Last of the O'Rourkes

by Kate Douglas

  “When was the last time he came to you?” Seamus glanced up from his careful study of the baby and turned all of his attention on Kathleen. She bit her lips. She knew the truth would hurt Seamus all over again.

  “The last time I saw you. I was in the car. It was filling with water so fast I didn’t think you’d be able to get to me in time.”

  Seamus nodded. “It took me longer than I expected. People had stopped to help. They tried to keep me from going back for you. They took Michael, then one guy grabbed my arm, told me it was too dangerous. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to break free in time. I barely did.”

  Kat nodded, finally understanding how frightening it must have been for Seamus. He was a man who took his responsibilities very seriously. She’d been under his care...she was his responsibility.

  Was that all she was?

  Seamus hadn’t said he loved her, even after she’d laid her own heart on the line.

  She thought he’d come back for her. Maybe he’d only come back because of Michael. Maybe her gesture had backfired. With his name on the birth certificate she’d have no way to fight for custody now.

  Riley said Seamus loved her. Could she really trust a ghost?

  Kat figured she’d have to. “You were gone a long time. Long enough for me to wonder if you were really coming back for me. I started thinking how easy it would be for you to let me drown. No one could fault you. No one could dispute your claim on Michael. You and Riley were twins. I assume that means your DNA would be close enough to prove you could be Michael’s father.

  “You said all along you wanted the baby. You told me that from the beginning. I couldn’t help but think now, when I had so much to live for, I was going to die. Suddenly Riley appeared, rumpled as usual, telling me to hang on, that you were coming to save me. Then he was gone and you were there.”

  She said it so matter-of-factly, as if conversations with a ghost were an everyday occurrence. Kat shrugged her shoulders and reached for the baby. “Why don’t you let me have him? It’s past time for his nap.”

  Seamus regretfully gave up the tiny burden. He studied Kat as she put Michael down for his nap. She’d never been more precious to him, leaning over the small crib and adjusting the light blanket over her son.

  Our son. It was going to take him awhile to get used to that, to absorb the immense scope of Kat’s generosity.

  She said she loved him. She said she and Michael needed him. Had she really meant those words? Almost afraid to hope, Seamus quietly followed Kat out of the room and into the large, square kitchen. She poured two tall glasses of lemonade, handed one to him and led Seamus out onto the huge front porch.

  The sweet perfume from the old honeysuckle vine covering the porch filled the air. Bees and hummingbirds maintained a constant level of buzzing and humming as they moved from bloom to bloom. Seamus stood for a moment, inhaling the scents and sounds, feeling a sense of peace that had been missing in his life for far too long. He glanced at the comfortable looking chairs, then sat down instead on one end of the old porch swing. After a moment’s hesitation, Kathleen sat at the other end.

  She played with the condensation on her glass for a moment, then gestured toward a small speaker on the table next to her. “That’s a monitor to Michael’s room. We’ll be able to hear him when he wakes up. He should be down for a few hours, though. I bathed him just before you arrived so he’s all clean and relaxed. That always makes—”

  “Kat.”

  She jumped when he said her name. Then she turned and leveled that crystalline blue gaze on him and waited.

  Suddenly, all the words he’d practiced, all the long explanations and rationalizations that had made so much sense on the long drive over from San Francisco sounded trite and meaningless.

  The only words he could say sounded equally sad and wanting. “I’m sorry, Kat. I’m so sorry.”

  “For what?”

  How could she sit there with that innocent expression on that gorgeous face and ask such a stupid question?

  “For what? What do you mean, for what?” Seamus stood up so fast he set the swing to rocking. Kat grabbed at the armrest and planted her feet.

  “It’s your apology, Seamus.” Kat steadied the glass of lemonade before the swing could bump into the table. “I’m just an innocent recipient of a yet-unmade apology. What are you apologizing for?”

  “Good Lord, woman. Where do I start?” He shoved his long fingers through the thick black hair tumbling over his forehead. Kat saw the healing scar slanting across his forehead, noticed for the first time how long his hair had grown. Now it swept across his ears and curled over his collar, giving him a rakish, sensual look.

  She decided it was a look she definitely liked. She flashed him a cheeky grin, feeling, for the first time in a long time, back in control. “You could start at the beginning, maybe?”

  “I promised to protect you, but I failed. I promised your stalker wouldn’t find you again. I failed there, too. I lied to you and said I only wanted your baby. That’s not true.”

  Seamus stopped his pacing and stood so close to Kathleen their knees touched. She felt the hope growing inside, the knowledge building that what she’d dreamed might actually come true.

  “What is true, Seamus? Will you tell me that?”

  He knelt down on one knee in front of her and took both of Kat’s hands in his own. She knew her fingers trembled, knew her heart sped far too fast.

