“Hey, Ma,” he said as he approached.
She looked up, a smile of pleasure spreading across her face. “Thomas! What brings you by here on a workday? You’re usually out on some mission or another by now.”
“I have another sort of mission for today,” he said. “Can you take a break and go inside, where it’s cooler?”
She gave him a chiding look. “Since when has a little summer heat bothered either of us? I’ll take a break, but we’ll sit where we can see the water. It’s soothing. Though it offends me to see a lovely Earl Grey ruined in such a way, Dillon brought out a pitcher of iced tea not long ago. Hopefully all the ice won’t have melted already.”
At her suggestion, Thomas glanced toward the familiar pair of Adirondack chairs that faced the bay, then smiled at the realization that everyone in their family seemed to have a similar set of chairs for enjoying the view and the breeze. The family’s deep love of this setting had started with his mother, not him.
He watched as his mother rose stiffly from her stool at the edge of the garden, ignoring the hand he held out to help her. Stubborn old gal, he thought, amused. Her steps were surprisingly brisk as she crossed the lawn, then sat down and poured their tea into tall glasses, one of which had probably been meant for her husband, the man she’d loved as a teenager and been reunited with just a few years ago in Dublin.
“Something on your mind?” she asked, after the silence had stretched out too long.
“I’m trying to figure out how to get into this,” he admitted. “It doesn’t speak well of me.”
She frowned at that. “Thomas, I love all of my sons. Every one of you is an honorable, decent man. You’ve all made your share of mistakes, but that doesn’t lessen my love for you one bit.”
He smiled at her ardent claim. “Thanks, Ma.”
“It’s not something you need to thank me for. It just is. Now, tell me.”
“You remember Aidan Mitchell?”
She gave him an odd look. “My memory hasn’t gone yet. Of course I do.”
He drew in a deep breath, then blurted out the news. “It turns out that he’s my son, Ma. Your grandson.”
Her blue eyes widened, at first with shock, then with something he recognized as real delight, the way she always reacted to a new addition to the family, whether spouse or baby.
Tears filled her eyes. “I have another grandson? That handsome young man is your son?” She shook her head. “I should have seen it right away. He has your father’s eyes, just as you all do.”
“It’s your eyes we have, Ma.” Thomas studied her more closely, looking for signs of dismay. “You don’t look as if you’re upset by this.”
“Why would I be?” she asked, sounding perfectly calm. “I might be taken aback at the news coming out of the blue like this, but a new member of the family is always welcome.”
Thomas had expected this reaction...eventually. “No criticisms or lectures about irresponsibility?”
She gave him a long look. “I imagine you’ve covered that ground quite nicely on your own.”
“I have,” he admitted.
“Because you’re a decent and honorable man, as I just said. I don’t need to say another word in judgment. Tell me how this happened and how you finally found out after all this time.” Her gaze narrowed. “Unless you knew years ago.”
He shook his head. “Not a clue. I was as stunned as everyone else who’s learned the truth.” He settled back and sipped his tea, then told her about Anna and their long-ago love affair.
“She sounds like she might have been good for you,” Nell said. “She clearly understood you very well and made what she thought was a selfless decision. I hope you’re not blaming her for that, for keeping you from your son.”
Thomas thought about it, about how much he’d missed, then shook his head. “I’m sorry I lost so much time with Aidan, but she was right. I was probably far too self-absorbed and driven to be a good husband and father back then. Heaven knows, I still hadn’t gotten the knack for marriage the first two times I walked down the aisle, and those came later, when my career was already well established.”
“And now? Are the two of you intent on bonding as father and son? Will you do whatever it takes to make that adjustment?”
“Aidan’s a little old to need a father interfering in his life,” he reminded her.
“No one’s ever too old to need family,” Nell scolded, then added confidently, “You’ll be there in whatever way the two of you work out.” Her expression turned sad. “I wish I had more time to get to know this new grandson of mine.”
Thomas frowned. “You’ll have years to get to know him, Ma. We’re both counting on that.”
A smile chased away that fleeting hint of sorrow he thought he’d seen in her eyes.
“Then I’ll do my best to hang around for a good long time.”
Thomas reached for his mother’s hand. Despite her age and some hints of frailty, her hands were strong from all the gardening she still insisted on doing herself. That core strength and determination would keep her with them.
“I love you, Ma. Aidan will be at Sunday dinner at Mick’s for an official O’Brien welcome. I’m counting on you to make our favorite dishes.”
She gave him a questioning look. “Are you sure he’s ready for all of us?”
“Is anyone ever ready for that? The fact that he’s willing to show up proves he’s got tough O’Brien genes.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” She squeezed his hand. “Congratulations, Thomas. He’s lucky to have you as his father.”
“I’m not sure he understands it just yet, but he’s lucky to be a part of this family,” Thomas said. “I thank God every day for it myself.”
“As do I,” she said, her words heartfelt. “As do I.”
* * *
More than once over the next several days, Liz tried to catch up with Aidan, but for the first time since he’d arrived in town, he was surprisingly elusive. It was entirely possible that he was deliberately avoiding her. She could hardly blame him after the harsh, unreasonable words they’d exchanged.
