by Unknown
Liz gave her a wry look. “Maybe I should encourage her to do just that and get the heat off me.”
“Don’t you dare,” Bree said. “Marc Reynolds really hurt her. I don’t think any of us realized how much till Carrie came back here and started moping around at loose ends.”
“Okay, I won’t use your niece as a diversionary tactic,” Liz agreed. “What else might work?”
Bree’s eyes lit up. “You could tell me if the kiss was as hot as the reports made it sound.”
Liz laughed despite her frustration. “That’s not a diversion, that’s capitulating to your prurient interest in my love life.”
Bree gave an unapologetic shrug. “It would work, though.”
“Too bad. Did you have a reason for stopping by, other than tormenting me, I mean?”
“Not really. What are your plans for this evening? I imagine you’re ready to relax now that your family’s gone back to North Carolina.”
“Relaxing is definitely at the top of the agenda,” Liz agreed.
Bree studied her. “And what else? The idea of a nice shower and a good book would not put that blush in your cheeks.” Her eyes immediately sparkled with delight. “We’re back to Aidan, aren’t we? You have plans with him.”
“Not talking,” Liz declared. “And do not get any ideas about parking outside my house to see if he shows up. Or hanging around here to see if I go upstairs. Or coming within a hundred feet of either one of us, for that matter.” She thought that ought to make her point clear.
“You sound as if you think you might need a restraining order, for goodness’ sake.”
“Do I?”
“Sweetie, we love you. We want you to be deliriously happy.” Bree shrugged. “It makes us a little nosy, but we’re not stalkers.” A grin spread across her face. “Of course, there are a lot of us all over town. We tend to see things, even when we don’t go looking.”
“And you’ve taken the skill of texting to new heights,” Liz said, knowing it was the method of choice for the O’Brien meddlers.
“We have adapted to technology,” Bree agreed. “Even Dad, more’s the pity. Mom keeps threatening to take his cell phone away from him and toss it in the bay, but Uncle Thomas would have a conniption and Dad would only replace it.”
She reached across the counter and gave Liz’s hand a squeeze. “Whatever you and Aidan are up to tonight, have fun.”
Liz wasn’t sure how much fun the evening would be, but it would be a turning point, no question about that.
*
Thomas hoped like hell that tomorrow would bring the quick and final proof that Aidan was not his son, but he knew it was unlikely. From the moment he’d first seen the boy, there’d been something about him that felt familiar. Sure, now that he knew he was Anna’s son, that was part of it, but it was more. He’d felt that same stubbornness and grit that all the O’Briens shared.
At first, of course, that possibility hadn’t even crossed his mind, but now it seemed so obvious.
Ever since Aidan had told him of their supposed connection, Thomas had been wrestling with his conscience. Had he known on some level back then that Anna was carrying his baby? Was that why he hadn’t fought harder to keep her from leaving town? Surely he hadn’t been that self-absorbed or shallow, but the truth was, he had been single-focused back then and for a lot of years after that.
His career had cost him two marriages. He couldn’t deny the truth of that. And the only reason he was so happy now with Connie was because she understood him in ways neither of his other wives had. She was patient with his absorption with work and tolerant with the time it took away from their family.
Of course, he’d made more compromises with her than he had in either of his other relationships. He’d moved home to Chesapeake Shores. He worked from the house when he could. And he welcomed his wife’s involvement in the work that had been his life’s passion. In fact, it was that shared interest that had brought them together in the first place, despite quite a few obstacles and objections.
Though he’d tried for the past few days, he couldn’t conceive of how the news that he had a son would disrupt his world. Despite what he’d told Mick about Connie accepting that he’d had a relationship with Aidan’s mother, he knew that an old flame wasn’t the same as having a grown son who would connect them forever.
She liked Aidan, though. Whatever her reaction to the relationship, Thomas thought he could count on her dealing with it in the same calm, evenhanded way she’d dealt with most of the rough spots in her life. She felt as strongly about family as he did. Surely her heart was big enough to embrace Aidan as part of that group.
He was pondering all this as he sat on the porch, an Irish whiskey in hand, when she came out and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
“You okay?” she asked, leaning down to whisper in his ear.
“Fine,” he said. “Where’s Sean?”
“In bed, more than likely reading a book even though I told him to turn off the light and go to sleep,” she said, her voice threaded with laughter. “I’d fight him harder, but I like that he loves to read.” Her amusement faded quickly and she regarded him with concern. “You’ve been awfully quiet all evening.”
“I have a lot on my mind.”
“Are you thinking about the shock of discovering that your old college flame was Aidan’s mother?”
“It was a shock, that’s for sure,” he said.
She came around and sat beside him, pulling her chair close enough to hold his hand. Her fingers caressed his knuckles, which had been roughened by so many hard days on the bay on the foundation’s research boat.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” she asked softly.
Thomas gave her a sharp look. “What makes you ask that?”
“He’s an O’Brien,” she said flatly, keeping a close eye on his face as she awaited a reaction.
“You know?” He supposed he wasn’t that surprised. Connie knew him better than anyone on this earth except maybe Nell.
