An O'brien Family Christmas

Here was the opening he’d been waiting for. “Do you honestly want to know what I think?”

“Of course.”

“I think you panicked and ran because we’d moved way past your comfort zone. As long as you thought it was just about sex, you were fine, but then you threw away your job at the bank. That terrified you, because you’d never expected anything or anyone to matter more to you than that job. I obviously did, and it scared you.”

She blinked at his assessment, but she didn’t even try to deny it. “Have you been talking to Will? You sound way too much like a shrink.”

“Hey, I’ve been known to have an insight or two all on my own,” he protested. “But, yes, Will did share a few observations. So have Jess, Susie, Uncle Mick and just about everyone else in the family. We’ve been the talk of the entire O’Brien clan for a while now. Frankly, it’s getting a little tiresome. I wish my brother would go back to dating my brother-in-law’s ex-lover so they would focus on somebody else for a change.”

Momentarily distracted, Laila regarded him with shock. “You don’t really think Luke and Kristen belong together, do you? That’s just crazy.”

“Good grief, no. That’s what makes it so perfect. The family would be freaking out about it, and we’d be off the hot seat. We could figure things out without all that well-meaning interference.”

An oddly hopeful expression crossed her face. “Maybe then I could go to Ireland and wouldn’t feel as if we were under a microscope every second,” she said, then winced. “Sorry. Forget I said that. I can’t possibly go to Ireland. It would send entirely the wrong message.”

Despite her quick retraction, Matthew’s heart took an unexpected lurch at the mention of the family trip. He had no idea what had really brought her over here tonight, but he couldn’t blow this tiny opening with some careless remark.

“Why not? You’re as much a part of this family as anyone. Everyone would love for you to be there. Frankly, I’ve been taking a lot of heat because you decided against going. You’d be doing me a favor, not that you owe me anything,” he added quickly.

“Hardly,” she said, regarding him with amusement.

“I’m just saying you should go.” He hesitated, then admitted, “I already have your ticket, as a matter of fact.”

Her mouth gaped. “You bought a ticket for me?”

“Months ago,” he confirmed. “No refund, so it’ll just go to waste if you don’t change your mind. I know how much you hate throwing money away. It’s practically your obligation to go.”

“I could just pay you for the ticket, then use it some other time,” she countered, though there was an undeniable spark of excitement in her eyes.

“And pay all those charges for changing it? Not very frugal,” he chided.

“What about a hotel room? Did you think about that? I’m sure everything’s booked by now.”

“I booked a room for us, but I can bunk in with Luke, if you’d prefer that. It’s not a problem.”

“Really? You’d do that?”

“I told you I’m not just after your body. I’m willing to make a few sacrifices to prove that to you.”

She actually looked a little disappointed by that news. “You do still want me, though, right?”

Matthew couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You are a very contradictory woman.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“I could prove how much I still want you in half a second, Laila, but I’m not going to,” he said, his tone a whole lot more noble than the desire thrumming through him. “If we start over, and I’m sensing that might be a possibility here, then we’re going about it the right way this time. No more extremely hot, middle-of-the-night trysts.”

“You mean no sex?” She seemed a little shaken by that.

“No sex,” he confirmed, barely able to choke out the words.

“What’ll we do?” she asked, sounding bewildered.

“Now, that’s just downright insulting,” he said indignantly. “We’ve been known to have intellectually challenging conversations.”

“Sure, in bed,” she replied, then grinned. “But maybe we could compromise.”

He was fascinated by the suggestion. “Compromise how?” “We could talk first.”

Though Matthew laughed at her notion of compromise, he refused to back down. “Nope, I think we’ll do this my way. You’ll come to Ireland. I’ll share my brother’s room. And I’ll court you like the fascinating lady you are in full view of my family.”

“I’m not all that enamored with being a lady,” she complained. “That’s why being with you was such a refreshing change. You saw me in a completely different light, as an unpredictable woman who was impossible to resist. I liked that.”

“Oh, if you must know, you’re still plenty tough to resist, but I’m going to pull it off.” He looked her over with just enough heat in his gaze to make his point. “Those are the terms. Are you in or out?”

