Unlikely Hero

by Marta Perry

  “Fine. They’ll agree.” She was confident she knew what Nolie wanted, and Gabe was so in love that he’d do anything that made Nolie happy.

  “Then I guess you have a deal, Ms. Delany.” Brendan held out his hand, his face serious but with a smile lurking in those changeable eyes.

  She put her hand in his, her apprehension stirring. That wave of warmth hit again. Being prepared didn’t seem to prevent it.

  She had to catch her breath before she could speak evenly. “All right, a deal. When do you want me to get together with Stacy?”

  “I told her you’d be at the church tonight around nine. Usually some of the kids stop by then, and that’ll make her feel safer.” He got off her desk. “And we’re having dinner with Gabe and Nolie at the Flanagan house at six. We can find out then what kind of wedding they want.”

  She glared at him. “You were taking an awful lot for granted, weren’t you?”

  “We both get what we want. What’s wrong with that?” He gave her an innocent look she didn’t buy.

  “For a minister you’re something of an opportunist, you know that?”

  He grinned. “For a businesswoman, you’re something of a do-gooder, Ms. Delany. Maybe we bring out the best in each other.”

  “Or the worst.”

  He headed for the door. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

  Brendan had been trying to figure out Claire’s opinion of the Flanagan family throughout the whole meal, and he didn’t quite have it pegged yet. He forked a bite of his Aunt Siobhan’s excellent apple crumb pie into his mouth and watched while Claire parried Uncle Joe’s questions about the inner workings of Gray Enterprises.

  Claire’s polish and sophistication would probably make her at home anywhere, but she definitely hadn’t wanted to attend this family dinner. She’d come, because he hadn’t given her much choice if she wanted his cooperation with the wedding, but she seemed to be doing a great job of resisting the famous Flanagan charm.

  He glanced around the long oval table that had been the scene of countless family dinners over three generations of Flanagans. The crowd was smaller than usual tonight, out of deference to the fact that Gabe and Nolie were supposed to be having a quiet evening to plan their wedding.

  Only Seth, the brother who came next after Gabe, sat at the table, coaxing his toddler son to try a bite of apple. Davy grinned, snatched the apple slice, and rubbed it through his fine, red-gold hair.

  This had been home to Brendan for so long that he sometimes managed to forget his earlier life. Sometimes, but not for long. His father had been Uncle Joe’s brother, after all, and an innocent phrase or gesture could bring that past surging back.

  Joe held center stage at the moment, as he so often did, while Siobhan watched him, quietly smiling. He’d turn soon to his favorite subject.

  “And did you know that all the Flanagans were members of the Suffolk Fire Department, Ms. Delany?”

  “I’ve heard something about that, yes.” Claire’s gaze met Brendan’s. “I guess Brendan broke the family tradition, didn’t he?”

  “You’d think that, but you’d be wrong,” Joe said triumphantly. “Brendan might be a minister, but he’s also the chaplain of the fire department.”

  Claire’s eyebrows lifted. “Yes, he told me. He’s talented, isn’t he?”

  “That’s our Brendan. And he doesn’t just go through the motions. He’s a fully qualified firefighter, too. I’d count on him to take the hose in just as much as I would Gabe or Seth or Ryan.”

  “Leave me out of it,” Gabe said. He smiled at Nolie, and the love that shone between them was so bright it hurt to look. “I’ve got another full-time job now.”

  “And a good one it is, too,” Joe said quickly.

  After an accident on the job left Gabe prone to seizures that ended his career, they’d all feared he’d never be himself again. Then Nolie and the service animals she trained had given him a new purpose in life.

  Max, Gabe’s seizure alert dog, lay beside his chair. Gabe and Nolie were totally involved in expanding her services to give more people a fresh start.

  They all owed a great deal to Nolie. Brendan wondered, not for the first time, at the strong bond between Nolie and Claire. They seemed such total opposites. Nolie was all warmth and caring, more comfortable in jeans working with her animals than anywhere else.

