Flowers on Main (29 page)

“We’re managing,” Jake said.

Kevin gave him a hard look. “Something tells me that’s not as easy as you’re trying to make it sound.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. Sometimes it’s hell,” Jake confirmed. “But enough about me.” He gestured toward the other two men and said loudly enough to include them, “I think we need to get down to the beach and break up that gabfest. What do you say?”

“I say yes,” Kevin agreed eagerly.

“Because he can’t seem to go more than ten minutes without catching a glimpse of his bride,” Connor said as he joined them.

Kevin didn’t even try to deny it. “Just wait, bro. One of these days the right woman will come along, and you’ll take your head out of your law books long enough to go down for
the count, as well. Jake knows what I’m talking about, right, Jake? You too, Trace?”

Trace sighed heavily and nodded. “I certainly do.”

“Me, too,” Jake agreed. In fact, the woman who was in his blood was, at this very moment, down on the beach with Kevin’s new wife. And he couldn’t seem to help the little stirring of anticipation knowing that set off inside him.

Mick hadn’t felt this kind of contentment in years. It was a gorgeous fall day, the sea breeze was crisp, the sun warm. Best of all, he was surrounded by his entire family. He turned to Megan.

“Can you think of anything in the world that can beat this?” he asked, his gaze on the impromptu tag-football game going on in the yard. Even Carrie and Caitlyn were racing around with the grown-ups. In fact, with a little assist from her uncle Kevin, who picked her up and carried her and the football, Carrie had just scored a touchdown.

“Not one thing,” Megan said, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

“Hey, Meggie, are you crying?” Mick asked.

She nodded. “I think I’m about to,” she said, her voice choked. “I never thought I’d live to have another day like this.” She turned to him. “Thank you, Mick.”

“What did I do?”

“You insisted I fly down here. To think I could have missed all this. What if I’d dug in my heels and missed the chance to see Kevin and meet his bride?”

“That would never have happened,” Mick said. “If my powers of persuasion had failed me, I would have told you the truth about the surprise. You wouldn’t have stayed away once you found out Kevin was coming home.”

“I just wish I’d been there for the wedding,” she said wistfully. “I wish he’d wanted me there.”

Mick reached for her hand, gave it a quick squeeze. “I know, but I was afraid to spring the idea on him. The two of you haven’t spoken in a long time.”

She sighed. “My fault, I know.”

“He was disillusioned by what happened, Meggie. He was at an age when all the talk about you being seen with some other man took a toll. Then you took off.”

“And he took your side,” she said. “I can’t blame him for that. Maybe if I’d handled things differently, if I’d tried a little harder to insist on a relationship, if I’d just continued to act like a mother…”

Mick could hear the real pain in her voice and wished he could do something to ease it. The truth was, they both bore a share of the blame for the way things had turned out. Megan might need to make her own amends with each of their children, but he could do his part by easing the way. He’d been an absentee dad way too often, but he’d still had more time than she’d had to forge a bond between himself and his kids in the wake of the hurtful divorce. After each of Megan’s visits, his mother had reported just how badly things had gone. Mad as he was back then, he’d almost felt sorry for her.

“It’s obvious to me Kevin’s forgiven you,” Mick told her. “Did you see the look on his face when he saw you yesterday?”

“He was surprised, that’s all,” she said. “Have you noticed how he’s kept his distance today?”

“It’s going to take time, Meggie. Making up for the past doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye.”

She gave him a wry look. “I’m glad you’re aware of that.”

“I know we both have a lot to forgive and forget,” he admitted. “I think we’re making progress, though, don’t you?”

She hesitated, then twined her fingers through his. “I hope so, Mick.”

“Hey, Pop, you’re missing out on all the fun,” Connor called out. “You too old to play this game?”

Megan grinned. “Uh-oh, that’s a challenge if I ever heard one.”

Mick stood up. “And I can’t let a young buck get away with making me feel outdated and useless.”

“Try not to break anything,” she said as he deliberately limped down the steps in an attempt to garner sympathy.

Mick made a big show out of trying to limber up as he joined the others on the lawn. “Come here, Caitlyn. What’s say you and me team up?”

