Farraday Country

by Chris Keniston

  Finn blew out a sigh. “Unless she’s hiding another man in the closet, yes.”

  “So not surprised.” Toni eased onto a stool near the island.

  Not having made it to the café this morning, Adam reached for a loaf of bread. “You have the floor, little brother.”

  “As I was saying,” Finn started, “Dad was really sore last night after this guy showed up at the pub and sat down with Aunt Eileen.”

  “It was a little weird.” Meg slathered mustard on her bread. “One minute my guest was popping in for a bite to eat and the next minute he was calling Aunt Eileen Leeni and asking how she was doing.”

  “Leeni?” several voices echoed.

  “That’s what I’m talking about.” Finn waved away Becky’s attempt to hand him a sandwich. “Last night Dad was fuming because of who this guy is.”

  “And who is he?” Meg looked up from slicing a tomato.

  “Aunt Eileen’s ex fiancé.”

  If Finn weren’t so concerned about this turn of events, he would have laughed at the number of jaws hanging open.

  “Apparently,” Finn continued, “they broke things off when she chose to stay at the ranch after Mom died.”

  Eyes popping open wide, most of Finn’s siblings looked like a flock of spooked owls.

  “Yeah.” Finn ran his hand across the back of his neck. “I had no idea either. And here’s another tidbit of news. Glenn is a jazz pianist and Aunt Eileen was his band’s singer.”

  Mouths that had snapped shut fell open again. Meg spun away from the island and crossed the kitchen to open her laptop. Keyboard clacking, all eyes were on her. Nobody seemed to be able to find anything to say.

  “Holy…” She whirled around. “This guy is actually a renowned jazz pianist known for his unusual use of meters—”

  “Aunt Eileen said something about that at the café.”

  “He’s played with Ella Fitzgerald—”

  A few of his siblings whistled.

  “Diana Krahl…” Meg continued to read off a list of who’s who in the jazz world as scattered, wow, you’re kidding, and more whistles were tossed around.

  Ethan scrubbed his face. “This is surreal. You’re telling me Aunt Eileen gave up the man she was going to marry for us?”

  “Looks like it.” Finn hefted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

  “And now he’s back?” Brooks added.

  DJ stood in the corner, arms and ankles crossed. “You think he’s come back for her after all these years to what, steal her away?”

  “Listen to this,” Meg interrupted. “He had a wife who passed away three years ago from ALS. She was diagnosed eleven years ago. Right around the time Glenn disappeared from the music scene.”

  “So he stopped playing music to care for his wife.” Ethan leaned back against the counter. “Sounds like a nice enough guy. Not someone we’d need to worry about with our aunt.”

  “Wait.” Meg waved at Ethan. “The plot thickens. Glenn Baker and his lead singer Sally Marshall were married exactly eleven months after Grace was born.”

  “Didn’t waste any time, did he?” Brooks scoffed.

  DJ pushed away from the counter he’d been leaning against. “Doesn’t look like it.”

  “Okay.” Ethan tensed. “Maybe not that nice.”

  “Something doesn’t smell right.” Brooks shook his head. “Let’s say Aunt Eileen broke up with him—”

  “Dad said he broke her heart so I don’t think that’s what happened,” Finn explained.

  Brooks leaned forward on the island. “Now it down right stinks. He breaks the engagement with Aunt Eileen and then winds up marrying someone else pretty quickly. Awfully convenient if you ask me.”

  “That’s my thought. If he couldn’t be trusted back then, why should we trust him now?” Finn looked to his brother. “On the other hand, all I want is for Aunt Eileen to be happy, and believe it or not, by the time Dad and I left the café earlier, she looked happier than I remember seeing her in years.”

  “Of course she was.” Adam chuckled. “She lives to boss us around.”

  “True,” Finn smiled, “but I think there’s more to it.”

  “If this guy has come back for Aunt Eileen and he makes her happy, then I’m all for it.” Adam leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms.

