
Under this deal, Mark wouldn’t admit guilt or claim innocence, would avoid the trial and serve time in jail.
The trial isn’t a slam dunk, since Mark’s standing as a high-ranking military officer would be considered, and they can’t prove he was the one who beat Sarah. It’s her word against his.
“I see the benefit of accepting the plea deal,” Sarah says, “but I want to hear him say he did it. I want him to admit, in public, that he beat us while the rest of the world was holding him up as a hero. I want him to say the word guilty. If he’s unwilling to do that, no deal.”
They head to court the next day, where Blaine, David and Slim testify in the morning.
As they’re breaking for lunch, Owen and Sarah come face to face with Mark for the first time and ugly words are exchanged.
When the others walk away, Owen hangs back.
“Go away and leave us alone,” he says to his father.
“You’re nothing to us, and we like it that way. ”
“Your mother will come around,” Mark says confidently. “She always does.”
The statement has Owen laughing out loud. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Sarah’s parents, Adele and Russ, had surprised Sarah and Owen by coming to court.
As they return from lunch, Sarah’s longtime friend Eva Lewis is there and would like to testify.
The testimony from someone who witnessed and observed the abuse the Lawrys suffered spurs Mark Lawry to plead guilty to all charges.
Elated that Mark is heading to jail, the relieved group returns to Gansett to prepare for Laura and Owen’s wedding. Before the wedding, Laura finds the album from her first wedding and makes a discovery that she shares with Owen.
“You’re spectacularly beautiful,” he says when he sees the photos. “I still can’t believe you picked me to spend the rest of your life with.”
“That day,” Laura says haltingly, “I knew something was wrong. I didn’t know what, but I knew it was wrong.”
“I can see that in some of the pictures.” Owen points to a photo of her with Justin. “You’re glowing and radiant, but I still see the sadness in your eyes.”
“I was sad, but I didn’t know why then. I do now.
It was because I was always meant to be with you, and I’ve known that for almost as long as I’ve known you.
Please don’t look at those photos and think that’s what I really want.
It isn’t.” She takes his hand and brings it to her lips. “This is. You are. We are.”
Owen has never regretted for a second that he stayed with Laura on Gansett to make a life together there.
With time to kill before the wedding, Shane goes to the beach for a swim.
He’s thrilled for Laura and Owen, but the wedding festivities have made him miss his wife, Courtney.
He still can’t believe she hid a raging drug addiction from him.
He helped her as much as he could, including paying for rehab, only to have her divorce him when she got clean.
Losing her and their marriage had nearly broken him.
So while he’s happy for Laura and Owen, he’s all set with love and marriage.
He’s headed back to shore when a scream and thrashing catches his attention.
He swims out to help a panicked woman. She grabs him and pulls him underwater.
He fights to get away from her and then dives down to save her.
Pulling her to shore, he realizes she’s Owen’s sister Katie.
Katie is embarrassed and exhausted. After she catches her breath, she and Shane race to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.
She asks Shane not to say anything about what happened.
They don’t want to upset Owen and Laura’s happy day.
While Shane agrees, Adele witnessed the incident and thanks him for saving her granddaughter.
Sarah is thrilled to have most of her children in one place. Katie, Julia, Cindy, Josh and Jeff are all there to celebrate their brother’s wedding. John, unable to get the time off from work, calls Owen before the wedding.
“The mother of the groom wants a moment with her son.” Now that their father’s trial is behind them, Sarah’s children have a lightness about them she’s never seen before.
They laugh more easily and smile more often.
It’s like they finally have permission to be themselves now that Mark Lawry is out of their lives forever.
She wishes she’d left him years ago, but hindsight is always twenty-twenty, and she chose to look forward rather than backward these days.
Sarah pins the boutonniere on for Owen. When the rose is in place, she flattens her hands on his chest. “I love you more than you’ll ever know.
You and your little family and this magical hotel saved my life last year, and I’ll always be grateful. ”
“We’re equally grateful to you, Mom. You showed up just when we needed you most.”
