Evan & Grace
He gave her a hand when she needed it. Can he give her forever?
All her life, Grace Ryan was the âfat girl.â Taunted and teased and ignored by her peers, she tried every diet ever invented to no avail. Desperate to change her life as her twenties slipped away, she decided it was time for drastic measures and had lap-band surgery. More than a year later, she’s lost 130 pounds and is venturing into the dating world for the first time. During a boat trip to Gansett Island with the new guy in her life, Grace refuses to have sex with him and finds herself abandoned without a dollar to her name at McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina.
At home for the summer awaiting the launch of his debut CD, music star-in-the-making Evan McCarthy is performing at the Tiki Bar when he notices Grace looking lost in a sea of happy people. Evan comes to her aid and quickly finds himself smitten. But the last thing Grace needs after all sheâs been through is a guy who âdoesn’t do relationships.â Will Evan change his ways to win Grace’s heart?
EBOOK
TRADE PAPERBACK
HARDCOVER
AUDIO
Hoping for Love
(Gansett Island Series, Book 5)
By Marie Force
Chapter 1
This moment had been a long time coming. Since fourth grade, if Grace was being truthful. That was how long sheâd been madly, passionately, insanely in lustâat the very leastâwith Trey Parsons. Of course, she couldnât have chosen to give her heart to a mere mortal. No, sheâd set her sights on a god among men, a four-sport athlete sheâd adored from afar all through middle and high school. While heâd been the star of field and court, sheâd been known as âthe Whale,â and not because of her swimming skills.
Now, ten years and a hundred and thirty pounds later, she was getting busy with her own personal godâthat was if she didnât wet the bed first. Her bladder was going to explode any second now, which, from what sheâd heard about âthe act,â was not the part of her that was supposed to explode.
They were in the V-berth of his fatherâs fancy boat, tied up at McCarthyâs Gansett Island Marina for the nightâthe night she would part with her virginity if it was the last thing she ever did. And while she wished she could focus on the divine feeling of his lips and tongue on her nipple, a more pressing need had her full attention.
She pushed on his shoulder. âTrey.â
He raised his head. âWhat?â
âI need to get up.â
Taking her hand, he flashed a sexy grin and tried to press her palm against his pulsating erection. âIâm already up, babe.â
Grace pulled her hand back. âNot you. Me. I have to pee.â
Frustrated, he flopped on the bed. âHurry up already.â
She reached for his discarded T-shirt and started to put it on.
âWhatâre you getting dressed for? Just go.â He took the shirt from her. âYou donât need this.â
The Grace Ryan whoâd never been naked in front of another living soul clung to the shirt. But the Grace who was more than ready for a whole new life let him take it from her.
He caressed her face. âGo on. Itâs okay.â
The tenderâand unexpectedâgesture gave her the courage she needed to slide off the bunk and duck into the tiny head without obsessing too much about what her backside might look like to him. Wondering if heâd hear her peeing through the wall almost made it impossible for her to go.
Oh, Iâm so not cut out for this, Old Grace thought. Yes, you are, New Grace insisted. You have as much right to a hot night with a hot guy as any other girl. Youâve certainly earned it.
That much was true. With her arms crossed over her abundant breastsâthe one part of her that hadnât benefitted from the weight lossâshe took care of business and stood just as the phone Trey had left on the counter chimed with a text message.
Honestly, she didnât intend to look at it, but he was Trey Parsons after all, the stud king of Mystic, Connecticut, and she didnât trust him as far as she could spit him. So she looked.
From âQuigs,â also known as Tom Quigley, Treyâs best friend since grade school:
Did u nail the whale yet? Remember $500 in it for ya if u bring back proof of the cherry bomb.
Grace was frozen with shock and horror. It had all been a big joke! Weeks of dates and flowers and âromanceâ had all been a big, fat joke! And to think sheâd almost given him her virginity so he could use it like a trophy to impress his asshole friends! Red-hot rage the likes of which sheâd never before experienced surged through her.
âWhat the hell are you doing in there?â Trey called, no doubt impatient to seal the deal so he could collect his prize money.
Grace wished she could storm out there and tell him off, but the fact that she was naked made it hard for her to think about anything other than the fact that she was nakedâand humiliated. Again.
Staring in the small mirror, she forced back the pain, focused on the rage and opened the door.
âI thought you just had to pee.â Had she ever noticed that he pouted like a petulant child when he didnât get his way? âYou were in there so long I lost my boner.â
Grace threw the phone at him, narrowly missing his head. Too bad. âYou left it in the bathroom.â She pulled on her clothes with frantic, jerky movements, desperate to cover herself and get out of there.
