“You sure you’re not interested just because it will rile Mick?”
“You know better. Mom reminded me of the way I used to pester you with questions when I was a kid. Somehow I got sidetracked by being an EMT, then in the army, but I think the time is finally right for this. I need to do something new, something challenging and, most of all, something that really matters.”
“In my view there’s not much that matters more than this,” Thomas said. “Our future depends on what we do right here and around the rest of the country to protect our natural resources.”
“I get that,” Kevin said. “My only question is whether I can be useful.”
“If you can pilot that boat you said you’re willing to bring with you, I can teach you everything else you need to know.” He gave Kevin a hard look. “Did you pass biology?”
“Yes.”
“Chemistry? Zoology?”
“And a lot more science besides,” Kevin told him.
“Then you’ll fit right in,” Thomas said. “The pay’s lousy, but we’ll pay you something for the boat and we’ll cover the fuel.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Kevin said. All he cared about at the moment was that this felt a hundred percent right. In recent months, very little else had. This…and kissing Shanna.
13
Before leaving his uncle’s offices, Kevin met most of the other scientists and employees. There were a surprisingly small number of them, given the magnitude of the task they were trying to accomplish. He was also able to convince Thomas to agree to give a talk at Shanna’s bookstore.
“Have her call me and we’ll work out the details,” he told Kevin, then gave him a penetrating look. “Does this woman mean something to you? It sounds as if—”
“I hardly know her,” Kevin said out of habit.
Thomas chuckled. “When it comes to attraction, time doesn’t always factor into it.” When Kevin started to respond, his uncle waved him off. “Never mind the denials. I’ll see what’s going on for myself when I come down there to give this talk.”
For the first time since Shanna had suggested inviting his uncle to speak at the store, Kevin was starting to view it as a bad idea. Thomas had been twice married and twice divorced. Ironically, he’d lost both wives because, like Mick, he’d really been married to his work.
But even though he had trouble sustaining a relationship, Thomas genuinely appreciated women. His intuition was finely tuned. He could read them in a way that Kevin sure as hell hadn’t been able to.
Water under the bridge, Kevin told himself, even as he caught Thomas studying him with a knowing expression. He draped an arm around Kevin’s shoulders as he walked him outside.
“I think I’ll take a drive down to Chesapeake Shores tomorrow,” he said, taking Kevin by surprise. “I should drop in and see Ma, maybe take a look at that boat and see what modifications it’s going to need, if you’re serious about selling it to us.”
“I told you I’d donate it,” Kevin reminded him.
“It’s a new boat, Kevin. We have some money put aside. Let’s make it a business deal, even if it won’t be for the kind of money you could get elsewhere.”
“Whatever you want,” Kevin said warily.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Kevin sensed that his uncle had something else on his agenda for this sudden visit. He was pretty sure the boat was the least of it. Thomas proved the point by adding, “After we take a look at the boat, I can drop in at the bookstore and finalize things there, too,” he said, his expression all innocence. “I’ll bring along a list of recommended books for your friend. Shanna, is it?”
Bingo, Kevin thought, his stomach sinking. There was the real mission in a nutshell. “Shanna Carlyle,” he said.
“Okay, then,” Thomas said cheerfully. “I’ll be looking forward to it. You going to be at the house?”
Kevin nodded. Unless he could get a ticket to Antarctica before then.
“I’ll meet you there. We can drive over to the marina, then into town. You can make the introductions.”
“Sounds great,” Kevin said, though he knew his voice lacked enthusiasm.
His uncle gave him a questioning look. “You’re not having second thoughts about your decision, are you?”
“Of course not,” he said at once, then shrugged. “Maybe a few.”
“About the boat?”
Kevin shook his head.
“Working with me?”
“Absolutely not.”
A grin spread across Thomas’s face. “Then it’s Shanna. Not to worry, I won’t embarrass you with my questions. I’ll just be observing, trying to get the lay of the land, so to speak. I’m sure she must be used to being under a microscope with O’Briens everywhere she turns in Chesapeake Shores.”
Kevin regarded him with dismay. “What is it with this family?” he asked. “I know all the women are inveterate matchmakers, but you, too? Is it in our damn genes?”
“Since there’s a long, long list of O’Briens here and back in Ireland, I’d have to say yes,” Thomas said unrepentantly. “We want our own to be happy. And we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure of it.”
“By marrying them off?” Kevin asked incredulously. “You can say that after two bad marriages?”
“They weren’t bad, any more than Mick’s was to Megan. They were flawed, maybe, not bad. Both Gillian and Diana were wonderful women. I just couldn’t give them the attention they deserved. Truth be told, I’d marry either of them again in a heartbeat, if they’d have me.”
“Dad seems determined to win Mom back, as well,” Kevin admitted.
Thomas seemed surprised by that. “Is that so? Well, God bless him for that. It was a shame he ever let her get away. How does Megan feel about it?”
“She’s a tough sell,” he admitted. “But my money’s on Dad.” He was even starting to get used to the idea. Having her around recently hadn’t been awful. And he did owe her for planting this idea in his head about working with Thomas.
