Heather listened to the two of them and found solace in what they were saying. “So you’ve both been down some bumpy roads and survived,” she commented.
“Better than survived,” Bree said. “I’ve thrived. I’m happier now than I ever imagined being. I love the flower shop, and having my own theater is challenging and amazingly rewarding. I’ve actually written my first new play in ages and hope to produce it next season.”
“And I may not have met an exciting new man in, oh, the past five years or more,” Connie added, “but I have a great daughter, a wonderful brother and a really good life. I even enjoy working at the nursery for Jake.”
She frowned, set aside the slice of pizza she’d just picked up, then confessed, “I honestly don’t know what the dickens I’ll do once Jenny leaves for college next fall. I can’t imagine rattling around in that house by myself.”
“You could sell your place and buy one of those snazzy new townhouses being developed just outside of town,” Bree suggested. She eyed the pizza longingly, grimaced as she apparently lost the battle with her willpower and took another slice.
Connie shook her head. “Empty is empty. I’m afraid the empty-nest syndrome is going to hit me harder than most,” she said disconsolately.
“You need a hobby,” Bree said.
“I’ve already signed up for quilting classes with Heather,” Connie said.
Bree shook her head. “No offense, but that’s a hobby for women. You need one that will help you meet men.”
Connie regarded her with amusement. “Do you happen to have one of those?”
“You could volunteer at my theater,” Bree said at once. “We have lots of things you could do.”
“And how many men who aren’t married or gay?” Connie inquired reasonably.
Bree winced. “You have a point. Okay, what else are you interested in?”
When Connie remained silent, Heather prodded, “Do you like to read? Shanna has a book club at her store. She mentioned it to me the other day.”
“I don’t think so. I don’t like the pressure of having to read anything on a deadline,” Connie said. She glanced at Bree. “I did pick up some of those books on the bay that your uncle Thomas recommended when he did that talk for Shanna. I like the work he’s doing.”
“Then volunteer,” Bree said excitedly. “That’s perfect. It’s a really great cause. Kevin can fill you in, or you can drop by the house tomorrow. Uncle Thomas will be there for Easter dinner, I’m sure. He never misses a holiday. You can get some ideas directly from him. Bring Jenny along, too.”
“You can’t just add two people to Easter dinner,” Connie protested.
“Of course I can,” Bree said. “If there’s one thing we O’Briens love, it’s a jam-packed holiday table. It diverts Dad’s attention from us, so there’s less meddling. And Gram thinks having company keeps us all on our best behavior.” She shrugged. “I’m not so sure about that, but there’s always enough food for an army. Promise me you’ll be there. I don’t want to think about you and Jenny having lunch all alone, anyway. Heather will be there, too, right?”
Heather nodded. “Do come. It’ll be nice to see another friendly face in the crowd. I feel outnumbered by O’Briens.”
“Clear it with Megan and Nell and I’m in,” Connie said finally. “Now let’s pop this movie in. Maybe if we shed enough tears, we’ll work off a few of the calories we’ve just consumed.”
“Not much chance of that,” Bree said, patting her belly. “If I so much as look at food these days, I gain weight.”
“Of course, you did slightly more than look at the pizza,” Connie teased. “I’m pretty sure you ate a whole one all by yourself.”
“Guilty,” Bree said unrepentantly. “Could you not tell my husband that, please? He’ll just start obsessing and insist I take some awful walk with him first thing in the morning.”
“Your secret’s safe with us,” Heather promised.
They settled into their seats as she turned on the movie, then passed around a box of tissues. “We know how it ends,” she said. “We might as well be prepared.”
“What about chocolate?” Bree asked. “Do you have chocolate?”
Heather laughed as she fetched a bag of dark-chocolate candies from a drawer. “Here you go, though how you can eat them after all that pizza is beyond me,” she said as Bree took several from the bag.
“There’s always room for dessert,” Bree said.
In less than two hours, they were all sobbing openly as the movie’s closing credits rolled.
“Just what I needed,” Connie declared, wiping the tears from her cheeks. She stood up. “Now I’d better get you home, Bree, or Jake will be over here pounding on the door. And I need to be home to make sure Jenny meets curfew.”
Her own cheeks still damp, Heather walked them to the door. “Thank you so much for coming by. This has been fun.”
“We’ll do it again,” Connie promised. “See you tomorrow.”
Bree tried to hug her, but her belly got in the way. She shrugged and settled for kissing her cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
Heather watched until they’d made their way carefully down the stairs and into Connie’s car before closing the door with a smile. She’d been right earlier. Chesapeake Shores was rapidly becoming home.
7
When Connor arrived at Gram’s, to his surprise he found Jess and Will there. He bent down and kissed his grandmother, then gave his sister a hug.
“You always did like to sneak a taste of ham the minute it came out of the oven,” Connor accused his sister, then turned to Will. “What brings you by?”
“I’m hoping for the second taste,” he said. “And rumor had it you’d be stopping by and would be at loose ends. I thought maybe we could all go out for a drink after we take care of whatever chores your grandmother has for us.”