  Claire didn’t look as if she ever wore anything as casual as jeans. Even the clothes she’d chosen for a simple family dinner, black slacks and cream silk shirt, declared that. Against the shirt, her hair was a helmet of burnished copper.

  He’d have guessed Claire was the type of woman to have few women friends, obsessed as she seemed to be with her career. Whatever the secret to her bond with Nolie was, Gabe probably knew it, but Gabe wasn’t telling.

  “Let’s take our coffee into the living room and be comfortable,” Siobhan suggested. “We can talk about the wedding there.”

  Brendan slid his arm around his aunt’s waist as they got up. “That was a wonderful meal.” He kissed her cheek. “As always.”

  “You should know,” Seth gibed. “You’re always here.”

  “I’m invited,” he retorted. “What’s your excuse?”

  Since young Davy chose that moment to throw a bit of apple at his father, Seth didn’t respond. Brendan escaped to the living room.

  Seth would get his revenge at some point, of course. That was part of being more like brothers than cousins.

  Joe was giving Claire the grand tour of the wall that was covered with fire department photos and citations. He glanced at Gabe, who rolled his eyes. There was no sidetracking Uncle Joe when he got started on his favorite topic.

  “That picture is me and my two brothers when we joined up, more years ago than I care to remember,” Joe said, gesturing to a faded black-and-white photo. “We thought we were pretty hot stuff the first time we put those uniforms on.”

  Claire leaned closer, studying the picture as if she really were interested in Flanagan family history. “Which one is Brendan’s father?”

  His stomach clenched, but at least she’d asked Joe, not him. Joe pointed.

  “That’s my brother John, Brendan’s dad. He was a year younger than me.”

  And a million miles different in temperament. But probably his uncle was able to remember some of the good things about his little brother.

  Claire took a step or two along the wall, looking at one citation after another. Nobody could fault the Flanagans when it came to courage. They had more than their share of citations attesting to that.

  “Distinguished Fire Service Award,” Claire read. “John Patrick Flanagan.” She glanced at him. “This was your father’s.”

  He nodded. “The highest award given by the department.” He was pleased that his voice sounded so level.

  “I should think you’d want to have this in your office,” she said. “Or your home.”

  How he kept his expression steady he wasn’t sure. What was it with this woman? How could she manage to put her finger right on the sore spot and push?

  “Aunt Siobhan keeps the awards,” he said lightly. “I wouldn’t want to leave a hole in her display.”

  He carried his coffee to a chair and sat, only to discover that Gabe was watching him with concern. Okay, maybe he wasn’t hiding his feelings as well as he thought, at least not from Gabe, who knew him better than anyone. But Claire would never guess.

  He glanced at his watch. “I’m sorry to interrupt the grand tour, Uncle Joe, but maybe we’d better get started on the wedding arrangements. I have to be back at the church by nine.”

  Uncle Joe nodded, but Gabe gave him a quizzical look. “I thought we’d already decided. A simple, quiet ceremony, just family and a few friends. Nolie and I are too busy with the expansion project to do anything else.”

  Some of his tension eased. Surely Claire would see that they had to do this Gabe and Nolie’s way.

  “Claire has some other ideas—” he began
, but Claire interrupted him.

  “I’m the closest thing Nolie has to family.” Her voice was determined. “I want to give her a real wedding with all the trimmings. She’s only going to do this once. It should be a day to remember.”

  He waited for Nolie to insist that what she wanted was the simple ceremony Gabe had talked about.

  “Claire, I can’t let you do that,” Nolie said, her blue eyes troubled. “It’s too expensive, and besides, we just don’t have enough time. We’re so busy with the farm we can’t take care of all those arrangements.”

  “That’s why I want you to let me do it.” The firm set of Claire’s jaw suggested that neither money nor time would deter her. “You should have a perfect wedding.” Her look softened. “You and Gabe deserve it. Let me do this for you—it would be my gift to you both. Please.”

