“I want all of it,” Trace said, meeting his gaze for the first time. “I want the ceremony, the commitment, more kids.”
“Has Abby given you a reason for not setting the date?”
“She has a dozen of them,” Trace said, sounding resigned. “All nice, logical reasons that it’s hard to find fault with.”
“But you don’t believe they’re the real reason she’s dragging her feet,” Kevin concluded.
Trace shook his head. “She’s scared. I just don’t know why. She knows I love her. She knows I’m not anything like Wes. She knows she and the girls are everything I want. I bought a house for us. I thought that would be symbolic, prove to her that I was in it for the long haul.” He shrugged. “Maybe she’s the one who can’t commit to forever.”
“You know that’s not true,” Kevin said.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Trace said direly. “I thought she loved me once before, and she took off.”
Alarmed by the suggestion that Abby could bolt from the relationship she’d been destined for, Kevin feared if she kept dragging her feet, Trace would one day tire of the wait and give up. “I’ll talk to her,” he offered. “Maybe I can get to the bottom of this.”
Trace gave him a warning look. “Would you want her meddling in your love life?”
“Absolutely not,” Kevin said, thinking of the situation with Shanna and how badly he wanted everyone to stay out of that.
“Then act accordingly. Stay out of it. Abby and I will figure it out eventually. Now leave me to these burgers and hot dogs. You’re distracting me. Go spend some time with your son.” He grinned. “You could take over from Abby with all the kids and send her up here, if you really wanted to do something helpful.”
Kevin chuckled. “I can definitely do that,” he said, heading for the shoreline, where Davy was helping Carrie and Caitlyn dig a moat around their sand castle under Abby’s supervision.
“It’s a good thing Mick’s not around to see this,” he commented, studying the lopsided structure and the crooked moat around it.
“Yeah, I think he’s doomed if he’s hoping the next generation will step up to take over his business,” Abby replied. “So far, these three aren’t showing much promise.”
Kevin slanted a look at her, trying to gauge her mood. “I’ll keep an eye on the kids if you want to go up and help Trace,” he offered.
Instead of seizing the offer, she frowned. “Did he say he needed my help?”
“I don’t think it’s a matter of need, but I think he wants you up there with him,” Kevin replied, studying her with a narrowed gaze. “What’s going on with you two, Sis? Is there a problem? I know all the rest of us have always counted on you for advice, but it works both ways. If there’s anything you want to talk about, I can listen at least.”
She hesitated, then admitted, “Trace has been pressing me to set a wedding date. He’s been mentioning it more and more frequently. I think he’s losing patience.”
Kevin ignored his very recent vow to stay out of their problems. After all, this opportunity had virtually fallen into his lap. He wasn’t going to let it pass. “Okay, why haven’t you set a date? And forget all the neat, logical excuses, because I won’t buy them.”
She met his gaze with a challenging look, then sighed. “You could always see right through me.”
“Your fiancé can see right through you, too. Trace isn’t buying your excuses, either.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said bleakly.
He searched her expression, but couldn’t read it. “You do love him, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” she said fiercely. “More than I ever thought possible.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m scared of losing it all. I blew it once before, you know.”
“Well, one sure way to blow it again is to keep putting him off when it comes to setting a date for the wedding.” Kevin was struck by a sudden insight. “Are you sure you’re not testing him?”
She blinked at the suggestion. “Testing him how?”
“Okay, I only saw your marriage to Wes from a distance, but what I saw was a man who had little respect for your career, who always wanted you to be something you’re not. Wes expected you to drop everything to become a doting wife and mother.”
“True.”
“Are you waiting for Trace to suddenly start making demands that you be at home all the time, for him to question your career? Do you think it’ll start with a few complaints about how much time you’re spending in Baltimore, then escalate to demands that you give it all up?”
She didn’t answer at once, but her thoughtful expression suggested she was genuinely considering his explanation.
“You could be right,” she said eventually.
“Has Trace even once done anything to hint that he’s remotely the control freak that Wes was?”
“Absolutely not,” she admitted. “But I never saw that side of Wes till after we were married.”
“Therefore if you put off the wedding date, you’ll put off discovering if Trace is going to morph into another Wes,” Kevin guessed, spinning the theory to its logical conclusion.
Abby stared at him with a shocked expression. “He wouldn’t do that,” she said, leaping to Trace’s defense.
Kevin grinned. “I know that. Obviously, deep down, so do you. Get on with your life, Abby. I think a fall wedding would be beautiful, don’t you?”
She grinned and stood up, then bent down to kiss the top of his head. “I love you.”
“Back at you,” he said, grinning as she ran up the beach to join her hopefully soon-to-be husband.
Whatever she said to Trace had a startled expression spreading across his face. Then, grinning, he gave Kevin a thumbs-up.
Just then Davy crawled into his lap, his thumb poked securely in his mouth. “Daddy,” he murmured, leaning against Kevin’s chest.
“How’s my boy? You getting tired?”
But rather than falling asleep as Kevin half expected, Davy pointed in Abby’s direction. “Mommy?”
Not quite understanding, Kevin said, “That’s your Aunt Abby. She’s Caitlyn and Carrie’s mommy.”
