Renewal after dark, p.1
Renewal After Dark, page 1
Renewal After Dark
Gansett Island Series, Book 27
Marie Force
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
A Gansett Island Wedding
In the Air Tonight Excerpt
About the Author
Renewal After Dark
Gansett Island Series, Book 27
By: Marie Force
Published by HTJB, Inc.
Copyright 2024. HTJB, Inc.
Cover Design: Diane Luger
E-book Layout by The E-book Formatting Fairies
ISBN: 978-1958035665
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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 marie@marieforce.com.
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All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
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MARIE FORCE and GANSETT ISLAND are registered trademarks with the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
marieforce.com
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The Gansett Island Series
Book 1: Maid for Love
(Maddie & Mac)
Book 2: Fool for Love
(Joe & Janey)
Book 3: Ready for Love
(Luke & Sydney)
Book 4: Falling for Love
(Grant & Stephanie)
Book 5: Hoping for Love
(Evan & Grace)
Book 6: Season for Love
(Owen & Laura)
Book 7: Longing for Love
(Blaine & Tiffany)
Book 8: Waiting for Love
(Adam & Abby)
Book 9: Time for Love
(David & Daisy)
Book 10: Meant for Love
(Jenny & Alex)
Book 10.5: Chance for Love, A Gansett Island Novella (Jared & Lizzie)
Book 11: Gansett After Dark
(Owen & Laura)
Book 12: Kisses After Dark
(Shane & Katie)
Book 13: Love After Dark
(Paul & Hope)
Book 14: Celebration After Dark
(Big Mac & Linda)
Book 15: Desire After Dark
(Slim & Erin)
Book 16: Light After Dark
(Mallory & Quinn)
Book 17: Victoria & Shannon (Episode 1)
Book 18: Kevin & Chelsea (Episode 2)
A Gansett Island Christmas Novella
Book 19: Mine After Dark
(Riley & Nikki)
Book 20: Yours After Dark
(Finn & Chloe)
Book 21: Trouble After Dark
(Deacon & Julia)
Book 22: Rescue After Dark
(Mason & Jordan)
Book 23: Blackout After Dark
(Full Cast)
Book 24: Temptation After Dark
(Gigi & Cooper)
Book 25: Resilience After Dark
(Jace & Cindy)
Book 26: Hurricane After Dark (Full Cast)
Book 27: Renewal After Dark (Duke & McKenzie)
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Get the entire Gansett Island Series
View the McCarthy Family Tree here.
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View the list of Who’s Who on Gansett Island here.
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View a map of Gansett Island.
Chapter 1
View the McCarthy Family Tree here.
* * *
View the list of Who’s Who on Gansett Island here.
Duke Sullivan waited more than a week to move the lovely McKenzie and her son, Jax, to the apartment at his place after the hurricane flattened her cabin next door. With Blaine working around the clock and Tiffany feeling poorly, McKenzie had offered to stay with the family that’d rescued them during the storm to help with their girls. Tiffany had gratefully accepted the offer, and Duke had his plans on hold until he got the text that McKenzie was ready to move to his place.
He couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so excited about anything as he was at having McKenzie and her adorable son come to stay at his garage apartment, which had been empty for years. After his last tenant moved out, he’d decided not to bother renting again because he usually preferred the solitude of having the property to himself.
It was just as well that their plans had been delayed, because his tattoo studio had been nonstop since the power came back last weekend, thankfully just in time for his friends Shannon and Victoria’s wedding to go off without a hitch. The tourists had returned for late-season fun in the sun and were keeping the tattoo studio booming, which was good news after six days with no power and no business.
The island had breathed a collective sigh of relief at the return to mostly normal after a tumultuous week. As far as he knew, only one island resident had been presumed lost in the storm—Billy Weyland, who owned the gym. He was a good guy, and Duke had considered him a friend. But no one could believe he’d decided to ride out the storm on board his sailboat in the Salt Pond.
After the storm, the boat had been found partially sunk with no sign of Billy.
The Coast Guard and local public safety were still looking for him, but no one expected to find him alive at this point, which was freaking sad. And so unnecessary. But what could you do? People made their own choices and had to live with the consequences.
Showered, beard groomed and as cleaned up as he ever got, Duke was about to leave on the most important errand of his life.
