He was kind of glad it was snowing. The men of the family had been spending every possible minute helping his son Mac and his nephew Shane with the addition to the home of Seamus and Carolina O’Grady, who’d recently taken in two young boys after their mother’s tragic death. Everyone wanted to see the new family settled as soon as possible, and they were down to finish work on the addition. With the storm raging outside, he could justify a day off to spend with his wife.

In the meantime, he found his thoughts wandering back in time to the summer day when he first laid eyes on the woman who’d become his wife. He’d been home in Providence to close on the ramshackle marina that everyone had told him not to buy. His dad had been particularly vociferous in his objections.

“Your grandmother left you that money so you could make something of yourself, Mac,” his father had said. “She’d be very disappointed to see you pissing it away on a hunk of junk in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’m sorry you think so, Dad, but I’ve got a feeling about this place. With a little love and a lot of work, I think I can turn it into a goldmine.”

“And how do you plan to eat while you’re waiting to strike gold?”

“I’ve got my charter captain’s license and feelers out all over the place. I’ll find work. Don’t worry.” As long as he was near the water in some way or another, Mac was confident that he could make a living somehow.

Frank McCarthy Senior had shaken his head with disgust and dismay over the plans his middle son had made for his little corner of Gansett Island.

“Let him be, Frank,” Mac’s mother, Jane, had said. “He’s got to make his own way the same way you made yours. Harping on him isn’t going to change his mind, especially when he’s signing the papers tomorrow.”

Despite his mother’s support, Mac had left his parents’ home that day feeling dejected and scared for the first time since he’d fallen in love with the marina. What if his dad was right? What if he’d truly pissed away the nest egg his grandmother had left him on something that would never pay off?

As he drove the truck he’d bought in high school that was on its last legs to his brother Frank’s place, he blasted Bruce Springsteen’s new album “Born to Run” in the tape deck while his chest tightened with stress and panic. He’d wagered everything he had and then some on the marina, knowing it needed a load of work to make it presentable. He’d never been afraid of hard work and had been looking forward to getting on with it before his dad filled his head with worries.