A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

So, while it wasn’t surprising that Connor wasn’t happy about Mick’s announcement, it was a shock to see the facade slip. Mick had hoped for a different reaction, but with Connor resentments ran deep. Since Mick had been carrying his own deep-seated grudges against his brothers for years, he understood how difficult it was to let go of the past. He’d just hoped for better from his son, for Megan’s sake, if not his own.

One way or another, though, he wouldn’t let Connor ruin what should be the happiest time of his life—the chance to finally get it right with Megan and bring his family back together. If Megan couldn’t get Connor to listen to reason, Mick would. One way or another, the O’Briens were going to celebrate the new year with a wedding. He’d see to it.

2

Megan caught up with Connor as he was trying to start his car. She slid into the passenger side of the expensive two-seater sports car and closed the door, then gave him a defiant look.

“Wherever you’re headed, you’re stuck with me,” she told him.

He scowled at her, but when she didn’t budge, he shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

He threw the car into gear and shot out of the driveway and along the coastal road at a pace Megan knew was designed to terrify her. She clung to the door and kept silent until they reached town, where he was forced to slow down. He pulled to a stop in a parking space on Shore Road facing the bay, his jaw set, his scowl firmly in place.

“Feel better?” she inquired. “You do know that getting us killed probably won’t solve anything.”

“At least you wouldn’t get to marry Dad and ruin his life again,” he said, his tone petulant.

“Does your father seem as if his life’s ruined?”

“Maybe not, but only because he’s living in a dreamworld right now. Just wait till you take off again.”

“Maybe what we really need to talk about is how I ruined your life,” she suggested. “That’s what this is actually about.”

“You’re irrelevant to my life. You have been for years.”

Megan blinked back tears at the deliberately cruel words. “If I truly meant nothing to you, you wouldn’t sound so bitter,” she said quietly. She tilted her head and studied him. “You’ve fooled us all, you know. You have this easy, lighthearted way about you, but I think hurts run even more deeply. You’re like your father that way.”

“Don’t try analyzing me, Mother. You don’t know anything about me.”

“Is that so?” she countered. “Let’s see. I know you graduated at the top of your class from college, that you could have played pro baseball, but chose to go to law school. I know that you won a highly coveted job as a law clerk with a top Baltimore firm. I know when one of the senior partners was getting a divorce, he chose you to represent him and bragged that he’d never seen anyone fight harder for a client.” She gave Connor an assessing look. “I assume that was because you saw me in his wife and your father in him. Obviously my divorce from your father was good for something.”

Connor looked faintly surprised by her recitation. “What, did you hire a private detective to dig up all that information when you started seeing Dad again? You must have figured you’d need a way to worm your way back into all our lives.”

Megan sighed. “I didn’t need to hire anybody, Connor. I’ve kept tabs on each of you. Abby and I grew close again after she moved to New York. I went to Chicago to see Bree’s plays. I even came to a few of your college ball games.”

He snorted with disbelief.

“Remember the game against Carolina?” she said. “You hit an inside-the-park home run, and when you slid into home base, you broke your wrist.” She shuddered at the memory of his face contorted with pain. “It took everything in me not to run to you on the field.”

“You could have read about that in the paper,” he said.

“I could have,” she agreed. “Or someone in the family could have mentioned it to me. But if I’d found out either of those ways, would I have known that a pretty blonde cheerleader left with you in the ambulance?”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “Okay, fine. You were there. Big deal.”

“It was for me,” she said quietly. “Knowing that I had no right to come to you even when you were hurt tore me apart, Connor.”

“So it was all about you, as usual.”

“No, it was about you, and knowing that you wouldn’t have appreciated me showing up out of the blue at the hospital. It’s always been about you and your sisters and Kevin. Everything I did, I did because I thought it was for the best for you. Even leaving your father.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “You can’t spin that now. Leaving was all about you, Mother. You can’t deny that. You didn’t give a second thought to what it would be like for us after you ran off to make an exciting new life for yourself.”