“Your grandmother says there’s no place quite like Ireland at Christmas,” she said wistfully.

“Is that a yes?”

She took a deep breath, met his gaze, held it for what felt like an eternity, then finally nodded. “Yes, I’ll go with you.”

Matthew resisted the desire to get up and do a little jig. There’d be plenty of opportunities for that once they got to Dublin.

Laila gave him a wry look. “You do know we just got manipulated by a master, don’t you?”

He regarded her blankly. “Who? How?”

“Your grandmother, of course. I didn’t see it at the time, but every word she said to me at Sally’s tonight was calculated to get me to race over here and confront you.” She shook her head. “I thought I was smarter than that.”

Matthew gave her a consoling look. “Don’t feel bad. We’ve all been taken in by Gram a time or two.”

This time, though, he was going to owe his grandmother big-time for accomplishing what no one else had been able to. She’d broken the impasse between him and Laila. Now it was up to him to make sure the détente turned into something that would last.

3

Laila arrived in Dublin with the first wave of O’Briens. The rest—Thomas and Connie, Jake and Bree, Connor and Heather, Kevin and Shanna—weren’t arriving for a few more days. There were so many of them that Mick had chartered a bus to take them to the hotel after the overnight flight.

Somehow Laila had ended up seated next to Matthew, who turned out to be a surprisingly adept tour guide. He pointed out all the sights and offered one amusing anecdote after another as they rode toward St. Stephen’s Green and their hotel in the heart of downtown Dublin.

When she managed to tear her gaze away from the ornate, colorful doorways decorated with lush holly wreaths and the window boxes overflowing with ivy, evergreens and bright flowers, she turned to find him regarding her with amusement.

“What?” she demanded.

“You’re as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.”

“You’ve been here before. I haven’t. It’s everything I imagined it would be.”

He smiled at that. “Glad you came?”

She ignored the last of her reservations about being here in such close proximity to him. “Very glad,” she said, unable to tear her gaze away from his.

He attempted a frown. “Now, don’t be looking at me like that, with your eyes all sparkly and dreamy.”

She nearly laughed at his suddenly solemn expression. “Why is that?”

“You’ll be giving me ideas, and I’ve made a promise to you to keep my hands to myself. It’s nearly impossible when you look at me like that. I’m a mere mortal, and no mortal man can be ignoring the invitation I’m seeing in your eyes.”

For a moment Laila had forgotten all about the promise, all about her own resolve to make this trip about Nell’s happiness and Susie’s, about sightseeing and enjoying a new holiday experience, and not about Matthew and her thoroughly confusing feelings about him. Now all of that ripped through her, leaving her with a whole passel of conflicting emotions.

“Good point,” she replied, trying to match his solemn tone. “I’ll have to watch myself.” She quickly looked out the window again. “Now, where are we exactly?”

Matthew leaned closer to peer out the window, deliberately crowding her, if she wasn’t mistaken. He grinned when she scowled at him.

“Lost my head,” he claimed, moving back before pointing out various highlights of the shopping along Grafton Street.

At the hotel, rooms were quickly assigned, luggage deposited. Left alone, Laila gazed with regret at the huge comfortable bed and its fluffy down comforter. It was going to be very lonely, especially knowing that she could have been sharing it with Matthew.

When there was a tap on the door, she threw it open, relieved to have her train of thought interrupted. Unfortunately, though, it was Matthew himself in the hallway.

“I thought you might be too excited to be taking a nap,” he said. “How about breakfast and then a walk through the neighborhood? Who knows when the sun will be shining brightly like this again? We should take advantage of it, and that should tire you out so you can catch a couple of hours of sleep before the family festivities get into full swing late this afternoon. Uncle Mick’s taken over an entire pub for tonight, I think. He believes we should start as we intend to finish—with Irish music, a hearty meal and a few pints of Guinness.”

Laila hesitated, then shrugged. She knew sleep was out of the question, and Matthew’s company on a busy street was no more dangerous than lying alone in that decadent bed thinking about him and wishing he were there with her.

“Give me two minutes to freshen up,” she said, hurrying to wash her face, run a brush through her hair and spritz herself with a light fragrance she knew Matthew liked.