  “The truth, Kathleen Margaret Malone? The truth is that I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you. There, at the cemetery, burying the brother I couldn’t mourn. Then, when I walked into the kitchen the next morning and you were sitting at my table wearing nothing more than one of my good white shirts with a jam stain down the front, no less... I knew I could never let you go.” Suddenly he stood up and turned away.

  “The problem is, there was always Riley. I figured every time you looked at me, you saw my brother. I may have been the oldest, but I always felt less than Riley. Do you understand that?”

  “Seamus, Riley loved you. He looked up to you. You were everything he wanted to be.”

  Kat stood up and placed her hands on his broad shoulders.

  “You have to get past that, Seamus. You can’t spend your life jealous of a dead man.”

  Seamus merely shrugged. “I finished my book.”

  “What?”

  “That’s where I’ve been, Kat.” Seamus grinned down at her as if that should answer all her questions.

  “Where have you been? Make some sense here, okay?”

  “Okay. I was really upset that night...not at you. I was angry with myself. For all we knew, Dearborn was still out there. I’d failed you once again. Then you started talking about Riley and I just lost it. I’m sorry. After I left the hospital, I went straight to my attorney and set up the fund for Michael, then back to the cabin. That’s where it all started coming together.”

  Kat sat down and patted a spot beside her on the swing. Seamus dutifully sat where she indicated. “Now,” she said. “Explain, please?”

  “Riley was there. At the cabin. Oh, I’d seen him before, but each time I was able to explain him away. This time, he wouldn’t leave me alone.” Seamus looked up and squeezed his eyes shut. Only a couple of tears managed to escape.

  “He’d pop up at the weirdest times. He forced me to see what I’ve missed all my life, that just because we looked alike, we didn’t have to be alike. Nor did we have to be polar opposites. We just had to be ourselves. He made me realize I’ve lived my entire life on the defensive, always reacting to Riley when I should have ignored his behavior and gone on with my life.”

  “You got all this from a ghost?”

  Seamus took her hand in both of his and grinned at her. “C’mon. Don’t deny it. You saw him, too. You talked to him.”

  “Not recently...not since that last night.” Kat realized she hadn’t even thought of Riley in that time, either.

  “Have you missed him?”

/>   “No, you dummy. I missed you. Though I must admit, right now I’m wondering why.”

  “I missed you too, Kat. But, in a lot of ways, you were with me.” Seamus reached out and touched her hair. “You haven’t asked me what kind of book I was writing.”

  “I guess I figured it was a foodie thing, sort of like your columns.”

  “It’s a romance.”

  Kat knew she should shut her mouth. Somehow, though, she couldn’t make the darned thing close.

  “A romance? You?”

  “I know. It sounds absurd, but when I started it, months before I ever met you, I was so damned lonely. I needed the fantasy. There was no one in my life—no one who mattered. I started writing and figured I’d have my imaginary characters to keep me company. Pathetic, isn’t it? Then you popped into my life and totally screwed up all my preconceived notions of what romance could be. I was almost finished with it, but after you, I had to rewrite the whole darned thing.”

  “Well. I’m just too sorry for words.” Just what in the hell is he getting at?

  “I figured you’d say something like that.” He grinned like the village idiot. “I’ve missed you so much, Kat.”

  He leaned close and kissed her. She’d imagined the taste of him, the feel of his lips on hers.

  She hadn’t even come close.

  He drew away from her long before she was ready to let him go.

  “I didn’t have a clue what real love was until you came into my life. Kat, you’ve brought me so much. Given me so much. I didn’t know what fun was. Hell, I didn’t know what life was until you.”

  Once more, Kat saw the hunger in his eyes and felt herself drawn to it. Once again he stroked her hair. “It’s like silk, so soft and sleek. Almost impossible to imagine what a prickly, hard-headed woman it hides.”

  “Thanks loads.” Kat sat up straight, fighting the urge to lean into Seamus’s touch. If he thought he understood romance, he was wrong. Dead wrong.

  You don’t tell a woman she’s prickly and hard-headed, you dolt!

  Suddenly Seamus was back down on one knee, his big hands cradling Kat’s thighs. He wasn’t smiling, but the twinkle in his deep green eyes belied the serious expression on his face.

  “I love you, Kathleen Margaret Malone. I’ve loved you from the beginning, even when you drove me nuts. You still drive me nuts. I love your wit and your laughter, your fierce nature and your gentle soul. I love your courage and your sweetness. I cannot imagine not having you in my life. Will you marry me? Will you be my wife? Will you grow old and crotchety and wrinkled with me?”

  She couldn’t speak, could no more get the words past the lump in her throat than fly. Instead, she nodded her head, biting her lips to stop the rush of tears.

