Willow Brook Road

Sam glanced down at his nephew and smiled. “I think that’s your answer. He’s the one who insisted we come in today and find these books, and we just arrived back in town last night.”

“Thomas and my husband will be thrilled about that enthusiasm. Kevin—and yes, he’s an O’Brien, one of Mick’s sons, in fact—works with Thomas. Between us we have three boys and a girl, ranging in age from a few months to seventeen. We’ll have to have the two of you over for dinner, so Bobby can make some new friends.”

“That would be great,” Sam said, liking this open, generous woman at once.

“Should I invite Carrie, too?” she asked slyly.

He blinked at the obviousness of the question. “Up to you,” he said. “It’s your dinner.”

She gave a nod of satisfaction. “I’ll take that as a yes. Now let me ring up those books, unless you want to look around for some for yourself.”

“I think I’m going to be spending all my spare time reading these with Bobby,” he said. “I’ll find some for myself the next time we come in.”

“Any particular genre?”

“Adventure travel,” he suggested. Books were probably the only way he was going to satisfy his wanderlust for the foreseeable future.

“You’re in luck. I have a great selection. There are a few other people in town who have the time and money to travel, so I try to order the latest books for them.”

“You must get to know your customers really well,” Sam said, impressed.

“It’s the only way for a small, independent bookstore to succeed these days,” she said.

When their purchases were paid for and bagged in two separate bags so Bobby could carry a couple himself, she gave Sam another smile. “I’ll be in touch about dinner. Probably one night next week. I know Tuesday is deadline night at the paper, so I’ll aim for Wednesday or Thursday.”

“Great,” Sam said.

Outside Bobby was practically skipping across the street in excitement. “Can we read when we get back to the inn?”

“Would you rather do that than swim?” Sam asked, surprised.

“Uh-huh,” Bobby said with a nod. “I always liked it when Mommy read to me.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Sam said. He held out his hand. “Hold my hand when we cross the street, buddy.”

Bobby tucked his hand trustingly into Sam’s, then gave him a shy look. “I think maybe being here is going to be okay.”

The softly spoken comment brought the sting of tears to Sam’s eyes. He was glad for the sunglasses that kept those tears from his nephew. “I know it’s going to be okay, Bobby,” he said, his tone more reassuring than it might have been even twenty-four hours earlier. “We’re going to be a team, you and me.”

Bobby grinned. “I like being on a team. Do you think they have T-ball here?”

“I imagine they do.”

“Can I play?”

“If you want to.”

“Will you come to the games like Daddy did?”

“You bet.”

Sam studied the satisfied expression on his nephew’s face and realized turning into a dad wasn’t going to be quite as terrifying as he’d imagined. Bobby was already showing him the way.

* * *

Jackson was down for his afternoon nap, though how he could sleep with Davey and Henry fighting over a video game in the living room was beyond Carrie.

“Hey, you two, a little quieter, please. The baby’s sleeping.”

“Oops,” Henry said, his expression immediately turning serious.

“Shouldn’t you have outgrown this competitive thing with your younger brother by now?” she teased. “You’re only a year away from going to college.”

He grinned. “I’m just warming up for college,” he informed her. “I hear it gets pretty wild and competitive in the dorms and fraternity houses.”

“Whatever happened to the sweet, serious little boy who first came to town to live with Shanna?” Carrie asked, remembering his arrival even though she’d been just a few years older.

“I got turned into an O’Brien,” he said, then gave her a taunting look. “You want to play?”

Davey’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, Carrie, take him down, okay?”

“I’m no good at this game,” she protested innocently. “You both know that.” Still, she sat down and took Davey’s remote. “Don’t be too hard on me, okay, Henry?”

Fifteen minutes later, she’d wiped the floor with the smug teenager, proving he and Davey weren’t the only competitive people in the room. Davey hooted.

Henry’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Have you been practicing behind our backs?”

“It is my game in my house,” she told him. “What did you think, that I’d let you go on trouncing me?”

Henry laughed. “I was hoping. I need somebody around to keep my confidence high. Uncle Connor sure doesn’t let me win and even Davey’s getting to be more than I can handle. I guess I’ll have to start playing with the babies if I want a surefire win.”

