Driftwood Cottage

by Sherryl Woods

  “Thanks,” she said, then stared after them as they left.

  “That child adores you,” her mother said, moving back to the chair beside the bed. “So does his father. I’ve seen it in his eyes whenever he’s here. And the way he talks about you… Oh, my, it’s evident how scared he was when he thought he might lose you. He was wearing his heart on his sleeve. Why the two of you can’t work things out is beyond me.”

  “Not discussing this with you, Mom. I’ve told you how things are for Connor and me. It’s not going to change.”

  Bridget gave her a sharp look. “Are you so sure about that? I’ve never seen anyone crazier about a woman. He barely slept a wink when you first came to the hospital, and he’s still here every spare minute he has. He’s even put his new job on hold. That tells me quite a lot about Connor’s devotion to you. Frankly, it’s been a revelation to me.”

  That last was news to Heather. She’d have to tell Connor it was time for him to go to work. She didn’t want to stand in the way of this new career of his. Though she was grateful for his visits, she no longer needed him hovering over her or even running interference between her and her mother.

  “I’m of a mind to sit him down and have a serious talk with him,” her mother said. “It’s time he faced up to his responsibilities and did the right thing by you and that boy! I doubt it would take more than a gentle push to move him in that direction.”

  “Mom!” Heather protested. “Not a word to Connor. Is that clear? We’re both adults and perfectly capable of deciding what’s right for us.”

  “I see no evidence of that,” Bridget persisted.

  “You’ll just have to trust me. Stay out of it, Mom. I mean it.”

  Her mother looked put out by the order, but she nodded eventually. “Okay, fine. Whatever you want. I’ll keep my opinions and observations to myself.”

  “I’d appreciate it,” Heather told her.

  She didn’t want to hear her mother’s speculations about Connor’s feelings, either, because stirring up old hopes accomplished nothing. She’d accepted reality a long time ago, and nothing had changed.

  Unfortunately, accepting reality and figuring out how to live with it, especially with Connor being so attentive lately, were two different things.

  Connor was walking down the hallway on his way to Heather’s room when he ran into the social worker.

  “Mr. O’Brien, do you have a minute?” Jill Swanson called out to him.

  He paused and waited for her to catch up. “What’s up?”

  “Ms. Donovan’s going to be released in another day or two, but we need to make sure she can manage when she gets home. I understand she lives with her son in a second-floor apartment.” She met his gaze. “That’s just not going to work under the circumstances. She can’t possibly cope with either the stairs or a very active toddler.”

  Connor had anticipated something like this. He’d already decided that Heather would either come home with him where there would be plenty of people around to help, or he would move into her apartment. Unless, of course, Bridget Donovan intended to hang around until Heather was fully recovered. Given the increasingly irritated calls she was getting from her husband back in Ohio, he doubted that was likely.

  “I have a couple of alternative options, but I need to run them past Heather,” he told the social worker. “I assure you, though, when the time comes, Heather will have all the help she needs.”

  “You’ll need to fill me in on the plan once the two of you have discussed it,” the woman insisted. “Otherwise, I won’t be able to agree to her release.”

  “Not a problem,” he assured her. At least not if Heather was being reasonable. Since he knew how badly she wanted to get out of this place, he suspected that for once she’d be more agreeable than usual.

  After talking to Jill Swanson, Connor made a U-turn and left the hospital. He drove straight to a jewelry store, picked out a diamond ring, stopped by his sister’s shop for a lavish bouquet of bright pink and white peonies, then returned to the hospital. By the time he got back, Heather was napping. Her mother had gone back to the house with Megan for lunch.

  Connor sat beside the bed and tried to work out what he was going to say. Proposing was obviously new to him. Did the words matter? Or was it just the intent? For a man who wrote effective opening statements and closing arguments for courtrooms, he was surprisingly inept at putting his feelings into words. Somehow the stakes were way too high.

  As he silently rehearsed various options, he glanced over at the bed and saw Heather staring at him, obviously amused.

  “Do you have some kind of big court case tomorrow?” she asked.

  “No. Why?”

  “Because the only time I’ve seen you muttering so intensely under your breath was when you were trying to get a closing argument down pat.”

  He met her gaze. “In a way, this is the same thing,” he admitted.

  “Oh?”

  “A closing argument sums up your case. It tells the court what you want them to take away from all the evidence.”

  “I know that,” she said.

  “Well, what I have to say to you is a lot like that. I need to present all my evidence, sum it up and then pray you reach the right conclusion.”

  She regarded him with a perplexed expression. “You’re not making a lot of sense.” She glanced past him and spotted the vase filled with peonies. “Where did those come from? They look beautiful and smell fabulous.”

  “They’re part of my evidence,” he told her. “I want you to know how much I care about you. I know you love peonies.”

  She gave him an oddly quizzical look. “Connor, I’ve never doubted your love. You don’t need to bring me flowers to prove anything. The fact that you’ve been here for hours every day tells me all I need to know.”

