After Owen left with Holden, Laura tried to go back to sleep for a while. The vomiting always took a harsh toll on her, but with so much to be done before their trip, she couldn’t seem to turn off the busy brain that refused to get onboard with the fact that the rest of her was a hot mess in need of more sleep.

She reached for her cell phone on the bedside table and made an appointment to see Victoria Stevens, the local midwife-nurse practitioner before the trip on Tuesday. Luckily, the clinic was open seven days a week in the summer, and she was able to book an appointment with Vic late tomorrow afternoon. Laura had resisted Victoria’s suggestion that she take something for the nausea, because she was convinced she could power through it the way she had with Holden. She also hated the idea of taking something that had even a small chance of harming her unborn children.

But there was no way she could “power through it” and accompany Owen to Virginia, too. Desperate times indeed called for desperate measures. She got out of bed and took a shower, hoping her stomach would calm down enough to allow her to be productive. She thanked God every day for the fact that Sarah was with them and could manage the hotel as efficiently as she could herself, but Laura still felt guilty about deferring so much of the responsibility to Owen’s mother when she was collecting a paycheck from his grandparents.

She forced herself to consume a handful of saltine crackers and some weak tea before heading downstairs, where the smells of breakfast coming from the dining room had her heading directly for the ladies’ room, where the crackers and tea came right back up.

Afterward, she sat on the floor of the lobby bathroom and tried to collect herself. She was so damned sick of being sick. At times she wondered what Owen saw in her when she’d been in this condition for much of the time they’d spent together.

A light tap on the door had her standing and rinsing her mouth. She opened the door to find Sarah outside.

“Are you okay, honey?”

“I’ve been better. It’s been going on since about four o’clock this morning.”

Sarah winced and slid an arm around Laura’s shoulders. “Come with me.” She led her around the reception desk past the front door just as Abby came in.

“Morning!” Abby said.

“Morning,” Laura said.

“Ugh, not feeling good again?” Abby asked.

“Another day, another battle,” Laura said with a weak smile.

“I’m getting her away from the smell of breakfast,” Sarah said. “We’ll be in the sitting room if you need us.”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on the front desk for you.”

“Thanks, Abby.” She ran the gift shop, Abby’s Attic 2, in the lobby of the Surf, so watching the front desk certainly wasn’t her job, but like everyone else around her, Abby had stepped up to help more than once this summer.

“No problem at all. Hope you feel better.”

“So do I. Thanks again.” Laura went with Sarah to the sitting room, where they’d spent a lot of family time over the last year. During the winter, they’d passed many a cold, stormy night in front of the fire while Owen played for them and Holden slept in his mother’s arms.

“Stretch out on the sofa and get comfortable,” Sarah said, fluffing pillows and tossing a light throw over Laura.

“This is ridiculous. I’m supposed to be working and packing and getting ready to leave the hotel for a week or more, and what am I doing?”

Sarah ran a gentle hand over Laura’s hair. “You’re taking a few minutes to yourself while you can. Relax. I’ll be right back.”

Laura forced herself to follow Sarah’s orders. From her vantage point on the sofa she could see the ferries coming and going from the harbor and the sparkle of the sun on blue water as another summer day on Gansett began in earnest. Outside the front side of the hotel, voices and cars and mopeds blended into a cacophony of noise from town that had become as familiar to her as the crash of the ocean on the breakwater out back.

“Here, honey,” Sarah said when she returned with a steaming mug. “Try this.”

“What is it?”

“Mint tea. It worked for me when I was pregnant.”

“You’ve suggested that before, and I’ve been meaning to try it.”

“As I recall, you said mint flavor isn’t your favorite thing.”

“It isn’t, but at this point, I’m willing to try anything.” She sat up and took a tentative sip of the brew. When it went down easy and stayed down, she took another. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry you’re feeling so poorly.”

“I keep waiting for Owen to say enough already with the hot mess he’s shackled himself to.”

“That’s not going to happen, and you know it. He’s crazy about you.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why when all he’s seen me do is breed and puke since we’ve been together.”

Sarah’s silent laughter brought tears to the older woman’s eyes. “I’d venture to say he’s probably seen a few other things in you besides those two endearing qualities.”

“You are far too kind,” Laura said with a smile for the woman who would be her mother-in-law before too much longer. “Enough about me. How was your night with Charlie?”

Sarah’s cheeks flamed with color.

“That good, huh?”

“I had no idea,” she said softly. “All this time… I didn’t know.”

“I’m so happy for you, Sarah, and for Charlie, too,” Laura said. “You so deserve this amazing second chance.”