“My mommy!” Davy said emphatically.
Kevin fought the unexpected sting of tears. “No, your mommy’s not here.”
Davy gave him a sad look. “Want Mommy.”
There was no way to explain to a child barely more than two years old that his mommy wouldn’t be back ever again. For months now, Kevin had been telling himself that Davy was surrounded by so many aunts, his great-grandmother and recently even his grandmother, that he’d hardly notice that he didn’t have a mother of his own. But he hadn’t counted on Davy wanting what Carrie and Caitlyn had with Abby.
All he could say was, “I know, son. I miss her, too.”
Lately, though, it was getting harder and harder to remember Georgia clearly or to recall why he’d fallen in love with her. With Georgia’s parents finally scheduled to come into town in a few days for their twice-delayed visit, he felt even guiltier. He blamed himself not only for his faltering memories of Georgia, but because he was starting to let Shanna into his heart, a place some might say should still be reserved for the woman he’d lost.
Abby walked into Shanna’s shop late on Monday afternoon. Her arrival immediately put Shanna on the defensive, preparing to fend off a million questions about Kevin. Instead, Abby merely asked if Bree happened to be there.
“She’s not in her shop, and Jenny thought she might have come over here,” Abby explained.
“I’m here,” Bree called out.
Shanna grinned. “She’s back there sitting on the floor looking at gardening and flower-arranging books,” she said, pointing the way. “She’s figured out which day my shipments of new books come in and she’s usually here about an hour later.”
Abby shook her head as she walked toward that aisle. “Does Shanna have a book on wedding arrangements?” she asked. “That’s
what you need to be studying.”
Bree squealed, books hit the floor and then the sisters were in each other’s arms.
“You set a date!” Bree exclaimed. “Hallelujah! Trace finally got through to you.”
“Actually it was Kevin,” Abby said. She turned so she was addressing Shanna. “My brother actually has fairly astonishing insights for a man.”
Shanna blushed. “So I’ve gathered.”
“Well, this calls for a celebration,” Bree said. “Abby, you stay here. I’m going to run out and get champagne.”
“In the middle of the afternoon?” Abby said, though she sounded more pleased than shocked.
“Absolutely. Shanna, you don’t mind, do you?”
“Not as long as no one goes stumbling out of here,” she said. “But shouldn’t you go over to the inn and share this moment with Jess?”
“I’ll call her,” Abby said, immediately pulling out her cell phone and making good on the promise. When she hung up, she told Shanna, “You should be a part of this, too. Since you can’t leave the store, we’ll celebrate right here.”
Shanna felt a warm glow inside at Abby’s determination to include her. The glow only dimmed after they’d been left alone and Abby turned to her with a speculative gleam in her eyes.
“Now you and I will have a chance to talk,” she told Shanna meaningfully.
“About?”
“My brother.”
“Nothing to talk about,” Shanna insisted, only to have Kevin himself walk in the door and pretty much shatter the illusion she’d been intent on creating. She frowned at him. “Isn’t today your first day at work with your uncle?”
He looked from her to Abby, apparently guessing at the source of her testy mood. “His workday starts before dawn. I’ve been to Annapolis and back and put in a full day.”
Abby’s eyes shone. “That’s wonderful. How was it?”
“I have a lot to learn,” Kevin said. “But I’m going to love it. Now tell me what you’re doing here?”
“I came by to tell Bree that Trace and I have set our wedding date,” she said. “Thanks to you.” She gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek.
Kevin beamed at the news, but then his gaze narrowed. “You came looking for Bree in Shanna’s shop? Why?”
“Bree was in here looking at books,” Shanna explained. “And now she’s gone to fetch champagne. Jess is on her way over, as well.”
“You have to stay,” Abby told him. “This is a family thing.”
“Looks more like a girl thing,” he said, already backing toward the door. “I think I’ll leave you to it.”
He was gone before Abby could stop him. The interruption had apparently only fueled her speculation. She gestured for Shanna to sit, then moved a chair until they were facing.
“Interesting that my brother would choose to come here right after his first day on his new job,” she said casually. “Do you want to stick to the story that there’s nothing going on between you?”
Shanna kept her chin up. “Yes, I do.”
Abby leveled a look into her eyes, seemed to consider the response, then shook her head. “I’m not buying it.”
Shanna shrugged. “Nothing I can do about that.”
“Then that kiss the other day meant absolutely nothing?” Abby persisted, her lips twitching as she dropped her bombshell.
“Kiss?” Shanna echoed, displaying what she hoped was a credible amount of innocence.
“You didn’t honestly think we wouldn’t hear about it?” Abby said. “Dad raced right home and mentioned it to Gram. Normally she’s as tight-lipped as anyone I’ve ever known, but she dropped a hint around Bree, who obviously already knew. I walked in and caught the two of them huddled together. I refused to let up until they filled me in.”
If she hadn’t been so embarrassed, Shanna would have been delighted by the scenario Abby was describing. Indeed, she would have wanted to be right in the middle of it. But being the subject of such a discussion was a little less enchanting.
