Dogwood Hill (9781460345795)

by Woods, Sherryl

  “Doing what? Babysitting you oafs in the locker room? No, thanks.”

  “What about being a quarterback coach?”

  “The team already has a great one,” Aidan reminded him. “That’s who trained me.”

  “Yeah, well, they’d come up with something.”

  “I made a commitment here,” Aidan reminded him. “That means something to me.”

  “What I still don’t get is why Chesapeake freaking Shores, or whatever it is?”

  “If you’d come for a visit, you’d have some idea. It’s a great little town.”

  “Any clubs? Hot babes? A great nightlife?”

  “No,” Aidan admitted.

  “Then it’s not for me. Why don’t you get your butt in gear and come to New York this weekend?”

  For an instant Aidan was tempted, but going out on the town with Frankie didn’t hold nearly the appeal of getting even a glimpse of Liz. That was probably yet more evidence of just how hard he’d fallen. He might as well resign himself to it and chase the dream.

  “Thanks, but I have things to do here,” he told Frankie. “Stay out of trouble, okay?”

  “Always,” Frankie promised. “You do the same, though it sounds as if you don’t have many opportunities to get into trouble in the first place.”

  Aidan hung up and headed for Main Street. When he walked into Pet Style, he found three unfamiliar women wandering around in the store while Liz finished a sale at the register. The older of the three kept firing questions in Liz’s direction, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Liz was busy with a customer.

  “Mom, please,” Liz said, clearly fighting for patience after making an apology to the customer. “I’ll be finished here in a minute.”

  Ah, Aidan thought. Her family had come to visit. As he walked in her mother’s direction, he caught the look of panic on Liz’s face, but he didn’t allow that to slow him down.

  “You must be Liz’s mother,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Aidan Mitchell.”

  Liz’s mother gave him a long look, her gaze narrowing, caught somewhere between suspicion and disapproval. “Doris Benson,” she said eventually as if debating whether to say anything at all to this impertinent stranger who’d approached her without a proper introduction.

  The younger women displayed no such hesitation. They hurried over and introduced themselves as Liz’s sisters, LeeAnn and Danielle.

  “I wonder why Liz hasn’t mentioned you,” Danielle said, unabashedly giving him a thorough once-over. “You’re definitely noteworthy.”

  “Danielle!” her mother chided, her suspicious gaze never leaving Aidan. “How do you and Liz know each other?”

  “We’re friends,” Aidan said. “We met when I first arrived in town about six weeks ago to coach the high school football team. I live in an apartment right upstairs, so we run into each other a lot.”

  Liz’s other sister’s eyes widened. “You’re that Aidan Mitchell! I recognize you now,” LeeAnn gushed, promptly pulling out her cell phone to snap a picture. “Wait till I text this to Teddy. That’s my husband. He’s going to be so excited. We’re big Carolina Panthers fans, of course, but he thought you were about the most promising quarterback to come along in years.” Her expression sobered. “Too bad about your injury. I had no idea you were in Chesapeake Shores.” She shot a critical look toward Liz. “No one thought to mention there was a celebrity right here in town.”

  “As I mentioned, I’ve only been here a short time,” Aidan said. “And since my football career is behind me, I doubt anyone in town thinks of me as a celebrity these days.”

  “Well, any football fan surely does,” LeeAnn contradicted. “And you and my sister are friends. Imagine that.” She winked at Danielle. “Liz always did know how to snag the most handsome guy around. You should have seen Josh.”

  “That’s enough!” Liz said, her sharp tone finally snagging her sister’s attention as she rushed in their direction.

  “What did I say?” LeeAnn asked.

  Her expression was innocent, but Aidan didn’t think there was anything innocent about her comment. Her next words confirmed his suspicion.

  “Doesn’t he know about Josh?” LeeAnn asked, wide-eyed with feigned disbelief. “He was your husband, for goodness’ sakes.”

