CelebrationAfterDarkKobo
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Authors: Marie Force
Celebration After Dark
Gansett Island, Book 14
By: Marie Force
Published by HTJB, Inc.
Copyright 2015. HTJB, Inc.
Cover Design: Courtney Lopes
E-book Layout by Holly Sullivan
ISBN:
978-1942295365
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at
[email protected]
.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
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The Gansett Island Series
Gansett Island Boxed Set, Books 1-3
Gansett Island Boxed Set, Books 4-6
Gansett Island Boxed Set, Books 7-9
Book 1:
Maid for Love
Book 2:
Fool for Love
Book 3:
Ready for Love
Book 4:
Falling for Love
Book 5:
Hoping for Love
Book 6:
Season for Love
Book 7:
Longing for Love
Book 8:
Waiting for Love
Book 9:
Time for Love
Book 10:
Meant for Love
Book 10.5:
Chance for Love
A Gansett Island Novella
Book 11:
Gansett After Dark
Book 12:
Kisses After Dark
Book 13:
Love After Dark
Book 14:
Celebration After Dark
Book 15: Desire After Dark
View the McCarthy Family Tree here
.
View the list of Who’s Who on Gansett Island here.
For the Gansett Island fans who’ve embraced the McCarthy family from the beginning—this one’s for you.
Chapter 1
Mac McCarthy Senior, known to all as Big Mac, woke on the morning of December twentieth to the distinctive sounds of winter on Gansett Island—howling wind, icy snow pinging against the windows and groaning beams in the house he’d called home for nearly four decades. But today was not any average winter day. On this day forty years ago, he married the love of his life. Today was a day for celebration.
The kids were throwing a party later that Mac and Linda weren’t supposed to know about. “Voodoo Mama,” as the kids called Linda, knew everything they were up to. She’d picked up on the scent of a party months ago, which was why they hadn’t planned one for themselves. He had a few surprises of his own to mark the occasion that he couldn’t wait to give her.
She slept curled up to him, the way she did every night. Even on the few occasions when they’d been at odds, she always reached for him in her sleep. Their marriage had been filled with love and joy and five incredible kids who’d been the light of their lives. Each of them had found their soul mate in the last few years, which was the only thing he and Linda had ever truly wanted for them.
Nothing made Big Mac more content than seeing his kids happy and in love with people he would’ve hand-chosen for each of them. Mac with Maddie, Grant with Stephanie, Adam with Abby, Evan with Grace and Janey with Joe. All of them perfect matches in every way that mattered.
In addition to his own five, he’d been like a father to Luke Harris, the young man who’d worked for him at the marina since he was fourteen, and who was now happily married to his first love, Sydney Donovan Harris, with a baby on the way.
A few years ago, Big Mac had made Mac and Luke his partners in the marina, which was one of the best things he’d ever done. It freed him up to relax a little while the two young guys put their considerable energy into steering the business into the modern era. Big Mac was more than happy to take a backseat to them. He had grandchildren to coddle, bullshit to shoot, fish to catch and a wife to take traveling as he’d promised her he would once the kids were launched and the businesses were in good hands.
And then there was Mallory Vaughn, the woman who’d appeared earlier in the year with the life-changing news that she was the daughter he’d never known he had, the product of a brief relationship that ended before he met Linda. Talk about shocking! But Linda had set the tone, accepting Mallory into their family and making sure her arrival didn’t turn into a crisis for them. He’d never loved his gorgeous wife more than he had watching her welcome his daughter into their home and family.
The bedside clock read 6:20, which was far too early to wake Linda to begin the celebration. With nowhere to be for hours, they had the day to themselves before the party. That was plenty of time to shower her with the gifts he’d spent months organizing, among other things he wanted to do today.
He was kind of glad it was snowing. The men of the family had been spending every possible minute helping his son Mac and nephew Shane with the addition to the home of their friends Seamus and Carolina O’Grady, who’d recently taken in two young boys after their mother’s tragic death. Everyone wanted to see the new family settled as soon as possible, and they were down to finish work on the addition. With the storm raging outside, Big Mac could justify a day off to spend with his wife.