“Okay, I’ll admit that I needed to leave and build a new life for myself, but I thought that would be better for all of you, too. You wouldn’t have a mother who resented your father the way I did. You’d have one who was strong and sure of herself again.”

“That sounds to me as if it was all about you.”

“Well, it wasn’t,” she said defensively. “Surely you know by now that I planned for all of you to come to New York with me. I had rooms ready, schools picked out. I even had your father’s blessing.”

“Funny, but I don’t recall spending even a day in New York.”

“Because you and Kevin took your father’s side and refused to consider moving. You didn’t want to leave your friends. You wouldn’t even spend time with me when I visited you here. Abby said she wasn’t going anywhere without Jess and Bree, and they threw fits at the thought of leaving Chesapeake Shores. Your father and I finally agreed to give it more time, to start with visits.”

“How’d that work out? I’ve been to New York a dozen times, and never once did I see you,” Connor retorted.

“Because you turned down every invitation,” she reminded him quietly. “And I don’t recall you phoning on any of those visits you made, either. Relationships work both ways, Connor, even between parents and their nearly grown children. Every time I knew you were coming—and I did know about most of those trips—I sat by the phone, hoping against hope that this would be the time you’d reach out to me.”

“So now you’re the neglected saint of a mother and I’m the terrible son?”

She gave him a pitying look. “Oh, Connor, no. I’m just trying to make you see that there are two sides to every story. You have your perspective, and I have mine. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Don’t you think it would be worth it to try to find it, to make peace after all this time? I’m still your mother, and I’ve always loved you.”

“How convenient that you’ve discovered this maternal love after all these years!”

“Do I need to remind you of the time I devoted to you, to all of you, before I left?”

“Give me a break, Mother. This is all about stopping us from interfering with your plan to marry Dad again, your scheme to take advantage of him. I won’t allow it, you know. There will be a prenup this time. I’ll see to it.”

“Fine,” she said readily. “Bring it on. I’ll sign it happily, though I think your father might have other ideas. My relationship with your father has never been about money. We were church-mouse poor when we started out.”

“But not by the time you left,” he reminded her. “You were happy enough to take a bundle of his money so you could live in New York.”

“I took only what was necessary to find a place that would be a good environment for you children,” she corrected. “When you didn’t come, I moved into a smaller place and never took another dime from him.” She met his gaze. “Did you know that? I’ve paid my own way for years now, Connor. That’s not going to stop if your father and I marry.”

He seemed startled by the news. “You’re planning to work?” he scoffed. “Doing what?”

“My boss and I have been discussing the possibility of me opening a branch of his art gallery here. Now that your father and I have set a wedding date, I’ll speak to Phillip about proceeding with that.” She gave him a steady look. “Any other concerns?”

“A boatload of them, but I’m sure you’ll have an answer for everything,” he said sourly.

“And I imagine some of them will be things you don’t particularly want to hear,” she replied. “Now, since we’re parked on Shore Road and neither of us ate a bite of our meal, why don’t we get something to eat? My treat.” Again, she leveled an unyielding look at him. “Or you can take me home, then sulk for the rest of the afternoon and complain that I bailed on you yet again.”

She held her breath as she waited for him to make his choice. It seemed to take an eternity as he weighed the options.

“I suppose I could eat,” he said grudgingly.

She resisted the temptation to reach over and ruffle his hair as she said, “You always could. You and Kevin were bottomless pits.”

“We were growing boys,” he countered as he got out and, to her surprise, came around and opened the car door for her. It was evidence, she thought, of Nell’s stern emphasis on manners. It also demonstrated that no matter how badly Connor wanted to hate her, on some level he still had at least a tiny grain of respect left for the mother she’d been before the fateful day when she’d left Mick to save herself and turned all their lives upside down in the process.

Mick paced around the kitchen as Nell and Abby cleaned up after their dinner.

“I think I should go looking for them,” he said for probably the tenth time since Connor had stormed off and Megan had gone after him.

“No!” Nell said emphatically. She and Abby had taken turns talking him out of doing anything rash.

“Mom needs to deal with Connor,” Abby repeated. “If she’s smart, she’s probably somewhere in town feeding him a steak about now.”

