Kevin placed a hand over hers. “Slow down. You don’t need to call him. He’s coming to town tomorrow. I’ll bring him by the store, and you can finalize all the details.”
She paused, startled. “He’s coming to the store?”
Kevin nodded, clearly amused that his earlier comments were finally sinking in.
“And he has questions about the two of us?”
“Oh, yeah,” he confirmed. “I’m not exactly overjoyed about that myself, but he was insistent.”
“Well, there’s nothing to tell,” she said briskly. “So we don’t need to worry.”
“You’re wrong about that,” he told her.
“Which part?”
“Both. We do need to worry because we’re both hiding from the truth, and Thomas is going to see right through us.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she insisted.
Kevin regarded her with skepticism. “Really? If I kissed you right now, what would happen?”
Shanna swallowed hard. There was no denying what a kiss would prove. The attraction between them might be merely simmering for the moment, but it could easily heat to a boil.
“I see what you’re saying,” she said hurriedly to forestall any ideas he might have of demonstrating his point. “But we won’t be kissing in front of him.” Or ever again, if they both stuck to their resolution. Right this second, with Kevin’s heated gaze on her, it was hard to recall why they’d made that stupid resolution in the first place.
“I don’t think the lack of kissing is going to matter,” Kevin said, sounding resigned. “Uncle Thomas considers himself to be very intuitive when it comes to this kind of stuff and, unfortunately, I don’t think he’s overestimating his skill.”
“Then just bring him to the door, make some excuse and take off. I can handle the arrangements, and you can come back and get him.” She regarded him hopefully. “You and I won’t even have to be in the same room.”
“Don’t you think he’ll find that odd? Maybe even make too much of us avoiding each other?” He grinned. “Which, by the way, even I can see would be way too telling. Men and women only avoid each other when they’re scared of revealing something.”
“Or when they hate each other’s guts,” she suggested.
“Which we don’t,” he said. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Then we just deal with this,” she decided. “If he gets all caught up with some crazy idea that there’s something going on between us, we can just laugh it off. I think we’re worrying about nothing. Surely, he has more important things on his mind than you and me.”
“I don’t think he sees it that way,” Kevin said, his expression glum. “There’s nothing the people in my family
love more than a project, and I’m currently at the top of everyone’s list. You don’t have a chance in hell of avoiding getting caught up in the drama, unless you run far, far away.”
Despite the panic his words set off in her, Shanna met his gaze. She even risked putting her hand over his. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She couldn’t have said why she knew that staying put was the right thing to do or why she wasn’t as eager to run as he was for her to do it. She just knew she belonged here. If she couldn’t be back in Pennsylvania, making a life with the boy who’d felt so much like a son to her, then this was the home she wanted. Maybe even the man she wanted. She couldn’t be sure about that yet.
Kevin sighed, his hand turning over to clasp hers. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Mick was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and one of his mother’s scones when the back door opened and his brother strolled in as if he belonged there. Mick frowned at the unwelcome intrusion.
“What are you doing here?” he asked sourly.
Thomas grinned despite the lack of welcome. He went straight to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee. Acted as if he owned the damn place, in Mick’s opinion.
“Nice to see you, too, big brother,” Thomas said, meeting his gaze with an unflinching one of his own. “You’re as charming as always.”
“I’m charming when I need to be,” Mick said. “And I’m still wondering what’s brought you into my home without an invitation. Did Ma call you?”
“I invited him,” Kevin said, joining them.
Mick didn’t even try to hide his dismayed reaction. “Now, why would you do that?”
“Because I’m going to work for him, so you’re probably going to be seeing a lot more of him,” his traitorous son announced. “Today, we have some things we need to do.”
“No way in hell!” Mick said, banging his fist on the table as he rose to his feet. He was the same height as his brother, and they had a similar build that came with doing heavy work, often in harsh weather. The similarities mostly ended there. Thomas was a damn tree hugger. Mick respected some of what he did and certainly why he did it, but Thomas would fight to save a gnat that was biting the heck out of him. Mick figured there were some creatures that deserved getting smacked.
“It’s my choice,” Kevin said mildly, even as Mick glared at Thomas.
