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“I found out just how much huge, splashy and extravagant cost,” Laurie admitted ruefully. “Drew had a cow. He said if we spent that much on the wedding, we’d be ninety before we’d have enough money to buy a house.”
“A good point,” Shanna agreed. “And fancy and expensive doesn’t guarantee happiness. I’m a living testament to that.”
“So, would it be okay if I came for a quick visit, maybe weekend after next, to look over this inn, maybe talk to the owner about costs and available dates?”
“That’s my store opening,” Shanna reminded her. “I won’t have a spare second.”
“Two birds with one stone,” Laurie said happily. “And great planning on my part, if I do say so myself. I can help out at the opening. I’ll be your go-to girl for any last-minute details. You can send me out for ice or make me dust the shelves. You know how you love bossing me around. You’ll be in heaven.”
“Are you sure this is about checking out the inn?” Shanna asked. “Or are you just anxious to get a look at this new life of mine, so you can give it your seal of approval? I know you weren’t overjoyed that I made this leap without consulting you.”
“Well, you have to admit, you made the decision practically overnight. That’s not like you. You’re a lot of things, Shanna, but impulsive isn’t one of them. I’m worried about you.”
“I’d been thinking about this for an entire year,” Shanna reminded her. “It was hardly impulsive. You have nothing to worry about.”
“I suppose,” Laurie conceded. “But I will feel better if I see for myself if this suits you. So, how about it? Can I come to help you celebrate your grand opening?”
Though she’d barely have time to breathe that weekend, Shanna found it impossible to resist the offer of help or a chance to show off Chesapeake Shores to her friend. She realized she did want Laurie’s blessing. Despite an occasional flighty moment or two when it came to her wedding, Laurie was as levelheaded as anyone she’d ever known.
“Absolutely. I want you here. It wouldn’t be the same without you,” Shanna told her, even as an image of Kevin O’Brien and his promise to help out if he was around came and went. She could hardly count on him, now, could she? Of course, if he did turn up, Laurie would spot Shanna’s interest in two seconds flat and do everything in her power to encourage it. Worse, subtlety wasn’t her strong suit. Oh well, she’d just have to risk it. “Please come, Laurie.”
“I can’t wait,” Laurie enthused.
Just then the bell, left behind by the previous tenant, rang as the shop door opened. A pretty woman with what she’d come to realize were the brilliant azure eyes of the O’Briens stuck her head in. Shanna waved at her to enter.
“Laurie, I’ve got to run. Someone just dropped in. Make your plans and let me know when you’re coming, okay?”
“Will do. Love you, girl. See you soon.”
Shanna clicked off the phone, then turned to the woman who was wandering through the shop unabashedly checking things out. “Hi. Can I help you?”
“I’m Bree O’Brien from next door,” she announced, turning back to Shanna. “Bree Collins, actually.” She gave a rueful shake of her head. “I can’t get used to the fact that I’m married. I’m afraid I’m giving Jake—he’s my husband—some kind of a complex about never remembering to use his name. Anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to Main Street.” Her grin spread. “And to get a look around, so I’ll have something to report to all the people who’re asking questions. A new business is big news around here. I’m getting at least a half-dozen extra customers every day just from the curiosity factor.”
Shanna instinctively liked Bree’s candor. “Well, you can report that it will be a books and games store with a tiny café, no threat to Sally’s. Be sure she knows that. Just coffee and tea and maybe a few pastries if I can find a bakery to supply them.”
“Sounds fabulous. Just what we’ve needed in town, a place to browse for books and kick back over a cup of coffee.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “You know, you might check with my sister Jess at the inn. She has a fabulous baker on staff. Maybe you can work something out. Just remember that Sally has the croissant concession locked in. We try not to trample on each other’s business toes.”
“Absolutely. Got it,” Shanna said. “You’re welcome to keep looking around, if you can maneuver around the stacks of books. Shelves are coming in the morning, so hopefully the floor will be clear by this time tomorrow and this place will be starting to look the way I’ve envisioned it.”
Bree somehow found her way straight to the gardening and flower-arranging books. She picked them up, all but cooing her enthusiasm over each one. “Mind if I put a stack aside for myself?” she asked. “There are three here I absolutely have to have.”
“By all means. I’ll put them in back with your name on them.” She decided now might be a good time to get some of her questions about Kevin answered. “By the way, your brother Kevin was here earlier. Did he find you?”
Bree looked startled. “Kevin was here?”
Shanna nodded.
“Was he civil?” she asked worriedly.
“Of course. Why?”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that. It makes him sound, I don’t know, unpredictable or something. It’s just that he’s been going through a tough time. He pretty much keeps to himself these days.”