“The ham needs to go to the main house,” Gram said. “The pies, too. After that, you all are free to get on with your evening.”
Will’s eyes lit up. “There’s pie, too?”
Gram gave him a warning look. “Don’t you dare try to sneak a taste of any of them. If you want pie, you’ll be at the table tomorrow.”
Will grinned, his expression hopeful. “Is that an official invitation?”
“Of course,” Gram said. “You should know by now that you’re always welcome. You were underfoot enough as a boy to count as family. Now that your folks have moved to Florida, I imagine holidays are lonely. You just think of our house as yours.”
Will kissed her cheek. “Thank you.” He turned to Connor. “So, now that I’ve successfully angled for an invitation to tomorrow’s festivities, what about tonight? Are you available?”
“Count me in,” Connor said at once. “Jess, how about you?”
She shot a distrustful look in Will’s direction. “That depends. Are we going to hang out and have some fun, or are you going to start psychoanalyzing me again?”
Will frowned at the comment. “I do not psychoanalyze you,” he retorted indignantly, then amended, “At least not all the time.”
“Oh, please, you can’t help yourself,” Jess retorted. “If I want advice from a shrink, I’ll hire one.”
Despite the animosity in her tone, Will winked at her. “But I’m the best one around and, lucky for you, I’m free for friends and family.”
Connor looked from his sister to Will, then back again, noting Jess’s tension and Will’s amusement. “Am I missing something here? Why are you two suddenly at each other’s throats?”
“Oh, these two have been going at it like this since they were teenagers,” Gram said. “One of these days maybe at least one of them will wake up and smell the roses.”
Jess whirled on Gram, her expression dismayed. “What are you suggesting? Not that I’m interested in him, I hope, because nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Ditto,” Will said, though he looked a little less certain.
With sudden insight
into the situation, Connor chuckled, then draped an arm around his grandmother’s frail shoulders. “I have no idea why I never noticed it before, but you are absolutely right. I’m suddenly feeling a little overheated in here myself. Should we leave them alone to work this out?”
“Don’t you dare,” Jess snapped. “And if it’s hot in here, it’s because the stupid oven is on.” She threw up her hands. “I am so out of here. You two guys go hang out together. I have no desire to spend my Saturday evening with such a pitiful pair.”
Connor winced as she flounced from the kitchen. He heard the screen door at the front of the cottage slap closed behind her. He turned to Will. “Sorry, pal. I had no idea.”
“You’re imagining things,” Will said. “Jess is like a kid sister to me. That’s it.”
Gram shook her head pityingly. “And you’re the one with the fancy Ph.D. In my day men weren’t half so dense. They fought for the women they wanted, instead of acting like lovesick fools till it was too late.” Her look of disgust took in both Will and Connor. “Take the ham and pies on up to the house. I’m going to bed. I want to get to the early Mass at church in the morning.”
When she’d gone, Connor exchanged a look with his friend. Normally he admired his grandmother’s insights into people, but it was more difficult to handle when her scathing comments were directed at him. “Are we really the fools she just accused us of being?” he asked Will.
“More than likely,” Will confirmed.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Unfortunately the only way to change the path he was on—by ignoring everything he believed in about marriage and simply taking the plunge—was completely unacceptable.
Connor was on his third drink in the bar at Brady’s when he turned to Will. “So exactly how long have you had a thing for my sister?”
Will refused to meet his gaze. “I don’t.”
“Look me in the eye and say that,” Connor ordered.
Will sighed deeply and turned, still not quite meeting Connor’s eyes. “I do not have a thing for Jess,” he said as if he’d repeated it a thousand times for his own benefit.
Connor chuckled. “You need a lot more practice lying to pull that off, my friend. So, have you ever done anything about it? Have you asked her out?”
“Jess has made her opinion of me perfectly clear,” Will said. “You heard her tonight. She’s terrified I’ll put her under some shrink microscope, dissect every word she says and turn her into a case study or something.”
“Is that what you want to do?” Connor asked.
“Have you looked at your sister?” Will asked, his tone incredulous. “Is that the first thing that would come to your mind?”
Connor felt it was his brotherly duty to swallow the laugh that was bubbling up. “Hey, that’s my sister!” he protested. “Watch it.”
Will sighed. “I’m just saying, I do not think of Jess as a case study.”
“Then tell her that.”
“Don’t you think I have?” Will held up a hand.
“Enough. Let’s talk about you and Heather. How’s that going?”
“It’s not,” Connor admitted. “And it won’t as long as I refuse to cave in and marry her. I just don’t see why it’s not enough that I love her and want her and our son to live with me. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve offered her a lifetime commitment.”
“And of course she disagrees,” Will guessed.
“Of course, though for the life of me I don’t get it.”
“Maybe because she sees the obvious loophole. You could change your mind tomorrow and kick them right back out.”
“I could do the same thing if we were married,” Connor argued. “People do it all the time.”
“But if they have to untangle all the legal ramifications, sometimes it makes them stop and think twice about it,” Will said. “They can’t just show the other person to the door.”