“What kind of sneaky, underhanded tricks did he use to convince you of that?” Mick demanded. Given his low opinion of Thomas, who’d backstabbed him more than once when they were getting permits to build Chesapeake Shores, Mick wouldn’t put it past his brother to have brainwashed his son.
“He didn’t,” Kevin said. “Mother did.”
That took the wind right out of Mick. He sat down heavily. Megan had had a hand in this? What had she been thinking? She knew how much bad blood there was between him and Thomas, yet she’d gone right ahead and encouraged their son to form an alliance with his uncle. Mick wasn’t sure he’d be able to forgive Megan for that. Maybe she’d been paying him back for not being around this past weekend. If so, she couldn’t have picked a crueler way.
“She didn’t do this just to get even with you,” Kevin
said, evidently reading his mind. “She just reminded me of the way I used to ask so many questions whenever Thomas was around, how interested I was in what he did. What she said made a lot of sense.”
“And that was enough to send you running off to Annapolis?” Mick asked in disbelief.
Kevin nodded. “I’m really excited about this, Dad. I’ll be doing something that matters.”
“Being a paramedic mattered,” Mick said, even though he could see the handwriting on the wall. Kevin’s mind was made up, and if he wanted his son to be happy, there was only so much he could say about this cockamamy plan of his.
Kevin’s expression shut down.
“Sorry,” Mick said stiffly. “I know you don’t want to go back to that, but this? Are you sure?”
“More sure than I am about most things,” Kevin said.
“It’s what he was destined to do,” Thomas said quietly. “Mick, you and I may not see eye to eye about much, but we both love the bay. We both know how close it is to being ruined forever. It’s going to take time to get it right, maybe more time than I have. We need the next generation involved.”
“And I’m sure it pleases you that it’s my son you’ve enlisted,” Mick grumbled.
“Not because he’s your son,” Thomas said. “Because he cares. He’s the right person to do this. If you’ll leave me out of the equation for a minute and think back, you’ll see I’m right. Kevin grew up on the waters around here. He cares more than most.”
Because Mick wouldn’t have admitted his brother could be right about anything, he ignored the request and turned to Kevin. “And that boat you bought? Is that just an expensive whim?”
“I’m selling it to Uncle Thomas’s organization,” he said. “We’re going over to the marina in a bit to see what it’ll need to make it more functional for their purposes.” He hesitated, then added, “You could come along.”
“No,” Mick said flatly.
Thomas gave him a look of regret, then told Kevin. “I’m going to try to find Ma to say hello and see how she’s doing. I’ll meet you at the car in a few minutes.”
Kevin nodded.
“Ma’s outside in her garden,” Mick told him grudgingly. “She likes to work out there before the sun gets too high.”
Thomas hesitated, then asked, “She’s doing well?”
“She is,” Mick said, then found himself adding, “You should come around more often, see for yourself. She’s not getting any younger, you know. We shouldn’t let our differences keep the two of you apart.”
His brother looked startled, but thankfully didn’t make too much of the concession. He merely nodded. “I’ll do that.”
After he’d left, Mick felt his shoulders sag.
“I didn’t do this to hurt you, Dad,” Kevin said.
“I know that,” he admitted. “Truth be told, I’m not that surprised. I guess I’d just hoped it would be me you’d take after.”
Kevin chuckled. “Oh, I think I got plenty of traits from you.”
“Such as?” Mick asked, genuinely curious.
“Stubbornness, for one thing. Your generous nature, for another.”
“Sounds contradictory, if you ask me,” Mick grumbled.
Kevin laughed. “Tell me about it. It’s a constant struggle.”
Mick wrestled with himself, then asked, “You think
me going along with the two of you to look at the boat would be helpful?”
“I do,” Kevin said. “I seem to recall a time when you and I both went out on the research boat with Uncle Thomas, before the two of you had your falling-out. You had plenty of observations about what was going wrong with the waters of the bay. If the two of you made peace, this could be something all three of us are involved in. It would be something unifying, instead of one more excuse for prolonging your feud.”