Mick paused. “You think they went to dinner? I could drive around, look for his car. Make sure no blood has been shed.”

“No!” Abby said, regarding him with impatience. “Dad, you can’t fix this. It’s up to Mom.”

“Some of what happened was my fault,” he argued.

“A lot of it was,” Nell agreed, “but that’s not the point. This is between your son and his mother. You can sort out your issues with him later.”

“Well, I can’t just sit around here,” he grumbled. “I’ve never been any good at sitting on the sidelines and waiting.”

“But this time that’s exactly what you’ll do,” Nell said firmly. “Now grab a dish towel and dry some of those pots and pans.”

Mick sighed and took a towel from Abby, who promptly announced she was going to get Trace and her girls and head for home. She nodded silently toward Nell and mouthed to him, “Talk to her.”

Mick got the message. After Abby had gone, he put the last of the pans back in the cabinet and turned to his mother. “Ma, sit down.”

She regarded him with a narrowed gaze. “Why?”

“Because you’re the one person who hasn’t said how you feel about Megan and me getting married again.”

She looked him directly in the eye and said, “I’m happy for both of you. This has been in the wind for a long time now. I’ve had time to get used to the idea.”

Though her words and tone were meant to be convincing, Mick didn’t buy it. “You do know that our marriage isn’t going to displace you, right? This has been your home for a long time now, and Megan and I both want you to stay right here.”

She gave him a defiant look. “What if I want to go back to my own cottage and get on with the life you two disrupted when you split up?”

Startled, Mick stared at her. “Is that what you want?”

She sighed softly. “I can’t say for sure, but it holds a certain appeal. It’s not as if I’d be at the ends of the earth. The cottage is within walking distance. And it’s mine. I fixed it up exactly the way I wanted it when you built it. It’s warm and cozy, which would be a nice change from rattling around in this big old place now that all your children are grown and have moved out.”

Mick felt a deep sense of loss at the thought of his mother going off to live on her own. Still, he said, “It’s your decision, Ma, as long as you know you’re welcome here if you want to stay. This became your home the day you moved in here to help me with the kids. I dumped most of that responsibility on your shoulders because I couldn’t cope. I’ll owe you till the day I die.”

“You don’t owe me a thing. I did what was necessary,” she insisted. “And I’m thinking you and Megan should have a fresh start without me underfoot. She probably has her own ideas about how she’d like the household to run.”

“She’ll more than likely be working, Ma. The house would continue to be your domain.”

“Like some glorified housekeeper,” she said with asperity, then held up a hand. “I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh. I do know you both want me here, and I appreciate that. We have a couple of months to think about it. Maybe I’ll go over to the cottage tomorrow and see how it’s holding up. It could probably use a fresh coat of paint and airing out. No matter the care I’ve taken of it, a house suffers when it’s not lived in.”

“I’ll come with you,” Mick offered. “Anything you want done, I’ll take care of it. And if you change your mind and decide to stay here, that’s fine, too.”

Her expression suddenly brightened, and a twinkle lit her eyes. “It might be nice to have my own place if I should have a gentleman caller.”

Mick stared at her. “Excuse me?”

“You never know, young man. I’m old, but I’m not in my grave yet.”

“Far from it,” Mick said, shaking his head. He wondered if Nell O’Brien would ever stop surprising him. He had a hunch if she had her way, there might be a few more shocks in store.

* * *

Even though they’d managed to get through dinner, Megan wasn’t deluding herself that anything between her and Connor was truly settled. Once again, he’d resorted to the kind of civility that had fooled all of them into believing he’d weathered the divorce without scars. Now that she knew otherwise, she’d be more attuned to the hostility that seethed just beneath the surface. One dinner without fireworks wasn’t going to change that.

By the time Connor dropped her off at the house, she was emotionally wrung out. Finding Mick pacing impatiently in the foyer did nothing to soothe her.

“It’s about time,” he muttered when she walked inside. “Where’s Connor?”

“On his way back to Baltimore,” she said wearily.

“Why didn’t he come inside?”