When she walked back into the bedroom, she looked down at her clothes and frowned. “This outfit looks as if it’s been slept in, which it has. I should change.”

“You look fine,” he assured her. “If you look too perfect, I’ll be fighting off men on every corner.”

She laughed. “Now, there’s the O’Brien blarney in full force. Come on. I’m starving.”

To her surprise, they were the only members of the family in the hotel dining room.

“I thought for sure some of the others would be down here,” she said, glancing around.

“You worried about being alone with me, sweetheart?”

“Hardly,” she fibbed. “I just assumed everybody else would be too excited to settle down right away, too, especially Carrie and Caitlyn. They were bouncing up and down with energy on the bus to the hotel.”

“Oh, believe me, those two were so hyped up after the flight that Trace and Abby immediately headed to the park across the street so they could run wild.” He studied her. “Would you feel better if we joined them?”

Laila considered the offer for a split second. “No way,” she replied. “The food’s here.”

She ordered a pot of tea, a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal with fresh berries, along with scrambled eggs and toast. She studied the menu warily. “Do I want to try some of these more traditional things?”

Matthew chuckled. “Probably not on the first day,” he advised, then ordered the same things she had.

After they’d ordered and the waiter had brought their tea, she sat back and looked around the hotel dining room. It could have been any hotel anywhere in the world, but it was Dublin! And, risky though it was, she was here with Matthew!

“I can’t believe I’m really here,” she said happily.

“Are you glad you changed your mind about coming?”

“Yes. I would have hated to miss this.”

He leaned forward as if he had something more to say, only to see Luke appear, pull out a chair and join them. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked, though he was already seated.

Matthew frowned at his younger brother. “I thought you were going to rest or go for a run or something.”

“I ran. I showered. And now I’m ready for a full Irish breakfast,” he said, looking around for their waiter.

“Did it even occur to you that you might be interrupting?” Matthew asked testily.

Luke gave him an innocent look. “Interrupting what? The way you explained it to me, you two are adhering to a hands-off policy while in Ireland, which is why you’re in my room instead of Laila’s.”

Laila nearly choked on a sip of tea. She frowned at Matthew. “You told him that?”

“Well, I had to explain why I needed to bunk with him, didn’t I?”

“He did,” Luke concurred. “Because I was hoping to get lucky on this trip and now my plans for a thoroughly raucous holiday are seriously thwarted.”

Laila studied Luke’s expression and thought she detected a hint of sadness behind the cavalier attitude. “You aren’t seriously missing Kristen Lewis, are you? I thought that was over, or that it was some kind of ploy to keep her away from Mack, whatever.”

“Kristen and I had fun, no question about it,” Luke said. “But that’s all it was.”

Laila heard the false note in his voice and shook her head. “Not buying it. It might have started out that way, but something changed. You fell for her, didn’t you?”

Matthew regarded her with surprise. “You can’t be serious. Luke and Kristen? It was a fling.” He turned to Luke. “Right, bro?”

“Sort of like you and Laila,” Luke retorted, then glanced apologetically toward Laila. “No offense.”

“None taken,” she said. “Why didn’t you ask Kristen to come along on this trip if you’re really hung up on her?”

“And have Susie string me up by the you-know-what?” Luke said with a shudder. “No, thank you. She’s not entirely over the fact that Kristen was once Mack’s lover, even though it was years and years ago. I don’t think she’s anywhere near ready to welcome her into the family fold.”

Laila was impressed that he was sensitive to that. “How about you? Does it bother you that Kristen and Mack had a thing?”

Luke shrugged. “Everybody has a past, and I know Mack and Susie have something really special going. It’s not an issue.”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “Delusional,” he muttered under his breath.

Luke’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”

“Mack’s feelings aren’t really the problem, are they? You should be worrying about the fact that Kristen still has feelings for him. Isn’t that the reason you set yourself up to provide a distraction in the first place, to keep her away from Mack?”

For a moment Luke looked taken aback. “Okay, sure,” he said eventually. “But everybody’s moving on now.” His voice didn’t hold much certainty.

Matthew just shook his head.