  “I really don’t like to talk about that time in my life,” Liz said, her voice tight. “You know that.”

  “Sure, but what I don’t understand is why,” LeeAnn said anyway, persisting in keeping the topic alive. “Josh was an amazing guy. It was tragic that he died, but you can’t just pretend he never existed. You should be keeping those memories alive.”

  “Don’t try to tell me how to live my life,” Liz snapped. “And not in front of people you don’t even know.”

  “Liz is right,” her mother said, trying to smooth over the awkward moment. “This isn’t the time or the place. Sweetie, if you’ll just give us a key and point us in the right direction, we’ll head on over to the house and unpack. I brought a cooler with some of your favorites. I thought we’d eat in tonight so we can relax after that drive.”

  Aidan watched Liz’s expression. She didn’t seem especially ecstatic about the plan, possibly because she knew the topic of her late husband was likely to be part of the evening’s conversation.

  He caught her gaze. “I could ride over with them and show them the way,” he offered.

  “Oh, we couldn’t ask you to do that,” her mother said. “How would you get back?”

  He smiled. Clearly she hadn’t been in town long enough to see how close downtown was to everything. “I’ll walk back. It’s not far.”

  “Well, if you wouldn’t mind, that would be helpful,” she said, her tone more gracious than before. “Thank you.”

  Liz gave her mother a key to the house, then leaned in close to Aidan to whisper, “If my dogs attack them, don’t try to stop it.”

  He laughed and held open the shop door. “Ladies.”

  Fifteen minutes later he’d deposited the three women inside Liz’s house, calmed the barking dogs, discreetly avoided answering a single one of the myriad questions posed about his relationship with Liz and walked back to Main Street.

  “They’re safely tucked away at your place,” he told Liz as he returned to Pet Style. “They’re a curious bunch, aren’t they?”

  She groaned. “What did they ask you?”

  “I believe my preference for boxers or briefs came up at one point.”

  Her eyes widened with dismay. “I’m going to kill them. I really am.”

  He laughed at her reaction. “It’s okay. They didn’t go quite that far.”

  “But close enough,” she said wearily, then gave him a plaintive look. “Can I spend the night with you? Maybe the whole weekend?”

  His jaw dropped, even though he knew she was only teasing. “I wouldn’t say no.”

  She chuckled, as he’d intended. “Of course you wouldn’t, but I suppose I can’t escape my own family just by hiding out. What on earth was I thinking when I invited them to come for a visit?”

  “That you wanted to see them?” he suggested. “Or wanted them to see where you live and how wonderful it is?”

  Her eyes lit up. “Ah, yes, that was it.” She sighed heavily. “I think it was probably a bad idea. LeeAnn especially is much more excited about meeting you than she’s likely to be about anything else Chesapeake Shores has to offer. She’s already criticized half a dozen things about the town and the store and they’d only been here about fifteen minutes when you walked in.”

  “I could join you for dinner, keep their attention diverted,” he suggested, thinking that would serve his own purposes very nicely. Plus it might give him more insight into Liz and the marriage she was so clearly reluctant to discuss.

  “I think y
ou’ve already stirred up enough speculation for one day,” she said. “But thanks.”

  “Are you sure you want to turn down someone who’s offering to sacrifice themselves for the cause of keeping the attention off you?”

  “Trust me—the attention will always come back to me. They’ve come with an agenda. They want me to come back to North Carolina, or at least my mother does. Nothing about Chesapeake Shores or my life here will meet their expectations.”

  “Not even me?” he asked with a grin.

  “You’re just a complication. I can’t explain you away, and, in case you couldn’t interpret that expression on my mother’s face, she doesn’t think I should be done mourning yet. In their eyes Josh was a saint.”

  There was an unmistakable edge in her voice that caught his attention. “He wasn’t?” That would definitely explain the heartbreak she’d experienced.

  For an instant it looked as if Liz might answer honestly, but then her expression closed down. “I was taught not to speak ill of the dead.”