“Are there any more of those cookies, Carrie?” Davey asked. “I’d like a couple for the road. We need to get home for dinner.”

She gave him a stern look. “Which is exactly why I’m not giving you more cookies. I don’t want your mom or dad over here yelling at me about spoiling your appetites.”

Just then her phone rang and she spotted Shanna’s name on the caller ID. “Speak of the devil.”

“Is that Mom?” Davey asked.

Carrie nodded.

“Then we’d better move,” Henry said, leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Bye, Carrie. See you.”

“See you,” Davey said, bounding out the door ahead of his big brother.

Carrie sighed and answered the phone. “Your boys are heading home right now.”

“Good to know,” Shanna said. “But that’s not why I called.”

“Oh? What’s up?”

“Are you free for dinner next Wednesday or Thursday?”

“Sure, either one,” Carrie said without bothering to check her calendar. “It’s not as if I have a lot of commitments these days. Anything special going on?”

“Not really. We just haven’t seen enough of you lately,” Shanna said.

The comment was so completely untrue it was laughable. “I saw you this morning,” Carrie reminded her. “And Henry and Davey just left my house. I see all of you at Sunday dinner at Grandpa Mick’s. What’s this really about? And don’t fib. You’re no good at it.”

“I invited Sam Winslow and his nephew for dinner,” Shanna admitted.

“Oh, boy,” Carrie whispered. “If you’re trying to do some matchmaking, quit it. Sam and I have some issues.”

“Not that I could see at lunch today,” Shanna argued. “It was quite the little family scene in Sally’s.”

“You saw us?”

“Of course I did. If it was supposed to be a secret rendezvous, it might have been better to have it someplace more secluded and minus the kids.”

“You are so far off base,” Carrie told her. “There is nothing at all between Sam and me. There’s not likely to be, either. I’m not crazy about some of the decisions he’s been making about Bobby and he doesn’t seem all that crazy about me, period. Let this go, Shanna. I’m glad you invited him over. Earlier today I was thinking he and Kevin might have a lot in common, given how abruptly they both became single dads. Trust me, though. You’ll have a much better time without me there.”

“I already told him I was inviting you.”

That gave Carrie pause. “And he didn’t immediately come up with an excuse to avoid the whole thing?”

“Nope. He looked more like a man who was happy someone was stepping in to push the two of you together again.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

Shanna was surprisingly silent for about a minute. “You know, I take it back,” she said.

Carrie was startled by the sudden turnaround. She didn’t like the disappointment that immediately spread over her. “You’re withdrawing the invitation? You’re canceling dinner?”

“Nope,” Shanna said decisively. “I’m moving it up. It’s tomorrow night. I don’t want you to have a whole week to talk yourself out of coming. Sam, either. Seven o’clock. I’ll call him right now to confirm.”

“But I never said yes.”

“Oh, you’ll be here,” Shanna said confidently. “Don’t you have enough issues with the family without adding coward to the list?”

“That’s not fair,” Carrie grumbled, knowing Shanna had set a very neat trap for her.

“Life is rarely fair,” Shanna said brightly. “But O’Briens always cope. See you tomorrow, sweetie.”

She hung up before Carrie could form another protest or think of a single way to wiggle out of the commitment. Maybe, if she were very, very lucky, Sam would do the wiggling. Sadly, with the way her luck was running lately, it wouldn’t happen that way.

And somewhere, deep down inside, a traitorous spark of anticipation was doing a little jig about that.

6

Sam had been surprised to hear from Shanna so quickly about dinner. In fact, she’d caught him so completely off guard, he hadn’t been able to come up with a single excuse to refuse, even though he wasn’t crazy about her obvious attempt to throw him together with Carrie. He told himself he’d accepted for Bobby’s sake. That was the only thing that gave him any comfort as he approached Shanna and Kevin’s house on a quiet side street not far from downtown.

Though the house appeared small from the street, he discovered on entering that appearances had been deceiving. There had been additions onto the back, including a big sunroom where a baby in pink was bouncing in a child seat, a toddler was climbing all over a teenager as the boy tried to play a video game and yet another boy was laughing hysterically.

