Harbor Lights

Dear Friends,

From the time I was four, I spent my summers along the Potomac River not far from the Chesapeake Bay. My love for this locale has grown out of those carefree days spent swimming—not very well—in the river, walking along the beaches and, more recently, sitting on my front porch watching a bald eagle sit high in an old oak tree peering out at the water. There’s no place on earth quite like this in terms of beauty and tranquillity.

Though my love of the area grew over time, another member of my family was far more proactive in seeking to save this vast estuary. My mother’s cousin, Tayloe Murphy, while in the Virginia House of Delegates and later as Director of Natural Resources for the state, has been heavily involved in both creating legislation and in oversight. He and others were my inspiration for some of the characters in
Harbor Lights,
including Mick O’Brien’s brother Thomas.

Of course, Mick’s son, Kevin, has his own love of this region and it helps him to begin the healing process as he returns to the fictional town of Chesapeake Shores with his son after his wife’s death in Iraq. I hope you’ll enjoy Kevin’s very emotional story and enjoy being back with all the O’Briens.

And if you ever have the opportunity, I hope you’ll visit the Chesapeake Bay and come to understand why the fight to preserve its natural beauty is so important.

All good wishes,

Prologue

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

F
ormer army medic Kevin O’Brien had seen his share of combat, violence and death. He’d served two tours in Iraq before being discharged a few months ago. In his current job as a paramedic in Arlington, Virginia, he’d been on plenty of accident scenes, treated gunshot victims, and gone on domestic violence calls where arguments had turned nasty. None of it, though, had prepared him emotionally for spending a day with a sick kid—his sick kid.

He’d spent the night pacing the floor of his Northern Virginia town house, his miserable eleven-month-old son cradled against his shoulder. Davy intermittently squalled and whimpered, leaving Kevin frustrated and anxious and about ten seconds away from calling his grandmother back home in Chesapeake Shores for advice…or maybe hopping into his truck and driving straight over there. Gram would be thrilled to take over for him.

It was times like this when Kevin missed his wife the most. He could handle the basics of day care and meals, even the everyday medical stuff—baby aspirin, eardrops, whatever—but Georgia had the soothing voice down pat. He was almost certain that Davy never cried this loudly—as if his little heart were breaking—when he was being held by his mom.

Unfortunately, Georgia had another six months to serve on her latest stint as a medic in Iraq. With a new baby in the house, she could have gotten out of the overseas assignment, but she had refused. She’d insisted on going where she thought she was most needed by the military and her country. If she kept her promise—and it was a big
if
in Kevin’s mind—this would be her last tour before she, too, was discharged. Then they planned to move to Maryland to be close to Kevin’s family in Chesapeake Shores, the quaint seaside town his father had built.

As terrified as Kevin had been of staying behind and being a single dad to an infant, he’d understood Georgia’s devotion to duty. She wasn’t the only mother who’d made the difficult decision to leave her family behind to serve in the army. Besides, her very dedication to the mission was one of the things he’d admired the most about Georgia when they’d met on the job at a hospital in Baghdad’s Green Zone, supposedly the safest spot to be in that war-torn country.

Kevin paused in his pacing to look at their wedding photo, sitting on the mantel. It was practically the only time he’d seen Georgia in public wearing anything other than her medic’s uniform. He hadn’t been able to get over how beautiful she’d looked in the simple white gown, her golden hair in unaccustomed curls, her smile so bright it made his heart ache with missing her.

That they’d married in a rushed ceremony at the Baltimore airport had hardly mattered, because her father, a minister in Texas, had flown in at the last minute to officiate. Her mother had accompanied him. Georgia had sworn it didn’t matter that they wouldn’t have the lavish ceremony most girls dreamed of. It had been enough to have her family beside her when she and Kevin had wed.

Kevin’s only family member present for the brief service had been his dad, because he’d wanted the rest of the family to meet Georgia for the first time at home on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, not in a whirlwind in some sterile room at the airport. He’d taken plenty of grief over that decision, especially from his sisters.

Now he picked up the wedding picture and held it in front of Davy, as he did almost daily. “Do you see this pretty woman, kiddo? This is your mom. I know you’re sad without her, but I’m doing the best I can. And your Uncle Connor is coming over here tomorrow to hook us up with a camera so we’ll be able to talk to her and see her on the computer. It’ll be almost as if she’s right here with us.”

Davy hiccuped, his eyes wide and shiny with unshed tears. “Mama,” he said, reaching toward the picture.

Kevin beamed at him. “That’s exactly right. That’s your mama. She’s a real beauty, pal. The sweetest woman in the whole world. Feisty, too, and brave. Boy, does she have a mind of her own. She’s going to keep both of us on our toes once she gets home.”

Davy whimpered, then laid his head on Kevin’s shoulder. He could feel his son’s breath, warm and soft, against his neck. Maybe Davy was finally falling asleep. Maybe they’d both finally get some much-needed rest.

The wistful thought had barely come to him when the doorbell rang, snapping Davy awake with a start. The crying started up all over again, even as Kevin cursed under his breath and headed for the door.

When he opened it, the sight of two somber men in uniform on the doorstep sent him staggering back. He knew why they were here. God help him, he knew.

“No.” It was the only word he could manage with Davy still sobbing and his own heart about to break.

“Sir, we regret to inform you—”

Kevin cut them off. “No,” he repeated more forcefully. “I have to…” He looked around, uncertain what he had to do. Something,
anything,
to prevent them from saying what the family of any soldier dreaded hearing.

“My son,” he said finally. “Let me put him down, please.”

The two soldiers regarded him with compassion. “Of course, sir.”

He carried his son into the nursery, but in the end he couldn’t let go. He needed that tiny bit of warmth, the human contact, to steady himself for what was coming. He needed to be reminded that, no matter what, he had to keep a grip on things. His boy needed him. From here on out, he and Davy had to be a team, just the two of them.

Because even though he hadn’t heard the words yet, he knew: Georgia was dead. How and when hardly mattered, only that one truth with its ultimate finality: Davy’s mom—Kevin’s wife—wouldn’t be back. Their all-too-brief life as a family was over, practically before it had begun.