On Thursday, she spotted him on the town green at one of the football team’s unofficial practices. She stood by the shop door and watched him work with the boys, smiling at the way Henry, Hector and Taylor hung on his every word.
As she observed the interaction and saw how good he was at motivating the team, her heart seemed to open just a little more. This was a man who was meant to be a father, unlike Josh, who’d never shown the least bit of interest in being a parent. All those dreams about having babies had been hers alone. She saw that much more clearly now.
Steeling herself to confront Aidan and offer her apology the minute practice ended, she was thoroughly frustrated when three tourists walked into the shop just as practice was ending on the green. By the time the women left, her receipts for the day were considerably higher, but so was her level of frustration.
She scrolled down the contact list on her cell phone to Aidan’s number, but when it came time to press the call button, she couldn’t make herself do it. Arranging a meeting made it seem too stiff and formal. She thought a casual encounter would make it easier to get the words out despite her nerves, but at this rate the first time she saw him might be Sunday dinner at Mick’s, and there wouldn’t be a second of privacy there for the conversation they needed to have.
Bree walked into the shop as she was staring at her phone. “You okay?”
Liz sighed. “Not really. I’ve been trying to work up the courage to talk to Aidan.”
Bree’s expression immediately brightened. “He’s right upstairs. I can cover the shop if you want to run up there and get things straightened out.”
Liz shook her head. “That doesn’t feel right, either.”
Bree frowned. “What
do you mean?”
“I have this idea in my head that we’ll bump into each other, I’ll be able to say my piece, and everything will be okay again. If I call or go up there, it will feel like some big deal.”
Her friend didn’t even try to hide her amusement. “It is a big deal, sweetie. It’s the first step toward your future. This was your first huge fight. How you end it will set the tone for the rest of your lives.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Ms. Playwright.”
“Mock me, if you will, but as a moderately successful playwright, I’m telling you it’s the pivotal scene when the audience finally knows with certainty that the couple will live happily-ever-after.”
“Gee, now there’s the kind of moral support I need before I risk doing something completely out of my comfort zone,” Liz responded. “It’s an apology, Bree. If I turn it into something more, I’ll freeze and never get the first word out.”
Just then, loud, persistent barking echoed from upstairs. Liz frowned. “I thought you said Aidan was in his apartment.”
“I thought he was.”
“Then why isn’t he quieting Archie down?” Liz asked. “This sounds as if something’s wrong.”
Bree gave her a sly look. “Don’t you have a key for emergencies?”
Liz started to reach in the cash drawer for the key, then hesitated. “You have to be right about Aidan being there. He just finished practice. He must be home.”
“Well, you’re the expert, but Archie sounds pretty frantic to me,” Bree said, tilting her head as if to listen more intently.
Liz couldn’t deny that he sounded that way to her, too. It was definitely Archie’s version of an emergency alarm. Or maybe that’s just what she needed it to be to get her past her reticence to head upstairs.
“You go,” Bree said. “I’ll stay here.”
“Why don’t you go? I’ll wait here,” Liz immediately countered, then quickly added, “In case a customer comes in.”
“You should go,” Bree insisted. “Aidan gave you the key and you’re better equipped to deal with Archie than I would be.”
Liz sighed. She had no argument for that. “I’ll be right back. If you hear me yell, it means we’re dealing with something more than a typical Archie crisis. Call 911.”
“Will do,” Bree promised.
Despite the sense of urgency she was feeling, Liz dragged her feet as she climbed the stairs to Aidan’s apartment. Just in case they’d been wrong about Aidan being home, she tapped on the door, then knocked harder. Archie’s barking grew even louder.
Using her key, she opened the door carefully. Archie barreled right into her, clearly ecstatic about her arrival. Since he didn’t immediately dart down the steps, but instead ran back inside, she followed him over the threshold, then stopped in amazement.
The apartment was filled with flowers. Vases of a dozen different varieties and colors—large, small and everything in between—scented the small room with their sweet fragrance. The centerpiece of it all was a dramatic arrangement of out-of-season pink and white dogwood branches in full bloom. Aidan stood next to that display, his expression hesitant.
“Too much?” he asked.
Liz smiled. “That depends on what you were going for.”
“I was hoping to dazzle you, maybe impress you with a gesture that would tell you just how sorry I am for causing you even a moment of pain.”
Liz’s eyes filled with tears. “I detect Bree’s hand in this.”
“It was 100 percent my idea,” he swore. “But she does have a flower shop and excellent skill in arranging flowers.”
“Where on earth did she find dogwood at this time of year?”
He shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her. I imagine Jake’s nursery has all sorts of resources for finding flowers out of season. She tried to talk me out of them, but I said they were too significant. We met when Dogwood Hill was in full bloom.”
Liz smiled. “I remember. I’m sure it was easy enough to get Bree to conspire with you. She is, after all, a huge romantic, but what about Archie? How’d you manage to get him to cooperate?”
“I told him our future depended on it,” Aidan said. “And I kept mentioning your name. It’s like some sort of trigger for him. I say your name, he goes into a happy frenzy.”
