Sean seemed eager to go along with the change of topic, but Ryan promptly cut him off.
“Locking the past in a closet doesn’t work,” Ryan countered. “Lord knows I tried for a lot of years. Now that I’m close to getting everything out in the open, I want to finish up so I can forget about it once and for all.”
“There’s just one problem with that,” Patrick said. “I don’t have the answers you want. Like I told you last night, the folks refused to answer any of the questions Daniel and I threw at them. As far as I know, they haven’t opened up with him since I walked out. I think he’d have let me know if they had. If you want answers, you’re going to have to look them up yourselves. I’ll tell you where to find them, but that’s it. Depending on what time your flight is, you could go today. It’s only about a thirty-minute drive.”
All three of his brothers fell silent at the suggestion. It was as if having finally neared the end of their long search, they weren’t particularly anxious to start that final leg.
Ryan sighed heavily, his gaze on Michael. “Up to you. Do you want this over and done with before the wedding? Or will it ruin what should be the happiest time of your life?”
“I won’t let our folks ruin anything for me,” Michael said flatly. “But I still think we should wait. Finding them is going to affect all of us, and frankly I want all your attention focused on the wedding. If I walk into that church without the rings or miss the rehearsal dinner because you guys had your minds on what happened up here in Maine, Kelly will never let any of us forget it.”
“You sure you don’t want to make peace so the folks can be at the wedding?” Ryan persisted.
“My family will be at the wedding,” Michael said emphatically. “The Havilceks and you guys are the only family I need to have there.”
Ryan nodded. “Then we’ll drop it for now,” he told Patrick.
Patrick couldn’t help the sigh of relief that shuddered through him.
“Since we’ve put the topic of the folks on the back burner for now,” Sean said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes again, “then I suggest we talk some more about Alice and Patrick. We owe it to our baby brother to see that he’s on the path toward marital bliss like the rest of us. We can’t have him up here living like a hermit, the way Molly says he is.”
“Molly has a big mouth,” Patrick complained, just as she arrived with the food.
“Watch it, buster,” she said, “or you could wind up wearing these eggs.”
“Just speaking the truth,” he said unrepentantly.
“It’s never wise to accuse your friendly neighborhood bartender of having a big mouth,” Molly warned. “She might be tempted to spill all your secrets to certain interested parties.”
“I don’t have any secrets,” Patrick retorted.
“I don’t know. I think your brothers might be interested in knowing how lonely you’ve been since you left home. And while I never could figure out how you wound up with a brother as uptight and impossible as Daniel, I know you miss having him around.”
He noticed his brothers watching him with a speculative look in their eyes and mentally cursed Molly for opening up that particular can of worms.
Patrick scowled at her. “There went your tip,” he said, trying to inject a light note into his voice.
She shrugged. “Something tells me the rest of this crew will make up for it.”
With that she strolled off to wait on other customers, who, Patrick surmised, probably managed to have their breakfasts served without the added ingredient of Molly’s sass.
“Want to talk about it?” Ryan asked. “Is Molly right?”
“If you’re asking if I miss Daniel, he’s my twin—what the hell do you think?” he said heatedly. “Of course I miss him! But I’m not interested in mending that particular fence. He chose to stick by our parents.” He looked his brothers in the eyes. “So you see, I know a little something about being shut out of the Devaney clan, too. And just because I was eighteen when I walked away doesn’t mean it was a helluva lot easier on me than it was on you. I’d planned on college, but leaving home shot the hell out of that. I had to work. Fortunately, I love what I do. Being out on the water can be a hard life, but it’s a good one.”
Michael gave him a knowing look. “Amen to that. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss being a SEAL. I almost took up a career as captain of a charter fishing boat, but the Navy convinced me that had a better use for my talents, even if it did stick me behind a desk. Still, I never miss a chance to get out on the water.”
“You’ll have to come up here sometime and go out with me,” Patrick said, enjoying the sense of camaraderie he felt with his brother. Daniel had never loved the sea as much as Patrick did, and he certainly didn’t understand Patrick’s decision to become a fisherman rather than taking one dime of his college money from their parents.
Michael grinned at the invitation. “I’d like that. As for family, you have us now,” he said. “We aren’t your twin, but we are your brothers and we stick together.”
Ryan nodded. “I went looking for these guys because I wanted to put the past to rest once and for all. I never expected to find men I felt connected to from the instant I laid eyes on them.”
“Same with me,” Sean said.
Michael nodded. “And me.”
“And I feel the same about you,” Ryan said to Patrick. “We’ve always been your brothers by blood, but from this moment on we’ll be your family in every sense of the word, if you’ll let us.”
Patrick thought he’d long since passed the stage of being sentimental about family, but he found himself fighting against the unexpected sting of tears. He’d had no idea just how much he’d missed having family in his life until the prospect of having it again was dangled in front of him. Could he make himself reach out for it? Could he risk another hurt, another betrayal?
He honestly didn’t know. And he had no idea at all how long it would take him to figure it out.