  Gabe looked horrified for just one instant. Then he looked at Nolie and obviously saw what they all saw— that moment of sheer longing before she closed the door on the idea and shook her head.

  “I agree,” Siobhan said unexpectedly. “So there’s not much time. So what? Goodness knows we’ve put on plenty of parties on a moment’s notice in the past. A wedding’s far more important.”

  If Aunt Siobhan had gone over to the enemy, they were really in trouble.

  “The ceremony is the important thing,” Brendan said, but he had the sinking feeling no one was listening to him.

  Siobhan, Claire and Nolie were suddenly all talking at once, and words like “shower,” “flowers” and “lace” floated to the surface like spray tossed up by a wave.

  He met Gabe’s gaze. Gabe gave a rueful grin. “Forget it, Bren,” he said. “We’ve been outvoted. I guess it’s going to be a wedding with a capital W.”

  “I guess so.”

  Claire cast him a triumphant look, as if she’d heard his capitulation over the babble of voices.

  It appeared he’d be spending a great deal of time with Claire over the next month. That idea seemed to be making him feel ridiculously cheerful.

  Claire walked slowly from the church parlor, where she and Stacy had been talking, toward Brendan’s study. She shouldn’t feel so at home in the church after only a few days. After all, she hadn’t been in a church before that for twenty-some years.

  Nevertheless, here she was going in search of the pastor, just like any one of his faithful parishioners. Brendan would probably be as horrified at that thought as she was.

  But she wasn’t really looking for his advice, was she? After all, she knew more about what Stacy was going through than he ever could. Still, she felt compelled to check in with him.

  The study door was propped open, and as soon as he saw her, Brendan came toward her, hand outstretched in welcome. “How did it go? Is there anything I can do?”

  She didn’t want to admit the pleasure she felt at the sight of him. “At least she’s given up the attacking door story and admitted Ted hit her.”

  “That’s good.” He studied her face. “You look all in. Takes something out of you, doesn’t it?”

  She nodded. He couldn’t know just how much. “I don’t know how you manage to do this all the time. Of course, I suppose your regular congregation doesn’t present problems like this very often.”

  He gave a short bark of laughter. “You don’t know much about congregations if you think that.” He gestured her toward a chair and opened the small refrigerator under a microwave on the opposite wall. “A cold soda?”

  “Sounds good.” She watched as he popped the lids on two soda cans. Some tall men were awkward, but she’d already noticed that Brendan went about the simplest tasks with an easy economy of movement. He carried the soda to her, then folded himself into the chair opposite her, rather than going back to his seat behind the desk.

  “So every day you get up and come to work and deal with other people’s problems,” she said, unaccountably curious as to what made him tick. She understood people who were motivated by ambition. What motivated Brendan?

  “Pretty much.” He took a gulp of the soda. “That’s what being a minister means. Of course, it also means I get to share their joys.”

  “Does it balance out?”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes.”

  “You’re a fount of information.”

  He grinned. “Sorry. You’re asking me to evaluate my whole ministry in a few words. I don’t think I can do it that easily. Can you describe your job that way?”

  Could she? “I think so. Basically my job is to help Harvey Gray run the corporation. Anything he wants, I get. Any problem he wants solved, I solve.”

  “You sound like a guardian angel. I don’t suppose you’d like to come work for me, would you?”

  “I doubt you could meet the salary requirements.”

  “Probably not. Is that why you do it? The money?”

  “In part.” She’d always prided herself on being honest about what drove her. She wouldn’t change just because Brendan might think less of her. “Partly it’s the challenge. And mostly because it’s the way to the top.”

  “The top of what?”

  “The top of the heap.” Okay, she didn’t know how to explain this to him. “The place where you’re the boss. Where no one else can tell you what to do or control you. Ever.”

  He was looking at her with a sharpening of interest that made her a little uncomfortable. “That’s what you want? To be where no one else can ever control you?”