  Meg held her hand up. “I love you, honey, but let’s not go jumping to conclusions. There could be any number of reasons Glenn is here, and we have no way of knowing if he’s here for her, or some other reason, or if having him in her life again is something she even wants.”

  Silence hung for a few moments as Meg’s words sank in. As far as Finn was concerned, he wanted his aunt happy, but he’d rather have her happy in Tuckers Bluff.

  “I’m not convinced it’s any of our business.” Toni stole a slice of baked ham from the countertop. “She is a grown woman, after all. She has a right to do whatever she wants with whomever she wants.”

  A few of the brothers squeezed their eyes shut, one of them mumbled, “TMI.”

  “Let’s not get carried away here.” Finn raised his hand. “It’s not like we’re going to lock her up in a chastity belt—”

  Adam groaned. “I seriously don’t need these images in my head.”

  “You’re a vet,” Finn shot back. “You deal with animal husbandry all day long.”

  “Yes, but none of those animals is like a mother to me, thank you very much.”

  Meg giggled and wrapped an arm around her husband’s waist. “That’s all right, sweetie. We’ll just have to get your mind on something else.”

  Adam’s nostrils flared and not a soul in the room doubted where his mind had just gone.

  “Maybe I should dig a little deeper,” DJ suggested.

  The brothers looked from one to another. Pushing away from the counter behind him, Finn nodded. “Whatever you do, don’t let Aunt Eileen find out, or no matter how old we are, none of us will be able to sit for a week.” That made a few of his brothers laugh under their breaths.

  “So now what?” Adam asked. “We just hang around and wait?”

  Finn nodded. “And in the meantime, keep an eye on the man.”

  Brooks sighed. “So, we’re laying odds that after all these years, he’s come back for the one that got away?”

  “That’s my best bet.” Finn had kicked this around since his Dad’s tirade last night, again this morning at home, and later at the café. Nothing else made sense. If all he’d wanted was to catch up, that’s what the internet or phone was for. A face to face meeting? Halfway across the country? “I mean, what else could make the man travel all the way to the middle of West Texas?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “She seems quite taken with you.” Holding Brittany on her hip, Eileen kept an eye on Glenn making funny faces at little Helen, who kept a firm grip on his nose.

  “Remind me again. This is...?” He squinted his eyes in concentration.

  Eileen smothered a soft laugh. “That’s Brooks’ and Toni’s little girl. Brittany here belongs to Ethan and Allison.”

  “That’s right. They’re both so easy going. And this one… I don’t remember either of my girls being this fascinated with my nose.”

  For a few seconds Eileen allowed a pang of regret to steal her breath. Had things worked out differently, would she and Glenn have had daughters? Sons? Would they have been as fascinated as her sister’s namesake was at this very moment? “It’s very nice of you to tag along. I’m sure you didn’t come to West Texas to babysit.”

  Glenn chuckled and Helen let go of his nose, now drawn to the embroidery on his pocket. “I have to admit, this wasn’t what I expected, but I’m glad to meet more of your family.”

  Ignoring another pang of regret, she shoved aside the memories of all the times he’d not wanted to meet her family and did her best to keep the mood light. “What, wasn’t half the Farraday brood enough for you this morning?”

  “Well,” he cleared his throat, “I’ll a
dmit it was occasionally a bit intimidating. Sean didn’t say much, but I was not sensing a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings from him.”

  “No.” Eileen set Brittany down in the corral and handed her a graham cracker to gnaw on. Sean Farraday was a kind, considerate, thoughtful man with a devotion to friends and family worth its weight in gold. If a person needed boosting, the man always had a kind word or gracious smile or helping hand at the ready. There wasn’t a soul in the county who didn’t know they could count on Sean Farraday and his sons when needed. None of that was obvious from the man almost brooding beside her earlier today. Not since after his wife died had she seen so much darkness in his eyes.

  “You okay?” Glenn placed Helen on the floor beside her cousin.