She lifted a brow. “So you could badger him?”

He frowned at her. “I wasn’t going to badger him, just tell him a few facts of life.”

“Well, he doesn’t need to hear anything more from either one of us at the moment. He needs time to process what’s happening. Once again, we’ve turned his view of the world upside down.”

“This isn’t about him,” Mick grumbled.

“Of course it is,” Megan said. “What I did years ago had an impact on each one of our children. So did the way you chose to handle it—by running off to one job site after another. What I thought of as consideration for their feelings in letting them stay here in their home with you, they interpreted as me not caring at all. There were bound to be repercussions.”

“I suppose,” he said grudgingly. “I just hope Connor didn’t try to talk you out of marrying me.”

“Of course he did,” she said, then touched Mick’s cheek. “There’s nothing he could say, though, that would change my mind, Mick. We might have to adjust the timetable a bit to allow time to bring him around, but in the end, we will get married.”

He stopped pacing and stared. “Adjust the timetable? What the devil are you suggesting?”

“That New Year’s Eve may be rushing things. I want everyone in the family not only to attend the ceremony, but to be happy for us, Mick. It won’t feel right if they’re not.”

He faced her stubbornly. “We’re getting married New Year’s Eve, and that’s that.”

She frowned. “And there’s no room for compromise, even if it’s important to me?”

Apparently he heard the warning note in her voice, because he backed down at once. “I didn’t say that.”

“No, you just said it’s your way, period. This isn’t going to work, Mick, not if we can’t work through things like this together.”

He scowled unhappily, but eventually nodded. “Okay, fine, we’ll talk about it. You want a drink?”

“Just some tea, I think.”

“I’ll fix it,” he offered, then headed for the kitchen.

There was no one in this Irish household who couldn’t brew a proper cup of tea. Mick placed a steaming pot before her within minutes, then sat down.

“Were you able to talk with Nell?” she asked, hoping to avoid another argument over Connor.

He nodded. “She thinks she might want to move to the cottage.”

“Oh, dear,” Megan said. “That’s exactly what I was hoping to avoid.”

“Don’t fret too much. She seems to think it will improve her social life,” Mick said, clearly disgruntled. “She said something about having privacy for her gentlemen callers. Since when does my mother have gentlemen callers, I’d like to know?”

Megan chuckled. “Maybe that’s the point,” she suggested. “She doesn’t want you to know about them and meddle the way you have in your children’s lives.”

He shuddered. “She’s probably right. Knowing my mother is getting involved with some old codger is probably more information than I need to have.”

“I think it would be sweet for her to have someone special in her life,” Megan said thoughtfully. “Look at all the years she’s sacrificed her own needs to take care of our family. It’s her turn to find whatever happiness she can.”

“I suppose. Now let’s stop talking about my mother and Connor, and focus on us. How soon are you going to quit your job and move down here? Two weeks’ notice ought to be enough, don’t you think?”

“Not with a major show coming up at the gallery,” she said. “Besides, if I want Phillip to consider opening an extension of his gallery here, then I have to handle this with care.”

“You don’t need his backing,” Mick argued. “I’ll bankroll your gallery.”

“It’s very generous of you to want to do that,” Megan said, “but I just finished telling Connor that I wasn’t marrying you for your money. How will it look to him if you pour thousands of dollars into my new business? No, Mick. I have to make this come together on my own.”

“How?” he asked, his skepticism plain … and highly annoying.

“That’s my problem now, isn’t it?”

“Is this the way it’s going to be from here on out?” he demanded. “You refusing to accept any kind of help from me? I want to do things for you, Megan. It makes me happy.”

“Then buy me a bouquet of flowers from time to time, or take me out for a romantic dinner. I don’t need lavish gestures for you to prove how much you love me.”

Mick shook his head. “You are the most contrary woman I’ve ever known. What kind of person turns down help from someone who loves them?”

“One who needs to maintain some independence,” she responded candidly.

“Why, so you can turn right around and leave me again?”

“No, so there will never be a question in your mind that I’m with you because I love you, not because of what you can do for me.”