  Why did those particular words come out? “Well, it’s more being the boss,” she said quickly. “No other woman has ever been where I am with Gray Enterprises. I plan to break a few more traditions before I’m done.”

  Did he believe her? She wasn’t sure. She’d have to be more cautious around Brendan. He had a way of pulling things out that was almost scary.

  “Anyway, about Stacy, I wanted to bounce a couple of things off you.” Keep the conversation on Stacy, not herself. “She seems to like staying with your aunt and uncle. Do you think that situation is going to last?”

  “Probably.” The faint lines around his mouth deepened. “Joe and Siobhan have a good record when it comes to taking in strays. They took me in.”

  “They what?” She looked at him blankly. She’d known he was close to his cousins, but she hadn’t known this.

  “My parents died when I was thirteen. I went to live with Joe and Siobhan.”

  “I’m sorry, I know what it’s like to lose your parents.” Well, her father wasn’t dead, but he might as well be, for as little interest as he took in what happened to her.

  He nodded, as if accepting that they had something in common, surprising as that was. “Anyway, like I said, they have a good record.”

  “You weren’t a stray.” The words were out before she thought he might be offended. “You were a relative.”

  “It still can’t have been easy.” His brows knit, and he seemed to be looking into that past. “They already had five kids, but they made me feel like one of their own. And now they have Seth’s little boy. If they can cope with all that, they can handle Stacy.”

  “I hope so.” Much as she hated to admit it, the Flanagan family would probably be good for the girl. “Anyway, Stacy says she wants to get a job, so I can help her with that. Trouble is, she doesn’t really have any marketable skills.”

  “I had a thought about that.” He said the words a bit diffidently, as if thinking she wouldn’t like an idea if it came from him. “What if we gave Stacy a job helping with the wedding?”

  She turned it over in her mind. She wouldn’t have expected Brendan to come up something so practical. “That’s really not a bad idea.” Well, that sounded condescending. Would she ever reach the point that she could just talk to the man in a normal way? “I could certainly use an extra pair of hands, and I don’t mind paying for it.”

  He nodded, apparently not taking offense at her response. “Good. If Stacy’s supporting herself, she’ll be less likely to fall into old patterns.”

  S
omething about his calm assurance annoyed her. “What’s going to keep her from going back to Ted the first time he shows up and sweet-talks her?”

  Heaven knew, she’d made that mistake often enough.

  It’ll never happen again, Claire. I swear. I love you. Don’t leave me. It’ll never happen again.

  And it hadn’t. Until the next time.

  “Nothing will stop her from going back but her own good sense,” Brendan said slowly. “However much you or I might want to help her, some decisions she has to make on her own.” He leaned forward. Their knees were almost touching, and he took her hand in his, his gaze very intent on her face. “You can’t let yourself feel too responsible.”

  He was a fine one to give that advice, with the responsibility he seemed to feel for everyone around him. “I want to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

  “If you make the decisions for her, that’s hurting her. That’s controlling her, just like Ted tries to do.”

  “Not with fists.”

  “But controlling, just the same.”

  Much as she hated to admit it, he might have a point. “Okay. I guess I get that. How did you get so smart?”

  “Painful mistakes, believe me. Some things they can’t teach you in seminary. You just have to stumble through on your own.” His fingers tightened on hers, and his gaze grew suddenly serious. “I don’t want to involve you in anything over your head, Claire. If you need to step back from Stacy, I won’t argue.”

  Here was her chance. All she had to do was say regretfully that she couldn’t handle it.

  “I’ll see it through.”

  What was she saying? She wanted out, didn’t she?

  Maybe Brendan’s idealism was contagious. Either that, or she just plain couldn’t say no to the man.

  Chapter Three

  “What on earth are you doing? You’ll hurt yourself.”

  The sound of Brendan’s voice startled Claire so much that she nearly slid off the stack of folding tables she’d found in the closet off the church’s social rooms. She steadied herself and then turned carefully to look at him. Faded jeans and a gray sweatshirt made him look younger than she knew him to be.