Laila gave Luke’s hand a squeeze. “Be careful, okay? Sometimes it’s very difficult to get over an old flame, even when you know it’s the only thing to do.”

“Which explains why you and my brother are sitting here having a cozy breakfast together, instead of sitting all alone in your separate rooms?” Luke taunted.

“Watch it,” Matthew warned.

Laila, however, laughed. “Out of the mouths of babes,” she murmured. “Yes, Luke, walking away from Matthew has been much harder than I expected.” She gave Matthew a defiant look. “But I will pull it off eventually.”

There was no mistaking the sudden twinkle in Matthew’s eyes. “I look forward to seeing you try,” he said mildly.

“You might not want to turn this into a challenge,” she warned him. “I can match you stubborn streak for stubborn streak.”

Matthew winced. “Good point.”

Fortunately their breakfast arrived just then, which gave them both time to retreat from positions that might have proved indefensible. While Matthew sulked and she fretted, Luke dug into his food as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Laila scowled at him.

“He is annoying,” she commented, as if Matthew had just recently mentioned it.

Matthew glanced at his brother. “Very annoying.”

Luke merely chuckled. “See, though, I’ve brought the two of you into agreement over one thing. It’s a fine start for the first day of the trip.”

Nell stood across from Trinity College in downtown Dublin and stared at the window of the tobacco shop that had once belonged to her grandfather. She knew that once she walked through that door, it would be like going back in time. That was one reason she’d never chanced it on previous trips. Some things were better left in the past. Charles would never have understood about those long-ago summers before they’d married.

She’d spent so many afternoons in the shop during the summers her parents had sent her here to stay with her grandparents. Surrounded by the rich scents, she’d sip tea and pretend to read books as she listened to her grandfather talk to his regular customers. They said women were gossips, but she learned more about what was going on in the city right there in that room than she ever had by reading a newspaper or a history book.

Of course, her fear of crossing the shop’s threshold was about more than that.

“Gram, don’t you want to go inside?” Susie asked, slipping an arm around her waist.

“I’m not sure I want to know if there have been too many changes,” she admitted. “Dillon O’Malley, who bought it from my grandfather, is surely retired by now. I don’t know how it will feel to find a complete stranger behind the counter.” Nor did she know how she would feel if she happened to be wrong about that and, instead, came face-to-face with Dillon for the first time in all these years.

“I could at least go in and ask who owns it now,” Susie offered. “Then you could decide.”

Nell seized on the suggestion. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not,” Susie said, giving her grandmother’s hand a reassuring squeeze before heading inside.

Nell all but held her breath as she waited for Susie’s return. “Well?” she asked, searching her granddaughter’s face for answers when she came back.

“The man I spoke to says he’s Dillon O’Malley.”

Just as Susie spoke, the man himself appeared in the doorway, his eyes filled with curiosity. Tall, with only the barest stoop to his broad shoulders and just a hint of silver in his black hair, it was unmistakably Dillon. When his gaze settled on Nell, he seemed to go perfectly still.

“Nell?” That one word was part confusion and disbelief, part hope.

Nell reached out to Susie to steady herself as she looked into the clear blue eyes of the man she’d once been so certain she was meant to marry.

“Hello, Dillon,” she said softly.

He shook his head. “After all these years I’d have known you anywhere,” he said. “You’re as beautiful as ever with your red hair and those grand eyes.”

She laughed. “And you’re as full of blarney. My hair hasn’t been red in years. I can barely find a few strands amid the gray to remind me of the shade it once was.”

“In my eyes, you’re the lass you were the last time I saw you,” he insisted.

For just an instant, Nell allowed herself to feel like that girl again, young and carefree and wildly in love for the first time in her life. She’d been Nell Flanagan then.

“Come in, Nell,” Dillon pleaded. “Talk to me. Tell me about your life.” He glanced again at Susie. “This has to be your granddaughter.”

“She is. Just one of them. This is Susie O’Brien Franklin.”

Dillon clasped Susie’s hand, though his gaze remained locked on Nell. “And she brought you to Ireland for the holidays? What a lovely thing to do.”