“When I think about how I could’ve lived my whole life without knowing that was possible…”

“So you…” Laura rolled her hand, hoping Sarah would dish the details.

“Not everything, but what we did was incredible. And,” Sarah said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “he said he loves me.”

“Why are you even here this morning? You should be with him!”

“Because I knew you’d need me, and being here for you is also important to me.”

“Sarah! For crying out loud, go back to him.”

Sarah laughed at Laura’s outrage. “It’s fine, honey. I’ll see him again later.”

Laura’s eyes filled with tears, and before she knew it, they were sliding down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked, alarmed by Laura’s sudden breakdown.

“Nothing.” Laura swiped at the stupid tears that were almost as annoying as the nausea. Both were a byproduct of pregnancy that she would rather live without. “I’m so happy for you. I can’t even begin to tell you… Having you here with us, helping me through this first year with Holden and taking care of all of us and teaching me so much about the hotel… It means the world to me. I feel like I have a mother again for the first time since I was nine.”

“Oh, Laura…” Sarah brushed at her own tears as she took the mug of tea from Laura so she could hug her. “That’s about the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. It’s such an honor to know you think of me that way. Thank you, honey.” She drew back so she could see Laura’s face. “Being here with you and Owen and Holden truly saved my life, and I’ve loved every minute I’ve gotten to spend with you.”

She tucked a strand of Laura’s hair behind her ear. “For the longest time, I worried that Owen would never take a chance on love or have a family of his own. He’d given up so much of his childhood to help raise his siblings and seemed content with his footloose existence. But the minute I saw him with you, I knew. I just knew you were the one for him, and I was so very thankful that he’d found you.”

“I’m thankful, too. When I think about the condition I was in when we first met… And the beautiful friendship I found with him before anything else ever happened between us. He’s an amazing man, Sarah.”

“I know he is, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

“I’m worried about what the trial and the worries about seeing his father are doing to him, though.” She eyed the guitar that sat in a stand on the other side of the room. “I haven’t heard him play or sing in days. Evan told me yesterday that Owen turned down a couple of gigs this week, which isn’t like him. He loves having the chance to play with Evan, which doesn’t happen as often these days because Ev is so busy with the studio.”

“That is worrisome,” Sarah said. “I think we just need to have faith that once the trial is over, the Owen we know and love will be back with us.”

“I hope you’re right,” Laura said. “More tea, please.”

Smiling, Sarah handed her the mug.

“Now let’s talk about this amazing night you had with Charlie.”

Once again, Sarah blushed furiously. “Girls my age don’t share the dirty details.”

“So the details are dirty?” Laura asked with a coy grin.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Sarah said primly.

“Oh come on! You know you want to.”

Sarah laughed and the sound filled Laura’s heart to overflowing with love for the woman who’d come to mean so much to her. “I really do want to.”

“Spill it, sister.”

---

Returning to the hotel after his visit with Evan, Owen carried the sleeping Holden and followed the sound of laughter into the sitting room to find his mother and Laura gabbing on the sofa. He immediately noticed Laura’s pallor and the cup of tea she held in her hand. She’d been sick again.

“What’s going on around here?” Owen asked them. Was it his imagination or did his mother look mortified to see him standing there?

“You didn’t hear any of that, did you?” she asked.

“Any of what?”

The question set off another wave of laughter between the two women, giving him a warm feeling of homecoming that had been so rare in his life before the last year. While this hotel had been the only true home he’d ever had during a childhood marked by frequent moves and the strife of his violent family life, it was even more so now that he and Laura were living here together. Having his mother with them only made it that much better.

“Why do I feel like I’m missing the punch line to a joke—or maybe I am the joke?”

His question set them off again. Seeing them both laughing so hard was good for what ailed him, and he couldn’t help but smile at their glee.

“Trust me when I tell you,” Laura said, wiping tears from her eyes, “you do not want to know what we were talking about.”

Eyeing them with trepidation, Owen said, “I take it you had a good night with Charlie, Mom?”

Sarah gasped and looked to Laura for help. “Make him stop. I’m not talking about that with him.”

“I don’t want any details, and I mean that with every fiber of my being. I was simply asking if you had a nice time.”

“Um, yes,” Sarah said. “Yes, I did.”

Her demure reply made Laura snort inelegantly.

Sarah slipped a hand over Laura’s mouth. “Stop it. This instant.”

“Can’t,” Laura said feebly.

“I’m going back to work,” Sarah said. “Try to behave yourself.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“See you two later.” Sarah scurried out of the room, and Owen moved to take her place next to Laura on the sofa.

“What was that all about?”

“You’ll never get it out of me. Girl talk.”