The dramatic thought had him laughing at his own foolishness as he stepped out of the shower and reached for one of the towels he’d washed after the power returned. Everything he owned had been washed, polished or swept for the first time in longer than he cared to acknowledge in preparation for his important guests. He was glad he’d gotten to vacuum when the power came back on.
Duke usually looked forward to the post-Labor Day time of year when things slowed down from the madness of the season. But after being shut down for a big chunk of September before and after the storm, everyone was hoping for one last burst of business before the island buttoned up for the winter.
Despite all the other things he needed think about, getting his guests settled had become a priority. He was probably a little too excited about them coming to stay.
Before the storm hit, he’d noticed someone staying at his late friend Rosemary’s cottage next door. He’d also noticed that the woman was young, stunning and caring for a baby. He’d meant to get over there to say hello but had been so busy preparing for the storm that he hadn’t gotten around to it.
Then Ethel flattened Rosemary’s cottage, which sent Duke into the storm to look for them. When there’d been no sign of them in the wrecked cottage, he’d gone to see Blaine Taylor at the police station. The chief told him he’d found them and taken them to his house to ride out the storm.
Duke had been unreasonably relieved to hear they were safe.
So much so, he’d gone next door to the cottage to retrieve what possessions he could find and had delivered clothes, a backpack with a laptop that hadn’t been damaged and other personal items to the Taylors. He’d learned McKenzie—her name was McKenzie—was one of Rosemary’s granddaughters, and the little guy was her son, Jax.
Then he’d spotted a teddy bear in the rubble, brought it home to clean it up and delivered that to her, too. That’s when he’d asked her if she might be interested in his garage apartment until she figured out what to do about the cottage.
Now, finally, the day that McKenzie and Jax would move into the apartment was upon him.
As he stared at his reflection, he tried to see himself the way McKenzie would. He was disappointed to realize that a gorgeous woman like her would probably have no use for a guy like him if he hadn’t been offering her a free place to stay after the storm rendered her homeless.
His face was pleasant enough, and he’d gotten enough compliments on his blue eyes to decide they were his best feature. They sure beat his beak of a nose, that was for sure. He’d taken the time to clean up his unruly beard, and as he ran a comb through long, dark blond hair, he wondered if it wasn’t time for a haircut.
Colorful ink decorated every inch of his torso, stopping just below his jawline.
He smiled when he thought about how Rosemary used to tell him to stop using himself like a coloring book and get a hobby. She’d been a delightful friend and neighbor, regularly baking her famous banana bread for him and the guys at the studio. Much of what he knew about life and adulthood had been learned one lesson at a time as she showed him what he needed to know. He’d looked forward to her arrival every spring and had missed her when she went home to the mainland for the winter.
She’d become “family” to him, not that she’d known that. When she died, he’d mourned her loss more than he ever had for a single other soul. His mother was still alive and living up by Boston, but she’d been in and out of his life so many times, he hardly thought of her as a parent. He’d spent most of his childhood in foster care while she was either in rehab or prison.
Rosemary had been the mother of his heart. He’d missed her tremendously in the two years since she’d passed and would be eternally thankful for her friendship, especially since that friendship had helped him convince her granddaughter to accept his offer of a place to stay. Without Rosemary’s stamp of approval, McKenzie probably would’ve been afraid to be the guest of a strange, long-haired, bearded, tattooed dude.
It'd taken hours of elbow grease to make the garage apartment livable. While he’d scrubbed the place, he’d aired out clean sheets, towels and blankets that had been in the closet for years. After the power returned, he’d washed anything that smelled funky and made her bed with clean, fresh-smelling sheets.
The power had continued to be spotty at times. He’d heard in town that one of the main conduits had been severely damaged and needed to be replaced. Apparently, the electric company was waiting on parts that had to be ordered and were hard to find, since the island’s grid was so outdated. In the meantime, island residents made do with what they had while hoping it wouldn’t go out again. Thankfully, the ferries were back to regular runs, bringing food and gas for generators that’d worked overtime all over the island. Everyone he knew had refilled their gas cans in case they lost power again.