“Not until this minute,” she said. “Not for sure, anyway. You told me he looks like Anna, but I see you every time I look into his eyes. You and Mick and Jeff, you all have those smiling Irish eyes they talk about in the song. So does Aidan.”
“I don’t know for sure,” he said, startled by the complacency he heard in her voice.
She smiled at him. “Yes, you do. You don’t need a DNA test to tell you the truth.”
“I’ll await the results, just the same,” he said stubbornly.
“Of course you will, because science matters to you.”
“It doesn’t lie.”
She frowned at that. “And you think Aidan could be lying?”
“Anything’s possible.”
“You know better,” she chided. “If I can see the truth, I know you can, too. Why are you so afraid to admit it?”
“It’s going to change things,” he said.
“Such as?”
“Us.”
She shook her head. “Not a chance. I’ll love your son the same way you’ve loved my daughter.”
“Ma’s going to lecture me from now till eternity.”
Connie laughed at that. “More than likely, but she won’t stop loving you. And she will open her heart to Aidan. If you think otherwise, you’re not giving Nell enough credit. She’d be insulted by that.”
She gave him a good long look that Thomas was sure could see into his soul.
“Want me to tell you what’s really worrying you?” she asked.
“Because of course you know,” he said, amused by her certainty.
“I do,” she said. “You don’t want Mick or Jeff to think less of you. As much as you’ve feuded with your brothers over the years, the three of you have an incredibly strong bond. You need their respect, just as they need yours.”
“I don’t give two figs what Mick thinks,” Thomas claimed, then sighed. “That won’t stop me from having to listen to his opinion, though.”
“No, it most certainly won’t,” she agreed. She placed a hand on his cheek. “It’s going to be okay, Thomas. We’ll work through it. So will you and Aidan. And with his mom gone, I think it’s possible that he needs a father in his life more than he realizes.”
“He says otherwise,” Thomas told her, aware that it had been anger over all the years lost talking.
“I’m sure he does. He is an O’Brien, after all. They never admit to wanting something if they’re afraid they might not get it. He’s keeping his feelings for Liz close to the vest for the same reason.”
He drew her out of her chair and onto his lap. “Have I told you lately how very much I love you and how lucky I was the day you came into my life?”
“You have,” she said, her head on his shoulder. “But it’s something I never tire of hearing.”
“I love you, Connie.”
“Right back at you.”
Thomas sighed, and for the first time in days thought maybe everything really would turn out to be all right.
18
Aidan was waiting on the porch when Liz got home from the store. It was after seven, so he’d begun to wonder if she’d changed her mind and decided to ditch him and all the soul-baring. Archie barked enthusiastically at her arrival, as did the dogs inside the house. Her animals had been in a frenzy for the past few minutes ever since they’d heard Archie outside. He’d heard them scratching at the door, too, and envisioned owing Liz a paint job.
“Sorry about the commotion and the extra guest,” Aidan apologized. “Archie wanted to visit his friends.”
“Did he really?” she said, weariness written all over her face. “He told you that?”
“You’d be surprised by how well he communicates.” He studied her as she opened the door. “You okay?”
“Exhausted, to be honest. And annoyed. I was all set to leave by six-fifteen. I’d closed out the register and even filled out a deposit slip. Just as I was about to turn off the lights, a tourist came by and knocked on the door. Since I try not to turn away prospective business, I let her in.”
“Why, if you were already closed? Couldn’t you have explained that to her?”
“Prospective business, remember? She’d been in earlier and expressed an interest in one of Matthew’s custom doghouses. Crazy me, I assumed she’d decided to order one. Instead, she started debating with herself all over again about whether she wanted to spend the money or not. I’m pretty sure she thought if she wore me down, I’d drop the price, but I finally told her flatly she’d have to negotiate that with Matthew. I gave her his card and practically pushed her out the door.” She looked guilty. “I doubt I’ll be seeing her again.”
Aidan chuckled. “Sounds to me as if you displayed amazing patience, and dumping her off on Matthew was ingenious. He does get the biggest slice of the doghouse profits, after all. Why shouldn’t he handle some of the aggravation?”
She smiled at last. “I doubt he’ll see it that way, but I’m sure he’s dealt with more than his share of difficult, demanding customers, to say nothing of having his uncle Mick as his boss. Just like his uncle, though, he has all that O’Brien charm to fall back on, something I’m lacking.”
Aidan could see the exhaustion around her eyes. “Would you rather postpone dinner? We can do this another night.”
She shook her head. “No, come on in. It won’t take me long to change. A quick shower should revive me.”
He caught her gaze. “We could share it. That would put some color back in your cheeks.”
She laughed. “I’m sure it would, but we have a whole lot to work out before you get to see me naked.”
Aidan doubted that the one-sided conversation he anticipated happening tonight was going to get them to that point. “You sure about that? Sometimes it’s better to just jump into these things than it is to talk them to death.”