“My money’s on my brother, as well,” his uncle said. “I’ll have to give him a bit of encouragement if I see him tomorrow.” He shrugged. “Not that he’ll appreciate it coming from me. Will he be around?”
“He should be. He’s coming back from Seattle tonight.”
“And Megan?”
“She’s gone back to New York in a huff,” Kevin said. “Which probably means Dad will go chasing after her in a day or two. He’ll want her to have time to cool down.”
Thomas chuckled. “Now you’ve given me yet another reason to be grateful to you for turning up here today—the perfect excuse to watch the fireworks between those two. It was lively enough the first time around. Now that Megan obviously has her sass and vinegar back, it’s bound to be spectacular.”
“You certainly have an unusual outlook on our mixed-up family dynamics,” Kevin said, wishing he could reach a similar combination of fascination and objective distance.
“It’s hard to see things clearly when you’re in the thick of it,” Thomas said, then gave Kevin a wicked wink. “That’s why I’m looking forward to getting a firsthand glimpse of you and this Shanna you claim you hardly know. I suspect I’ll see plenty you’re not admitting to me or to yourself.”
Yeah, that was exactly what Kevin was afraid of.
Shanna’s cell phone rang so rarely she almost didn’t recognize the sound, especially with her purse tucked away in a nook in the back room. By the time she reached her purse and located the phone, it had stopped ringing. And the caller hadn’t left a message. When she saw the number of the caller, she muttered a curse, then immediately hit the button for a call-back.
“Hello.” Henry’s soft little voice was tentative.
“Hi, sweetie. Did you just call me?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, then asked, “Is that okay?”
“Of course, it is. I’ve told you that you can call me anytime.” Thank heaven, the court hadn’t denied that, just in-pers
on visits.
“But Daddy says I shouldn’t bother you, that you’re not my family anymore. He gets really mad when I call you Mommy.”
“I will always be your family, Henry,” she said emphatically. “Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You need me, you call, okay? Now tell me how you are.”
He hesitated, then said, “Daddy’s sick. That’s what Greta says, anyway.” His voice, filled with worry, gathered steam. “Do you think if he’s sick for a long time, he should go to the hospital? What if he dies? What would happen to me?”
She could imagine his precious little face, the expression on it way too serious for his age. “Nothing is going to happen to your daddy,” Shanna said, trying to sound reassuring. She knew exactly what was going on with Greg. He was on some kind of a bender and had probably locked himself away in his suite of rooms, leaving the nanny to try to come up with an excuse that would make sense to a seven-year-old.
“But what if it does?” Henry persisted. “Could I come to live with you, then?”
Shanna bit back a sigh, knowing the court would never agree to that. Only Greg or his parents could arrange that, and it would never happen. “You’d live with your grandparents,” she told him. “You know how much they love you. They would take very, very good care of you, Henry. But this is not something you need to worry about. Your daddy is going to be fine.”
She hoped that wasn’t a lie, that Greg wouldn’t drink himself to death or wrap his car around a tree on one of the too-frequent occasions when his judgment was impaired.
“I wish you were here,” Henry said.
“Me, too, baby. Me, too. But even though I’m not there, I love you and miss you. Don’t forget that.”
“I gotta go,” he said. “Somebody’s coming.”
“Bye, Henry,” she whispered, but she was talking to dead air.
She set the phone aside and rested her head on her arms. Tears stung her eyes. She couldn’t help wondering sometimes if it wouldn’t have been easier on Henry, on her, if she’d never come into their lives. Henry wouldn’t have grown so attached to her. She wouldn’t have started thinking of him as her own son. And leaving wouldn’t have ripped out her heart and left him scared and alone.
“Shanna?”
Kevin’s voice startled her. She glanced up too quickly, without thinking about the fact that she’d been crying. He was at her side in an instant, hunkering down in front of her.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded, gently brushing at the tears on her cheeks, his eyes filled with concern. He glanced at the cell phone on the desk. “Bad news?”
She shook her head, afraid if she spoke she’d start sobbing. Since she didn’t think she could explain about Greg and Henry and her messed-up mistake of a marriage, she forced a smile.
“Sorry, I was just feeling emotional for a minute.” She found a tissue in her purse and dabbed at her face, glanced in her compact’s mirror and added a dash of lipstick. “Too many changes, too fast, I suppose. I’m fine now.”
He didn’t look as if he believed a word of it.
She mustered another smile, hopefully a more convincing one. “How about lunch? I think there’s enough of a lull that I can run to Sally’s for a half hour. Besides, I want to hear all about how things went with your uncle this morning.”
“Are you sure you feel like going out? I could bring something back here.”
“Am I that much of a mess?”
He shook his head. “You look gorgeous, just a little sad.”
“Like I said, it’s been one of those days. Being around people will be good for me.” And it would keep her mind off the call from Henry and off the temptation to call Greta and demand to know what was really going on with Greg.
She picked up her keys and purse and headed toward the front of the store. Kevin tagged along behind her, then held the door. When she walked outside, she nearly gasped at the heat and humidity, which had climbed since early morning. It was like a slap in the face, immediately stealing breath and sapping energy.
