Page 1 of Renewal After Dark

Chapter1

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.

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