“She’s okay, though? You’d tell me if she wasn’t, right?”

Laura took his hand and leaned in to press a kiss to the chubby cheek of her sleeping son. “Owen, honey, she is far more than okay. She is divine.”

“Eww. Gross.”

“Not gross at all. Very, very lovely. She’s extremely happy this morning.”

“Although I’ll beg of you not to share any details, I’m glad to hear that.”

Laura dissolved into giggles that made him smile at her delight despite the dark mood he’d been in for days now.

“Has it been a rough morning around here?”

“Rougher than usual.”

“I shouldn’t have left.”

“I was fine, and you can’t be with me all the time.”

“I’d like to be.”

“I know. Did you have any luck talking Evan out of coming with us?”

Stunned by the question, he stared at her. “How’d you know that was where I was going?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve got you figured out, Lawry.”

“You’re kind of scaring me right now.”

“So, what did he say?”

“He’s almost as bullheaded as you are,” Owen said with a sigh.

“Sucks having all these people around who love you, doesn’t it?”

He reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “It doesn’t suck nearly as bad as being all alone did. That was worse.”

Laura rested her head on his shoulder. “So Evan is coming with us?”

“Yeah, he’s coming.”

“Good. Are we going to Dan and Kara’s engagement party later? The party is at two. Appetizers and drinks.”

“I suppose we can go for a little while if you want to.”

“You sure you feel up to it?”

“Anything is better than trying to find a way to think about something else.”

She turned toward him, putting an arm around him and Holden. “I can’t wait for this to be over,” she said.

“I can’t either.”

---

For the first time in longer than she could remember, Stephanie woke up feeling unburdened. She’d spent years frantically trying to free Charlie from prison, and then after that had finally happened, she’d trapped herself in a cage of her own making.

It had been foolish, she now knew, to worry that Grant wouldn’t understand her fears or want to help her manage them the way he had for as long as she’d known him. Even after all this time with him, she’d still been waiting for the bottom to fall out the way it had so many times before. After last night, though, she’d finally begun to believe it wasn’t going to happen this time.

Grant wasn’t going anywhere. He’d convinced her of that as he once again showed her how very much he truly loved her. With the memories of their incredible night together fresh in her mind, she was eager to share their good news with the person she loved second best.

Despite her assurances, she could tell that Grant was still concerned about her. She’d insisted he go share their news with his father, even though he’d offered to stay home with her. She was determined to move forward with their plans and try to enjoy her life in a way she’d never been able to before. After a shower, she got dressed in a tank and shorts and headed out.

The bright sunny day that greeted her made her grateful to live in such a beautiful place. After she decided to stay permanently on Gansett, she’d worried about being bored. However, she’d been anything but bored. With Grant’s big family nearby and their wide circle of friends, there was always something going on, even in the winter when the tourists had gone home.

She’d loved her first full winter on the island, during which she’d kept the restaurant open only on the weekends and had spent the rest of the time hunkered down with Grant while he worked on the screenplay about her efforts to get Charlie freed from jail. For months, she’d cautiously avoided his frequent attempts to pin her down on a wedding date by changing the subject or evading the questions. He’d never pushed her, but she could tell that her refusal to discuss it had hurt him on more than one occasion.

It was such a relief to know she no longer had to dodge the issue. They’d talked through all of her fears and set a date. She was going to marry Grant in a few short weeks. The thought set off a wave of giddy laughter as she pulled into her stepfather’s driveway, where he was cutting the grass. As he was wearing only a pair of shorts, his impressive physique was on full display. He had muscles on top of muscles, which came from the time he’d spent in prison with nothing to do but work out for several hours a day.

Seeing her there, he turned off the mower and used a bandanna to wipe the sweat from his face. He bent to pick up the T-shirt he’d tossed on the grass and put it back on. “Hey there. What brings you out so early?”

“I wanted to see my dad. Is that allowed?”

“Always. I could use a cold one. Join me?”

“Lead the way.” She followed him into the small house he rented from Ned Saunders. He’d intended the rental to be temporary until he figured out a plan for life after prison. Like so many others who’d come to Gansett, that life had found him, and she was thrilled to have him close by. The first thing she noticed inside the house was the vase of artfully arranged flowers on his kitchen table. “Nice flowers.”

“Oh, thanks. Sarah picked them from the garden.”

“How is Sarah?”

“Good, as you know. You saw her yesterday.”

Stephanie smiled at him as she accepted the glass of lemonade he’d poured for her.

“I’m actually glad you came by,” he said. “I was going to call you today to tell you I’ll be off the island for the next week or so.”

“Where’re you going?”

