Author’s Note

Sometimes we have to go back to go forward, and that is the case with Desire After Dark, which picks up the Gansett Island timeline the day after Big Mac and Linda’s anniversary party in Celebration After Dark. In that book, Slim Jackson came home to Gansett for his friends’ party—and to pick up where he left off the previous autumn with Erin Barton, the island’s new lighthouse keeper.

Desire After Dark covers the weeks between the anniversary party and Evan and Grace’s destination wedding. You’ll see a few things that were mentioned in Celebration from differing points of view. The next book, Light After Dark, featuring Big Mac’s daughter, Mallory Vaughn, will jump forward to the spring and the long-awaited arrival of the Lawry twins, among other exciting events on Gansett Island.

I know I say this same thing every time, but I can’t believe we’re at book 15 with Gansett and still going strong, with no end in sight. I’ve got lots of ideas for upcoming books, and I thank my faithful readers for continuing to support the Gansett Island Series five years after Maid for Love debuted.

When you’re finished reading Desire After Dark, join the Reader Group where you’ll be eligible for release week giveaways and other fun things! Remember that spoilers are allowed and encouraged in the reader group, so don’t join until after you read. At the end of the book, read about other release week giveaways, including a weekend for two at my Beachcomber Cottage in Rhode Island, which includes airfare, rental car, dinner with me and my local team and a welcome basket with signed books and swag. This is available ONLY during release week, May 23-28, so read and enter before the deadline!

Thank you, as always, to my amazing behind-the-scenes team, led by my majordomo, Chief Operating Officer Julie Cupp, CMP, along with Lisa Cafferty, CPA, Holly Sullivan, Isabel Sullivan, Nikki Colquhoun, Cheryl Serra, Ashley Lopez and Courtney Lopes. I couldn’t do what I do without their support and hard work, as well as that of my husband, Dan, who runs the home front while I write. Thank you to my fantastic editorial team of Linda Ingmanson and Joyce Lamb as well as my beta readers Anne Woodall, Kara Conrad, Ronlyn Howe and Holly Sullivan. Big thanks to Sarah Spate Morrison, family nurse practitioner, for keeping me straight on medical details and for not telling her mom that she gets to read the books early.

Most of all, thank you to my extraordinarily supportive readers, who make everything possible. I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.

xoxo

Marie

Chapter 1