Dogwood Hill

by Sherryl Woods

  “Why do you need an excuse when the man clearly wants to see you, too?” Bree asked.

  “Because we agreed,” Liz said.

  Every woman there burst into laughter.

  “Idiots,” Shanna murmured.

  “Delusional,” Jess added. “And given how long it took me to figure out I was in love with Will, I am very familiar with that tendency.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Laila O’Brien murmured. “I was still fighting my feelings for Matthew all the way to the altar on that trip to Dublin.”

  “Thank you so much for the support,” Liz griped to the whole unsympathetic lot of them.

  Bree patted her hand. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Our amusement really isn’t directed entirely at you. Just like Jess and Laila said, we’ve all been there, every one of us, living in the land of denial.”

  Despite her friend’s attempt at reassurance, Liz didn’t feel one bit better. She knew their lives had all turned out okay. Right now, she couldn’t imagine any such outcome for her own, at least not one that included Aidan.

  13

  The basketball game didn’t work as an effective stress reducer. Aidan was as edgy and off-kilter after the game as he had been before they’d played. Oh, he’d worked up a good sweat and had even scored a few baskets, but his concentration had been shot. He was hoping no one had noticed, but these were O’Brien men. They might not be sensitive, but they were intuitive, especially when it was obvious that some distraction had kept his head out of a game he’d been so anxious to play.

  Though he’d probably gotten closer to Connor than any of the other men, it was Kevin who’d apparently been designated to get to the bottom of whatever was on his mind. Aidan supposed he ought to be grateful Will hadn’t been chosen for the assignment. He had a hunch a good shrink could peel back his defenses in less time than it took to say Liz March.

  As Aidan sipped from a bottle of lukewarm water, he watched as the other men dispersed. Even their parting catcalls were muted. Kevin stayed dutifully behind.

  Aidan studied him warily. He didn’t envy the guy. This was the second time he’d been put in an awkward position. The last time it had been Thomas who’d put him there with questions about Aidan’s interest in the bay preservation project.

  Seizing the initiative with the vague hope of getting the cross-examination over with, Aidan looked Kevin in the eye. “Something on your mind?”

  Kevin was clearly startled by the question. “Actually I was wondering, we all were,” he began uncomfortably, “if there was something you wanted to get off your chest. Maybe problems with Liz?”

  “No problems,” Aidan declared flatly, hoping to put an end to that line of speculation.

  Kevin looked perplexed by his adamant response. “The word is that you’re not seeing each other anymore.”

  “We were never seeing each other in the first place,” Aidan told him, avoiding any mention of the kiss that might have made a liar of him.

  “Not the way I heard it,” Kevin said. “And the grapevine in this town might be annoying, but it’s usually as accurate as it is fast.”

  “Not this time,” Aidan insisted. “Liz and I are friends. Period. Mutual agreement.”

  “A mutual agreement doesn’t usually drive a man onto a basketball court to get his tail whipped,” Kevin noted. “Now a one-sided agreement, that’s something else entirely.”

  Aidan studied him incredulously. He’d spent enough years in a locker room to know there were few boundaries among guys, but he’d never before had his love life dissected with quite this much fascination or seemingly genuine concern. There’d been a few bawdy remarks when he’d gone out with a model a couple of times, more when he’d been linked to an actress, but that was it. He didn’t know how to handle the real worry that seemed responsible for Kevin’s probing. His solution was to try, yet again, to deflect it.

  “What is it with the men around here, or at least the O’Brien men?” Aidan asked, trying to sound curious, rather than impatient. “I’ve never known men to want to dissect relationships the way you all do.”

  Kevin laughed, looking relaxed for the first time since the conversation had begun. “It comes from having Mick in the family. My father meddles, as you’ve been warned. We’ve all been the victims of that meddling, so we like to pass along the favor whenever we get the chance.”

  “Is there any way to get you to back off?” Aidan asked in frustration. “Short of coercing Liz to walk down the aisle, that is?”

  “Truthfully? Probably not,” Kevin said with a shrug that suggested many things had been tried and that all had failed. “You could try giving us another focus for all our energy. Do you have one of those?”

  How about his relationship with Thomas, Aidan thought. That would surely do the trick. Of course that was not a topic he intended to share with anyone except the man in question. And he had no particular timetable for doing that, yet another worry that was weighing on him these days. He seemed to be putting off contact with his father, even with that self-imposed one-year clock already ticking.

  With school out and no answers yet about whether he could call any unofficial practices, he had too few distractions himself. Maybe that was the cause of his restlessness and not Liz at all. Wouldn’t that be a relief?

  “Sorry, nothing,” he told Kevin, then grasped for the first straw that came to mind. “How’s Shanna feeling?”

  “Huge,” Kevin said, then quickly amended, “Not that I think she’s huge. That’s her perception and I will call you a stinking, flat-out liar if you ever say otherwise.”

  “Wise man.”

  “You have no idea,” Kevin said. “The last pregnancy—her first actually—went pretty smoothly. It sort of caught us off guard. This time, though, she’s been sicker. She’s gained more weight. And there are days when she’s mad at the whole world, but especially at me for thinking another baby would be a great idea. There was about a minute there when the doctor thought we might be having twins. You should have seen the look on Shanna’s face. I swear if she’d had a weapon, I’d be dead.”

