Take Me Home KO PL

by Barbara Freethy

  "You don't have to go on, Grandma," Emma said softly. "If it's too difficult—"

  "I'm all right. I made my peace years ago. I just feel her presence more when I'm back in Ireland. After she died, I spent many days sitting in the cemetery, talking to her. I didn't know how I was going to go on. I felt so alone. But eventually, my mother had a sit-down with me. She told me that my baby might not have had more than a couple days on earth, but I owed it to her to live my life to the fullest. She was right, of course. The next year I went to America and I found the true love of my lifetime in your grandfather."

  She smiled. "You and Grandpa are a role model for the perfect marriage."

  "Oh, we're not perfect, not at all. Life is messy, Emma. It's not always orderly or predictable. Sometimes what we need is different than what we want. Do I wish that my first child had lived? Of course I do. But I'm also glad that I didn't give into the sorrow, that I kept moving forward, that I opened my mind to new possibilities. I went on to have six amazing children." She paused. "I know you're struggling, Emma. I can't foresee the future. I don't know what will happen, but I can tell you this. I know without a doubt that you and Max will have a family, whether it's a child of your own or someone who finds their way to you."

  Emma gave her a watery smile, her eyes filling with tears. "How do you always know what to say?"

  "Old age. I've been around a long time."

  "Well, you can't go anywhere yet, because I need you—we all need you."

  "I need you, too. And I hope the day didn't end up to be a sad one for you."

  "No. I loved meeting Maeve and hearing her stories about your very long friendship and how much she loved being taken in by your family."

  "She was always a sweetheart, so kind and caring. Did you meet her great-granddaughter?"

  "I did. Max and I are going to help Maeve look for Shannon's biological father when we get back to San Francisco."

  "Oh, good. I know she's been worrying about what will happen to Shannon when she's gone. I was hoping you'd be able to help."

  "Just to find her father, right?" she asked tentatively.

  Her grandmother gave her an innocent look. "Is there some other way you could help?"

  "I don't think so."

  "Well, I know you'll do whatever you can. Let's go inside now. I want to hear how everyone else enjoyed their day."

  Emma followed her grandmother into the restaurant and took the empty seat between Max and Ian while Eleanor sat down next to Patrick. Her grandfather tapped his fork against his glass to get their attention.

  "Now that we're all together," he said. "Ellie and I want to thank you all for coming. It means a lot to her that you took the time to do this."

  "We're happy you could join us," Burke put in.

  "I'm happy, too," Eleanor said. "I made it home one last time." Her blue eyes grew teary. "I wasn't sure I would. But here I am. And I can't wait to show you more of my hometown tomorrow."

  "May I say something?" Burke asked.

  Eleanor nodded. "Of course, dear."

  "Today you gave me a special gift, a reminder that life is more than a job. I want my job, because I love it, but if for some reason my injury prevents that, then I'll still have a great life." He looked over at Maddie. "And a wonderful wife." His gaze moved back to Eleanor. "Thanks for making me act like a kid again. I didn't love milking the cows, but I did okay at the rest."

  "He was an excellent dancer," Maddie added. "He's very good at stomping his feet."

  Eleanor laughed. "How I wish I could have seen that."

  "I took some video," Maddie said. "You can look at it later."

  "Oh, good. Your turn, Ian. How was your meeting with Seamus?"

  "It was great. You gave me a chance to connect with one of my idols and someone who speaks my language. Those people aren't always easy to find. But meeting Seamus and hearing his story made me appreciate this family more." He gave his grandmother a knowing smile. "I'm pretty sure you wanted me to realize that I'll need more in my life than a career to make me happy."

  "I just want you to experience everything life has to offer, Ian," Eleanor said. "You're so smart, it's scary. But you have a big heart and a capacity for love, too, and I don't want you to forget that."

  "I won't. Seamus also said he has some notebooks from your dad. He's going to send them to me. I'd love to see some of my great-grandfather's experiments."