“Hold on a minute,” Mick said, ignoring most of what Kevin said to correct the one thing that stuck in his craw. “It wasn’t some inconsequential falling-out. He sold me out. He went right in to the planning officials and told them how to keep me from doing certain things.”
“Things he’d already told you were wrong, that would be a detriment to the wetlands,” Kevin reminded him.
“So he said,” Mick retorted.
Kevin kept his gaze even. “Can you at least try to put that in the past and come with us today?”
Mick wanted badly to be a part of his son’s future. This was one way he could do it. “I suppose I can spare the time,” he said grudgingly.
“We’re stopping at the bookstore afterward,” Kevin said. “Shanna wants Uncle Thomas to do a talk there later this summer, so they need to work out the details.”
Now wasn’t that interesting? Mick certainly didn’t want to miss another chance to see his son interacting with the pretty little bookseller. He suspected there was more going on there than Kevin had acknowledged. If so, he wouldn’t mind giving the two of them a shove toward each other.
Though he wasn’t crazy about the way the morning had started, Mick could admit he was beginning to see some
positive possibilities ahead. If Thomas could help Kevin get his professional life on track and Shanna could do the same with his heart, then Mick could finally sit back and relax where his son was concerned. It didn’t matter who got the credit. All that mattered was seeing Kevin living his life to the fullest again.
H
aving three O’Brien men underfoot, two of them obviously on a mission, pretty much freaked Shanna out. Kevin didn’t look especially overjoyed about the situation, either. For all of her expressed confidence that she and Kevin could control things with his uncle, it was evident in the first few minutes that they didn’t stand a chance against the combined forces of Thomas
and
Mick.
Ironically, Mick had hardly said a word. He’d taken a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs and sat watching the rest of them with the look of a cat who’d recently dined on several plump and tasty canaries. It was disconcerting.
She had a feeling that if she and Thomas hadn’t had business to conduct, he would have taken the seat right next to Mick’s so the two of them could observe Shanna’s interaction with Kevin and compare notes. She’d never felt more on display, not even when Greg’s parents had looked down their aristocratic noses at her.
When she couldn’t stand it another second, she sent a frantic look in Kevin’s direction. Since he appeared nearly as desperate to leave as she was, he immediately picked up on the cue.
“Shanna, didn’t you tell me that you can check for titles
on the computer in the back?” Kevin asked. “Maybe we could take a quick look for those books Thomas is recommending. Make sure they’re available.”
“Great idea,” she said, seizing the lifeline. She beamed at Thomas and Mick. “Why don’t you two help yourself to some coffee? Kevin and I will be right back. Then we’ll know whether my distributor has these books in stock.”
Thomas gave Kevin a knowing glance, but nodded. “Take your time. I’ll have a look around. It seems you have a terrific mystery and thriller section. I can use some new reading material. Scientific journals get tiresome after a while.”
Shanna practically ran to the back room. “Thank you for getting me out of there,” she said in a low voice to Kevin. “You didn’t warn me that your father was coming. I think I could have coped with one of them, but two…” She shook her head. “Not possible.”
He nodded. “It was starting to creep me out, too.”
She sat down in front of the computer, then went to the distributor’s website to check inventory. Five of the six books Thomas had listed were in stock in significant quantities. The sixth was out of print. Still, she’d be able to offer a great selection for customers who attended the event. She placed the order while she was online.
When she finally turned around, Kevin was standing right behind her. He was close. Much too close, in fact. He immediately backed up a step, but not before some kind of invisible force field drew her toward him.
He met her gaze, swallowing hard. “Shanna?”
The questioning note in his voice mirrored the thousand and one doubts rampaging through her head. Still, she couldn’t seem to look away. Couldn’t bring herself to take the step that might have put her beyond his reach.
He blinked once, then stepped toward her, covering her
mouth with his before either of them could utter the reminder that they’d sworn not to do this again. She felt the shock of the kiss down to her toes, felt the quick rise of need, the desperate yearning for more.
How could it be like this with another man she barely knew, another man whose life was far too complicated? Did she not possess even one single shred of sense? Had she learned nothing from her impetuous rush into an ill-fated relationship and eventual marriage with Greg? Laurie would have a field day answering that one.