She beamed at him. One of her pigtails had come loose. A pink bow was dangling from the other one and her cheeks were flushed. She held out her arms and Mick picked her up. He whispered in her ear. She giggled.

“Okay, Grandpa Mick. Let’s do it,” she said eagerly.

He gave her a high five, then set her back on her feet. When the football was passed, he latched on to it, then handed it off to his granddaughter.

“You go, girl,” he said.

Caitlyn scrambled away, then looked back with a puzzled expression. “Which way?”

Before he could reply, her sister caught up with her and tagged her. Then Carrie was bouncing up and down. “We win! We win!”

Mick gave her an exaggerated scowl. “What do you mean, you win? That was my first play?”

“And you losed, Grandpa Mick.”

He stared around at the rest of them. “Did you just set me up, your own father?” he asked indignantly.

Connor slapped him on the back. “That we did. Now, let’s go have a beer. That’ll take the edge off the loss.”

“I assume you all remember who’s going to be cooking the steaks in a little while,” he taunted. “Do you really want to offend the cook?”

“Actually, I’m in charge of the barbecue,” Connor informed him. “The last time we let you near it, you burned all the hamburgers. It was a terrible thing to see.”

“A fine way to talk to a man in his own home,” he grumbled, and went back to his rocker on the porch. “Did you see the way those ungrateful wretches treated me just now?” he asked Megan.

“As if they adore you,” she said, the wistful note back in her voice. “They still walk on eggshells with me, all but Abby, anyway. I’d give anything to have the rest of them tease me like that.”

“Give it time,” he told her, then caught a glimpse of Bree hanging apart from the others. He nudged Megan. “Do you see that?”

“What?”

“Bree’s off by herself.”

“What I see is that she can’t seem to keep her eyes off Jake,” Megan replied.

Mick frowned. “What’s he doing here, anyway?”

“Abby says he came by to congratulate Kevin, so of course Kevin invited him to stay.”

“Well, if him being here is making Bree miserable, I’ll tell him to go,” Mick said, starting from his chair.

“No,” Megan said at once. “They’re adults. They’ll figure this out on their own.”

“But this is Bree’s home. Why should she be made to feel uncomfortable in it?”

“Because it’s Kevin’s home, too, and he wants Jake here.”

Even as she spoke, Mick watched Jake cross the lawn to Bree’s side. He dropped down into a chair beside her. The wary expression on her face eventually faded and her lips curved into a smile. After a lengthy conversation, Jake reached for her hand and drew her over to join the others.

“See what I mean?” Megan said, sounding satisfied. “I told you they’d work it out.”

“I have to give him credit for recognizing there was a problem,” Mick said grudgingly.

Megan laughed. “Something tells me where Bree’s concerned, there’s not much that Jake misses.”

“Well, if they’re both so smitten, why don’t they get on with it?” Mick asked impatiently. “They’re old enough, and we could use some more grandbabies around here.”

Megan sighed at the question. “I wish I knew, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to suggest to either one of them that you’d like them to get together just so you can have some more grandchildren.”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” he conceded. He gave her a hopeful look. “What about dropping a few hints?”

She gave him a chiding look. “Forget about it. You have the subtlety of a bulldozer.”

“Then you do it,” he suggested.

“Neither one of us is going to meddle,” she said firmly. “I don’t have the right, and you don’t have the tact.”

“Humph!”

“I mean it, Mick. Stay out of it.”

Mick knew she was right, but it rankled to think of his daughter being miserable when her happiness seemed to be within easy reach.

B
ree hadn’t expected Jake to turn up to welcome Kevin home and to congratulate him on his marriage, but she hadn’t been surprised that once he’d stopped by, Kevin had insisted that he stay. Watching the way Jake fit in with her family brought back way too many memories, though. This was what they could have had if things had gone differently. Jake would have been a part of the O’Brien family. Their baby, had he or she lived, would have been the first grandchild, born even earlier than Abby’s twins. All of the nostalgia and regret Bree had felt the day before came back in spades, along with the wistfulness for a future that seemed just out of reach.