  “Well, here’s the thing,” he began earnestly. “This accident, it changed something for me. That day, when my dad came to tell me what happened, that you were in the hospital, I can’t even begin to tell you how terrified I was. There were a few minutes there when I couldn’t even catch my breath, I was so scared. The drive over here was excruciating, with me not knowing what to expect when I got here. For all I knew you could have…” He shook off the words. “Never mind.”

  The mere idea that she could have been dead was too awful to mention. The point was that she was here, alive and on her way to a full recovery, and he would spend every day for the rest of his life being grateful for that.

  She reached for his hand. “Connor, it’s okay. I’m right here. The crisis is past. And I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. It’s time for you to start working for Joshua Porter. I’m sure he must be anxious to have you take on some of his cases.”

  “Work’s not the issue,” he said impatiently. “I’m trying to say something important here.”

  “What’s more important than getting off on the right foot with this new job?” she asked.

  “You, dammit! You’re more important. I’m trying to tell you that the day of the accident I realized just how much I love you. I don’t want to lose you, Heather.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small jewelry box with the ring in it and held it out. She stared at it, shock written all over her face.

  “What is that?”

  He knew she was neither blind nor stupid. She knew what it was. She’d just never expected to see such a thing in his hand. Maybe the element of surprise would be a good thing.

  “Marry me, Heather,” he said quietly. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you and our son, taking care of you, making sure you’re happy.”

  She didn’t look half as bowled over by the proposal as he’d anticipated. In fact, she looked more confused than anything. Maybe even a little sad, though he had no idea why getting what she’d always wanted would sadden her.

  “And you?” she asked. “Will getting married make you happy? Have you changed that much in a week?”

  “I’m asking, aren’t I?” h
e said, unable to control his impatience.

  “And I love you for asking, but no,” she said, her voice filled with so much tenderness that it made him want to scream.

  “But I made a promise,” he said before he could stop himself.

  “A promise?” she asked blankly. “To whom?”

  “To God. I told Him if you pulled through, I’d marry you just the way you wanted.”

  He knew, even as the words crossed his lips, that he’d gotten it all wrong. Telling her he’d made a bargain with God was absolutely the worst thing he could have admitted. It was too late, though, to scramble for another explanation. Nor could he take back the words. At this point, he couldn’t even rephrase the proposal and make it more romantic, more believable.

  He stared into Heather’s eyes, saw the pain there, and knew he’d blown his chance. He might have others—in fact, he would see to it that he had as many as necessary—but this one had slipped away. He was probably lucky she was confined to bed, or she might very well have dumped those beautiful peonies over his head.

  “I don’t get it,” he said, unable to stop himself even though he knew he was only making things worse. “I thought this was what you wanted.”

  “Not like this,” she said softly, then rolled over and turned her back on him, but not before he’d seen the tears that filled her eyes.

  Heather should have known that turning down Connor’s proposal wouldn’t be the end of it. Apparently working up the courage to say the words once had emboldened him. For the past two days he’d been asking just about every time he walked into the room and they were left alone. She finally lost patience.

  “Connor O’Brien, I will not marry you just because you had some epiphany on the way to the hospital,” she declared, scowling at him. “How many times do I have to tell you that? You’re being very sweet, but the answer is still no!”

  All of the pretty words he’d been spouting should have been gratifying, but his proposals were getting on her nerves. Everything was getting on her nerves. She wanted to go home.

  The only way that was going to happen, though, was if someone was there to look after her. Her cracked ribs were going to take time to heal, as was her broken leg. Right now the whole process looked daunting.

  The entire O’Brien family had volunteered to help out, but it was Connor’s offer that she found most troubling. It came with totally unexpected strings, and it seemed he wasn’t above using her release as a means to get what he wanted.

  “You want to leave here, don’t you?” he asked yet again, a coaxing note in his voice. “You can do it with full-time help. That’s what the social worker has said. I can provide that, but only if you’ll agree to marry me.”

  “That’s blackmail,” she accused, stunned that he could be so sneaky. How dare he make a mockery of the one thing he knew she wanted above all else—the two of them together forever?

  “No, it’s giving you everything you claimed to want,” he countered. “You get to go home and you get me in the bargain. Forever this time, with a marriage license to prove it.”

  “Why do I feel as if I’m on Let’s Make a Deal?” she asked, thoroughly disgruntled, even though, as he said, he was offering everything she’d wanted. “A proposal’s supposed to be romantic. This one sounds an awful lot like bartering for a few sheep and a couple of cows.”

  “Hey, that worked in a lot of cultures for a very long time.”

  She frowned at the flip comment. “Connor, I can’t marry you just so I’ll have a caregiver for a few months. What happens once I’m well?”

  “We’ll have the life we deserve,” he said as if it were as simple as that.

  She shook her head. “No, you’ll start having regrets.”

  “No, I won’t,” he insisted. “Why are you fighting me so hard on this? You said you loved me.”

  “I do,” she confirmed. “That’s beside the point.”

  “Hardly. And I love you.” He held her gaze. “I really don’t see the problem.”

  “Love was never enough for you before,” she reminded him. “You’ve always assumed it would vanish in a puff of smoke by the time the ink dried on the marriage license.”

  “I’ve given the matter more thought,” he claimed.

