by Unknown
Aidan chuckled. “That sounds like an excellent tradition.”
“Then you definitely need to join us,” Connie said. “After all, your school year just ended, too.”
Seeing no polite way around it, Aidan pulled over a chair and sat at the end of the booth. Crowding in beside Thomas was not an option.
“Keep in mind that the school year only lasted a few weeks for me,” Aidan said. “I’m not so sure I deserve to celebrate.”
“Then you only get half as many pancakes as Sean,” Connie said, regarding him with a twinkle in her eye. “Not to worry. He’s ordered a lot. Our son’s eyes are way bigger than his stomach, so Thomas will wind up finishing every last bite of them. He hates waste. I’ve tried to explain that those calories don’t magically not count just because he’s being frugal, but he doesn’t seem to care.”
Thomas shrugged. “Sally makes excellent pancakes, and since you don’t give me anything but bran flakes at home, I’m going to indulge when I can.” He met Aidan’s gaze. “Take it from me. Do not marry a woman who has the avowed intention of keeping you healthy.”
Connie scowled at him. “So I should sit back and wait for you to die of a heart attack? I was a single mom for a long time. I’d like to stay married long enough to enjoy it.”
Thomas laughed and reached for her hand, lifting it to his lips. “I’m glad to know your reasons are totally unselfish.”
Aidan listened to the lighthearted exchange with a sense of wonder. Would Thomas and his mother have gotten along half as well? Had they teased each other when they were dating? He tried to imagine the two of them together and couldn’t. He hoped by the time Sean was his age, he’d realize what an amazing thing their loving, attentive relationship was.
Even as he thought about that, he considered what impact his own news was likely to have on these two people who had no idea of the bomb he was preparing to drop on them. Did he have the right to turn their lives upside down? He was no longer quite as eager to exact some sort of revenge on Thomas, but he still believed the truth needed to come out, if only to provide some closure on the past for him.
Since he couldn’t grapple with that at the moment, he faced Connie. “You were a single mom?” he asked.
She nodded. “A divorced single mom. My daughter’s grown and married now. She lives in Nashville, where she writes for some of the top country singers.”
Aidan recalled what he’d heard about her. “She’s married to Caleb Green, right? I’m a big fan of his music.”
“Well, Jenny’s written a lot of it,” Connie said, her pride evident.
“And I can sing most of it, too,” Sean piped in. “And Caleb’s been teaching me to play guitar.”
Connie regarded her son with amusement. “Sean and his cousin Emily Rose—that’s Bree’s daughter—would very much like to tour with Caleb. If I don’t stay on my toes, Caleb might actually let them. He claims he’s had worse opening acts.”
Aidan glanced at Thomas, who was regarding his wife with a besotted expression. “How do you feel about your son going on a concert tour?”
“We’ll talk about it when he turns eighteen and not a moment before,” Thomas replied without hesitation.
“Dad!” Sean protested. “That’s, like, forever.”
Thomas shrugged. “Education first.”
“There’s no school in summer,” Sean pointed out just as his pile of pancakes arrived. As he drowned them in syrup, he added, “That’s why we’re celebrating, remember?”
Connie winked at her husband. “I told you not to bother arguing with him. He’s got an answer for everything, just like his dad.”
Thomas chuckled. “But I’m older and wiser and I’m the dad,” he said triumphantly. “I win!”
Observing the tight-knit family, it was all Aidan could do not to sigh with envy. This was what he had missed. This was what his mom had missed, though she’d apparently given up the chance at it willingly. He’d had no choice in the matter. And for the first time, he allowed himself a brief little moment of surprisingly strong resentment directed toward his mom, then immediately felt guilty for it.
He might not understand her reasons, but he had to respect that Anna had done what she thought was best by keeping him and his father apart. Maybe Thomas really hadn’t been a good candidate for marriage or fatherhood back then, and as Aidan had learned, there were two failed marriages in Thomas’s past to add proof to that. Aidan needed to remember that, because casting blame now was a wasted effort.