“That’s Connor talking,” he said. “I won’t have him meddling in our relationship or making you question the way every little thing we do might look to him.”

“It’s not about Connor,” she insisted. “It’s about me, Mick. I’ve learned to stand on my own two feet. I’m not the naive, dependent girl who expected you to dance attendance and make my life complete. If it’s going to work between us, we have to be equals.”

“So if I decide on impulse to give you a car, you have to turn right around and buy something for me?” he asked.

“That might be exaggerating just a bit,” she said dryly.

“Well, I should hope so, because it sounds ridiculous. If I’m your husband and I decide on a whim to give you something, what happened to accepting it graciously?”

“Mick, this isn’t about cars or jewelry or impulsive gestures.”

“Then explain it to me.”

Megan wasn’t sure she could. She just knew that gifts per se weren’t the problem. It was all the strings implied. And if she wasn’t careful, those strings were going to bind them together for all the wrong reasons.

And their marriage wouldn’t stand a chance.

* * *

Mick had been thoroughly frustrated by his conversation with Megan the night before. He was still stewing over it on Monday morning after he’d driven her to Baltimore to the airport. He knew Connor was behind her attitude, no matter how much she’d tried to deny it. He also knew he needed to settle a thing or two with his younger son.

He pulled out his cell phone and called Connor at the office. “Take a break,” he ordered without preamble. “I’ll meet you at the coffee shop on the corner in ten minutes.”

“I can’t. I have an appointment with a new client in an hour.”

“This won’t take long,” Mick said grimly. “I’ll talk and you can listen.”

Of course, that was an optimistic outlook. Connor had never once suffered a lecture in silence. Those strong opinions of his were bound to surface. Still, Mick wanted to clear the air and make a few things plain. His son might be a grown man, but Mick still ran the family. He was due a little respect of his own.

Connor was already waiting at a table with two cups of coffee by the time Mick had found a parking place and walked the two blocks to the crowded little café. “Parking in this city is a nuisance,” he grumbled as he sat.

“Is that why you wanted to see me,” Connor inquired, “to complain about the parking in downtown Baltimore?”

Mick frowned at the sarcasm. “You know perfectly well it’s not. We need to discuss the wedding.”

Connor looked as if he was ready to launch into another diatribe, so Mick cut him off before he could get started.

“You will not interfere,” Mick told him flatly. “You don’t have to approve of it. You don’t have to like it. But you will stay out of it.” He leveled a hard look into his son’s eyes. “And you will show up for the ceremony with a smile on your face. Is that understood?”

Connor gave him a knowing look. “Mom’s talking about postponing, isn’t she?”

“That’s not an option,” Mick said forcefully.

“But I got to her yesterday and now she’s having second thoughts,” Connor said with a triumphant note. “Good for her.”

Mick regarded him with sorrow. “Do you care nothing for my feelings?”

Connor looked shocked by the question. “Of course I do! Dad, can’t you see that I’m trying to protect you? You’ve gotten all caught up in sentiment. You’re not thinking clearly.”

Mick was none too pleased by his son’s determination to interfere, to say nothing of his confidence that only he knew what was best for his parents. “Connor, I’m a grown man. I don’t need looking after, no matter how well-intentioned it might be. I love your mother. I always have. God’s seen fit to give me a second chance with her, and I won’t let you or anyone else take that away from us.”

“She’ll break your heart again,” Connor predicted.

“I don’t believe that, but if it happens, so be it.”

“You can’t mean that. The last time she left, it almost destroyed you. It almost ruined our entire family.”

“I thought Bree was the one in the family with a flair for drama,” Mick chided. “What happened was devastating for all of us, no question about it. But look at Abby, Bree and Kevin today. They’re all happily married. Jess has a thriving business she loves. And even you have found your life’s work. We’re more tight-knit as a family than we have been in years.”

“All of that’s in spite of Mom, not because of her.”

“Maybe so, but we can hardly claim that what she did ruined our lives. It shaped us, to be sure. It changed her, as well—for the better, I think. She’s stronger and more independent.”