  "My father always had a lot of ideas," Eleanor said. "I'm glad Seamus is going to share them with you."

  "It sounds like you all learned a great deal," Patrick said with an approving nod. "Coming home to Ireland, retracing the steps of those who have come before us, is a family tradition—both Callaway and Rafferty. I'd like to make a toast." He raised his glass. "To the Raffertys and to the Callaways."

  "To a love that never dies," Eleanor added in, her gaze meeting her husband's as they clinked their champagne glasses together.

  "A love that never dies," Emma echoed as she looked at Max. "I mean that with my whole heart," she whispered. "I thought I was fragile, but you and me together—we're unbreakable."

  "We are," he said.

  She looked across the table, seeing Burke and Maddie exchange a similar toast with each other. As her gaze moved to Ian, she thought she saw a little yearning in his eyes.

  He was a successful man, but maybe now it was time for love…

  # # #

  Can't wait for Ian's story? Preorder the next Callaway novel CLOSER TO YOU, coming in the fall of 2016!

  If you've missed any of the Callaway novels, check out the booklist and order your copies today! The following is an excerpt from IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER, the first book introducing the Callaway Cousins.

  Excerpt - IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER

  (Callaways #9)

  © Copyright 2015 Barbara Freethy

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 9780996117111

  One

  "I'm not running away," Mia Callaway said forcefully as she looked into her older sister Annie's disbelieving eyes. "I'm helping Mom. She can't clean out Aunt Carly's house with a broken foot, and I have some time on my hands, so I said I would do it."

  "You're going to drive five hours down the coast tomorrow to Angel's Bay and spend the summer clearing out Aunt Carly's house, which could probably be on one of those shows about hoarders?" Annie Callaway asked doubtfully.

  "It can't be that bad."

  "Aunt Carly has been collecting junk for forty years."

  "I doubt she would call souvenirs from her travels—junk," she said defensively.

  "What happened to your job?" Annie asked. "You worked so hard to get that position at the museum. It was perfect for you. And what about Grayson? I thought he was the perfect guy."

  Mia sighed. "He definitely turned out to be less than perfect. It's too long of a story to get into now."

  They were standing on the sidewalk in front of her cousin Nicole's house, where a huge combined bridal/baby shower was about to begin. At least two dozen Callaway females were waiting inside, and she did not need that kind of attention on her now somewhat dismal life.

  She opened the passenger door of her car and grabbed her two presents, then tipped her head toward the house where balloons adorned the porch railing. "The party is starting. We should go inside."

  "We have a minute," Annie said, tucking a strand of her long, dark red hair behind her ear. Unlike Mia, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, Annie had inherited her mother's red hair and green eyes. Those eyes were now staring at her with stubborn determination.

  Mia had thought she'd get the most pointed questions from her mother or her twin sister Kate, but her mom's fractured ankle and Kate's FBI training, had apparently kept their focus elsewhere. Annie, who, at twenty-nine, was three years older than Mia, rarely kept that up-to-date with her life. Nor did her three brothers who probably had no idea she'd lost her job or her boyfriend. But that was a good thing.

  Being the baby in the famil
y, she'd grown up under the protective eye of two parents and five siblings, and she was more than a little tired of being under their microscope, which was another good reason for going away.

  "I'm not going inside until you tell me what is going on with you," Annie said, determination in her eyes. "I'm worried about you, Mia. Kate is the one I expect to go off on a whim or some crazy adventure, not you. You've always had your act together, a solid plan, a list of goals. So what is the deal?"

  "There's nothing to worry about, Annie. Things didn't work out with Grayson, and I decided to leave the museum." She'd actually been asked to leave, but she didn't need to get into that. "I'll find another job, but I could use a break. I've been working nonstop for the last four years." Actually, she'd been working nonstop her entire life: buried in books, chasing goals, trying to be the smartest person on the planet, or at least her family, only to find out she'd been about as dumb as anyone could be.