Even now, in fact, the dog was dancing back and forth between them. Liz could almost swear she saw hope in his eyes.
“Am I forgiven?” Aidan asked. “I wanted so badly to tell you everything sooner. I’m sorry that I couldn’t.”
Liz drew in a deep breath. “And I should have understood that. By the next morning, I’d already realized how wrong I was to expect you to handle any of it differently. Of course you had to respect Thomas’s wishes.” She gave him a rueful look. “And it’s not as if I’ve been forthcoming about my past with most people in town, not the whole story, anyway.”
“But you were with me.”
“I did it on my timetable, though. I should have shown you the same courtesy and realized you told me as soon as it felt right. I have a feeling I’ll be wrestling with trust issues for a very long time. I’m not happy about that, and I will work on it. I’m not going to let what happened with Josh shape the rest of my life.”
Aidan stepped closer. “I hope you know by now that you can trust me, Liz.”
“I’m starting to accept that,” she said, knowing it was true.
“Can we work on that together from here on out?” he asked.
“Meaning?”
“I want to move forward together. I want a future with you in it. I want marriage and a home here in Chesapeake Shores and a family.” He held her gaze. “I think I fell in love with you the very first time I saw you chasing after Archie on Dogwood Hill. You were so incredibly beautiful in the sunlight.”
“You just became part of a rather large family,” she reminded him with a smile. “Isn’t that enough for you?”
“I want my own,” he insisted. “I know it’s probably too soon, but you need to know where I’m coming from, where I’m heading. You can set the pace to determine how quickly we’ll get there.”
The last bit of ice lingering around Liz’s heart melted at the sincerity behind his words. “I want that, too. I love you, Aidan,” she said, squeezing the words bravely past the giant lump in her throat. “I’m scared to death of that feeling, but I can’t deny it. I’ve known for some time that you’re a man worth loving. I was just too frightened of repeating past mistakes.”
“I’m pretty terrified, too, if you want to know the truth, but this is right. I feel it in my gut. I think I have from the moment I set eyes on you. Keep in mind I didn’t have two parents with a perfect marriage to set an example for me. I’m following my heart here, and I can honestly say I don’t have a single doubt about us.”
She met his gaze. “I have enough doubts for both of us,” she told him candidly. “Not about us so much as about the whole forever thing, if that makes any sense.”
“But we’re agreed?” he pressed, clearly determined not to leave her an opening she could claim later. “We’ll take it one day at a time until it feels 100 percent right to both of us, and then we’ll get married and start that family?”
Liz swallowed hard, fighting panic, but then she looked into Aidan’s eyes and felt Archie’s encouraging nudge. “I think that sounds like an amazing plan.”
When Aidan reached for her, she moved into his arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. He rubbed them away with the pad of his thumb.
“If you’re so happy, why are you crying?” he asked.
“Because that’s what I do when I’m deliriously happy,” she said. “I also do it when I’m scared or sad. Sometimes I’m just a blubbering mess for no good reason.”
He grinned. “Then I guess I’d better get used to it, be
cause I plan to keep you very, very happy.”
* * *
Given Bree’s involvement in Aidan’s plan to seduce Liz and convince her to marry him, Aidan was stunned that for once the news hadn’t leaked and circulated all over town before Sunday dinner at Mick’s.
As they walked into the foyer, Liz came to an abrupt halt and whispered in his ear. “Today should be about you and Thomas, okay? Our news can wait.”
He regarded her with amusement. “Our friend Bree might have been astonishingly silent about the other day up to now, but do you honestly think she’ll be able to keep the news to herself through an entire family dinner?”
“I can beg her to try,” Liz said earnestly.
Aidan studied her. “It’s because of Thomas and me, and not because you’re already running scared?”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Absolutely.”
Startled by the public gesture, he laughed. “Well, now you’ve gone and done it.”
“Done what?”
“The kiss, Liz.”
“What about it?”
“Take a look around.”
At least a half dozen O’Briens were standing close by, mouths agape. Obviously they’d congregated to greet Aidan and witnessed a whole lot more than they’d bargained for. Being O’Briens, they put their own interpretation on that kiss.
“That wasn’t what it looked like,” Liz announced loudly, and clearly to no avail, given the hoots that greeted the comment.
Susie and Shanna were the first to cross the foyer and give Liz enthusiastic hugs.
“You’re a couple!” Shanna said happily.
Liz opened her mouth, no doubt to deny it, but before she could, Susie chimed in, “Don’t even try to deny it. This is the best day ever, a new cousin and a new cousin-in-law-to-be!”
Aidan smiled at Liz’s stunned expression.
“I kissed you on the cheek,” she murmured, sounding desperate. “Does that say engagement to you?”
“No,” Susie agreed. “It was the expression of pure delight on Aidan’s face that told that story.”
Within minutes, they’d been dragged into the living room for enthusiastic embraces from what seemed like a couple of dozen people, some of whom Aidan was sure he’d never seen before. It was Thomas who finally came to their rescue.
Dogwood Hill Page 32
