Chapter 3
Three
Kara checked into the McCarthys’ Gansett Island Inn in North Harbor since it was just up the hill from the marina.
She appreciated the simplicity of the place.
There was no TV or air-conditioning, two things most hotels offered as standard amenities these days.
This inn, on the other hand, had been designed to encourage rest, relaxation and appreciation for the island’s natural beauty.
She stood at her window and looked down at the marina and the Great Salt Pond, where hundreds of boats were still moored even this late in the season.
Before she went to the marina to make her pitch to the McCarthys, she again reviewed the packet of information she’d put together, even though she knew every detail by heart.
It was vitally important that she find a partner for the launch service that would be her ticket out of Maine.
She wanted to return to Bar Harbor with a signed agreement that would get the ball rolling for her to relocate in the spring.
She couldn’t wait to move, even if it meant living on a remote island that mostly shut down for three-quarters of the year.
Winter didn’t intimidate her. She was used to rough winters after living all her life in Maine.
The remoteness of the island was a bit of a shock to her system, but she hoped she might make a few friends to pass the time with.
If not, she’d be fine with her books and a TV to keep her company.
Growing up with ten siblings had made it so she craved peace and quiet.
After one day on the beautiful scenic island, she already knew she’d find plenty of both those things there.
She’d decided to dress casually in faded jeans and a rag wool sweater she’d had since high school. With her hair in a ponytail and wearing the barest amount of makeup, she was as dressed up as she ever got.
Shortly after ten, Kara left the hotel to walk down the hill to the marina, where a group of men were gathered at picnic tables with coffee and sugar doughnuts outside the marina’s main building.
She hoped they wouldn’t mind the interruption. “Excuse me.”
A good-looking guy with dark hair and blue eyes turned to her. “Hi there. How can we help you?”
“I’m looking for Mac McCarthy?”
“That’d be me,” he and an older man said in stereo.
“Junior,” Mac said, extending a hand.
“Senior, known as Big Mac.”
“This is our partner, Luke Harris,” Mac said.
She shook hands with all of them. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Kara Ballard, from Bar Harbor, Maine.”
“Any relation to Ballard Boat Works?” Big Mac asked.
She tried not to react to being immediately tied to the infamous company. “My family.”
“Ah,” Big Mac said. “I love your picnic boats. Gorgeous.”
“Seriously,” Luke said. “Beautiful lines.”
Their praise embarrassed her, especially because she’d had nothing to do with the picnic boats, except for selling a lot of them over the years. “Thank you. They’ve done well for us.” She cleared her throat. “The reason I’m here is I’d like to discuss a business opportunity with you.”
“Sure,” Big Mac said. “Let’s get in out of this wind.” He gestured for her to lead the way to the main building that housed the offices as well as the restaurant.
Mac and Luke followed, and the four of them settled at one of the tables in the dining area.
She withdrew a brochure from her bag and opened it on the table.
“You may be aware that Ballard’s runs launch services in some of the bigger harbors in New England.
We’re in Bar Harbor, of course, Newport, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Hyannis.
We use a smaller version of the picnic boats to transport passengers from the anchorages into shore. ”
“We sure could use something like that around here,” Luke said.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Kara smiled at him.
“My brothers oversee the other harbors. I’ve been tasked with setting up a launch service here on Gansett.
” Her brothers had been given management authority over their various harbors but didn’t run the businesses personally.
She planned to be hands-on and had gotten her Coast Guard license over the summer, so she’d be ready if her father agreed to her plan.
Big Mac counted on his fingers. “You have five brothers?”
Mac laughed at his father’s question.
Kara smiled indulgently. “Eight, actually, and two sisters.”
“Wow,” Luke said. “Eleven kids?”
“Those Maine winters are long and cold,” Kara said with a grin. She was used to answering questions about being from a big family.
The comment drew a laugh from all three men.
“Are you the oldest?” Big Mac asked. “Youngest?”
“Right in the middle. Number six. Anyway, we’re in need of a landing place on the island.
McCarthy’s was our first choice.” She handed them each another piece of paper that included projections of how many people would come through the marina as a result of the launch service.
“You have the restaurant, laundry facilities, a well-stocked gift shop, showers and easy access to cab service into town.”
“With the exception of the restaurant and gift shop, our facilities are for customers of our marina.” Mac studied the detailed projections. “We’d need bigger restrooms and more laundry facilities if we’d be serving the full anchorage.”
His father nodded in agreement.
“We’ve been talking about making better use of the second-floor space above the restaurant,” Luke said. “Maybe we can build some additional bathrooms and put in some more washers and dryers up there.”
“Before next season?” Mac asked him.
“We could do it,” Luke said.
“What about IRYS?”
“It’ll still be there next year.”
“Luke—” Once again, Mac and his dad spoke in stereo.
Luke held up a hand. “We can talk about it later.” To Kara, he said, “Proceed. Please.”
She wanted to ask what IRYS was but didn’t want to get sidetracked when they seemed to be buying what she was selling. “We’d like to rent a forty-foot slip, preferably on the outside row, where we’d keep two launches for the season, which would run from May first to October thirty-first.”
Mac seemed to do some fast math in his head. “A forty-foot slip at three bucks a foot is one-twenty a day times a hundred and eighty days is—”
“Twenty-one thousand, six hundred,” Kara finished for him.
“You’ve done your research,” Big Mac said, looking impressed.
“Like I said, your marina is our first choice. It has everything we’re looking for—and then some. We also like that it’s a family-owned business like ours.”
“It’d cost us time and money to adapt our facilities to the increased traffic,” Mac reminded her.