  "What did Grayson do?" Annie asked, a sharp, speculative gleam in her eyes. "And don’t say it was nothing."

  "I don't want to talk about Grayson. This day is about Nicole and Maddie. Let's focus on making their party special."

  Since her cousin Nicole was about to give birth in three weeks, and Maddie Heller was set to marry Mia's cousin Burke in a month, the family had decided to throw a combined bridal/baby shower. With so many Callaways celebrating so many happy events these days, it had become necessary to put some of them together.

  "Fine, I won't press you anymore right now," Annie said. "But I'm still not sure going to Angel's Bay is a good idea. It's so far away. And what is there to do?"

  "Clean out Aunt Carly's house."

  "That doesn't sound too exciting. I still feel like you're running away from something, and I hope you know you can talk to me. I realize I haven't been the most attentive big sister, spending all my time at work, but I am here for you."

  "I know that. Stop worrying. I loved visiting Aunt Carly in Angel's Bay. I can't wait to get back there. The beach is wild and beautiful. I love the shipwreck legend and the angel stories. Plus, I want to take care of Aunt Carly's house. She's the one who gave me my first set of paints. She told me stories that made me love art and history. I'm really going to miss her. We had a special bond."

  "I'm going to miss her, too, not that she and I were as close as the two of you were, but she was always fun when she came to visit."

  "Usually on her way back from a trip somewhere."

  "Crazy Aunt Carly," Annie said with a smile. "She and Mom might have been sisters, but they were as different as night and day."

  Mia nodded. Her mother was a hard-working nurse who'd married a firefighter and raised six kids. Her Aunt Carly had never married, although she'd had numerous lovers, as she liked to call them, and she'd traveled all around the world.

  Carly had died a few weeks earlier when she was on a boat that capsized in the Indian Ocean. It was difficult to believe she would not come home with yet another great story to tell. But at least she had died having the time of her life. What more could anyone ask?

  "We should go inside," Mia said.

  Before they could move, Sara, Chloe, and Emma came down the sidewalk with bags of presents in their hands.

  Emma, a petite blonde with bright blue eyes, was a fire investigator and another one of her cousins.

  Sara, a dark-eyed brunette, was married to Emma's brother Aiden. With Sara was her adorable, almost two-year-old toddler Chloe, who had a mass of brown curls to match her mother and a rebellious personality that was all Aiden. Even now, Chloe was tugging at her mother's hand, eager to get to the party.

  "One minute, Chloe," Sara said firmly, as she and Emma exchanged hugs with Mia and Annie. "How are you doing, Mia? I heard you might be looking for a new job."

  "News travels fast in this family."

  "I have a friend who works at the Palace of Fine Arts. Let me know if you want me to make a call," Sara said.

  "Thanks. I'm going to take a few weeks off before I decide my next move."

  "Lucky you," Emma said. "I can't remember the last time I had weeks off in the summer."

  "That's because you adore your job and never want to leave it," Sara teased Emma.

  Emma grinned. "Actually, my adoration is now more focused on my husband, but between him and my job, I get even less time to myself."

  Mia knew that Emma wasn't really complaining, not with the glowing smile on her face.

  "Go now," Chloe demanded with another tug on Sara's hand.

  "She saw the balloons and got excited," Sara said with an apologetic smile.

  "I'm excited, too," Mia said. "Let's go to the party."

  When they stepped onto the porch, Nicole threw open the door to greet them.

  Like her sister Emma, Nicole had blonde hair and blue eyes, but she was also enormously pregnant, carrying all her baby weight in the front of her slender frame.

  "Welcome," Nicole said, giving them each a hug.

  "How are you, Nic?" Mia asked, lingering behind as the others made their way into the house.

  "As big as a house and happy as can be, but I must admit that I am a little tired." Nicole rubbed her baby bump with an affectionate hand. "My miracle child has been kicking a lot lately. I think she's eager to meet everyone."