As he looked around at the man who was his father, the woman who had no idea she was his stepmother and at his half brother, Aidan felt for the first time in his life as if he had no idea of who he really was. All these years he thought he’d known himself. He was, first and foremost, Anna Mitchell’s son, her pride and joy. He’d been a smart student and an excellent athlete who’d become a professional football star for a short time. He’d even thought, given time, he’d be a solid high school coach. He’d envisioned a future with a wife and kids. Those were all the things that mattered to Aidan Mitchell.
But Aidan Mitchell O’Brien? He didn’t know that man at all. And every time he envisioned trying to fit into the family he was coming to know, he felt as if he’d be turning his back on the man he’d always believed himself to be.
He was relieved when Thomas slid out of the booth and announced he had to get to a meeting. Connie and Sean followed his lead, leaving Aidan alone with his increasingly confused thoughts and a cup of coffee that had gone cold.
*
Liz passed Thomas, Connie and Sean as they were exiting Sally’s and paused to say hello. Inside, she spotted Aidan sitting at the end of an empty booth. Since the table was still cluttered with dishes, she jumped to the conclusion he’d been eating with Thomas and his family. And since his expression was anything but cheerful, she concluded it hadn’t gone well. Once again her sense that there was something going on between Thomas and Aidan stirred to life.
“Want some company?” she said, slipping into the vacated booth before Aidan could even think about trying to stop her.
He regarded her with amusement. “It’s a little late for me to say no now, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much. All the other seats are taken, anyway. You can’t hog this whole booth to yourself. I assume you had breakfast with Thomas.”
He nodded.
“How’d that go?”
“Fine. Why wouldn’t it?” he asked, an edge in his voice that suggested she’d touched on a sore point.
Liz waited until Sally had cleared the table, then brought her coffee and her usual croissant, plus a fresh cup of coffee for Aidan, before saying another word. She kept her gaze on Aidan, who finally gave her an apologetic look.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap your head off.”
“Why did you? Just because I asked an innocent question about the meal you’d shared with Thomas?”
“I’m pretty sure there was nothing innocent about the question,” Aidan contradicted. “You’ve been hinting for a while that you think something’s up between the two of us.”
“Because that’s the way it seems to me,” she said agreeably. “Is there?”
“I never laid eyes on Thomas or any other O’Brien before I moved to Chesapeake Shores,” Aidan said, his gaze steady.
“That’s not exactly the point, though, is it?”
“What is the point?”
She tried to think of a reasonable explanation for his behavior, but couldn’t come up with a thing. The situation didn’t really seem to call for guesswork. “I don’t know. It just worries me to keep detecting these strange undercurrents and observing how unhappy you seem to be over something.”
“Let it go, Liz.”
“The same way you’ve let go of trying to figure out my past?” she inquired.
He smiled. “Yes, just like that. I may have a whole slew of questions, but I’ve stopped asking. I’ve accepted that you’ll tell me what you want me to know when you want me to know it.”
She doubted he was as accepting of that as he claimed. Studying him over the rim of her cup, she asked, “Do you remember what you said to me the day you brought a cup of Sally’s coffee to my house?”
“I’m sure I said a lot of scintillating things,” he retorted glibly.
“Of course you did,” she said, her tone dry. “I was specifically referring to your insistence that dropping by with coffee and checking on me was something a friend would do.”
“Ah, that.”
“Well, my poking around in your business to try to figure out this mystery is also what a friend would do.”
“Is that so? I thought maybe a friend would take my word that it’s not a topic I intend to discuss.”
Liz seized on the comment. “So there is something,” she said triumphantly. “You just don’t want to talk about it.”
“Whether there is or there isn’t, we’re pretty much at an impasse, since I’ve declared it off-limits.”
