Time for Love , The McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 9

Time for Love

McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 9

By: Marie Force

Published by HTJB, Inc.

ISBN: 9780985034160

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 or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. 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.

www.marieforce.com

The McCarthys of Gansett Island Series

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

Who's Who on Gansett Island

The McCarthy Family

“Big Mac”
and
Linda McCarthy,
owners of McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina and McCarthy’s Gansett Island Inn, are parents to:

• Mac McCarthy Jr.,
  who is married to
  Maddie Chester McCarthy
  and father to
  Thomas
  and
  Hailey McCarthy
  
 

• Grant McCarthy,
  living with
  Stephanie Logan
  
 

• Adam McCarthy,
  dating
  Abby Callahan
  
 

• Evan McCarthy,
  living with
  Grace Ryan
  
 

• Janey McCarthy Cantrell,
  married to
  Joe Cantrell
  , owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company
  
 

Judge Frank McCarthy
, brother to “Big Mac” McCarthy, father to:

• Laura McCarthy,
  cousin to Mac, Grant, Adam, Evan and Janey; engaged to Owen Laurie
  
 

• Shane McCarthy,
  cousin to Mac, Grant, Adam, Evan and Janey
  
 

McCarthy Friends & Family

Owen Lawry,
musician and best friend of Evan McCarthy; engaged to Laura McCarthy

Luke Harris,
co-owner of McCarthys Gansett Island Marina and married to Sydney Donovan

Sydney Donovan,
interior decorator, married to Luke Harris

Ned Saunders
, best friend to Big Mac McCarthy and fiancé of Francine Chester, mother of Maddie McCarthy and Tiffany Sturgil

Francine Chester
, mother of Maddie McCarthy and Tiffany Sturgil; fiancée of Ned Saunders

Tiffany Sturgil,
sister to Maddie McCarthy, daughter of Francine Chester, mother to Ashleigh Sturgil; dating Blaine Taylor

Bobby Chester,
estranged father of Maddie McCarthy and Tiffany Sturgil, estranged husband of Francine Chester

Jim Sturgil,
estranged husband of Tiffany Sturgil, father to Ashleigh Strudel

Seamus O’Grady,
hired to run the Gansett Island Ferry Company; involved with Carolina Cantrell

Carolina Cantrell,
mother of Joe Cantrell, love interest of Seamus O'Grady

Dan Torrington,
celebrity lawyer and friend to Grant McCarthy, dating Kara Ballard

Kara Ballard
, operator of Ballard's Launch Service, dating Dan Torrington

Abby Callahan,
former girlfriend of Grant McCarthy, dating Adam McCarthy

Dr. Cal Maitland
, former island doctor and ex-fiancé of Abby Callahan

Charlie Grandchamp,
stepfather of Stephanie Logan, dating Sarah Lawry

Sarah Lawry,
mother of Owen Lawry, dating Charlie Grandchamp

Mark Lawry,
father of Owen Laurie

Blaine Taylor,
Gansett Island police chief, dating Tiffany Sturgil

Slim Jackson,
Gansett Island pilot

David Lawrence,
Gansett Island doctor, former fiancé of Janey McCarthy Cantrell

Daisy Babson,
friend of Maddie McCarthy's, housekeeping manager at McCarthy's Gansett Island Inn

Jenny Wilks,
lighthouse keeper

Mason Johns,
island fire chief

Truck Henry
, Daisy Babson's abusive ex-boyfriend

Victoria Stevens,
Gansett Island midwife

Rebecca
, owner of the South Harbor Diner

Chelsea
, bartender at the Beachcomber

Doc Potter
, island veterinarian

Paul and Alex Martinez,
owners of Martinez Lawn and Garden

Marion Martinez,
mother of Paul and Alex Martinez

Chloe Dennis,
owner of the Curl Up and Dye Salon

The Children of Gansett Island

• Thomas McCarthy,
  son of Maddie McCarthy; adopted son of Mac McCarthy
  
 

• Hailey McCarthy,
  daughter of Maddie and Mac McCarthy
  
 

• Ashleigh Sturgil,
  daughter of Tiffany and Jim Sturgil
  
 

• Holden Newsome,
  son of Laura McCarthy and her ex-husband, Justin Newsome
  
 

Author’s Note

Welcome back to Gansett Island and to a story I’ve been looking forward to writing for quite some time now. We first met Dr. David Lawrence in Book 2,
Fool for Love
, after he’d disappointed island golden girl Janey McCarthy. I wondered if it would ever be possible to redeem David’s character to the point that readers would want to see him get his happily ever after. Over time, David has grown on me—and on readers—and he’s proven there’s more to him than the one-time lapse in judgment that ended his long relationship with Janey. He’s even been positively heroic on more than one occasion.
 