  "We're eager to meet her, too. Where's her older brother Brandon?"

  "Ryan and Sean took Brandon and Kyle to the park," Nicole explained, referring to her husband Ryan and her brother Sean, and the twin boys who were now eight years old.

  "How is Brandon handling the idea of a new sibling?" she asked. Brandon had been diagnosed with autism when he was two, but he had recently improved in some areas of language and communication, which was not only due to intensive therapy, but also the reunion with his twin brother—another miracle that had been bestowed on Nicole.

  "I don't think Brandon gets it yet, but Kyle is over the moon. And whenever Kyle is happy, Brandon is happy. That's the way with twins, I guess. You would know that better than me."

  "Kate and I were never quite as tightly linked as Kyle and Brandon, but we do sense when one of us is in trouble and needs a call, a hug, or a kick in the ass."

  "I have a feeling Kate would usually be the one to deliver that kick," Nicole said with a laugh. "Anyway, come in. I'm sorry your mom couldn't come. I heard she fell down some stairs."

  "Yes. She was carrying some boxes down from the attic, and she tripped. She's all right, but she fractured a bone in her foot, sprained her ankle, and has to stay off her feet for a while. She's not happy about it. Where's your mom?"

  "In the living room." Nicole waved her hand toward the crowded room off to the right of the entry. "Make yourself at home. There's food in the dining room, drinks in the kitchen, and plenty of people everywhere."

  Mia was used to large gatherings. Growing up in the Callaway family meant every party involved at least twenty to thirty immediate family members, and this joint shower was no exception.

  She'd always liked being a Callaway, having a solid family around her, although being a Callaway also came with responsibility. Her father had been a firefighter like her Uncle Jack and several other relatives. And while not every Callaway saved lives, a lot of them did something to better the community or the world, setting the bar quite high. She'd fallen quite a ways under that bar in recent weeks, but she wasn't going to think about that today.

  As she moved toward the living room, she ran into the bride-to-be coming down the hall. Maddie Heller was another beautiful blonde with a happy glow, obviously looking forward to her upcoming wedding. Maddie reminded her of her Aunt Carly. Like Carly, Maddie had been a free spirit, traveling the world before falling for Burke and choosing to marry and settle down.

  Maybe it was about time Mia joined the free-spirit crowd. Certainly trying to do everything exactly right and meet everyone's expectations had not worked out well.

  "So glad you could come," Maddie said, giving her a hug.

  "Are you getti
ng nervous about the wedding?"

  "Not even a little bit. Burke is not perfect, but he's the perfect man for me."

  "I'm so glad you found each other. I can't wait to see you two walk down the aisle."

  "You're still coming, right?" Maddie asked. "Did I hear something about you going to Angel's Bay for a while?"

  "Yes, but Angel's Bay is only an hour or so from Santa Barbara, so I'll be able to make the wedding."

  "Good. I'm counting on you being there."

  As Maddie left to say hello to someone else, Mia walked into the living room.

  Her Aunt Lynda waved her toward the couch. "Come sit next to me, Mia."

  Lynda Callaway, a blue-eyed blonde in her late fifties, was married to Mia's Uncle Jack and was both mother and stepmother to eight of her cousins. She was also one of the nicest people Mia had ever known.

  "I'm sorry about your mother's fall," Lynda said, as Mia sat down next to her. "And I'm also sorry about your Aunt Carly. She was such a lovely, energetic woman. I got a postcard from her on my birthday a few months ago. I couldn't believe she remembered. The postcard was from Paris. She told me she'd rented a loft for a month and was spending her days painting by the Seine, drinking wine at dusk and talking to handsome men in the moonlight." Lynda laughed. "What a life."

  "I'll say." The restlessness she'd been feeling for weeks grew stronger as she thought about her aunt's words. Maybe her aunt had died too young, but she'd certainly lived well.