“I’m not surprised you’d think so,” she said, clearly amused by his self-serving suggestion. “But I need the talk, Aidan. I need to work through about a million issues that are in my head. Most of them have nothing to do with you personally, but they’re there, and they’re real for me. Dealing with them is the only way we’ll ever be able to move forward.”
“A million, huh? I guess we’d better get started, then. You take your shower and I’ll have the sandwiches ready when you get to the kitchen. I assume you’re hungry.”
“Starving, actually,” she admitted, giving him no argument at all about commandeering her kitchen. “Thanks.”
With all three dogs and one suspicious cat watching his every move, Aidan made three BLTs with a couple of the perfect tomatoes that Liz’s mom had left. Admittedly, while standing over the sink, he ate a half of one tomato with only a little salt sprinkled on it. If it was possible to capture summer in a single food, this was it for him. There had been enough fresh tomatoes from his mom’s rooftop garden to last through the summer and into fall, even after sharing them with all the neighbors.
With the sandwiches made, he looked around and found an unexpected treat to cap off the meal, a container of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Of course, he sneaked a sample of those, too, then put the rest on the table, along with two glasses of iced tea. He’d discovered the pitcher of sweet tea for Liz already made and chilling in the refrigerator. Since he wasn’t a convert to that yet, he zapped a tea bag in a cup of water in the microwave to make his own unsweetened tea.
When Liz got to the kitchen, wearing another pair of those impossibly short shorts and a tank top that exposed way too much bare skin for his comfort, Aidan tried to focus his attention elsewhere to keep from sweeping her into his arms.
Instead, he directed his attention deliberately to a last check of the table. He thought he’d done a halfway decent job with the simple meal’s presentation, using colorful Fiesta Ware plates and bright napkins he’d found in the cupboard. Liz smiled when she saw the clashing colors that somehow worked.
“Trying to impress me? Paper plates would have been fine for such an informal meal.”
“I like these,” he admitted. “They seem to go with summer.”
She looked at the table quizzically, then nodded. “They do, don’t they? I’ve found most of them in antiques stores one by one, so they don’t match, but I think they’re cheerful.”
Aidan had noticed something while he was preparing the meal and searching for things in her cupboards. They were surprisingly bare. He’d found only a few cooking utensils, even fewer pots and pans, and what looked to be a set of four discount-store wineglasses and four matching tumblers. He’d realized then that he hadn’t noticed any fancy china cabinet in her dining room or matching furniture in the living room, not the sort of carefully chosen sets that most women would have after the end of a marriage. The sparse, slightly worn furnishings didn’t add up.
He took a bite of his sandwich and closed his eyes. “These really are the perfect tomatoes, nothing like the red sawdust you buy in the produce section of most grocery stores, even at this time of year.”
Liz gave him an approving look. “I’ll report back to my mother that she made you swoon.”
“I’ll put it in writing, if you like.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said before taking her own first bite.
Aidan noticed it brought an immediate smile to her lips.
“Pretty good, huh?” he said.
“No need to beg for compliments. You did a great job. You can be the official BLT maker around here from now on.”
“Works for me,” he said readily. “Do you think your mom would ship you more tomatoes?”
“I’m sure she would, but I’ve had pretty good luck at the farm stands out on the highway. And you might not want to suggest to Sally that my mom’s tomatoes are better than hers. Hers are grown organically and delivered three times a week by a local farmer. She prides herself on using produce from nearby farms. So does Brady.”
Aidan nodded. “Good for them. My mother would have loved that.
She was into that whole farm-to-table movement to use whatever’s available locally.”
They ate quietly for several minutes until Aidan couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “Can I ask you something?” he said.
She glanced up from her last bite of the sandwich and nodded. “Isn’t that what tonight’s supposed to be about?”
“I suppose, in a way, but I’m not sure how this fits in to the rest.”
“Just ask,” she said, pushing the plate aside and studying him warily as if afraid of where he might be heading. She put both hands around her glass of tea as if needing something to do with them to keep him from noticing how jittery she’d suddenly become. All three dogs seemed to sense her distress, because they moved closer, creating a protective circle around her. Even the cat got on board, jumping into her lap to purr contentedly.
Her obvious case of nerves was almost enough for him to back off and leave the heavy stuff for another time, but as she’d said, tonight was supposed to be about filling in some of the blanks in their lives.
“It dawned on me earlier that these dishes, the furniture you have, none of it looks as if it was something you might have gotten at a fancy bridal shower or to start your married life. Not that it’s not cozy and exactly right for you,” he added quickly, hoping not to insult her with the observation.
To his relief, she smiled.
“I sold every stick of furniture from my house in North Carolina,” she explained. “I put my fancy dishes and the outrageously expensive crystal on consignment in a local shop and moved here with my clothes and not much else. I did keep my silver because it was an heirloom from my family, but I packed it away and left it with my mom.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want anything that would remind me of that time of my life,” she said, a startlingly bitter note in her voice.
It wasn’t the first time that Aidan had seen through her veil of apparent grief and suspected her marriage hadn’t been as rosy as she’d led everyone in town to believe, but the depth of her bitterness was new.
“Then you really, really wanted a completely fresh start,” he said carefully.