âWhatâre you doing?â
âWhat does it look like Iâm doing?â
His blond hair was mussed from her fingers, and his blue eyes shot daggers at her. What had she ever seen in him anyway? âWhy?â
âIâm going for a walk.â
âWhat the hell? I thought we were having sex here!â
âWere is the key word. I need more time to think about it.â What she needed was to figure out a way home that wouldnât involve calling the parents who hadnât wanted her to go on this overnight in the first place.
âYou gotta be freaking kidding me. Weâve been dating for weeks! How much more time do you need?â
âI donât know.â She grabbed her phone and headed for the cabin door. âIâll be back.â
âDonât rush on my account.â
Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed him staring at his phone. Good. Let him figure out that she was on to his sick little plan. As she climbed off the boat onto the pier at McCarthyâs, her hands and legs trembled from shock and anger. On her way up the dock, the pain set in. After everything sheâd been throughâyears of obesity, the huge decision to have lap-band surgery and all her hard work to lose the weight and keep it off for more than a yearâshe was still âthe fat girlâ to people like Trey whoâd never known her as anything else.
Thank goodness sheâd discovered what a total asshole Trey was before things had gone any further. When she thought about being naked in bed with him and how close theyâd come . . . âUgh!â She sank her fingers into her hair, wishing she could scrub the images from her brain.
While theyâd been frolicking aboard the boat, the sun had set over Gansettâs Great Salt Pond. A crowd was gathered at the Tiki Bar, where two guitarists played old favorites, not that Grace paid much attention as she walked past the bar. She had far more pressing issuesâsuch as getting as far away from Trey Parsons as possible.
âExcuse me,â she said to an older man who leaned against a cab reading the newspaper.
He glanced up at her, a friendly smile on his weathered face. âHow can I help ya?â
âI was wonderingâwhat time does the last ferry leave?â
âYa just missed it. Left at eight.â
Grace sagged under the weight of the realization that she was stuck on the island until morning. âCan you recommend a place where I might be able to get a room for the evening?â
He let out a guffaw. âOn Labor Day weekend? Hate to tell ya, doll, but everythingâs been booked for months. Thereâs not a room to be had on the entire island. Biggest weekend of the year, âcept fer Gansett Race Week.â
Grace conjured up an image of the camper-sized sofa in the boatâs salon. It was small, but it would do for one night. âThanks for your help,â she said.
âAny time.â
Since she had no choice, she turned and made her way slowly and reluctantly back to the boat, taking her time to avoid Trey for that much longer. On the way, she spent a moment appreciating the two supremely handsome men who were performing at the Tiki Bar. One of them had shaggy blond hair and a smile that wouldnât quit. He seemed in his element playing the guitar and singing for the appreciative crowd.
The other had dark hairâPatrick Dempsey hair, she decidedâa muscular build and a face that belonged in movies. He, too, seemed right at home on stage and sang with his partner as if theyâd been performing together for years.
Leaning against the gift shop building, Grace hummed along to âBrown Eyed Girlâ and âTurn the Pageâ before she reluctantly continued down the pier to deal with Trey. As she approached the spot where the boat was supposed to be, she did a double take.
It was gone.
âOh my God,â she whispered. âThat bastard!â
She stared at the empty spot at the dock for a long moment before the truth sank in. Heâd left her there alone, taking her purse and clothes with him. She was stuck on Gansett Island with no boyfriend, no place to stay and no money. In the span of an instant, she went from hurt to angry to scared and then to sad. What was supposed to have been one of the greatest nights of her life had turned into yet another disaster.
This, Evan McCarthy thought, is as good as it gets. Strumming his guitar in perfect harmony with his best friend on a warm late-summer evening at the docks where heâd spent an idyllic childhood. Playing the home crowd at McCarthyâs Gansett Island Marina beat any stage in any venue, and heâd played his share of stages and venues.
He and Owen Lawry exchanged glances as they played the last notes of âBad Moon Risingâ and launched into their anthem, âTake it Easy.â Life was good. His album would be out by Christmas, heâd had an awesome time with his brothers, sister and extended family during his sisterâs wedding the previous weekend and the tropical storm that followed. Heâd gotten a new niece out of the storm, born to his brother Mac and sister-in-law Maddie.
After a scary accident earlier in the summer, his father seemed to be on the mend from a head injury and broken arm. âBig Macâ McCarthy wasnât quite his old self yet, but he was better than heâd been. Evan was somewhat concerned about the unusual bickering heâd witnessed between his parents since heâd been home, but he chalked that up to the strain of his fatherâs recovery, their daughterâs wedding, a houseful of extra people and the unexpected arrival of a granddaughter during a tropical storm.