“To Virginia with Sarah and Owen. Her ex-husband is going on trial for beating her up last fall.”

“What?” Stephanie asked with a gasp as she sat down hard on a chair at the table.

Charlie brought his drink to the table to join her.

Her mind whirled as she tried to absorb that the woman she’d come to know so well through her dad and working close to her at the hotel had been abused. “Did you know?”

“Not until the other day. I suspected, though. She’s always so timid and skittish. I hated to think that was the reason.”

“I had no idea.”

“It’s not something she or Owen speak freely about. I guess it was pretty bad when he and his siblings were growing up.”

“God, poor Owen—and Sarah. He seems like such a happy, laid-back kind of guy. I never would’ve guessed. And I never heard a word about Sarah either.”

“They’ve been private about it, for obvious reasons, and they’re doing well now. We just have to get them through this next week or so, and then they can get on with their lives.”

“I’m glad you’re going with her.”

“So am I. I’m glad she told me about it and is letting me be there for her.”

“So things are good with you guys?”

“You could say that. She stayed here last night.”

Stephanie’s mouth fell open before she quickly closed it. “Really? Do tell.”

“That’s all you’re getting.”

“Oh come on!”

“End it,” he said with a playful scowl. “What brings you over here, and don’t tell me you missed me. You just saw me.”

“Don’t be so saucy,” Stephanie said, amused by his gruffness. “I came to share some good news with you. Grant and I have set a wedding date. Labor Day.”

“This year?”

“Yep.”

“Good for you, honey. I’m happy for you. I was wondering when he was going to get around to making a real commitment to you.”

“He wasn’t the holdup. I was. He’s been wanting to set a date for almost as long as we’ve been engaged.” She slid a finger up and down the side of the glass, moving the condensation around. “I’ve wasted a lot of that time worrying that I might turn out to be more like my mother—”

“Whoa! Wait, what did you just say?”

“That I might turn out to be like her, which had me worried about having kids of my own.”

“You are nothing like her. Nothing. If I hadn’t seen pictures of her holding you as a newborn, I’d never have believed you were really hers—and I thought that from the time I first met you two. She was always a bit of a mess, and you… Even as a little kid, you were so incredibly smart and capable. There’s no comparison, Steph. None.”

Stunned by the emphatic, impassioned speech that was wildly out of character for her quiet stepfather, Stephanie slumped in her chair. “I let the fear get the better of me, and it feels sort of silly now that I finally aired it all out with Grant last night.”

“He was good to you, I hope?”

“Yeah,” Stephanie said softly. “He’s always good to me. It’s been hard, though, you know… To give him everything.”

“You were holding something back, protecting yourself in case it fell apart, right?”

She could hardly be surprised that he understood so well after what he’d endured at the hands of her mother. “Yes.”

“Classic defense mechanism. I know it well.”

“You would, wouldn’t you?”

“Look, we’re both conditioned to expect it all to go to shit because that’s what’s always happened in the past. I’m choosing to believe that’s not going to happen this time with Sarah. You should do the same with Grant. Despite the absolutely amazing thing he did to help me, I’ll admit I wasn’t a hundred percent sold on him for you when I first met him. He seemed kind of… I don’t know… Fancy, I guess. I wondered if a guy like him could be happy with the simple life you need.”

“You never told me any of this.”

“You were ass over teakettle for the guy. Would it have mattered?”

“Yes! It would’ve mattered! You have no idea, do you?”

Charlie’s brows knitted with confusion. “About what?”

“The whole time you were locked up, your voice was in my head. You were always my compass, even when I couldn’t see you any time I wanted to. It would’ve mattered to me that you didn’t think he was right for me.”

“I never said he wasn’t right for you. I said I wasn’t sure at the beginning, but I trusted you to know your own heart, and over time I’ve come to see he’s perfect for you in all the ways that matter most. The two of you… You complement each other.” Charlie took her hand. “He comes from good people. That matters, too.”

“They’re very good people. I love them almost as much as I love him.”

“You need to allow yourself to be happy, honey.”

“I’m learning how to do that.”

“Won’t happen overnight, but we both deserve it, wouldn’t you say?”

“Absolutely.” Feeling suddenly shy, she glanced at him. “You’ll give me away on Labor Day, won’t you?”

“I’d be so very honored. Come here and give your old man a hug.”

She went to him and let him wrap his strong arms around her, surrounding her with the unconditional love he’d given her long before he’d made the huge mistake of marrying her mother. “Love you, Charlie bear,” she whispered, using her childhood nickname for him. She was so damned grateful to be able to hug him any time she wanted or needed to.

“Love you, too, Stephie Lou.”