When the kiss slowly—reluctantly—ended, her knees very nearly buckled. Kevin steadied her, though he looked a little dazed himself.
“This isn’t good,” he murmured, mostly to himself.
“I thought it was very good, excellent in fact,” she said, mostly because he sounded so somber. She wanted to coax a smile from him.
His lips twitched, but the smile never blossomed, certainly never reached his eyes. “Do you realize that my uncle and my father are probably out there right this second speculating about what we’re doing back here?”
“No speculating involved,” Mick said, startling them both. He was standing in the doorway, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. Thomas was right behind him, his expression equally smug.
“Not that we were spying,” Mick claimed, “but we did get to wondering what was taking so long. I thought it might be something like this.” The last was spoken with an air of triumph that left Shanna and Kevin both speechless. “How about we leave you to it? Thomas and I will go to Sally’s and grab some lunch.”
Kevin sighed heavily. “I’ll come with you, make sure you behave civilly.”
“No need for that,” Mick said. “I think we can keep our
current truce for a bit longer. We’ll have a bite, then bring something back for you and Shanna. Let you spend more time together. How’s that?”
Shanna’s face was flaming. “That’s very thoughtful of you,” she managed to say.
“Least I can do,” Mick said, grinning. “We’ll be back in an hour. Shall I put the Closed sign on the door?”
“No, absolutely not,” she said, trying to make it clear that there would be nothing happening and therefore no reason to fear untimely interruptions.
He looked vaguely disappointed. “Whatever you say,” he said.
After he’d gone, Shanna sank back down on the stool in front of the computer and put her head in her hands. When she’d drawn in a deep breath, she dared a look at Kevin.
“That wasn’t good,” she murmured.
To her surprise, Kevin chuckled.
She frowned at him. “It is not funny. Even you didn’t think it was funny a few minutes ago.”
“True, but it is predictable. I just have this vision of the two of them peeking in the door for who knows how long just waiting to catch us doing something compromising. I swear they’re worse than my sisters.”
“Are you going to find this so amusing once they’ve alerted Bree, Jess and Abby?”
“Dad won’t say a word,” Kevin said confidently. “He’s going to enjoy holding this over my head way too much to share the information with them.”
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll just prepare myself for the worst,” Shanna told him.
“The worst?”
“Answering to a parade of your sisters before the day’s out.”
Kevin’s smile faltered. “Better you than me,” he said wholeheartedly.
“Why? You’ve had a whole lot longer to practice fending them off.”
He shook his head. “There are some things a man can never master. Dealing with meddling sisters is one of them,” he said, his glum mood returning.
Shanna lifted a brow. “How about a meddling father and uncle?”
He shook his head. “That’s a new one on me. Any ideas?”
“Not a one, unless you want to run over to Sally’s and haul some other woman into your arms just to throw them off the scent.” Just suggesting such a thing made her feel empty inside.
“Not interested,” Kevin said. “There has to be another way.”
“Something tells me that unless we stage the mother of all fights and you go storming out of here in a very public and convincing huff, the two of us are doomed.”
Kevin nodded. “Looks that way to me, too.”
“How are your acting skills?”
“Lousy. Yours?”
“Probably worse,” she admitted.
He draped a comforting arm over her shoulder. “Still loving the O’Briens?”
She looked into his eyes, which bore an unmistakable glint of humor along with plenty of the heat that had just gotten them into such trouble. “Not so much,” she fibbed. One of them, anyway, had pretty much stolen her heart.
“Not one word,” Kevin warned when he, his father and uncle were on their way back to the house.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mick claimed. He turned to his brother, who’d miraculously become some kind of coconspirator in the past couple of hours. “You have any idea, Thomas?”
“None. He seems a bit jumpy, don’t you think?”
“Guilty would be the word I’d use,” Mick said.
“Nothing to be guilty about,” Thomas said, his expression thoughtful. “The attraction between a man and a woman is a wonderful, natural thing.”
“It is, indeed,” Mick said.
“Would the two of you give it a rest?” Kevin snapped. “Don’t go making too much of whatever the heck you thought you saw back there.”