“How about the Panini Bistro today?” Kevin said as she locked the door. “I think it’s time for a change, and Bree says their sandwiches are great.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, reading between the lines. “Any particular reason you don’t want to go to Sally’s?”
“Just tired of the same old thing, I guess,” he said unconvincingly. “Aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “A change will be nice.” It seemed they were both in odd moods.
There was enough of a breeze off the bay to make sitting outdoors an option despite the heat, so Kevin led the way to a table. They were silent as they quickly glanced over the menu. Not until after the waitress had taken their order did Kevin face her again.
“Okay, what was the real story back there?” he asked. “You weren’t crying just because you’d had a tough morning. You hardly shed more than a few tears when the store flooded, so today would have had to be a doozy to bring them on.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
“It does,” he said firmly. “Somebody called and upset you. Was it Laurie? Your folks?”
“Kevin, really, it was nothing,” she lied. It was everything and much too hard to explain. Someday she’d tell him everything about the little boy who’d stolen her heart and the man who’d broken it, but not today. Right now she needed to think about something more cheerful. “Tell me about your morning. How did things go with your uncle?”
Though he looked as if he didn’t want to abandon his own line of questioning, he couldn’t contain the eagerness sparkling in his eyes. “We’re going to work together,” he told her. “And he’ll do your event for you, though I have to warn you he has an ulterior motive.”
“What’s that?” she asked. “Does he want it to be a fund-raiser? That’s okay with me. In fact, it’s a fantastic idea. I’ll donate a percentage of the sales.”
“I’m sure he’d appreciate that, but no, this motive is personal, not professional.” He hesitated, then said, “Somehow, he’s gotten the impression that there’s something going on between the two of us. I swear I didn’t say anything to put the idea into his head. Just be prepared to fend off a lot of questions when you see him. It seems he’s no more immune to meddling than anyone else in my family.”
She was so excited by the prospect of putting together an event at the store, the rest of Kevin’s words barely registered. “I’ll call him right away and make the arrangements. And I need to call Jess and get her ideas for some easy appetizers that won’t be outrageously expensive.” She reached in her purse for paper and pen, then jotted down notes. “Can you give me your uncle’s phone number? I’ll call when I get back to the shop. Or right now, if you think he’ll be in. He’s probably out to lunch, though.”
Kevin placed a hand over hers. “Slow down. You don’t need to call him. He’s coming to town tomorrow. I’ll bring him by the store, and you can finalize all the details.”
She paused, startled. “He’s coming to the store?”
Kevin nodded, clearly amused that his earlier comments were finally sinking in.
“And he has questions about the two of us?”
“Oh, yeah,” he confirmed. “I’m not exactly overjoyed about that myself, but he was insistent.”
“Well, there’s nothing to tell,” she said briskly. “So we don’t need to worry.”
“You’re wrong about that,” he told her.
“Which part?”
“Both. We do need to worry because we’re both hiding from the truth, and Thomas is going to see right through us.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she insisted.
Kevin regarded her with skepticism. “Really? If I kissed you right now, what would happen?”
Shanna swallowed hard. There was no denying what a kiss would prove. The attraction between them might be merely simmering for the moment, but it could easily heat to a boil.
“I see what you’re saying,” she said hurriedly t
o forestall any ideas he might have of demonstrating his point. “But we won’t be kissing in front of him.” Or ever again, if they both stuck to their resolution. Right this second, with Kevin’s heated gaze on her, it was hard to recall why they’d made that stupid resolution in the first place.
“I don’t think the lack of kissing is going to matter,” Kevin said, sounding resigned. “Uncle Thomas considers himself to be very intuitive when it comes to this kind of stuff and, unfortunately, I don’t think he’s overestimating his skill.”
“Then just bring him to the door, make some excuse and take off. I can handle the arrangements, and you can come back and get him.” She regarded him hopefully. “You and I won’t even have to be in the same room.”
“Don’t you think he’ll find that odd? Maybe even make too much of us avoiding each other?” He grinned. “Which, by the way, even I can see would be way too telling. Men and women only avoid each other when they’re scared of revealing something.”
“Or when they hate each other’s guts,” she suggested.
“Which we don’t,” he said. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Then we just deal with this,” she decided. “If he gets all caught up with some crazy idea that there’s something going on between us, we can just laugh it off. I think we’re worrying about nothing. Surely, he has more important things on his mind than you and me.”
“I don’t think he sees it that way,” Kevin said, his expression glum. “There’s nothing the people in my family love more than a project, and I’m currently at the top of everyone’s list. You don’t have a chance in hell of avoiding getting caught up in the drama, unless you run far, far away.”
Despite the panic his words set off in her, Shanna met his gaze. She even risked putting her hand over his. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She couldn’t have said why she knew that staying put was the right thing to do or why she wasn’t as eager to run as he was for her to do it. She just knew she belonged here. If she couldn’t be back in Pennsylvania, making a life with the boy who’d felt so much like a son to her, then this was the home she wanted. Maybe even the man she wanted. She couldn’t be sure about that yet.
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