  She rolled her eyes. If she’d been even a tiny bit stronger and the least bit mobile, she would have crawled out of bed to shake him. “Connor, stop with this nonsense,” she nearly shouted instead. “You still don’t believe in marriage. That’s why this whole idea is crazy.”

  He reached for her hand. His grasp warmed her, even if the situation sent a chill right through her.

  “Look at me,” he commanded. She met his gaze, and he continued, “When I thought I was going to lose you, I nearly went out of my mind. It made me realize that I don’t want to live another minute without you. Whatever time we have together on this earth, I want to spend it with you and our son. I want to have more kids with you. I could be content to do that without a wedding license, but you can’t, so I’m going to focus on how important you are to me and take that walk down the aisle because it matters to you.”

  Heather wanted so badly to take what he was offering and let it be enough, but how could she? She’d always feel as if she had somehow trapped him into doing something that went against his deepest convictions. She’d always know he’d gone into the marriage under duress.

  “No,” she whispered, barely able to utter the word. “It won’t work that way, Connor. It can’t.”

  He looked thoroughly shaken by her latest refusal, as if she’d finally pushed him too far. He’d put aside his own beliefs and laid himself on the line, and now she’d rejected him.

  But what else could she have done? she wondered. She knew him better than he knew himself. If he made this crazy sacrifice and they married now, he’d be miserable.

  He stood up, his spine rigid. He started for the door, then stopped and looked back.

  “Because I’ve always been honest with you and told you how I feel, you’re going to hold it against me forever, aren’t you?” he said, his voice empty of emotion. “I see now that I’ll never be able to persuade you that I’ve changed, that I’m really ready to commit to you for the long haul.”

  “Maybe not,” she admitted, though saying it nearly broke her heart.

  And watching him walk out of her hospital room, his shoulders hunched, an air of defeat about him, finished the job.

  18

  Connor walked blindly out of the hospital, trying to grapple with the fact that Heather had been so adamant in her refusal of his proposal. He thought he’d offered everything she’d ever claimed to want, and it wasn’t enough. What was he supposed to do now? Accept that their relationship was well and truly over? He didn’t think he could do that, and yet he was out of ideas.

  He was walking so fast, he didn’t even notice Bridget Donovan approaching.

  “Connor!” she said urgently, grabbing his arm just as he was about to step off the curb and into the path of an oncoming car in the hospital parking lot. Her brow creased with worry. “What’s going on? You look upset. Is Heather worse?”

  He regarded her blankly for a minute, then shook his head. “No. No, she’s fine. Stubborn as a mule, in fact.”

  Bridget actually smiled at that. “Ah, then she’s definitely feeling better. What did she say to get under your skin?”

  Connor thought about ignoring the question, but perhaps Bridget was exactly the ally he needed. “Could we talk a minute?” he asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Would you like to go inside for a cup of coffee or tea?”

  “I’d prefer to sit right out here in the garden in the sunshine, if you don’t mind. It’s such a peaceful setting.”

  They found a bench just past the rosebushes and sat down. She studied him curiously. “What’s on your mind?”

  “You and I got off on the wrong foot,” he admitted. “I know the relationship that Heather and I had was a disappointment to you.”
>
  “It was,” she agreed candidly. “But I’ve seen a different side of things since I’ve been here. I’ve seen just how deep the love between the two of you runs, to say nothing of how devoted you are to your son. I want my daughter to be happy, Connor, and you seem able to accomplish that. It might not be the way I’d have chosen, but I don’t think it’s up to me to judge.”

  He gave her a wry look. “Can I assume that my mother and Nell have given you a less than subtle push toward that conclusion?”

  She laughed. “Oh, they’ve sung your praises, no question about that, but it’s what I’ve seen for myself that’s done the trick.”

  “Then perhaps, if the opportunity arises, you could put in a good word for me with Heather,” he requested.

  She seemed startled by the request. “Why on earth would you need me to do that?”

  “I’ve been proposing for a few days now, and she’s turned me down flat each and every time,” he admitted in a chagrined tone.

  Shock spread across her face. “But why?”

  “She seems to think my epiphany is unbelievable or that it’s come too late. I’m not really sure of her logic. I just know she’s pretty adamant.”

  “Well, that’s just crazy!” Bridget declared.

  Connor smiled. “I was hoping you’d think so. Then you’ll put in a good word for me?”

  “I’m not sure having me on your side will be much help, but I’ll do what I can,” she promised. “For whatever it’s worth, I do think the two of you belong together. And a word of advice. Give her a bit of time to adjust to this new outlook of yours. It’s quite a turnaround, and the girl has already had her share of whiplash lately.”

  Impulsively, Connor hugged her. “Thank you for the assistance and for the insight.”

  She patted his cheek. “Let me go in there and see what mood I find her in. No time like the present to start on this mission you’ve given me.”

  Connor watched her head into the hospital, her stride purposeful. To his astonishment, he realized that Bridget Donovan wasn’t even half the ogre he’d been making her out to be. As his mother had told him, Bridget was just a mother who cared desperately about her daughter’s happiness.