  “Sorry, my mind wanders from time to time.” Eileen took a seat on the sofa, one eye on the girls, one eye on Glenn. So much in this man had changed and yet remained the same. That impish smile still tugged at her heart strings, yet there was something calmer, laid back, warmer about the man playing with the closest thing to a grandbaby she’d ever have. “You still haven’t told me what has brought you to Tuckers Bluff.”

  Nodding, Glenn sank into the nearest chair and leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs. “I already mentioned that my daughters convinced me I was spending too much time alone in the house. Sally had been sick for a long time.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that.” Eileen meant it. At first, she was furious and heartbroken that Sally could take her place in such a short amount of time, but eventually she came to realize that her place was at the ranch, though she’d never expected to still be here long after the kids were grown and gone. Not till Glenn showed up on the proverbial doorstep had she paused to ponder when had she stopped planning her own future.

  “Thank you. Anyhow,” Glenn continued, “they began prodding me to reach out to old friends. The last couple of years we’d closed ourselves off from everyone. Then after she passed, well, seeing our friends was too hard.”

  Eileen nodded. She could only imagine. So much had seemed strange at the ranch without Helen. Learning to do the things Helen had always done was difficult at first in so many ways.

  “Then I got a call from a local journalism student who happened to be a jazz fan. He tracked down that I still lived in the Chicago area and asked to do an interview. Talking about the old days had given me the most pleasure I’d had in years. My older daughter picked up on it and convinced me to call some of the band members. Turns out it wasn’t nearly as hard as I would have thought it to be. The Internet is an amazing thing.

  “First I found Bill. After only a few minutes of conversation I’d felt a little bit more alert, alive. One by one I searched the gang out and with each person I talked to I realized just how right my daughters had been. I thought I’d prepared myself for losing Sally, but all I had done was close myself off.”

  “So you managed to track everyone down?”

  “Just about. I even made it to Florida. Scott and Johnny are still in the biz. They were working with a new singer. I even got to sit in on a couple of songs.”

  “Really?” Eileen felt an odd surge of something frightfully close to envy.

  “I’ll admit it was… nice. Not the same as when we were together, but nice.”

  “Like riding a bike?” she teased.

  “Pretty much. When she sang ‘Somewhere’ I actually started to do your arrangement without even thinking.”

  That was one of her favorite songs to sing from West Side Story. Scott had found a way to bring in the sultry jazz rhythm and the snappy feel of the gang conflict from the original Broadway show that was irresistible to her. It had gone on the first album and gained her some fantastic reviews from the critics. “And now here you are with me.”

  He chuckled and leaned back. “You were a bit more challenging to locate. First I had to screw up the courage to reach out.”

  “That hard?” She bit back a smile. Was it wrong of her to feel a hint of satisfaction that he knew walking away when she needed him most and straight into the arms of her one-time friend was beyond a crappy thing to do?

  Clearing his throat, he bobbed his head and a flash of remorse dimmed the light in his eyes. “I had expected you might have married, moved on, so when I finally began to search for you in earnest, I was looking for Callahan as a maiden name. When I couldn’t track you down on any of the social media avenues and was sure you hadn’t gone back to singing, I finally realized the best place to find you would be the last place you’d been.”

  “And here I am.”

  “Still taking care of little ones.” His soft smile told her the words had not been said with malice.

  “It does make me very happy to have little ones around again.”

  “You really don’t miss singing at all?”

  At all? That would be a lie. The first few years she couldn’t even listen to music, some music, without longing to go back. Eventually that feeling went away as the sorrow of losing her dream and her sister all in the same year gave way to the joys of friends and family and small town living. Besides, she’d gotten plenty of chances to tickle her tonsils at family gatherings, especially the big fun weddings of late. But, to sing in front of an audience, to an arrangement made just for her, feel the rush, the music beating in her veins, the applause. Not till five minutes ago did she remember how much she’d loved it.