She recognized the stubborn set to his jaw and knew she’d pushed as far as she could. She couldn’t help feeling a little deflated, though. Didn’t he know by now that he could trust her with his secrets?
Even as that thought crossed her mind, she sighed. Talk about a double standard. She supposed Aidan would trust her with his secrets right about the same time she started trusting him with hers.
*
Mick had just returned from checking on one of the Habitat for Humanity projects he was overseeing in his volunteer capacity as a contractor when he spotted Thomas sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs at the far end of the porch. As it frequently was, his gaze was directed toward the bay. He had a notepad in his lap, but whatever he’d been working on had apparently been forgotten. In fact, he seemed lost in thought.
“You plotting a strategy for getting rid of some uncooperative lawmakers?” Mick asked, only partially in jest. He knew there were a few folks in the state capital his brother would love to see run out of office.
“Not today,” Thomas said, his smile halfhearted. “I was just jotting down some notes for Aidan about projects I thought the high scool kids might want to be involved with in the fall.”
“So he’s come around?”
“He’s still saying all the right words,” Thomas corrected.
Mick frowned. “You don’t believe he’s sincere?”
“Oh, who knows? I’m probably imagining problems where there are none,” Thomas grumbled and grabbed an oatmeal raisin cookie from the plate beside him.
Mick promptly reached over and snagged the last one. “Ma was here baking today?”
Thomas nodded, then grinned. “I got here just in time to do a taste test.”
“Since when has Ma ever baked a bad batch of cookies?”
“Not once that I can recall,” Thomas replied, then winked. “But it never hurts to hint that this might be the first time.”
Mick laughed and nodded approvingly. “You’re turning out to be sneakier than I imagined.”
Thomas lifted his half-empty glass of milk in a silent salute. “And didn’t I learn from the best?”
“That you did,” Mick agreed. He studied his younger brother with concern. “What’s really on your mind? Something tells me for once it’s not the bay or those school projects.”
“I’ve mentioned this before but I keep getting this weird vibe from Aidan,” he admitted.
“Weird how?”
“I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s definitely something...” His voice trailed off and he shrugged. “I can’t explain it. I wish we knew more about him.”
“Such as?” Mick asked. “I can show you his résumé. We did the usual background check. Nothing turned up or we’d never have called him about an interview, much less hired him.”
“I’m not talking about some criminal past he’s hiding,” Thomas said impatiently, then shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m talking about exactly. It just hit me again this morning that something’s off.”
“This morning? Where did you see Aidan this morning?”
“He came into Sally’s when I was there with Connie and Sean. I asked him to join us.”
Mick chuckled. “The end-of-school pancake bonanza?”
“That was it,” Thomas confirmed.
“Did Aidan turn you down? Take off?”
“No, he joined us.”
“Was he quiet? Rude?” Mick asked, struggling to understand.
Thomas paused, clearly giving the question a surprising amount of thought.
“It wasn’t either of those things. If I had to describe his behavior, I guess I’d say he was observant.”
Mick stared at his brother incredulously. “Observant? Since when is that a bad thing?”
“It’s not bad. It was just a little intense.” Thomas looked at him. “You think I’m overreacting.”
“Since you haven’t given me a blessed thing to go on that doesn’t sound perfectly normal, then yes, I think you’re overreacting.”
Thomas sighed. “Maybe I am.” Still, he turned to Mick. “He doesn’t act that way around you, though, does he?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” Mick said.
“He seems to get along just fine with Kevin,” Thomas conceded. “They’ve been playing basketball with Connor and some of the other guys in the family. The only thing Kevin says he’s noticed is that Aidan seems to have a thing for Liz and that it’s not going so well.”
“I’ve taken note of that myself,” Mick said. “I might have to step in and give those two a push.”
“And what do Megan and Ma have to say about that?” Thomas asked, looking amused.
“Oh, what do they know?” Mick grumbled. “My meddling’s turned out okay so far. I gave you and Connie a gentle nudge, didn’t I? You complaining about that?”