Alice usually spent Saturday mornings cleaning the little cottage she’d fixed up when she’d returned to Widow’s Cove. She’d used the money she’d inherited from her parents to turn their home into her own. She’d once vowed never to set foot in it again and she hadn’t, not until after they were gone. She had held on to all the anger right up until the second the policeman on the phone had told her about the accident. Then, in a heartbeat, she couldn’t seem to recall why they had fought or why she had let it matter for so many years. Clinging to hurt had been cold comfort while she’d been all alone in Boston.
She sighed at the memory and tried to motivate herself to get busy with her chores. It didn’t take all that long to run a vacuum through the four tiny rooms or to dust the few antiques she’d acquired since moving back. Still, it gave structure to her weekend, the two free days that always stretched out endlessly with way too many hours to think about the past.
She could hardly wait for warm weather to settle in for good so she could work in the garden she’d planned. She wanted spiky pink hollyhocks and bright day lilies to line the white picket fence of the seaside cottage. On the tiny patch of land in back she planned an herb garden. Her newly renovated home in Widow’s Cove was going to be nothing at all like the dreary home in which she’d grown up. Her mother’s taste had run to heavy drapes, plain white walls and sparse landscaping. Alice’s walls were a cheery yellow, the woodwork white and white sheers billowed at her windows and let in lots of light and incredible shades of blue in the views of sky and sea.
Normally a thorough housecleaning, followed by an afternoon poring through gardening books, would have occupied her on a day like this, but today she was far too restless to sit still or even to clean. All she could think about was the amazing scene on Patrick’s boat the night before, when his three brothers had shown up out of the blue.
As she’d followed him up to the deck and listened to their exchange, she’d been stunned, but Patrick’s shock had been almost palpable. The fact that he’d turne
d to her and all but pleaded for her to stay had touched her more than she wanted to admit. It had been a long time since anyone other than her students had needed her for anything. There was something about a usually strong man turning vulnerable that could twist her inside out, too. She’d fallen just a little bit in love with Patrick Devaney at that moment.
As soon as she finished tidying up in the kitchen after her breakfast, she automatically reached into the closet for her cleaning supplies, only to put them right back. The curiosity was killing her. She had to know how last night had turned out. Patrick had been given the chance she’d always dreamed about, a chance at a reconciliation with his family. Had he taken advantage of it?
She wasn’t quite brave enough to risk another visit to Patrick’s boat, but there was someone who’d have the answers she was after. Because yesterday’s balmy breezes were a thing of the past, and a cold front had turned the air wintry once more, she pulled on her sheepskin-lined jacket and headed for Jess’s.
“I was wondering when you’d turn up,” Molly called out cheerfully when Alice stepped inside the dimly lit room. The window facing the street let in precious little light even on a sunny morning like this one.
“I’m not that predictable,” Alice replied with a hint of indignation as she approached the bar.
“You are to someone who’s known you since grade school,” Molly said, then chided, “even if I don’t see nearly enough of you these days.”
Alice slid onto a stool and faced her friend. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, just start coming around a bit more. You class up the place.”
Alice laughed. “Hardly. If anything, having the kindergarten teacher around will kill your business.”
“Since your visiting is such a rare thing, to what do I owe the honor…or need I ask? I imagine you came by to find out what went on with Patrick after you left last night,” Molly said, giving her a sly once-over.
“Why would you think that?” Alice asked, as heat crept into her cheeks.
“Oh, please! When you were in here with the kids yesterday, you were watching the man as if he were covered in Belgian chocolate and you were in desperate need of a major fix of the stuff. You were no better last night.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Alice protested indignantly.
Molly grinned. “Then I suppose it is of absolutely no interest to you that he’s sitting over in the corner, brooding over his fourth cup of coffee.”
Alice barely resisted the sudden desire to bury her burning face in her hands. “He’s here?”
“Has been for a couple of hours now. His brothers just left.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Snippets of their conversation came back to her. “Molly, what if he heard?”
“Honey, he’s lost in his own thoughts. And I wasn’t exactly shouting, you know. I do know a little bit about being discreet.”
“Since when?” Alice asked, getting in her own barb. “Aren’t you the girl who kept a record of the boys she’d kissed on the front of her English notebook in seventh grade?”
“I’m better now,” Molly said primly. “All the juicy stuff about my love life is in the journal beside my bed.” She studied Alice intently. “So, are you going to go over there or not?”
Alice glanced across the room and spotted Patrick in the corner. He was staring into his mug of coffee as if he’d never before seen anything so fascinating…or so sad.
Alice made a decision on impulse, something she’d done more in the past two days than she had in years. “Pour me two cups of coffee,” she told Molly.
“Want me to slip a little Irish whiskey in his? It might loosen his tongue. I tried earlier, but I couldn’t get a word out of him.”
Alice was tempted, but she shook her head. If she could get a shy five-year-old to start chattering like a magpie, surely she could deal with one stoically silent male.
Coffee in hand, she crossed the room and slid into the booth opposite Patrick. He didn’t even seem to notice her until she shoved one mug under his nose. Then he blinked and stared.