  “Which says quite a lot just on the surface of it,” Aidan commented. “Maybe it’s time you did talk truthfully about your past. I’m getting a very strong feeling you’ve been glossing over the truly important parts.”

  “Aidan, please, not now,” she pleaded. “Having the three of them here is stressful enough.”

  Reluctantly, he backed off—again. “By the way, I had a message from Bree that she’d left a ticket to the playhouse for me for tomorrow night,” he told her.

  “Did you now?” Liz said, looking amused. “Something tells me I’ll be seeing you there.”

  “She left a ticket for you, too?”

  “Four, as a matter of fact. You can play buffer then, assuming any of us is still alive by tomorrow night.”

  He laughed. “I have great faith in your restraint.”

  “Really? I can’t imagine why. This is the first time you’ve seen me with my family. They can drive me over the brink faster than any O’Brien you’ve ever met.”

  “Then I’ll look forward to tomorrow night,” he said truthfully. He had a feeling it would give him yet more insight into Liz’s past and whatever secrets she’d been so determined to keep. He’d already picked up more just this afternoon than she’d obviously intended.

  * * *

  Liz dallied over closing the store for as long as she thought she possibly could without causing a major uproar when she finally did get home. As it was, there were bound to be weighted remarks about how hard she was working. They wouldn’t be worded as compliments.

  When she walked into the house, the dogs were nowhere in sight. She could hear them barking frantically from the laundry room by the kitchen. She found her mother and sisters gathered in the kitchen. Pots of vegetables were simmering on the stove, and a casserole was apparently in the oven.

  Ignoring the chatter, she opened the door to the laundry room. Both dogs and the cat bounded out and raced past her, clearly intent on getting far away from their captors.

  “Why did you put them in there?” she asked, trying to keep her anger in check.

  “We didn’t think you’d want them running all through the house,” her mother said. “Who knows what damage they might do.”

  “Didn’t it occur to you that I was the one who’d left them out in the first place?” Liz asked. “Please don’t shut them up like that again.”

  Her mother blinked at her hard tone. “Sure, honey, if that’s what you want. Let’s not get the evening off to a bad start over something so silly.”

  Liz was about to argue that any mistreatment of her pets was hardly inconsequential, but managed to stop herself. “You’re right. I’ve been looking forward to playing cards or Scrabble and having some fun the way we used to.”

  “So are we,” her mother said. “Now, why don’t you change your clothes and take a shower. That’ll relax you. Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes.”

  Since changing and a shower meant she could escape from the kitchen, Liz seized on the suggestion. “Thanks, Mom. I won’t be long.” She forced a smile. “Dinner smells delicious.”

  “Wait till you see dessert,” Danielle said. “She made a red velvet cake and a lemon meringue pie. I intend to eat some of each. I haven’t allowed myself even a taste of dessert for what seems like forever. If I don’t lose the last of this baby weight from having Kit six months ago, I think Nate’ll probably pack up and leave.”

  Liz opened her mouth, but one glance at her mother had her clamping her lips together and leaving the room. Don’t start a fight, she cautioned herself for the second time in a couple of minutes. Not on the very first night.

  When she came back fifteen minutes later in shorts and a tank top, her feet bare, she drew a critical glance from her mother, but she ignored it. This was, after all, her home. She could surely dress as she wanted on a summer night. LeeAnn and Danielle, both wearing proper starched sundresses, eyed her enviously.

  Dinner actually went surprisingly well, Liz thought, as the conversation covered the recipes for her mother’s corn pudding, her baked chicken and noodle casserole, and the fresh green beans and sliced summer tomatoes that she’d brought from her own garden. As they had for years, all three sisters teased their mom that she was leaving out ingredients when she passed along her recipes, just so theirs would never live up to hers.

  “I would never do such a thing,” Doris Benson claimed, but there was a twinkle in her eyes when she said it. “After I’m gone you can go through my recipe box to your heart’s content and you’ll find it all written down exactly the way I’ve told you.”