“Why?” Shanna asked, then could have kicked herself. “Sorry. I’m being nosy.”
“It’s okay. Most people around here know, and they’re pretty understanding about his need for privacy and his moods. His wife died a while back, and I guess you could say that he’s lost his way.”
“That explains it,” Shanna said. “I inadvertently mentioned his wife, and he shut down. I had a feeling something awful had happened.”
“She died in Iraq. One of those improvised explosive incidents. It just about killed him. If it weren’t for his little boy …” Bree shrugged. “I’m not sure what would have happened, if he didn’t have Davy in his life. He’s only two, so he still needs a lot of attention. At least Kevin knows he can’t go completely underground and brood.”
With her guesswork confirmed, Shanna felt another burst of sympathy. Here were two people who needed mothering, one of them practically a baby, the other a grown man who’d been through his own personal hell. The situation was right up her alley. Once again, she warned herself to steer clear.
But when she thought of Kevin’s sad eyes and what a difference it had made the few times he’d smiled, she knew in her gut she wasn’t going to be able to resist, not if he gave her half a chance. He might be lost and needy, but she had a void inside that she’d been trying to fill for years. It had made her love well, but not wisely. Not wisely at all.
Kevin sat in an Adirondack chair in the yard, his bare feet propped on a stool, a beer in his hand as he watched Davy play with his trucks. Thank heaven he was the kind of kid who, even at two, could entertain himself, at least for short stretches of time. They were waiting for dusk and the arrival of the fireflies, which Davy found endlessly fascinating. Then they’d go inside, Davy would get a quick bath and a story before bed, and finally, Kevin would have the rest of the night to himself.
As Charles Dickens had once said about something else entirely in the opening to A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Those few hours before sleep claimed him were too often filled with memories, good ones, yes, but painful because of it.
“Hey, Davy, look what I caught,” Bree called out from somewhere behind him.
Davy looked up from his trucks, squealed with glee and took off toward his aunt, who had two fireflies trapped in a jar with holes punched in the lid. If Kevin wasn’t mistaken, that was probably the very same Mason jar they’d used as kids to gather lightning bugs on evenings just like this one—humid and thick with the promise of a storm in the air. Whitecaps were already stirring on the bay and the leaves on some of the huge old trees were turned inside out in the stiffening breeze.
With Davy’s hand tucked in hers, Bree came over to join him, plopping down on the grass and setting the jar where Davy could watch it, his brow furrowed now in concentration.
“I can see lightning in the distance,” she commented, her gaze directed toward the bay. “Heat lightning, most likely.”
“Maybe,” Kevin said.
“Then, again, it could storm in an hour or two,” she said, clearly making small talk. “I hope so. We could use a good rain.”
Kevin didn’t respond, just waited, wary. Bree rarely dropped by for no good reason now that she was married. She had better things to do with her evenings than to sit with him and chat about the weather. Usually if he kept quiet, she’d eventually get to the point.
Tonight, however, the tactic didn’t seem to be working. Bree just sat there, gazing out at the water, seemingly content. He knew better. Like him, she was biding her time.
“Why aren’t you home with Jake?” he asked eventually, hoping to forestall whatever had brought her over here by guiding her toward what was usually her favorite topic, her new husband.
“Mrs. Finch had a lilac emergency,” she said with a smile.
Mrs. Finch’s obsession with her lilacs was legendary. She nearly drove Jake crazy with her insistence on overseeing the annual mulching and trimming he did for her, but she was one of his landscaping business’s best customers, so when she called, he went. Kevin grinned. “Better him than me.”
Bree laughed. “That’s right. I’d forgotten you used to do lawn work for her when you were a kid.”
“I only helped Jake, so he’d finish sooner and we could go out chasing girls,” he corrected.
“You and my husband chased girls together?” she asked with a narrowed gaze. “I don’t remember that.”
“Oops!” Kevin replied, trying to inject a note of contrition into his voice. He couldn’t quite manage it. If he’d just thrown Jake to the wolves, so be it. Maybe it would get Bree’s focus off him.
Apparently, though, she was more than capable of multitasking, because she turned her attention right back to him.
“I met Shanna today,” she said, all innocence. “She said you’d been looking for me.”
“I was.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I mentioned I might go into town and Gram immediately claimed she wanted a few flowers to fill in an arrangement.” Gram’s request had been a blatant lie, and they’d both known it.
“But you never picked up any flowers,” Bree said, looking confused.
“Because her garden’s in full bloom,” he said. “I know a manipulation when it slaps me in the face. She just wanted to be sure I kept my word and got out of the house. It’s her latest mission in life.”
Bree grinned. “She’s not half as sneaky as she likes to think she is.”