In the meantime, he found his thoughts wandering back in time to the summer day when he first laid eyes on the woman who would become the center of his life. He’d been home in Providence to close on the ramshackle marina that several people had told him not to buy. His dad had been particularly vociferous in his objections.
“Your grandmother left you that money so you could make something of yourself, Mac,” his father had said. “She’d be very disappointed to see you pissing it away on a hunk of junk in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m sorry you think so, Dad, but I’ve got a feeling about this place. With a little love and a lot of work, I think I can turn it into a gold mine.”
“And how do you plan to
eat
while you’re waiting to strike gold?”
“I’ve got my charter captain’s license and feelers out all over the place. I’ll find work. Don’t worry.” As long as he was near the water in some way or another, Mac was confident he could make a living somehow.
Frank McCarthy Senior shook his head with disgust and dismay over the plans his middle son had made for his little corner of Gansett Island.
“Let him be, Frank,” Mac’s mother, Jane, had said. “He’s got to make his own way the same way you made yours. Harping on him isn’t going to change his mind, especially when he’s signing the papers tomorrow.”
Despite his mother’s support, Mac had left his parents’ home that day feeling dejected and scared for the first time since he’d fallen in love with the marina. What if his dad was right? What if he pissed away the nest egg his grandmother had left him on something that would never pay off?
As he drove the truck he’d bought in high school that was now on its last legs to his brother Frank’s place, he blasted Bruce Springsteen’s new album
Born to Run
in the tape deck. His chest tightened with anxiety and panic. He’d wagered everything he had and then some on the marina, knowing it needed a load of work to make it presentable. He’d never been afraid of hard work and had been looking forward to getting on with it before his dad filled his head with doubts.
Mac found a parking space two blocks from Frank’s house, and after he shut off the engine, he sat there for a minute thinking it through from every angle. One of the lawyers Frank had interned with over the summer had been good enough to look over the contracts for the purchase of the marina and declared them sound. Mac had had the place surveyed, and even though it looked a little rough around the edges to the naked eye, it was structurally sound. He had financing in place for the portion not covered by his inheritance and had money built into the loan for renovations.
It would take years to own the place free and clear, but he still had faith that eventually the investment of his time and money would pay off. And if it didn’t? Well, he was a young guy with plenty of time to recover and find something else to do with his life.
He got out of the truck and walked to Frank’s apartment, which occupied the first floor of a three-story Victorian. Frank was heading to law school at Brown in the fall and lived there with two other guys. The three of them were hosting this afternoon’s party in their backyard. Mac was in bad need of some time with his big brother—not to mention a couple of cold ones.
Mac let himself into the apartment with the key Frank had given him so he could crash on the sofa rather than stay at home where his mother would want him home by midnight and then sniff him, looking for telltale signs that he’d been drinking. It was easier to stay with Frank, who expected him to smell like beer because they usually drank it together.
“Mac!” Frank called from the kitchen door. “Get in here and check out these wings that Brett made. They’ll set your mouth on fire.”
“And doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Frank took a closer look at him. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing.”
Leaving the kitchen and the wings behind, Frank took Mac by the arm and steered him back the way he’d come. They went through the front door to the porch. “I’ll ask again—what’s with you?”
Mac hesitated, but only for a second, because this was Frankie, his big brother and best friend. If anyone would tell it to him straight, it was Frank. “Am I making a huge mistake buying the marina?”
“
What?
”
“You heard me. Am I pissing away the money Grandma left me on something stupid?”
“Where’s this shit coming from?”
“Something Dad said has me thinking. What if it’s a total disaster, and I lose my shirt?”
“What if it’s a huge success and you make millions? Have you considered that possibility?”
“Not really. I’d be perfectly satisfied to make a decent living from the place. I’m not looking for millions.”
“Still, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. People are saying Gansett is the next Martha’s Vineyard. Sky’s the limit, bro, and you’re in on the ground floor.”
“You still think it’s a good idea to buy the place?”