  Aidan laughed, even though he knew he probably shouldn’t. “Sorry, man.”

  “No, you’re not. No one is,” Kevin said, sounding resigned. “Every single person in my family is taking great delight in this. All I know is that Shanna’s due date can’t get here fast enough. I want my cheerful, contented wife back.”

  “She’s seemed cheerful enough every time I’ve seen her,” Aidan said.

  “Sure. You’re not the enemy. That’s reserved for me. All I did was suggest one night that we have one more. I guess I did it long enough after the baby had started sleeping through the night that it seemed like a good idea to her, too. I might have mentioned something about Henry being old enough to babysit, not that he’s around the house much these days. The only thing he cares about is football.” He gave Aidan a hard look. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

  Aidan couldn’t help it. He laughed again. “You might be the only person in this entire town whose life is as crazy as mine is right now. Thanks for reminding me that things could be worse.”

  Of course, Kevin O’Brien had one very important thing that Aidan didn’t. He knew exactly who his father was and there was nothing complicated about acknowledging it. In fact, it was a source of pride, rather than a potential scandal.

  * * *

  With the Thomas situation, as Aidan was starting to think of it, very much on his mind, he was thrown completely the morning after his conversation with Kevin when he walked into Sally’s and found Thomas there with Connie and Sean. Thomas waved him over.

  “If you’re not meeting anyone, join us,” he suggested. “We’re celebrating the end of the school year.”

  “It’s a tradition,” Sean said, then beamed. “I get all the pancakes I want.”

&nb
sp; Aidan chuckled. “That sounds like an excellent tradition.”

  “Then you definitely need to join us,” Connie said. “After all, your school year just ended, too.”

  Seeing no polite way around it, Aidan pulled over a chair and sat at the end of the booth. Crowding in beside Thomas was not an option.

  “Keep in mind that the school year only lasted a few weeks for me,” Aidan said. “I’m not so sure I deserve to celebrate.”

  “Then you only get half as many pancakes as Sean,” Connie said, regarding him with a twinkle in her eye. “Not to worry. He’s ordered a lot. Our son’s eyes are way bigger than his stomach, so Thomas will wind up finishing every last bite of them. He hates waste. I’ve tried to explain that those calories don’t magically not count just because he’s being frugal, but he doesn’t seem to care.”

  Thomas shrugged. “Sally makes excellent pancakes, and since you don’t give me anything but bran flakes at home, I’m going to indulge when I can.” He met Aidan’s gaze. “Take it from me. Do not marry a woman who has the avowed intention of keeping you healthy.”

  Connie scowled at him. “So I should sit back and wait for you to die of a heart attack? I was a single mom for a long time. I’d like to stay married long enough to enjoy it.”

  Thomas laughed and reached for her hand, lifting it to his lips. “I’m glad to know your reasons are totally unselfish.”

  Aidan listened to the lighthearted exchange with a sense of wonder. Would Thomas and his mother have gotten along half as well? Had they teased each other when they were dating? He tried to imagine the two of them together and couldn’t. He hoped by the time Sean was his age, he’d realize what an amazing thing their loving, attentive relationship was.

  Even as he thought about that, he considered what impact his own news was likely to have on these two people who had no idea of the bomb he was preparing to drop on them. Did he have the right to turn their lives upside down? He was no longer quite as eager to exact some sort of revenge on Thomas, but he still believed the truth needed to come out, if only to provide some closure on the past for him.

  Since he couldn’t grapple with that at the moment, he faced Connie. “You were a single mom?” he asked.

  She nodded. “A divorced single mom. My daughter’s grown and married now. She lives in Nashville, where she writes for some of the top country singers.”

  Aidan recalled what he’d heard about her. “She’s married to Caleb Green, right? I’m a big fan of his music.”

  “Well, Jenny’s written a lot of it,” Connie said, her pride evident.

  “And I can sing most of it, too,” Sean piped in. “And Caleb’s been teaching me to play guitar.”

  Connie regarded her son with amusement. “Sean and his cousin Emily Rose—that’s Bree’s daughter—would very much like to tour with Caleb. If I don’t stay on my toes, Caleb might actually let them. He claims he’s had worse opening acts.”

  Aidan glanced at Thomas, who was regarding his wife with a besotted expression. “How do you feel about your son going on a concert tour?”

  “We’ll talk about it when he turns eighteen and not a moment before,” Thomas replied without hesitation.

  “Dad!” Sean protested. “That’s, like, forever.”

  Thomas shrugged. “Education first.”

  “There’s no school in summer,” Sean pointed out just as his pile of pancakes arrived. As he drowned them in syrup, he added, “That’s why we’re celebrating, remember?”

  Connie winked at her husband. “I told you not to bother arguing with him. He’s got an answer for everything, just like his dad.”

  Thomas chuckled. “But I’m older and wiser and I’m the dad,” he said triumphantly. “I win!”