  “Until today,” she shook her head, “not really.”

  His smile spread into a sly grin. “So that means you’re open to the idea.”

  “What idea?” Her heart hitched, skipping a beat. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear next.

  He inched forward to the edge of his seat, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. “Singing.”

  Singing? A funny feeling was taking root at the base of her spine and slowly crawling north. “What kind of singing?”

  Eyes sparkling as bright as his smile, Glenn straightened in his seat. “Public television is doing a salute to the jazz greats. The best musicians old and new are participating. Our band, the original band, has been invited to do a reunion performance. They want us to do ‘Somewhere’ our way. Leeni—your way.”

  ****

  Scrubbing the dirt from his hands, Sean caught sight of himself in the mirror. Not that he hadn’t seen himself in the mirror millions of times, but today he actually studied his reflection. Noticed the crow’s feet by his eyes. The slight weathering of his skin from years of working outdoors in the sun and the heat and the wind and the rain. A few gray hairs dusted his otherwise dark hair. He chuckled to himself. Eileen had noticed them first. She called them distinguished. For at least fifteen minutes he’d sat at the kitchen table over a cup of herbal tea while she gave a near dissertation on how unfair it was that gray hairs on gentleman looked distinguished and on women they just looked old. He didn’t think she had a gray hair on her head. He was pretty sure she didn’t dye her hair, but he was darn sure she wasn’t old.

  Another thing he was pretty darn sure of, he didn’t think for one minute that Glenn Baker looked at her like she was anything but the young woman he almost married. And even though Sean didn’t have the right, he didn’t like it one darn bit.

  ****

  Glenn splashed water in his face, blindly reaching for the sink side towel. He didn’t understand what was going on. For over two decades he and Sally had a good life. Two wonderful daughters. No regrets. And yet, spending the afternoon with Eileen—chatting, babysitting—for a short while at her nephew’s house today felt like his life. Comfortable, normal, what things would have been if he’d stayed the course and married Eileen. And wasn’t that an unexpected concept? He’d been unsure of how she would receive the idea of a reunion performance. Hell, who was he kidding? He’d been unsure of whether or not she’d be willing to even look at him in the face without spitting in his eye. Even before the reunion offer, he’d known he needed to see Eileen again, to apologize in person for being a total jerk. Something he’d feared
she wouldn’t let him do when she’d not responded to his recent letter. His gut reaction to the sight of her had caught him off guard. She was still a beautiful woman, any man would have reacted the way he had. But even after that, it hadn’t occurred to him that with the blink of an eye more than twenty-five years could melt away and he might want exactly what he’d wanted so long ago. Eileen Callahan.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Eileen sucked in a deep breath, turned the ignition off and gathering her purse and her wits, exited the car. Reunion performance. Ever since she’d heard those words they’d echoed in her mind like a plea for help in a vacuous cavern. Nothing else could be heard. Nearly as stunned at Glenn’s declaration as she’d been to see him standing in the doorway of O’Fearadaigh’s last night, she’d remained practically tongue-tied when Toni came home to take over care of the youngest Farraday girls.

  For the last hour another question regurgitated in her mind over and over. Did she want to do it? Did she? She didn’t have any better idea now than she’d had hours ago when Glenn posed the question. So much to consider. Her entire world would change. Standing in front of the ranch house she’d called home for so long another question popped into her head. Not did she want to sing again, but could she leave? Could she? All she knew was that Sean and Finn should be coming in from the afternoon’s work any minute now and she needed to get her head out of the past and into fixing dinner.

  The sound of movement in the kitchen caught her off guard. Dropping her purse on the entry table she followed the conversational sounds coming from the kitchen.

  “Hi.” Catherine, Connor’s wife, waved one hand at Eileen over her shoulder as she shoved a container into the second fridge. “I hoped you wouldn’t mind. We ran out of room in our fridge.”

  “Sure, but why all the extra food?”

  “The compressor on the freezer went out.”