"That's about enough."
"See? I don't think so."
He dropped the pizza and thought seriously about smashing the stupid bottle of wine against the side of the house. But instead, he tightened his fingers on the neck of the bottle and clung to it like a safety rope. "I thought we had something."
"Really?" she asked, temper clearly spiking inside her now, too. She folded her arms over her chest, hitched one hip higher than the other as she tapped the toe of her shoe against the floor. "And what did you think we had?"
That left him speechless. Hell, how did he know the answer to that? He shoved one hand across the top of his head. "I'm not sure exactly. But whatever the hell it is, it was worth more than this."
Disappointment flashed in her eyes briefly and was gone again in an instant. In fact, he couldn't really be sure he'd seen it at all.
"Aidan, go home. This little … interlude is over. Let's just get back to our lives, okay?"
"Just like that?"
Behind him, he heard a car pull up and the short blast of a horn. "That's my cab."
He turned around to glare at it, and when he looked back, Terry already had her suitcase on the porch and was closing and locking the door. He felt as though he was back in the hurricane. As though the world was suddenly moving too quickly for him to keep up.
He knew he should say something, do something, but instead he stood there like a moron as she walked past him, rolling her suitcase behind her, its small steel wheels grinding against the pavement.
He was still standing there when the driver opened the passenger door to usher her into the bright yellow cab. She stopped, hand on the door's edge, to look at him. Then she gave him a ghost of a smile and said, "Goodbye, Aidan."
Alone with his wine and his stone cold pizza, Aidan watched in silence as Terry drove out of his life.
* * *
Two weeks later, the Reilly brothers were considering voting Aidan out of the family.
"My point," he yelled as he grabbed the rebounded basketball and took off at a trot toward the end of the driveway.
"Your point because you fouled me," Brian snapped.
"It wasn't a foul."
"It was a shove," Connor told him.
Aidan sighed, wiped his arm across his forehead and sneered at his brothers. "Sorry, girls. Didn't know I was being too rough."
"You know," Brian said, starting for him, "I'm thinking it's about time for somebody's clock to get cleaned."
Aidan tossed the ball to one side, braced himself and waved one hand. "Bring it on, tough guy."
"What the hell's wrong with you, Aidan?" Connor demanded, grabbing Brian's arm as he started past him.
"Nothing's wrong with me. You two are the ones doing all the griping."
Liam picked up the basketball, bounced it a couple of times and nodded at Connor and Brian. "You two go get a beer. I need to talk to Aidan."
The other two stalked off, muttering darkly and Aidan turned, walking toward the water bottle he'd tossed down an hour ago. Grabbing it, he uncapped it, took a long gulp then fired a warning look at Liam. "I don't want to hear it."
"Tough."
Aidan snorted.
"You miss her."
Aidan stilled. His hand fisted on the water bottle and he stared at it as if it held the secrets of the universe. "Shut up, Liam."
"Not a chance. You're making a jackass of yourself and driving your brothers to plan your murder. When are you going to admit you love her?"
He shot his oldest brother a hot glare. "This is none of your business, Liam. So back the hell off."
The sun was hot and the air didn't stir. It felt heavy, thick. And too damned crowded around there for Aidan's comfort.
"You're my business, you idiot." Liam moved in close, shoved Aidan and demanded, "Do you think we don't know what's going on? Do you think nobody's noticed that ever since Terry left you've been a complete beast to be around?"
Fury spiked inside him, then just as quickly drained away. Hell. Liam was right. They were all right. With Terry gone, nothing felt good. There was no reason to get up in the morning and going to sleep brought no comfort because his dreams were filled with her. Then he'd awaken in the dark with empty arms and a hollow heart.
"She's the one who left," he pointed out in a dark murmur.
"Did you give her a reason to stay?"
"No." He'd wanted to. Wanted to say something that day on the porch. Wanted to tell her … hell.
Still clutching the water bottle, he dropped to the shaded grass, drew his knees up and rested his forearms atop them. When Liam took a seat nearby, Aidan started talking. "Just before Uncle Patrick died," he said, peeling the label from the bottle of water, "and left us the money that started this whole mess…"
"Yeah?"
"I went to see him. About a week before he died. Just before I left, he took my hand and he said—" Aidan closed his eyes, to recapture that moment clearly "—the worst part of dying, Aidan, is to die with regrets. Don't make the mistake I did. Do all you can. See all you can. Don't die being sorry for what you didn't do."
"I'm sorry he felt that way. He lived a good life," Liam said.
"Yeah, but he lived a quiet life. He never went anywhere, never did anything. I don't want to be that way." He shook his head firmly. "Don't want to die with regrets, Liam."
"And this has what to do with Terry?" His brother asked.