Evan pulls double duty as best man and musician.
Katie, Julia and Cindy bring Holden down the stairs to the beach and hand him to Owen.
The wedding party, Adam and Abby, Shane and Janey, Jeff and Stephanie, Josh and Maddie and Grace, the maid of honor, come down the stairs.
Then, Laura, on the arm of her father, Frank, comes down the stairs.
Owen can’t seem to breathe until she smiles, and the knot of nerves in his chest becomes a feeling of pure joy, the likes of which he’s never experienced quite so profoundly. His Princess. His love. His life. Her dad officiates the wedding in which Laura and Owen exchange heartfelt vows.
After the ceremony, Laura and Owen greet their guests and return to the hotel for the reception.
Her youngest McCarthy cousins, Riley and Finn, thank Owen for taking her off their hands.
Laura wonders where her Uncle Kevin’s wife, Deb, is.
Kevin talks to his brothers, Frank and Big Mac, who ask about Deb.
Kevin shares that she left him a few weeks ago.
He plans to stay on the island for a while to regroup. They’re thrilled to have him.
Here Comes the Groom, Gansett Island Short Story
Mac and Maddie invite Francine and Ned to a fancy dinner at their house, although Ned isn’t sure why he has to put on a tie to have dinner.
He’s in a foul mood due to the outbreak of weddings and engagements around him.
He’s waited the longest to marry Francine, and they can’t find a date to tie the knot with all the other weddings happening.
His best friend, Big Mac, calls him out on his bad mood.
Hopefully, soon they can find a date and get it done.
Ned is surprised when they pull up to Mac and Maddie’s house to find a driveway full of cars.
He thought the gathering was for immediate family.
He doesn’t want to be around all the other happily married couples.
Ned and Francine walk up the stairs to the porch and are surprised when rose petals rain down on them.
Mac and Maddie approach them, holding glasses of champagne and wearing broad smiles. Maddie kisses them both. “Welcome to your wedding.”
Ned figures he heard her wrong until things began to happen.
Frank McCarthy steps forward with a marriage license for him and Francine to sign.
Maddie and Tiffany sign as their witnesses.
Next come flowers for both of them. Maddie and Mac and Tiffany and Blaine, their kids, will stand up for them.
Their grandkids, Ashleigh, Thomas and Hailey, finish out the wedding party Ned would’ve chosen for himself.
“I don’t understand,” Ned says when he can finally get a word in edgewise.
“You wanted to get married and couldn’t find a date,” Big Mac says, “so Mac and Maddie found one for you. All you gotta do, old pal, is stand there and get married.”
Ned is going to cry, goddamn it. Right in front of everyone.
He’s going to actually cry. Here, standing before him, ready to stand up with him and Francine, is the family he’s always wanted but never had.
He spares a glance for Francine and discovers she’s already crying.
To hell with it, he decides as he stops trying to fight the tears.
“’Tis a heck of a thing ya’ve done here,” he says to Mac and Maddie. “Thank you.”
“So, you’re happy about it?” Maddie asks. “I told Mac if you were mad, it was all his idea.”
“It was all my idea,” Mac says.
Maddie pats his face indulgently. “Yes, dear.”
“Well, it was.”
“I’m very happy ‘bout it,” Ned says gruffly as he sniffs. “Never been happier ‘bout anything.”
“I knew you would be,” Mac says with a smirk for his wife.
Frank rubs his hands together. “What do you say, Ned? Francine? Shall we do this? It’s been a full week since I married Laura and Owen. I’m starting to get twitchy for another wedding.”
Mac and Maddie have even thought of rings for them.
This is the moment he’s waited so long for, and nothing can ruin it for him or Francine. He takes a series of deep breaths, hoping to calm his racing heart. He gestures to Big Mac. “Come ‘ere.”
Big Mac walks over to him. “I’m here.”
“Stay. Need ya right here with me.”
His best friend hugs him. “You got it, buddy.”
With all his favorite people by his side, Ned finally makes Francine his wife.