  It didn’t help a bit. Seamus stood and swept her into his arms, cradling her like an infant, kissing her face, her tears, finally settling firmly on her mouth.

  “Now, about that room,” he said, carrying her through the front door and into the dark foyer.

  “Grab the monitor and I’ll show you.”

  “You mean the baby comes with us?”

  She looked into his forest green eyes and laughed. “Yeah, Seamus. The baby comes with us. We’re a family and we stick together. No more goin’ it alone. What do you say?”

  “I say, grab the monitor.”

  Epilogue

  “G’MORNIN’, SLEEPYHEAD. I THOUGHT you’d never wake up.”

  Kat stretched, arched her back and smiled at Seamus. He leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded across his chest, the sleeves of his worn flannel shirt rolled back above his wrists.

  “Mmmm, what time is it?” She pushed herself up to a sitting position so she could get a better look at him. After almost four years of marriage, Kat knew she’d never grow tired of her green-eyed Irishman. She smiled, remembering how she’d once thought him threatening and reserved. There wasn’t an uptight bone in this man’s body. She and Mikey had seen to that.

  “It’s almost ten. If we’re going to get any work done before it’s time to pick Mikey up from preschool by noon, you’re going to have to get moving.”

  “Thanks for taking him this morning. I’m usually not this lazy.” She yawned and stretched again. “I don’t know what got into me.”

  Seamus pushed away from the door and sauntered across the room. “As I recall, I got into you.”

  Kat blushed, remembering the past night of loving. “More than once,” she said, scooting to the middle of the bed to make room. “Wanna try it again?”

  Seamus leaned over her, one arm on either side, trapping her in a familiar embrace. “You know I would, but we have work to do. There’s a manuscript in the office just waiting for a conclusion.” He kissed her, quick, playful little kisses that left her giggling and breathless.

  Kat reached up to touch his jaw with her fingers, holding him still for a long, satisfying kiss. As far as she was concerned, the book could wait. She and Seamus had averaged three books a year for the past three years. Out of those nine stories of romance and suspense, five had been best sellers and a sixth was quickly climbing the list. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

  “Think of it as research, Seamus.” She deepened the kiss and at the same time wriggled her fingers between the buttons on the front of his shirt to stroke the warm flesh beneath.

  Seamus groaned against her lips and surrendered. “This is not the way deadlines are met,” he said, fumbling with the zipper on his worn jeans. “Besides—” He stripped his shirt off his shoulders. “—we got in plenty of research last night. Unless you have something new to show me.”

  He slipped his jeans and shorts down his legs and stepped out of them, then struck a pose.

  “That’s certainly not new, Seamus,” she deadpanned.

  He pinned her to the bed, toes to fingertips. The thick comforter between them couldn’t hide the fact he was certainly ready for more research.

  Kat wriggled beneath him. “Actually...I do have something new.”

  Seamus leered at her before pulling the comforter out from between them, then settled himself along the length of her. “Okay, I’m ready.” He kissed the tip of her nose.

  “You certainly are.” She thrust her hips against him.

  Seamus pulled away, teasing her. “So. What’s new? Are we talking whips and chains here? Maybe a little whipping cream in odd places? How about...”

  Kat wrapped her arms around his waist, arched her hips and he entered her. She pushed his shoulders and rolled him to his back so she could sit astride. “How about the first time you’ve ever knowingly made love to a pregnant woman?”

  The look of utter disbelief on Seamus’s face made her giggle.

  “You? Mine? But how...”

  “Well, I hope you’re not making love to any other pregnant women and it’s certainly not the mailman’s.” She spun her hips, loving the feel of him inside her. “I imagine doing what we’re doing right now had something to do with it.”

  “A baby? We’re really going to have a baby?”

  “That’s essentially what we’re talking about, big guy.” She might be talking tough, but Kat felt as if she would burst with the love she felt for this man. “I do hope you’re ready to be a daddy again. At least this time, I think we can expect a fairly uncomplicated pregnancy. You know, one without a stalker?”

  Seamus wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and held her close. Kat felt his tears mingling with hers, his lips moving against the line of her jaw with words so tender they made her ache.

  “You have given me more than any man could ever wish. Our son is a miracle. You, my love, are a miracle. I never, not in my wildest imaginings, dreamed we might be blessed enough to have another child. I love you, Kathleen Margaret O’Rourke. To answer your question, yes. I am more than ready to be a daddy again.”

  It was almost time to pick Mikey up from preschool before he turned her loose.

  ~ * ~

  Kate Douglas

  Kate Dou
glas is a sucker for happy endings, but this romance author never makes it easy for her characters to find their own personal paradise. Kate’s found hers in the wine country of northern California where she and her husband of almost thirty years live in an old farmhouse in the midst of a hillside vineyard.

  When she’s not writing, Kate does sports photography for many northern California cycling teams.