"Don't you get it? If I let myself be in love, I'm tying myself down. Giving up the space to explore, to dare, to risk."
Liam stared at him for a long minute, then shook his head and laughed. "Every time I think maybe you're not a moron, you prove me wrong."
"Thanks," Aidan muttered. "That's helpful."
"Did it ever occur to you that Uncle Patrick might have meant something else?"
"Huh?"
"He never married, remember? Lived by himself most of his life, kept to himself. Mom says he was a shy man in his younger days, so maybe that explains some of it."
"Your point?"
"My point is, Aidan, maybe the regrets he spoke of were more about what he'd missed emotionally in his life. Maybe he regretted never being in love. Never finding a woman to cherish. Never having children."
He hadn't really considered that before.
"Yeah," Aidan said, "but…"
"Aidan," Liam continued, stretching his long legs out in front of him, "you've already done more in your life than most people ever will."
"True."
"Do you really believe, being the kind of man you are, that having someone to love and to love you, would change all that?"
"Well…" His brain was working now, circling around, backing up, going forward again. Trying to shift all of Liam's words into an order that didn't come off making him feel so damn stupid.
It wasn't working.
"Love doesn't end your life, Aidan," Liam said, snatching his brother's water bottle away and taking a drink. "It makes it better. If you're smart enough to grab it when you have the chance."
"Yeah," Aidan said, feeling the first trickle of hope seep into him like a slow stream in high summer. "But what if she doesn't want me? What if she tells me to get lost?"
Liam snorted now. "Since when do you turn your back on a challenge?" He smiled. "Besides, I don't think she'll turn you away. Before she left, she gave me a check for twenty-five thousand dollars. For the church's roof."
"She did?" Stunned, Aidan stared at him. "Why?"
"She said it was because she liked Baywater and wanted to help. I think it's because she loves you and wanted to feel somehow a part of things here, even if she was leaving."
Aidan thought about it for several humming seconds, then jumped to his feet. Glaring at Aidan, he shouted, "Well why the hell didn't you say so?"
Liam laughed as Aidan ran all the way to his car, jumped inside and roared off.
* * *
Terry set her teacup down on the polished mahogany table and the click of fine china on
wood sounded like thunder in the quiet penthouse. If she listened hard enough, she could probably hear the pounding of her own heart. It was too damn quiet. Too lonely.
Too … empty.
But at least it wouldn't be that way for long.
The last two weeks had been a small eternity. Back on her home turf, she'd tried to step right back into her normal everyday rhythm. But it was no use. It wasn't the same, because she wasn't the same.
She'd changed. And there was no going back—even if she'd wanted to.
When the doorbell rang, she ran for it. Her socks hit the polished marble floor and she slid all the way to the wide double doors. Laughing at herself, she opened the door and froze.
Aidan stepped inside, closed the door and grabbed her.
Held up close to his chest, she felt his heartbeat thundering against her and she knew she'd never felt anything more wonderful in her life. Being in his arms again set her world right. Everything felt in balance again. As it should be.
As it was meant to be.
"Aidan," She managed to say, "What're you—"
"Just shut up a minute, okay?" He blurted it out, then held her back so he could look at her, staring into her eyes with an intensity that burned right down to the heart of her. "God, you look good."
She smiled and would have spoken, but he rushed right on, not giving her a chance.
"I came all the way here to tell you something." He took a deep breath, blew it out and blurted, "I love you, Terry. And I want you to love me back."
"Aidan—"
"Look," he plowed on, outshouting her, "I know why you've protected your heart so long. I understand. About Eric. About all of it."
Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them back, unwilling to have this vision of him blurred.
"But you can't do it forever, Terry. I finally understand that. Look, I risk my life everyday in my job. And I never minded before, because I really didn't have all that much to lose. Well now, I do. I'll keep taking the risks, because that's the job and it's a risk worth taking. But so is loving you."
Her heart swelled to bursting and her chest felt too tight to contain it. "Oh, Aidan, I—"
"Terry, I'm not the same guy I was when I met you." His blue eyes went dark and stormy, filled with emotion that reached out for her and shook her to the soles of her feet. "You've affected my work, my life. You filled my heart. I don't want to wake up another morning without you. I need you, Terry. And I hope you need me."
"Oh, Aidan…"
"I know love and marriage and all the rest of it is a big risk. But I want us to take it together. Can you do it, Terry? Can you love me? Marry me?"
His fingers tightened on her upper arms and she was grateful for his firm grip. Otherwise, she might have melted into a puddle at his feet.
Smiling up at him, she said, "Yes, I love you. And yes, I'll marry you. Today. Tomorrow. Whenever you want. Because I'm not the same, either. You filled me, when I thought I would never be whole again. And the last two weeks without you were emptier than anything I've ever known."