“Where’d you come from?” he asked, sounding cranky and not the least bit delighted to see her.
Relieved at the evidence that he’d heard none of Molly’s teasing, she ignored the lack of welcome. “Are you asking in the cosmic sense?”
A half smile tugged at his lips. “It’s too early in the morning for that.”
“It’s past ten.”
Clearly startled, he stared at the clock over the bar. “How the hell did that happen?”
“The usual way. Time goes by, tick-tock, minute by minute.”
“Very funny.” He sat back and studied her, the tension in his shoulders visibly easing. “So, Alice Newberry, what are you doing hanging out in a bar at ten o’clock on a Saturday morning? Do the parents of your students know where you spend your free time?”
She bit back the first response that popped into her head. It would be way too revealing to admit that this was the first Saturday morning she’d ever ventured into Jess’s. Patrick might have been lost in thought there for a minute, but he wasn’t dense. He’d likely make the connection between her presence here today and his the night before. She didn’t want him guessing that she was here to check on the outcome of his meeting with his brothers, after she’d made such a point of not intruding on it.
“Actually, I move from bar to bar so they can’t keep up with me,” she retorted. “This is my week for Jess’s.”
“How convenient for me,” he said with what sounded like complete sincerity. “Have you eaten?”
“Hours ago,” she admitted, almost regretting her early-morning habit of fixing a hearty breakfast to get her through a day that too often had no more than a few stolen minutes to grab a bite of lunch.
“Had enough coffee?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Feel like going out on the boat for a couple of hours?”
“Sure,” she said at once, telling herself it was only because he seemed eager for the company. “But for the record, I don’t know anything about fishing.”
“I know enough for both of us,” he said, tossing some money on the table and grabbing his jacket. He shrugged into it, then held hers so she could slip it on.
He gazed into her eyes as he pulled her jacket snugly around her. “Besides, I just feel like getting out on the water. The salt air clears my head. The fish’ll be there come Monday morning.”
“If you want to clear your head, are you sure you want me along?” Alice asked.
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t want you there,” he said. “Ask Molly,” he added, raising his voice and nodding toward the woman who was blatantly eavesdropping. “I rarely do anything I don’t want to do.”
“That’s true enough,” Molly confirmed. “Have fun, you two. And you can both thank me later.”
Patrick stared blankly at Alice. “Thank her for what?”
Alice knew but wished she didn’t. “Believe me,” she said fervently, “you don’t want to know.”
Chapter Six
Patrick wasn’t used to having anyone on board when he took the boat out, but Alice made a good companion. She didn’t pester him with a lot of questions. In fact, she seemed perfectly content to sit on deck with a blanket wrapped around her and her face tilted up to the sun’s rays. The wind was whipping her hair, but once again she seemed oblivious to the tangle.
“Your nose is getting sunburned,” he said, tapping her gently on the tip of it before dropping down into the chair beside her.
She blinked in surprise, then yawned. “I think I dozed off.”
“Must be my scintillating company,” he said wryly.
She glanced around. “Not that I’m nervous or anything, but if you’re sitting over here, who’s piloting the boat?”
“I dropped anchor a few minutes ago,” he explained.
“Where are we?”
“Not that far offshore, actually,
just far enough away to keep from being bothered.”
She grinned. “I gather you’ve concluded that the No Trespassing sign has lost its effectiveness.”
He chuckled. “Given the parade coming down the dock yesterday, pretty much. From now on, if I want total peace and quiet, I’m moving out to sea.”
“How come you invited me along, if you want total peace and quiet?”
“Maybe I knew you’d fall asleep the second you got a good dose of sea air,” he teased, and pulled a tube of suntan lotion from his shirt pocket. He put a dab of the cream on his finger and spread it across her nose, then onto her cheeks. Her skin was so soft he lingered, reluctant to stop touching her. His gaze drifted to hers and lingered there, as well. The sudden and totally unexpected spark of desire in her eyes stunned him and sent a jolt of sexual tension racing straight through him.
Before he could think it through, he was following his instincts, leaning forward, his mouth covering hers. She uttered a faint gasp of surprise, then moved into the kiss with an eagerness that once again caught him off guard. The kiss turned greedy and hot in a flash that almost brought him to his knees. Who would have thought that the sweet little kindergarten teacher packed a wallop like that? He was shaky when he finally had the sense to pull back.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, sending yet another jolt through him. She reached out and touched his cheek. “Please. It’s been forever since anyone kissed me like that. It felt good. No, it felt great.”
Her honesty rattled him. “Alice…” The protest formed in his head but died when she took the matter out of his hands by leaning forward and kissing him, holding on as if he had something to offer that she’d been missing for eons.
Who knew where it would have led had it not been for the blast of a ship’s horn that shattered the silence. Alice was trembling, the color in her cheeks high, when he reluctantly pulled away for the second time.
“We aren’t by any chance bobbing around out here right in the path of some cruise ship, are we?” she asked without any real evidence of fear.
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