What Matters Most
Page 35
Instead of looking frightened, she began to smile. She looked up and down the path, as if hoping that she would see him, too.
“Was it your father?” she asked.
Seamus nodded. “How do you know?”
“I thought I saw him at Star of the Sea,” she whispered. “One morning, when I joined the Sisters for lauds, I looked up in choir, and he was standing right beside Bernie’s stall.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Seamus asked.
Kathleen blushed, looking into his eyes. “It was between them,” she said. “Such an intimate moment between Bernie and Tom. I…I looked away, not wanting to intrude. I just put it out of my mind.”
“What kind of moment between them?”
“Oh, you should have seen the smile on her face….”
“Then…” Seamus began. “Then she knew he was there?”
“Of course,” Kathleen whispered.
Seamus held Kathleen tight, the baby snuggled between them. Irish ghosts were a powerful lot. He thought of Sixtus, feeling protected by the ghost of Tadhg Mor O’Kelly rising out of the land beyond the waves every day. And Tom’s love for Bernie and—he had to admit this—for Seamus himself, was so strong, he had come back, or maybe never even left.
Holding Kathleen and Thomas, Seamus knew that he had the best family in the world, that he had found real love. Or love had found him…the details of how didn’t much matter anymore. He held the bloodstained threads from Tom’s jacket as if they were precious treasure, and he thought of what he’d told Bernie about her vision, about the words be ready.
He gazed into Kathleen’s deep, beautiful eyes, so filled with love, intelligence, and pain, and knew that he would be ready for anything, as long as they were together.
The world was filled with gifts of love, and they had just begun. Waves crashed at the base of the cliff, and Seamus felt overwhelmed with their violence and beauty. His skin prickled, and he knew he had a message to deliver. Bernie was back in Connecticut, at Star of the Sea, and he couldn’t wait to tell her that Tom had come to see him as well. But for now, standing on the Cliff Walk, he turned to his wife and child, kissed them both, said, “I love you.”
Kathleen whispered it back, and so did the wind.
And then it was time to go home.
About the Author
LUANNE RICE is the author of twenty-three novels, most recently The Edge of Winter, Sandcastles, Summer of Roses, Summer’s Child, Silver Bells, and Beach Girls. She lives in New York City and Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Also by Luanne Rice
The Edge of Winter
Sandcastles
Summer of Roses
Summer’s Child
Silver Bells
Beach Girls
Dance With Me
The Perfect Summer
The Secret Hour
True Blue
Safe Harbor
Summer Light
Firefly Beach
Dream Country
Follow the Stars Home
Cloud Nine
Home Fires
Blue Moon
Secrets of Paris
Stone Heart
Crazy in Love
Angels All Over Town
WHAT MATTERS MOST
A Bantam Book / July 2007
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2007 by Luanne Rice
Title page photograph, “The Irish Coast,” by Rachel Gilmore
“Child on a Beach” by Jason Conlon
“Cottage Window” by Henriette Hansen
“Sea at Sunset” by Yucel Tellici
Bantam Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rice, Luanne.
What matters most / Luanne Rice.
p. cm.
1. Nuns—Fiction. 2. Connecticut—Fiction. 3. Couples—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.I289W47 2007
813'.54—dc22 2006102142
www.bantamdell.com
eISBN: 978-0-553-90385-0
v3.0