“Actually this is her honeymoon trip,” Nell said wryly. “Can you imagine? She insisted that the whole family accompany her.”

Dillon laughed. “Then she is, indeed, truly a Flanagan with a huge heart. I look forward to getting to know you, Susie.”

“So, you and my grandmother go way back?” Susie asked, her face alight with curiosity. “Way back,” Dillon confirmed.

“Did she always have a wild and reckless streak?” Susie asked.

He laughed. “You have no idea.”

“Stop it, you two,” Nell ordered. “I’ve never been wild or reckless.”

“You went back to America and broke my heart, did you not?” Dillon asked.

Nell frowned at him. “I’m quite sure there were plenty of women around to mend it. Christina Ahearn comes to mind. Didn’t you marry her not long after I’d gone home that last time?”

“Only after I was convinced you were never coming back,” he insisted. “Now, come inside. I’ll brew some tea. I have the Earl Grey you love so much.”

Nell stared at him in amazement. “You remember that?”

He held her gaze. “I remember everything,” he said solemnly.

Susie regarded them hesitantly. “Should I leave you two to catch up?” she asked.

Nell hesitated, torn. She wanted to know everything about Dillon’s life, wanted to fill in all the blanks that her grandparents had been so careful to leave unanswered once she’d gone.

Yet so many years had passed. What was the point at this late date?

Still, when she looked into Dillon’s hopeful eyes, she couldn’t say no. “I’d love tea,” she said at last, then squeezed Susie’s hand. “I’ll be fine here for an hour. Why don’t you come back then?”

“Or I could see that she gets back to her hotel,” Dillon offered.

“I’ll come back,” Susie said, apparently sensing that Nell needed backup. She smiled at them. “Enjoy your visit.”

Dillon escorted Nell inside, waited as she looked around.

“You’ve kept it mostly the same,” Nell commented.

“How could I change a thing, when everywhere I looked I saw you?”

She shook her head. “You shouldn’t say things like that.” “Why not, if they’re true?”

“You’re married to someone else,” she reminded him. “Christina died ten years ago,” he said, then held her gaze. “And your husband?”

“Gone, too,” she said softly.

“Then there’s no reason for us to feel guilty for indulging in a bit of nostalgia, is there?” he suggested. “Come in the back and I’ll make that tea. There’s a lot of ground to cover and you’ve only given us an hour to do it.” He studied her. “Or will you be in Ireland for a while?”

“Two weeks,” she admitted.

His expression brightened. “Then there’s time for a nice, long visit. This will just be the first of many, I hope.” Nell couldn’t argue. She hoped so, too. After all these years, her heart had taken a little leap at the sight of this dear old friend. It was too late to go back in time. She wouldn’t want that, anyway. But to have a few days to recapture those old emotions, to experience just for a moment that surge of optimism that came with spending time with a man who appreciated her, well, she wasn’t going to deny herself that.

Mick frowned as Susie sat in the lounge with him, Megan and Jeff describing the meeting between his mother and Dillon O’Malley.

“You think there’s some kind of history there?” Mick demanded irritably.

“It looked that way to me,” Susie said. “Neither one of them explained anything more than that they’d known each other years ago, but there were definite sparks in the air. Who knew that Gram had a secret past?”

“It’s not something to brag about, if she does,” Mick said testily.

“How do you know a thing like that?” Jeff asked reasonably.

“Has she ever mentioned Dillon O’Malley?” Mick responded, then answered his own question. “No, she hasn’t. And do you know why? Because she’s ashamed of it, I’ll guarantee you that. I need to take care of this.”

“Let it go, Mick,” Megan commanded. “You’re not rushing over there to intrude on their reunion or to rescue your mother.”

“Well, who knows what sort of man this Dillon O’Malley is? For all we know he’s gotten wind of the fact that the O’Briens are well-to-do and he plans to take advantage of Ma.”

His brother frowned at him. “And how would he know a thing like that?” Jeff asked. “Would he have stored away this knowledge just in case the entire family decided to pay a visit to Dublin one day? You’re acting crazy, Mick. Didn’t Susie just say that Ma didn’t even know if he was still running the store our great-grandparents once owned? Obviously they haven’t kept in touch.”