But giving David his happy ending required a very special heroine, so I waited until the right one came along. Daisy Babson, who has known her own share of heartache—most recently in a tumultuous relationship that ended violently—turned out to be
the one
for David, as you will see in
Time for Love
.
 

Bringing David and Daisy together was a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll be cheering for them the way I was when writing their story. When you’re done reading, join the
Time for Love
Reader Group
. Since spoilers are permitted (and encouraged) there, we ask that you wait to finish the book before you join the group.

While writing Book 9, I finally conceded that I can’t continue to give you a new story for every past couple and also do right by the couple featured in the current book. So I’ll be picking and choosing among past favorites for new stories as we go forward, while keeping you updated on all the other Gansett Island regulars. However, I expect Mac and Maddie will continue to appear in every book as I never seem to run out of stories for them!

Next up will be the long-awaited story for Jenny Wilks, the lighthouse keeper who lost her fiancé on 9/11. Readers are fascinated with Jenny, and I have quite a story in mind for her that I’m looking forward to writing.
Make sure you’re on the mailing list
for announcements about Book 10,
Meant for Love
.

After that, I hope to sneak in
Gansett After Dark
, which will showcase Laura and Owen’s wedding along with some “after dark” time for each of the couples from the previous books. It’ll be a great opportunity to catch up on what everyone is up to and to see them living out their happily ever afters. I’ve got plenty of other stories, tricks and surprises up my sleeve, so buy your ferry tickets and head on over to the island, where the fun is just beginning!

Very special thanks to Sarah Spate Morrison, Family Nurse Practitioner, for answering many pregnancy-related questions for me, as well as my behind-the scenes team Julie Cupp, Holly Sullivan, Nikki Colquhoun, Kristina Brinton and Ashley Joswick; copy editor Linda Ingmanson; and beta readers Ronlyn Howe, Kara Conrad and Anne Woodall. You all help me so much with every book, and I couldn’t do what I do without you.
 

And to you, my faithful readers, thank you as always for making all my dreams come true! You’re simply the best!

xoxo

Marie

Chapter 1

Daisy scurried about the spacious living room, picking up toys, folding blankets, plumping pillows and generally doing anything she could to stay busy. It had taken forever to get her friend Maddie’s three-year-old son Thomas into bed. He’d been excited to have Daisy babysit for him and his sister Hailey, and Daisy was praying she’d heard the last of both kids as she prepared for her special guest.

Thinking of him made her stomach flutter with nerves. Why in the world had she invited him to come over to keep her company after the kids went to bed? Why in the world was she running around Mac and Maddie’s house, straightening up as if it were her own home? As if she’d ever live anywhere this nice.
 

Maddie sure had tumbled into a pot of gold when she met and married Mac McCarthy. Not that Daisy begrudged her friend’s happiness. Quite the opposite, in fact. Maddie was one of the best friends Daisy had ever had, and no one deserved to be happy more than Maddie did.

It’s just that sometimes Daisy wondered if she’d ever find the kind of happiness Maddie had with her devoted husband. Daisy’s most recent relationship with Truck Henry had turned into a disaster when he got violent with her—more than once. That was over now, and for good this time.
 

She’d learned her lesson about giving second chances to people who didn’t deserve them. Too bad she’d had to suffer badly bruised ribs and a host of other injuries before she wised up. She’d rather not think about those unhappy memories when her new friend David Lawrence was coming over to hang out with her.

Why
had she invited him?

It had been a weak moment the night before. He’d taken her out for a lovely dinner at Stephanie’s Bistro and had asked what she was doing the next night, which was how she’d ended up inviting him to her babysitting gig.
 

Now she felt like a foolish teenager waiting for the captain of the football team to show up. No doubt he had far better things to do than hang out with her on one of his rare nights off. He’d probably felt obligated to accept her invitation, and the whole thing would be painfully awkward.

When it came right down to it, they had absolutely nothing in common. She was a hard-working—if perpetually poor—housekeeper at the McCarthy’s hotel, and he was the island’s only doctor. She’d come from a family that invented the term dysfunctional, whereas he’d been raised with his sisters on the island and gone to a top college and medical school in Boston.