  Observing the tight-knit family, it was all Aidan could do not to sigh with envy. This was what he had missed. This was what his mom had missed, though she’d apparently given up the chance at it willingly. He’d had no choice in the matter. And for the first time, he allowed himself a brief little moment of surprisingly strong resentment directed toward his mom, then immediately felt guilty for it.

  He might not understand her reasons, but he had to respect that Anna had done what she thought was best by keeping him and his father apart. Maybe Thomas really hadn’t been a good candidate for marriage or fatherhood back then, and as Aidan had learned, there were two failed marriages in Thomas’s past to add proof to that. Aidan needed to remember that, because casting blame now was a wasted effort.

  As he looked around at the man who was his father, the woman who had no idea she was his stepmother and at his half brother, Aidan felt for the first time in his life as if he had no idea of who he really was. All these years he thought he’d known himself. He was, first and foremost, Anna Mitchell’s son, her pride and joy. He’d been a smart student and an excellent athlete who’d become a professional football star for a short time. He’d even thought, given time, he’d be a solid high school coach. He’d envisioned a future with a wife and kids. Those were all the things that mattered to Aidan Mitchell.

  But Aidan Mitchell O’Brien? He didn’t know that man at all. And every time he envisioned trying to fit into the family he was coming to know, he felt as if he’d be turning his back on the man he’d always believed himself to be.

  He was relieved when Thomas slid out of the booth and announced he had to get to a meeting. Connie and Sean followed his lead, leaving Aidan alone with his increasingly confused thoughts and a cup of coffee that had gone cold.

  * * *

  Liz passed Thomas, Connie and Sean as they were exiting Sally’s and paused to say hello. Inside, she spotted Aidan sitting at the end of an empty booth. Since the table was still cluttered with dishes, she jumped to the conclusion he’d been eating with Thomas and his family. And since his expression was anything but cheerful, she concluded it hadn’t gone well. Once again her sense that there was something going on between Thomas and Aidan stirred to life.

  “Want some company?” she said, slipping into the vacated booth before Aidan could even think about trying to stop her.

  He regarded her with amusement. “It’s a little late for me to say no now, isn’t it?”

  “Pretty much. All the other seats are taken, anyway. You can’t hog this whole booth to yourself. I assume you had breakfast with Thomas.”

  He nodded.

  “How’d that go?”

  “Fine. Why wouldn’t it?” he asked, an edge in his voice that suggested she’d touched on a sore point.

  Liz waited until Sally had cleared the table, then brought her coffee and her usual croissant, plus a fresh cup of coffee for Aidan, before saying another word. She kept her gaze on Aidan, who finally gave her an apologetic look.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap your head off.”

  “Why did you? Just because I asked an innocent question about the meal you’d shared with Thomas?”

  “I’m pretty sure there was nothing innocent about the question,” Aidan contradicted. “You’ve been hinting for a while that you think something’s up between the two of us.”

  “Because that’s the way it seems to me,” she said agreeably. “Is there?”

  “I never laid eyes on Thomas or any other O’Brien before I moved to Chesapeake Shores,” Aidan said, his gaze steady.

  “That’s not exactly the point, though, is it?”

  “What is the point?”

  She tried to think of a reasonable explanation for his behavior, but couldn’t come up with a thing. The situation didn’t really seem to call for guesswork. “I don’t know. It just worries me to keep detecting these strange undercurrents and observing how unhappy you seem to be over something.”

  “Let it go, Liz.”

  “The same way you’ve let go of trying to figure out my past?” she inquired.

 
He smiled. “Yes, just like that. I may have a whole slew of questions, but I’ve stopped asking. I’ve accepted that you’ll tell me what you want me to know when you want me to know it.”

  She doubted he was as accepting of that as he claimed. Studying him over the rim of her cup, she asked, “Do you remember what you said to me the day you brought a cup of Sally’s coffee to my house?”

  “I’m sure I said a lot of scintillating things,” he retorted glibly.

  “Of course you did,” she said, her tone dry. “I was specifically referring to your insistence that dropping by with coffee and checking on me was something a friend would do.”

  “Ah, that.”

  “Well, my poking around in your business to try to figure out this mystery is also what a friend would do.”

  “Is that so? I thought maybe a friend would take my word that it’s not a topic I intend to discuss.”

  Liz seized on the comment. “So there is something,” she said triumphantly. “You just don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Whether there is or there isn’t, we’re pretty much at an impasse, since I’ve declared it off-limits.”

  She recognized the stubborn set to his jaw and knew she’d pushed as far as she could. She couldn’t help feeling a little deflated, though. Didn’t he know by now that he could trust her with his secrets?

  Even as that thought crossed her mind, she sighed. Talk about a double standard. She supposed Aidan would trust her with his secrets right about the same time she started trusting him with hers.

  * * *

  Mick had just returned from checking on one of the Habitat for Humanity projects he was overseeing in his volunteer capacity as a contractor when he spotted Thomas sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs at the far end of the porch. As it frequently was, his gaze was directed toward the bay. He had a notepad in his lap, but whatever he’d been working on had apparently been forgotten. In fact, he seemed lost in thought.