"Thank God," he muttered and pulled her close again. Wrapping his arms around her, he bent his head to the curve of her neck and inhaled the soft, floral fragrance of her. And for the first time since the evening she'd left, Aidan felt his heart beating again.
"There's something else you should know though," she whispered and he pulled back to look at her, waiting.
"I'm pregnant."
Stunned, he blinked at her. "But. You said. The pill. We. You."
She grinned and shrugged. "Apparently, they're not a hundred percent effective."
"Yeah. But. I."
"I was coming to see you, Aidan, to tell you. When you rang the bell, I thought it was the realtor come to list the penthouse."
"You were coming back to me?" he asked with a smile.
"Yeah," she said softly. "I was going to find a way to make you love me."
"Babe," he said, inhaling sharply and grinning now to flash that dimple at her. "You already did that."
He pulled her in close again and whispered into her hair. "I'm happy about the baby, Terry. Terrified, but really happy. But are you okay with it? I mean, after Eric. Aren't you scared?"
She nestled in close and felt her fears dissolve in a well of love. She had been scared. When the pregnancy test turned up positive, fear reared up and nibbled on her. But then she realized that if loving Eric prevented her from ever loving another child, then she was cheating both herself and the memory of her son.
"Yeah," she admitted quietly. "I'm a little scared. But I'm also alive, Aidan. For the first time in a long time, I'm really alive."
She pulled her head back and looked up at him. "I want to love you, Aidan. Laugh with you. Fight with you. Build a family with you."
He brought his hands up to cup her face and smiled down at her. "You'll never be sorry you took a chance on me, Terry. I swear it."
"We took a chance on each other," she whispered and leaned in to meet his kiss.
* * *
Epilogue
« ^
Two days later, the sun was sinking against the horizon. Most of the speeches were finished, the Marine band was tuning up and the grounds were packed. There were never enough bleacher seats, so most people just brought lawn chairs and blankets, spreading out across the area.
Battle Color Day, when every Marine dignitary available was on hand for the Corps celebration.
The speeches were mercifully brief, the Drum and Bugle Corps stirred the blood and the Silent Drill team brought the crowd to utter silence.
There was something magical about watching men snap out precision moves, each in time with the other, with no sound but that of a rifle butt smacking into a gloved palm.
There was a sense of pride that rippled through the awestruck, motionless crowd.
A kind of pride no civilian could ever truly understand.
And as the Silent Drill team moved off the field, Tina Coretti Reilly, Emma Jacobsen Reilly and Terry Evans soon-to-be-Reilly, chatted in lawn chairs alongside their mother-in-law, Maggie Reilly.
Tina leaned out from beneath the rainbow striped umbrella, attached to her chair and held up a thermal jug of ice tea. "Anyone?"
"No, thanks, I'm good," Emma said, leaning forward, trying to strain her eyes to watch for a certain red convertible.
"Terry?" Tina asked.
"Yes, thanks." She took the plastic cup of tea and swallowed a sip before saying, "This is all so…"
"Amazing, isn't it?" Maggie said and gave Terry's hand a pat. "I always get teary at the official functions. And I'm so glad you're here with us for this."
"So am I," Terry said meaningfully, "and this I wouldn't have missed for anything."
"I hear that," Tina said on a laugh. "The Reilly Triplets in coconut bras?" she laughed again, clearly delighted at the mental image.
"Their friends will never let them forget it," Emma said smiling.
"And neither will we, dear," Maggie said and pulled a video camera out of the straw basket at her feet.
Terry laughed and looked at the older woman with the sparkling blue eyes so much like her sons. "You're going to tape them?"
"Of course I am," Maggie said, turning the camera on and winking at Terry. "Never pass up a chance for a little blackmail material on family."
"Ah, the Reillys," Tina said, leaning back in her chair and sticking her feet out to cross them at the ankle. "You gotta love us."
"We are fun," Emma admitted.
"Oh," Terry said, as she leaned back to sip her tea and enjoy the moment of solidarity, "I think I'm going to be very happy in this family."
"Look, girls," Maggie called out, excitement squeaking in her voice. "Here they come!"
A shining red Cadillac convertible slowly rolled along the main drive. Liam sat at the wheel, waving to the crowds, an enormous grin on his face.
Aidan, Brian and Connor, all sat on the trunk, their legs in the back seat. Each of them wore
a coconut bra, a grass hula skirt and the grim expression of men trapped with no way out.
But as the crowd cheered, the Reilly triplets each lifted a hand in a wave—and met their humiliation like Marines.
* * * * *
THE LAST REILLY STANDING Page 12