A table of pretty young women had been sending flirtatious signals to him and Owen all evening. Theyâd have their pick of the ladies at closing time. Since he was still staying with his folks up the hill at the âWhite House,â the name the islanders had bestowed upon the McCarthy family home, he hoped the ladies had their own rooms at whatever hotel they were calling home for the weekend.
A nice fling over the long weekend would be just what the doctor ordered after a summer of nonstop work. Heâd been feeling cooped up lately, caged and unsettled. A little mindless sex would straighten him right outâthe sooner the better, as far as he was concerned. When was the last time heâd blown off some steam? That he couldnât remember was worrisome.
He joined Owen for the chorus to âTake it Easy,â high off the adrenaline of performing before an appreciative audience. Here he had none of the issues with the crippling stage fright that had plagued him throughout his career. That was another reason why he loved playing on Gansett so much.
Owen grinned at him, no doubt enjoying this evening as much as Evan. The gig was actually Owenâs. Evanâs folks had convinced O to stay on until Columbus Day, and heâd cajoled Evan into joining him tonight. It hadnât required much arm twisting, since Evan hadnât been doing anything but hanging around the house trying to dodge his motherâs increasingly probing inquiries into his nonexistent love life.
The one thing Evan McCarthy avoided like the clap was commitment, which was the last thing his mother wanted to hear, especially with his siblings falling like dominoes lately. First Mac fell for Maddie, then Janey married Macâs best friend, Joe, and then Grant fell for Stephanie. To add insult to injury, even their friend Luke Harris went down hard this summer after reconnecting with his first love, Sydney Donovan. Evan had no idea what was in the water lately, but whatever it was, he wasnât thirsty.
Thank God at least Owen shared Evanâs commitment to bachelorhood. So did Evanâs brother Adam, whoâd gone back to New York once the ferries started running again after the storm. The three of them had to stick together in the midst of all this marriage mayhem.
Owen nudged him, nodded toward a woman sitting at a table by herself, and raised a questioning eyebrow.
As Evan watched her, she swiped at tears and stared off in the distance. Unlike the other women in the crowd, she wasnât paying them an ounce of attention. Evan told himself that was okay even as his ego registered the hit.
Evan shrugged as they started into âLove the One Youâre With.â As he sang along, he kept half an eye on the unhappy woman in the corner. Thanks to the overhead lights on the pier, he could see that she had shiny, dark, shoulder-length hair, the kind of hair that would feel like silk when you ran your fingers through it. What he could see of her face struck him as exceptionally prettyâor it wouldâve been if it hadnât been red and blotchy from crying.
When they finished the song, Owen announced theyâd be taking a short break. Usually this was the point in the program when they lined up after-hours entertainment. At their table of admirers, the perky blonde heâd been making eyes with gave Evan a come-hither smile, full of invitation. All he had to do was walk over and close the deal theyâd been negotiating for hours now.
âWhatâs with the weepy chick in the corner?â Owen asked as they set their guitars into stands.
âNo clue.â
âDoesnât look like sheâs here with anyone.â
Evan looked over at her again, noting that she continued to stare off into space as if she had no clue she was in the midst of a bar full of people having fun.
âWeâre not under any obligation here, are we?â Owen asked warily, eyeing the tableful of friendly women.
âYouâre not, thatâs for sure.â
âDude, just because your folks own the placeââ
âWWBMD?â
Confused, Owen stared at him. âHuh?â
âWhat would Big Mac do?â Evan asked, knowing the answer to his question before he asked it.
Wincing, Owen said, âBring a gun to a knife fight, why donâcha?â He accepted a couple of beers from a waitress and handed one to Evan.
âI could ignore it and go about my life, but his voice would be in my head, ruining whatever fun I might be trying to have,â Evan said. âHeâd be saying, âHow could you leave that gal crying all alone, son? Especially when sheâs a guest at our place? Thatâs not the kind of man I raised you to be.ââ
Owen busted up laughing. âJesus, you sound just like him.â
âYears of intensive training, my friend.â Evan took another look at the young woman, confirming she was still there and still miserable. With a resigned sigh, he said, âWish me luck.â
Owen touched his bottle to Evanâs. âGo get her, tiger. Iâll entertain the other ladies for both of us.â
âGee, youâre a pal.â Like a condemned man heading to the gallows, Evan started toward the corner table. As he passed the perky blonde, he sent his regrets with a shrug and a rueful grin. Wouldâve been fun. He approached the corner table and plopped down, startling the crying woman. âNow tell me thisâwhat in the world couldâve ruined such a great night for such a pretty lady?â
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Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.Â
~ Calvin Coolidge
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