  “Sure,” LeeAnn said, grinning. “I imagine you covered your tracks pretty thoroughly. It’s Grandma’s recipe box I want to see.”

  Liz laughed. “I never thought of that. Now, exactly where did you hide that, Mom?”

  “If it even exists, and I’m not saying it does, you’ll find it long after I’m gone,” her mother retorted. “That is if you don’t just throw all the contents of the house into a Dumpster the way I hear Ginny Walker did with her parents’ things.” She shook her head. “I’ve never before heard of such disrespectful behavior.”

  “Mom, Ginny lives clear across the country. I’m sure she saved things that held real memories for her and dealt with the rest the best way she knew how in the little time she had to clean out the house and get it on the market,” Danielle said. “You can’t fault her for that.”

  “Well, I do,” Doris said stubbornly. “You treat my things that way and I’ll haunt the whole lot of you.”

  “Now there’s a fun thought,” LeeAnn said, giving Liz a conspiratorial wink. “I can hardly wait. How about you?”

  Since having her mother alive and kicking under her roof was problematic enough, Liz couldn’t imagine that having her haunting presence around would be much worse. “Think of the reality show we could do,” she said lightly, drawing a scowl from her mother, but chuckles from her sisters.

  For just a minute, it seemed a little like old times, back before they’d all gone their separate ways, then gotten married and moved on with their lives. Liz took a moment to indulge in the nostalgic thought, but her mother interrupted, snapping her back to the present.

  “Let’s talk about this Aidan Mitchell person,” she said. “I’m surprised at you, dating so soon after losing your husband.”

  “Who said anything about dating?” Liz asked, her shoulders tightening with immediate tension. “We’re friends.”

  “Any benefits?” LeeAnn asked hopefully.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Doris Benson said, seemingly unfamiliar with the term, but grasping that she wouldn’t approve.

  Liz frowned at her youngest sister. “Really, LeeAnn, do you have to stir the pot?”

  “It is fun,” LeeAnn said unrepentantly. As the youngest, she
’d always delighted in getting her big sisters to lose their cool. Tattling about their boyfriends had been one of her favorite forms of entertainment until both Liz and Danielle had threatened severe retaliation.

  “My point is,” their mother said, “that you should still be mourning the loss of your husband, not cavorting around with another man.”

  “Nobody’s cavorting, Mom,” Liz said tightly. “And I think over a year is plenty of time to be in mourning.” She was not going to say that maybe Josh hadn’t deserved even that much, at least not from her, but once again she bit her tongue. At this rate she’d need stitches in it before they left town.

  Why ruin their illusions at this late date? she told herself sternly. It was bad enough that her own had been shattered. Maybe, though, if she’d confided in them from the beginning, the burden of Josh’s infidelity would have been easier to bear and she’d have had the emotional support she’d denied herself. In her twisted thinking at the time, though, she’d thought she’d failed at marriage and hadn’t wanted anyone to know just how badly.

  “He was the love of your life,” her mother persisted. “You’re not even around to go to the cemetery and keep flowers on his grave.”

  “I’m sure his parents do that,” Liz said, refusing to allow her mother to heap more guilt on her shoulders. “Even if I were there, I wouldn’t be spending my time at his grave. Nobody does that.”

  “I still visit your grandparents’ graves,” her mother said.

  “Every Christmas and Easter,” Danielle reminded her. “You take a wreath at Christmas and a lily at Easter. It’s not as if you’re praying over them every day, the way you seem to want Liz to do.”

  Liz regarded her gratefully, appreciating the unexpected support.

  Danielle acknowledged her with a wink. “I’m just saying.”

  Doris frowned at both of them. “I go more than that,” she insisted. “I stop by Josh’s grave, too. The headstone’s real pretty.” Once again, she regarded Liz with disapproval. “I still don’t understand why you left the choice to his parents.”