“It’s not as if there was any guesswork involved,” Mick retorted. “I recognize a kiss when I see one.”
“No question about it,” Thomas agreed.
“And I’m glad of it, too,” Mick added. “It’s time you thought about moving on with your life. Shanna seems like a lovely young woman.”
“I thought so, as well,” Thomas said. “She’s beautiful and intelligent.”
“When did you two start agreeing about everything?” Kevin demanded irritably. “A few hours ago, you were barely speaking. I liked it better then.”
“Just because we see eye to eye on this doesn’t mean we’ve made peace,” Mick said.
“Just a temporary détente,” Thomas agreed. “We’re of one mind when it comes to you and Shanna.”
“Heaven help me,” Kevin murmured. Then, because he couldn’t contain his curiosity, he asked, “What is it you both think you see when you look at us—beyond the kiss, that is?”
“You never took your eyes off of her, for one thing,” Mick said. “That’s a sure sign that a man is hooked.”
“Same with her,” Thomas said. “She kept stealing glances in your direction, even when her attention was supposedly focused on planning that event with me.”
“And her expression got all soft and dreamy,” Mick added thoughtfully, his gaze turning wistful. “Meggie used to look at me just like that.”
“Well, I doubt you’d get that kind of look out of Mom right now,” Kevin said, seizing on a way to divert his father’s attention. “She’s definitely not happy with you. I can attest to that from firsthand experience.”
“Don’t go using your mother to change the subject,” Mick said. “We’re talking about you and Shanna. Leave your mother to me.”
“I’d be happy to, but you dragged me into the middle of it when you sent me to the airport the other day,” Kevin responded, determined not to let go of the topic. “There I was, stuck with trying to defend you after all the promises you apparently made to prove you’d changed.”
“I don’t need you defending me, either,” Mick grumbled, then fell silent, which had been Kevin’s goal.
Kevin glanced in the rearview mirror and saw his uncle’s lips twitching. He seemed to be getting entirely too much enjoyment out of the entire afternoon.
“Am I going to regret coming to work with you?” he asked Thomas.
Thomas chuckled. “It will give me a few more opportunities to needle you about your love life,” he admitted. “But, trust me, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. You’ll see. Not only will you be immersed in a career you were meant for, but you’ll have all my years of wisdom when it comes to women at your disposal.”
Mick made a rude sound at that. “Two divorces,” he said succinctly.
“At least I learned a thing or two,” Thomas said, not taking offense. “Can you say the same?”
“Mom would definitely say no,” Kevin felt compelled to chime in, drawing a scowl from his father and a barely contained chuckle from his uncle.
Thankfully they’d reached the house by then, so he could go inside, grab his son and escape from the pair of them. They’d either maintain the peace or come to blows. Whichever way it went, they’d be out of his hair.
Shanna wasn’t the least bit surprised when Bree wandered in around four o’clock that afternoon. By then, most of her flower orders had been delivered, Jenny was there and eager to handle any walk-in customers, and Bree had time on her hands. Sometimes she spent the late-afternoon hours in the back of her shop working on her latest play or finalizing plans for her regional theater’s debut production. On other occasions, she used the time to pop in to see Shanna and chat.
This afternoon, she poured herself a cup of coffee, then sat down and propped her elbows on the counter. She regarded Shanna with evident curiosity. “Were my father, my brother and my uncle in here earlier?”
Shanna figured the less she actually said, the less there would be for Bree to misinterpret. She merely nodded and kept her attention focused on the day’s receipts.
Bree gave an exaggerated look around the shop. “Walls are still standing, so it couldn’t have been a total disaster having my father and his brother in the same room. How’d it happen?”
“Your uncle’s going to give a talk here in a couple of weeks. We were finalizing the details. Kevin and your dad just came along with him.”
“I see,” Bree said, though she looked perplexed. “You know there’s bad blood between my dad and my uncle.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Then there had to be something monumental going on to get them to share the same space. I doubt it was the prospect of Thomas giving a talk in here.”
Shanna merely shrugged.
Bree’s eyes suddenly lit up. “You and Kevin! That’s it, isn’t it? They both wanted to check the two of you out. Oh my gosh, you must have been furious.”