“Never was,” he said, waiting for another shoe to drop.
“I hear you hung out for a while at the bookstore,” she finally said, her tone oh-so-casual.
He shrugged. “I was waiting for you. Shanna was having trouble with her cappuccino machine, so I offered to set it up for her. It was like the one I used to have at home. No big deal, certainly nothing to bring you running over here with all these questions.”
Her brow lifted. “She didn’t mention that you’d helped her out.”
“Like I said, it wasn’t a big deal. Is there some point you’re trying to get to?”
“Not really,” she said, sitting back in companionable silence just long enough to lull him into a false sense of complacency before asking, “What did you think of her?”
“Who? Shanna?”
She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that who we’ve been talking about?”
He regarded her evenly. “A second ago we were talking about Gram.”
“Oh, please. I know what you think about our grandmother. Yes, Shanna, dolt. She’s attractive.”
“I didn’t notice.” It was a lie. He’d noticed that her cheeks flushed easily, that her hair had a tendency to curl haphazardly, that she barely came up to his chin. But he’d also seen something else: trouble. She was vulnerable and needy, and not because she couldn’t get her cappuccino machine working, either. It was something else, something he’d read in the depths of her eyes. He couldn’t cope with needy. He could barely cope with his own life these days.
“Well, she is attractive,” Bree said. “Single, too. At least she wasn’t wearing any kind of a ring, and she never mentioned anything about a husband.”
“Do most people you know spill their entire life story the second you meet them?”
“Of course not. I’m just passing along what I observed.”
Kevin scowled at his sister. “I hope you’re not planning to indulge in some unsolicited matchmaking,” he said in a tone he hoped would quell any ideas she had along that line.
“No one in this family approves of meddling,” she said piously.
“That doesn’t seem to stop ‘em from engaging in it,” he retorted sourly. “Before you go getting any ideas, keep in mind that I’m so far from wanting a woman in my life, I might as well be living in a monastery.”
“Which is a waste, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask, did I?”
“Come on, Kevin,” she coaxed. “Live a little. You don’t have to marry the woman. You don’t even have to date her. Just have coffee with her, help her out getting the store organized, something that will bring a little human contact back into your life.”
“With you, Jess, Abby, Gram and Dad on my case, I have about as much human contact these days as I can handle,” he grumbled.
“We don’t count. You need to interact with the outside world.”
“Leave it alone, Bree. Leave me alone.”
He stood up, then reached down to scoop Davy off his feet. “Bath time, kiddo.”
“No! More flies,” Davy protested, clinging tightly to his jar with both hands.
“Two’s enough,” Kevin told him. “That’s quite a catch. Thank your Aunt Bree and tell her good night.”
Davy dutifully smiled at his aunt. “Bye, Bwee.”
“Good night, lovebug.” She grinned at Kevin. “Night, pain.”
He laughed. “Ditto.”
She fell into step beside him as he crossed the lawn. “Shanna says her shelves are being delivered first thing in the morning,” she said casually.
“So?”
She stood tall and gave him a peck on his cheek. “Just thought you might want to know.”
He let that pass. And tomorrow, if he had a grain of sense in his head, he’d find some excuse to be anywhere other than Main Street. Not only did he not want to get sucked into Shanna’s life, but he also didn’t want to give his sister even an iota of encouragement for this undisguised matchmaking scheme of hers.
Mick was sick of seeing his son hanging around the house. For months now he’d cut Kevin some slack. He’d figured it took time to recover from losing his wife. Maybe just as much to recover from being in a war zone, despite Kevin’s claim that he’d put all that behind him when he’d been discharged. Kevin had had enough nightmares under this very roof to make a liar out of himself, though Mick was sure Kevin thought no one knew about those.
Mick had listened to everyone else’s opinion that Kevin needed time, but to his way of thinking, time was up. A thirty-year-old man needed a focus in his life, a reason to get up in the morning, something beyond a demanding two-year-old. Mick intended to see that Kevin got busy finding that new direction for himself.
He found Kevin on the beach, staring out to sea while Davy built a lopsided sand castle beside him. The structure of it offended Mick’s architectural eye, but he shook off the desire to sit down and teach his grandson how to build something that would withstand the first lap of a wave. This walk down to the beach wasn’t about giving his grandson an engineering lesson he wasn’t ready for.
“Grampa,” Davy said, looking up at him with glee. “Play with me, okay?”
“Maybe later, sport,” Mick told him. He turned to Kevin. “You have plans for the day?”
Kevin shook his head.
“Good. Then you can come with me.”
“Where?” Kevin asked suspiciously.
“I’m managing one of the Habitat for Humanity sites. I could use some help.”