For most of the day she’d kept a careful distance, knowing that no one in the family would make too much of her behaving almost as an outsider. They were used to her observing rather than participating. She hadn’t counted, though, on Jake feeling guilt ridden because of it.

When he crossed the lawn in her direction, she resisted the desire to take off for the beach. He’d only follow her, anyway.

“What are you doing over here all by yourself?” he asked, lowering himself into the Adirondack chair next to hers. Both
chairs had been turned from their usual position facing the bay. Sitting in them now, she and Jake could watch the rest of the family.

“Enjoying the moment,” she claimed. “Who knows when we’ll get another chance to be together like this.”

He frowned at her. “You worrying about Kevin?”

“Of course I am. He’s doing a dangerous job in a dangerous place.”

“He’s trained for it,” Jake reminded her. “And now that he has a wife to worry about, he’s going to be even more careful.”

“I know, but that’s not enough to stop me from worrying.”

“Then shouldn’t you be over there spending time with him, instead of here? Are you steering clear because of me?”

“No,” she said at once, then met his gaze and sighed. “Yes.”

“I’ll leave if you want me to,” he offered.

“That’s the problem,” she said. “I know you would, but I don’t want you to go. I like having you here a little too much, especially given the way things are between us. I keep thinking about how it might have been, if only my decisions had been different.”

“You did what you thought you had to do,” he conceded grudgingly. “I was hurt, no doubt about it, but I might have gotten past you leaving for Chicago if you’d just wanted me to be a part of your new adventure. Instead, when I came up there, I felt like an intruder.” He gave a careless shrug. “And then there was Marty.”

Bree was riddled with guilt about Jake finding her with another man. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to find out that way. Until I saw the expression on your face, I’m not sure I’d even realized how infatuated I was with Marty.” She glanced at Jake. “Nothing had happened between us, you know. Not then.”

He looked skeptical. “Not how it looked,” he said tersely.

“Are we ever going to be able to get past that?” she asked, not even trying to keep the longing from her voice.

He fell silent, his expression distant. “I’ve been thinking about that, especially today,” he admitted. “You could be right.”

Bree feigned shock. “Really?” she said dramatically. “About what?”

“Very funny. I just meant that maybe we should at least try to be friends, and the only way to do that is to hang out from time to time, the way we’re doing today.”

She chuckled at that. “You and I aren’t hanging out today. We’re in the same general space. This is the first time today we’ve actually spoken since you said hello down on the beach earlier.”

He stood up and held out his hand. “Then come and sit with me for dinner. We’ll have a real conversation, maybe a few laughs. It’ll be almost like old times.”

The suggestion was enough to make her laugh. “You actually think we can have a private conversation surrounded by my family?”

“Why not? We used to do it. In fact, we spent a lot of Sunday afternoons just like this.”

“And back then they took seeing the two of us for granted because we were together all the time. They left us alone. I guarantee you, if we try that today, every single adult at this party will find an excuse to join us.”

“Then we’ll be part of the crowd and we won’t have to say much,” he replied. “Come on. However it goes, it’ll be a start.”

Despite her reservations, Bree stood up and put her hand in his. She’d been wanting a fresh start, and he was finally offering one. How could she turn him down? “Let’s do it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

They were halfway across the lawn when she looked up at him and asked slyly, “Want to take bets on who’ll be first to check out what’s going on with us?”

He grinned. “That’s easy. My money’s on your father.”

“No way,” she retorted. “It’ll be Abby for sure.”

“So what’s the wager?” he asked.

She leveled a look into his eyes. “Dinner,” she said at once. This was her chance to build on his overture, and she was seizing it.

Jake sucked in a deep breath as if he hadn’t contemplated anything beyond this moment. “Dinner?” he repeated. “You and me?”

She nodded. “You game?”

“Winner picks the time and place, the loser pays?”

“Absolutely.”

He hesitated for a while, his gaze locked with hers. “Okay, then, you’re on.”

Two minutes later, when Abby joined them, Bree gave Jake a triumphant look. “Brady’s, Tuesday night,” she said at once.