Thomas regarded him indignantly. “Now you’re taking credit for my getting together with my wife?”
“I am,” Mick said unrepentantly. “You were having a ton of second thoughts, as I recall. Two failed marriages. Connie being younger. Connie’s daughter not exactly being on board. You remember any of that?”
“It sounds vaguely familiar,” Thomas admitted. “But Connie and I would have worked through those things in time. She’s a smart woman. Patient, too.”
“At your age, I figured you didn’t have any time to waste,” Mick retorted.
Thomas laughed. “Well, there is that. Okay, thank you. Now, what do you suggest I do about Aidan? You’re the one with all the ideas.”
“I have his résumé inside. You can take a look at that and see if anything pops out at you.”
“Is that legal?” Thomas asked. “Aren’t personnel files closed to the public?”
“I was on the hiring committee,” Mick responded. “I asked your opinion since he’ll be working with you and the environmental club at the school. Who’s going to argue with that?”
“In this town, probably nobody,” Thomas acknowledged.
“Okay, then. I’ll be right back.”
Mick returned with Aidan’s file and handed it to his brother. “Read it here, though. I probably shouldn’t let it wander all over town.”
“Of course.” Thomas hesitated, as if he weren’t sure he wanted to know whatever might be in the file that could confirm this uneasiness he felt around Aidan. Finally, visibly drawing in a deep breath, he opened the folder and glanced at the top page, then moved on to the next and then the next.
Mick saw the exact moment when something registered. Shock settled on his brother’s face and his color drained away.
“Thomas, what the hell is it? What did you find?”
“The boy’s mother,” Thomas said, sounding thoroughly shaken.
“What about her?”
“I knew her, Mick. I knew her really well.”
14
Mick stared at Thomas incredulously. “Are you sure about that? What’s it say her name is?”
“Anna Mitchell,” Thomas said without so much
as a glance at the résumé.
“It’s a common enough name,” Mick said, waving off his brother’s concern. “You’re probably imagining things.”
“I’m not,” Thomas insisted with surprising certainty. “All along I’ve thought there was something familiar about Aidan, but I couldn’t pin it down. It’s Anna. He has her eyes, her coloring. I’m sure of it.”
Mick remained unconvinced. “If you and Aidan’s mom were friends, don’t you think he would have mentioned the connection when he first got to town?”
“Maybe he doesn’t know,” Thomas suggested. “Or maybe he does and that’s why he reacts so oddly around me. I have no idea what his mother might have mentioned about that time in her life. Do parents tell their kids about old college love affairs?”
“You’ve always had a great relationship with your exes,” Mick reminded him. “Was it different with Anna?”
“I didn’t think so,” Thomas said, his expression troubled. “We were young, just kids really. I had so many things I wanted to accomplish, and she knew that. She had a long list of ambitious goals for herself, so she understood. We parted as friends, at least that’s what I remember.”
“Did you stay in touch?”
“No, she moved back to New York right after we broke up. She told me she’d decided to finish college there, that she missed her family and missed New York, that she thought her future was there. I never heard from her again.”
“You never thought about contacting her?”
“It crossed my mind, but I convinced myself it was best left in the past. You know how I was back then, single-minded about my goals. Anna meant the world to me, but she was a distraction.”
“How serious was it? Before the breakup, I mean.”
Thomas lifted a brow. “You asking for details, Mick?”
Mick frowned at him. “Of course not. I’m just trying to follow what you’re saying. Had you talked about marriage, anything like that?”
“No, never,” Thomas said. A faraway look crossed his face. “She was amazing, Mick. She was smart and as dedicated to environmental causes as I was. That idealism was something we had in common.”
Mick recalled Thomas’s first two wives. Anyone could have told him they were all wrong for him. Neither understood his passion for his career. Connie, though, she got it. Maybe this Anna woman had, too.