As he’d finished up at the apartment, it occurred to him that she might want to borrow some sugar or something. That’d sent him into a cleaning frenzy in his own home. He sure as hell didn’t want her to think he was a slovenly bachelor who couldn’t take care of himself, even if he might seem that way at first glance.
And honestly, why did he care what she thought of him? She’d come to stay briefly, until her cottage was rebuilt, or she decided island life wasn’t for her. No sense making her arrival out to be the most important or exciting thing that’d happened in years, even if it was.
In a life marked by chaos, moving to Gansett Island had been the best thing he’d ever done for himself. He’d come for the first time with a friend from school, whose family had invited him for a weekend. He’d loved the place from the first second he stepped foot on the rugged, remote island as a sixteen-year-old.
After he’d aged out of the foster system, he’d come back to Gansett, willing to do whatever it took to make a home for himself there. In the ensuing eighteen years, he’d been a dockhand on the ferries and a bartender at the Rusty Scupper, among many other odd jobs. He was eventually hired at the tattoo studio in town, due to his ability to draw anything and everything.
They’d trained him in the trade, and when the owner retired, he’d turned over the shop to Duke, which was how he’d become a business owner at twenty-nine. Seven years later, the shop had grown beyond his wildest dreams and was providing him with a very decent living in-season. The off-season was much quieter, but he’d come to welcome the slower pace and had learned to save up for the slowdown.
On the island, he’d found the peace and quiet that’d eluded him for the first half of his life. Here, he’d found the home of his heart, a family of friends who loved and supported him like no one else ever had, especially Rosemary Enders, who’d shown him more about how to live than anyone else ever had.
His phone rang with a call from one of his close friends, Mick Jacobs from the gym.
“Hey, what’s shakin’?”
“Have you talked to Sturgil since the storm?”
“No, but that’s not unusual. I only say hi to him at the gym, and even that’s a stretch after the way he treated his ex-wife. Why?”
“No one’s heard from him since the storm, and his folks are pushing the panic button. They thought he was on the mainland, but no one has seen him over there either.”
“Is there any chance he was with Billy on the boat?”
“I suppose it’s not impossible. The two of them were friends back in high school. Billy was one of the few people who didn’t turn his back when Sturgil made a mess of things.”
“I was afraid you might say that. Don’t think much of the guy, but I don’t wish him dead.”
He glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and saw it was inching closer to five. “I gotta run. Let me know if you hear anything.”
“You do the same.”
Damn, Duke thought. Sturgil might be missing. He wondered if his ex-wife, Tiffany Taylor, knew that and whether he ought to ask her about it when he picked up McKenzie.
Nah, he decided. Wasn’t his place to tell her, and besides, it wouldn’t take long for word to get out on Gansett that Sturgil might be missing.
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“I didn’t think anything of it, you know?” Tiffany sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea McKenzie had made for her. “He missed his visit with Ashleigh last night, but that’s happened before. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even tell her he’s coming because I don’t want her to be disappointed when he doesn’t show.”
McKenzie wished she knew what to say to Tiffany, who was trying to hold it together since the phone call she’d received from her former mother-in-law, asking if she’d heard from her ex-husband, Jim, since the storm. McKenzie had pieced together enough to realize the breakup had been ugly, and Tiffany didn’t know how she should feel about him possibly being missing.
“I mean, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably off somewhere, oblivious that anyone might be looking for him. Maybe he’s somewhere with no power.”
“I’m sure that’s all it is.”
“It’s such a weird feeling. I’ve secretly wished he’d go away and never come back so many times in the last few years, but hearing he might be missing was so…”
“It’s very upsetting.”
“It is, and I wouldn’t have thought I’d care, to be honest. He put me through hell.”
“I assume you spent a lot of years with him.”
Tiffany nodded. “From high school through to a couple of years ago.”
“At times like this, we tend to focus on the good times and not the bad.”
“That’s true. And here I thought my biggest issue this week was going to be figuring out what to do about my poor squished Bug.” A tree had fallen on her red Volkswagen Beetle during the storm.
“I’m so sorry about that. It was such a cute car.”
“Blaine says we’ll get another one, but that seems so trivial now that I’ve heard Jim is missing.”
She’d no sooner mentioned her husband than Blaine came bursting through the kitchen door, taking them by surprise. “I came as soon as I heard.”
