Gansett After Dark by Marie Force Page A

this show on the road now that everyone is here,” Frank said.
    “What show?” Linda asked.
    “Shall I tell them, Mom?” Joe asked.
    “Please do.”
    “The Carolina and Seamus show,” Joe said. “They’re getting married today.”
    Linda let out a piercing shriek. “ What? ”
    “You heard him,” Caro said, clearly amused by her longtime friend’s reaction to their news.
    “You sneaky devils!” Linda hugged Carolina and then him. “Congratulations! What a fun idea—a surprise wedding.” Linda’s face turned bright red. “Sorry if we held things up.”
    “No problem,” Caro said with a warm smile for the woman who had been family to her since Joe met Linda’s son Mac in kindergarten. “You’re here now, so…” She looked at him. “Shall we do this?”
    “Oh yes, please, love.”
    “Excellent,” Frank said. “You two get ready, and leave the rest to me. Mac, come help me get everyone where they need to be.”
    As he followed his brother to the sliding door that led to the deck and yard, Big Mac stopped to shake hands with Seamus. “You’re marrying one of the finest women I know. Take good care of her.”
    “I will. You have my word on it.”
    Big Mac nodded in approval and continued to the yard.
    Seamus stood with Carolina, Joe, Janey and Linda and listened to the McCarthy brothers corral their friends and family into a group.  
    “Folks,” Frank said, “we have a bit of a surprise for you today. Where’s Seamus?”
    “That’d be my cue.” Seamus kissed and hugged Carolina. Whispering in her ear, he said, “You and me forever, love. We got this.”
    She sniffled as she nodded.
    “See you out there. Don’t get lost on the way.”
    “I won’t,” she said with a laugh as she mopped up her tears with tissues that Linda provided.  
    Seamus emerged into the yard, where a buzz of curiosity had their guests riveted to what was going on. They’d decided to let their actions speak for them, so he walked over to Frank and shook his hand as everyone watched him with puzzled looks on their faces.  
    Janey, carrying P.J., walked with her mother to the front of the group that stood around them.
    “Give it up, Janey,” her brother Mac said. “What’s going on?”
    “Shush,” she said. “You’ll see in a minute.”
    After a long pause that had everyone straining for a better view of the house, Carolina emerged on the arm of her son. She carried a bouquet of daisies that Seamus had picked for her from their garden.  
    “Oh my God,” Adam McCarthy said. “They’re getting married!”

Chapter 6
    Seamus laughed at the startled reactions that followed Adam’s announcement. When Carolina and Joe reached the spot they’d decided on earlier, she turned and hugged her son. After a few whispered words, both were dabbing at their eyes.
    Seamus held out his hand to Caro, who wrapped her fingers around his. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and let out a deep breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding as he waited for disaster to strike. For days after they hatched this plan, he’d expected her to tell him she’d changed her mind. But that hadn’t happened, and now they were exactly where he’d wanted to be for almost as long as he’d known her.
    “Friends, on behalf of Seamus and Carolina, I’m pleased to welcome you to their clambake-slash-wedding,” Frank said to enthusiastic cheers from the gathering. “It’s been an enormous pleasure to spend time with them in the last couple of weeks as they prepared for today. More than anything, they wanted their wedding to be casual and fun, and they wanted to include the people who mean the most to them. Seamus and Carolina have chosen to write their own vows, so I’ll let them take it from here. Seamus?”
    Carolina handed her bouquet to Linda and turned to him.
    Holding both her hands, he looked down at her, hoping he could get through this without making a fool of himself. “From the day I first met my new boss’s mum, I knew