Connor regarded him with disbelief. “Oh, no? Do you know how many of the people who come to me have really tried to work things out? Maybe ten percent. Most of them bail at the first sign of trouble.”
“Come on,” Will protested. “That can’t be right. They probably don’t tell you all the details about what they’ve tried to do to resolve the issues in their marriage. By the time they see you, they’re ready to take that next step.”
“I actually ask how long they’ve felt their marriage was in trouble and what they’ve done to make things better,” Connor said.
“And?”
“For way too many of them, divorce is the first option, not the last.”
Will looked troubled by his response. “That’s sad.”
“I agree,” Connor said. “Despite my own beliefs and what everyone in my family thinks about my opinions on the subject, I even encourage clients to seek counseling. After all, I know what it’s like to be a child caught up with parents who are divorcing. I don’t wish that on anyone. But almost no one takes me up on the idea. They just want the marriage to end. Maybe I should insist, but I don’t.”
He eyed Will curiously. “What about you, though? Do you do much marriage counseling?”
“Some,” Will said. “But often it’s only one side who seeks help and the other refuses to participate. When that happens, divorce is pretty much inevitable.”
“Well, there you go,” Connor said triumphantly. “You see it, too. Marriage is pointless, when it too often will end with heartbreak.”
Will shook his head. “Sorry, pal. I just don’t see it that way. I think it’s the only step to take when two people really love each other.”
“It’s a ring and a piece of paper,” Connor argued.
“They’re symbolic of much more,” Will insisted. “They represent commitment and security and feelings that are worth nurturing for a lifetime.”
“Or until they’re not,” Connor corrected cynically. He sighed. “This is depressing. Let’s talk about something else.”
“But this is the conversation that matters,” Will said, giving him a penetrating look. “Come on, Connor. You know it is. Your future with Heather and your son is at stake. She’s already left you. Unless you meet her halfway, one of these days she’ll meet somebody else, and it will be too late for you.”
“Meeting her halfway is one thing,” Connor said. “She wants me to give in.”
“I suppose in this situation, there is no halfway,” Will admitted. “But mark my words, stick to your guns and she will move on. Can you live with that?”
Connor didn’t want to think about it. “Careful, or I’ll refuse to hang out with you, too. Jess isn’t the only one who doesn’t want to spend an evening being psychoanalyzed.”
Will backed off at once. “In the interest of hanging on to that invitation to dinner tomorrow, I won’t say another word about love and marriage. How about the Orioles? Think they have a chance this season?”
Connor grinned. “It’s early in the season. I’m always optimistic now. I went to Camden Yards for the home opener. The firm has season tickets for box seats. We’ll have to get Mack, Kevin, Trace and Jake together one of these days and go to a game.”
“Sounds great,” Will said. “Do you ever regret not trying for a career in pro baseball? You were good enough.”
Connor shook his head. “No I wasn’t. I might have pulled off a season or two in the minor leagues, but I couldn’t see wasting the time. I decided to get my law degree and start a career that would last a lifetime.”
“It’s interesting that you chose matrimonial law,” Will began, only to have Connor cut him off with a look.
“There you go again, analyzing,” Connor said.
“What can I say? It’s what I do. Some people actually view it as friendly input, rather than a threat.”
Connor scowled at his choice of words. “I do not view your insights as a threat.”
“Really? Not even when they challenge your nice, tidy view of your world?”
Connor forced a grin, because a
ny other response would be too telling. “Nope. That’s just annoying.”
Will shook his head. “Maybe we’d better confine ourselves to checking out the women in here for the rest of the evening.”
“Finally a plan I can get behind,” Connor said, swiveling his stool around for a better view.
Sadly, though, at this hour on the Saturday night of a holiday weekend, the place was nearly empty. Next to him, Will heaved a sigh, finished his beer and set the bottle on the bar.
“I’m out of here,” he said. “Not that your company’s not scintillating, but at least if I’m home and asleep, a sexy woman might appear in my dreams.”
Connor nodded. “Right behind you.”
Besides, the only woman he really wanted to be with was no doubt home in bed. Sadly, though, not his home and not his bed.
“Do you actually know where you hid all the eggs?” Kevin asked Connor as the family assembled outside for the traditional Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning after church. He looked like a director at a recreation center with his whistle hanging around his neck and his clipboard in hand.
“What does it matter?” Connor replied. “They’re plastic. They’re not going to stink up the yard the way the real ones did that year you were in charge of hiding them.”
“We’ve all learned a lot since then,” Kevin said grimly. “At least some of us have. You, apparently, not so much.”
Heather listened to the exchange with amusement. She turned to Bree, who was sitting next to her in an Adirondack chair on the porch. “Have those two always been like this?”
“Worse, actually. Connor is a natural-born competitor. He wants to win at everything. It’s probably why he’s so good in a courtroom. Losing is never an option. Normally Kevin is quiet and laid-back, but Connor has always been able to get a rise out of him. Most of the time I think he does it deliberately, just to see how long it takes before Kevin loses it.”
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