Abby apparently caught her dismayed reaction. “I’m making you really uncomfortable, aren’t I? I’m sorry. Bree, Jess and I are so used to everyone being in our business, we don’t realize how that must feel to an outsider.”
Shanna felt her face fall. There it was. Even under these circumstances, she was an outsider. She had to remember that and not get all caught up in thinking she was even on the fringes of this family.
“Oh dear, I’ve done it again,” Abby said. “I didn’t mean that you’re an outsider, like not one of us, just that…”
“I’m not an O’Brien,” Shanna said. “Believe me, I know that.”
“But you’d like to be, wouldn’t you?” Abby said slowly, her gaze speculative.
“Not in the way you mean,” Shanna said at once. “Not by snagging Kevin or something. I just envy all of you having this wonderful big family.”
Abby didn’t look as if she bought the explanation entirely. “It’s not always wonderful. Sometimes it’s incredibly annoying.”
“But in a good way,” Shanna insisted.
“You can say that even after I’ve come in here pestering you with questions you don’t want to answer?”
Shanna nodded.
Abby grinned. “The patience of a saint,” she concluded. “You’re going to be very good with my brother.”
“But—”
“Don’t even waste your breath,” Abby advised, then beamed as Jess and Bree came through the doorway. Bree carried two bottles of chilled champagne and Jess had a tray of little puff pastries filled with goat cheese and caramelized onion.
“It was the best I could do on short notice. We always have these in the freezer,” Jess said. “We can’t have a party without some kind of fancy food.”
“We need cake, too,” Bree declared. “Gram’s on her way with the chocolate cake she baked this afternoon.”
The next thing Shanna knew, the O’Brien sisters had taken over the coffee area in the store and the champagne was flowing. They waited until Nell O’Brien arrived with the cake before Bree offered a toast to her big sister.
“I may have beat you to the altar, Abby, but I predict your future with Trace will be every bit as long and happy as I intend mine to be with Jake!”
“Hear, hear!” Jess said.
“Now then, I hear a date’s finally been set,” Nell said.
“The first Saturday in October,” Abby said.
“That’s less than two months away,” Bree said, looking shaken. “What kind of wedding can we pull together on such short notice?”
“Exactly the kind that Trace and I want, small and intimate.” She turned to Jess. “We’d like to have it at the inn. Will that work?”
Shanna started to protest that Laurie’s wedding was that weekend, but Jess was already nodding. “It’ll work.”
“But—” Shanna began, only to have Jess shake her head.
“It will work,” she repeated, then drew Shanna aside. “Laurie called earlier and canceled everything. I gather you haven’t spoken to her.”
“Not a word. Everything was still on track when she was here a couple of weeks ago.” Upset by the news and even more by the fact that Laurie hadn’t immediately called to share it with her, she murmured, “Excuse me. I need to call her.”
“Please don’t tell her I said anything. I wouldn’t have, except you were right here when Abby picked that date.”
“It’s okay,” Shanna assured her. “I won’t say a word. I’ll just check in with Laurie. I usually speak to her every few days. She won’t think it’s odd that I’m calling today.”
Even as she spoke, her cell phone rang. When she saw Laurie’s number on the caller ID, she excused herself again and went into the back room to take the call.
“You busy?” Laurie asked.
“Not at all. How are you?”
“Fine,” Laurie said, though her voice trembled.
“You don’t sound fine. What’s going on?”
“Drew called off the wedding,” she blurted. “He says he doesn’t want to be married. He wants to go off to some island or something to find himself. Have you ever heard a more ridiculous excuse in all your life? Who does something like that? Why couldn’t he just say he doesn’t love me?”
“Maybe because he does love you,” Shanna said carefully. “Sweetie, Drew was never as ready to get married as you were. He’s a great guy, but he’s immature. He proposed because he wanted you to be happy, but I don’t think his heart was in it.”
“Because he doesn’t love me,” Laurie insisted.
“No, because he needs time to make that kind of commitment. You may not be ready to hear this, but I think he’s doing you a favor.”
“He called off my beautiful wedding,” Laurie said, sobbing.
“Did he call it off, or did he ask you to postpone it?” Shanna asked.
“Same difference.”
“No, it’s not.”
“He doesn’t want to marry me.”
“He doesn’t want to marry you now,” Shanna stressed. She could almost hear Drew trying to explain that to Laurie and her not hearing a word of what he was saying. From the beginning Shanna had seen the panic in Drew’s eyes when the subject of marriage had come up. She’d also seen something else, that he was wildly in love with Laurie and willing to take that leap just because it was what she wanted.
“Tell me what he said,” she instructed Laurie. “His exact words.”
“He said it was all happening too fast, that he needs to get a better job and start making decent money so he can give me the life I deserve. I told him I didn’t care about any of that. I’m making good money.”
“But he obviously wants to provide well for you. That matters to him.”
Laurie dismissed her analysis. “Forget about it. I can’t talk about it anymore. It’s too upsetting. I want to hear about you.”
“Everything’s the same here. Why don’t you come up this weekend and see for yourself? It’ll do you good to get away for a couple of days. You can put all this in perspective, give Drew some breathing room.”
“I won’t be intruding?”
“Of course not. Why would you ask such a thing?”
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