“Which is why we’re willing to pay more than the dockage fees the first year. We’d revisit the fee structure after the initial season.”
“How much more?” Mac asked.
“Forty thousand total?”
Mac exchanged glances with his father and Luke. “Forty-five,” he said.
“Forty-two thousand, five hundred.”
His father and Luke nodded.
“Done,” Mac said, reaching out to shake on it.
Kara stared at him as she shook his hand. “That’s it?”
Laughing, Mac sat back in his chair. “Were we too easy?”
“No, no. I just figured it would take a few days to hammer out the details.”
“One thing you’ll learn pretty quick about my boys and me,” Big Mac said, “is we don’t dither over details. We know a good deal when we see one.”
“He definitely doesn’t dither over details,” Mac said dryly. “That’s my job.”
“No shit,” Luke muttered.
“I heard that,” Big Mac said, playfully scowling at the other two.
Kara liked them very much and was looking forward to working with them now that they’d quickly come to terms.
Mac’s phone chimed with a text. He got up so fast, his chair fell over backward. “I gotta go.”
“Where?” his father asked.
“Home.”
“Now? Why? Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah. Everything is just fine. Kara, great to meet you. If you want to come back tomorrow, we can hammer out any additional details.”
“Sure. I’m here for a week to get a feel for the island.”
“Later,” Mac said, running for the door.
“What’s the rush?” Kara asked.
“He and his wife had a baby six weeks ago,” Luke said. “I believe today was her six-week checkup, and apparently, she got a green light to resume the activity that got them in that boat to begin with.”
Kara felt her face heat with embarrassment.
“Sorry if that was TMI,” Luke said.
“That’s how we roll around here,” Big Mac added.
“No worries.”
What would it be like, she wondered, to have a man who was so excited to have sex with her that he’d run out of work like his pants were on fire the way Mac had just done? She sure hoped she got to find out what that was like someday.
“Have you thought about where you might live on the island?” Big Mac McCarthy asked after Luke had gone to help a boat land at the dock.
“Not yet. Why? Is it hard to find places?”
“It can be, especially in the season, but I have something that might work for you, and it’s close by, too. You want to run up and take a look?”
“Sure, that’d be great.”
Kara had taken an instant liking to the older man who reminded her of her own father, but with much softer edges.
She’d known him an hour, and somehow she suspected he wouldn’t allow anything to come between him and his children.
How she wished her father had the same sensibilities that this kind man seemed to have.
They walked toward the hotel and then hooked a right, strolling along the sandy edge of the Great Salt Pond toward a white barnlike structure.
He pulled a keyring from his back pocket, found the one he wanted and opened the door for her, gesturing for her to go ahead inside.
He followed and flipped on an overhead light that illuminated a huge space that included a kitchen on the far wall.
“There’s a bedroom and bathroom in the back.
Thousand a month, utilities included, and you can pick up the Wi-Fi from the hotel, so you won’t need your own.
I’m fine with a small pet as long as you clean up after it and don’t let it bite the hotel guests. ”
She smiled at his mischievous grin. “It sounds like that might’ve happened before.”
“We had the cutest cocker spaniel living here about ten years ago who would run up onto the porch and steal breakfast from the guests. She was a cutie, but what a menace.”
Kara could tell by the way he talked about the dog that he’d loved her, despite her shenanigans. “I’ll take it as of March. Is that okay?”
“Sure thing. I’m happy to hold it for you.”
“Thank you so much. You’ve solved all my problems in the first hour I met you.”
“I’m glad to hear that. You’re too young to have a lot of problems.”
“You would think so.”
“You want to talk about it? My kids say I’m cheaper than therapy.”
Kara laughed. “I’m sure you have your hands full with your own family.”
“I’ve always got time for new friends, too.”
The man was going to make her cry if she wasn’t careful.
“Let’s just say I’ve had a rough couple of years, and I’m very much looking forward to relocating to your charming island.”
“We’re very much looking forward to having you and your launch service, which is something we’ve needed here for years. Wait till you see our Salt Pond in July.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Whatever sits heavy on your heart, I promise it’ll feel a little lighter here. I’m not sure why that is, but it seems to be true for just about everyone who ends up here.”
“I would welcome that.”
“I have no doubt that Gansett Island will work its magic for you the way it has for me and so many others.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Coming up on forty years. Bought the marina when it was a ramshackle mess and turned it into a destination for boaters from all over. Then we added the hotel and five kids, and next thing we knew, my wife, Linda, and I had made a nice life for ourselves.”
“How did your kids like growing up on an island?”
“Not so much, but they keep coming back. Mac, for instance, came home for a quick visit, met his wife, Maddie, and now the two of them kids are as happy as anyone I’ve ever known.”
“They’re lucky.”
“And they know it. But if you’d asked Mac before he met her if he’d ever come back here to live, he’d have said, ‘No way, no how.’ Never seen him happier. I hope the same happens for you.”
“Thank you for your kindness, Mr. McCarthy. It means a lot to me.”
“Call me Big Mac. Everyone does.”
“I will.”
They exchanged phone numbers before they left the barn to walk back toward the hotel, where they parted company.
“Luke and his wife are having everyone over tonight. You ought to come by to meet some people.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“No such thing on Gansett. I’ll tell Luke to text you with the details.”
Kara gave him a spontaneous hug. “Thank you so much for everything.”
“My pleasure, honey. Welcome to Gansett.”
As he walked away, whistling as he went, Kara felt more at home on the tiny island than she had for some time in Maine. If Luke texted her, she’d go to the get-together. She was ready to meet some new people and to start a whole new life for herself, far from the drama she’d left behind in Maine.