“Way to go,” the laughing youngster told the toddler.

“Get him off of me,” the older boy pleaded, still trying to concentrate.

“No way!” the other boy declared. “He’s my secret weapon.”

“I thought Carrie was your secret weapon. You loved it when she busted my chops yesterday.”

Shanna stood in the doorway, shaking her head. “Welcome to my world,” she told Sam. She raised her voice. “Boys! We have company.”

“Henry, Davey and Johnny,” she said as she pointed to each of them. “The baby’s Kelly. Everyone, this is Sam. He’s working with Mack at the paper. And this is his nephew, Bobby.”

Bobby hung back shyly, but surprisingly it was the teenager who came over and held out a hand. “Hey, Bobby, do you like video games?”

Bobby nodded.

“Then you can be on my side. Davey’s enlisted the little monkey over there to try to distract me when it’s my turn. You can do the same when it’s Davey’s turn.”

“You want me to climb on him?” Bobby asked skeptically.

Henry laughed. “Whatever works,” he said. “You’ll think of something.”

Bobby looked hesitantly up at Sam. “Is it okay?”

Before Sam could answer, Shanna stepped in. “Do whatever you need to do,” she told Bobby. “Just no hitting or biting. Those are the house rules.”

She turned to Sam. “We probably don’t want to watch this. Come with me and I’ll get you a glass of wine. Kevin should be here soon and Carrie’s on her way. She’s stopping to pick up dessert. Nell baked today. Honestly, I don’t know how Nell does it. Once a week there’s Kevin’s favorite apple pie, a coconut cake for Connor and his family, chocolate cake for Abby and Trace, scones for anybody who wants them. She must have been a baker in her previous life. She’d do all the pastry for the inn, if Jess would let her. Now that she’s in her eighties, we all think she should slow down, but she’s having none of it. Have you met her yet?”

Sam shook his head. “But I have had a few of her chocolate-chip cookies,” Sam said. “Carrie gave me some when I stopped by O’Briens the other night.”

Shanna’s eyes lit up. “Did you try the stew? That’s Nell’s recipe, too. In fact, most of the food in the pub is based on traditional recipes she learned when she stayed with her grandparents in Ireland years ago.”

“So Luke inherited her skill in the kitchen?”

Shanna laughed. “Absolutely not. She despaired of teaching him a thing. He brought in a chef and Nell trained him. She still looks over his shoulder regularly to be sure he’s not messing up. Nothing goes on the menu unless it has her stamp of approval. For a guy who learned to cook in a New York deli, he’s adapted quite well to Nell’s Irish favorites. Every now and then he sneaks a Reuben or a pastrami sandwich onto the menu as a special, and Nell pretends not to notice.”

Just then Carrie’s voice carried down the hallway to the big open kitchen. Sam felt an immediate and troubling spark of anticipation. Apparently he could tell himself a thousand times that getting involved with her was a bad idea, but his testosterone wasn’t convinced.

“Anybody here?” she called out.

“In the kitchen,” Shanna replied as she poured two glasses of wine. She handed one to Sam, then held out the other to Carrie as she set the pie on the counter.

“Gram says to heat this up before you serve it,” Carrie instructed Shanna.

“As if she hasn’t told me that every single week since the day I married Kevin,” Shanna said.

Carrie laughed. “She doesn’t like to leave anything to chance and I’m pretty sure she’s convinced that not a one of us inherited a single bit of her culinary skill.”

“Not true,” Shanna said. “Kevin’s actually quite adept in the kitchen. He’s just never home to cook.”

He walked in just in time to overhear the comment. “I’m here now,” he said, giving her a thorough kiss. “And I always take care of the important things, right? Like this?”

Laughing, Shanna shoved him away when he clearly would have stolen another kiss. “Company, Kevin.”

“It’s just Carrie,” he said.

“And Sam Winslow,” Shanna said, giving him a gentle elbow in the ribs. “Sam, my husband, Kevin O’Brien.”

Sam grinned at Kevin’s suddenly chagrined expression. “I didn’t realize we had company company,” he apologized. “I thought it was just Carrie.”

“Thanks,” Carrie grumbled, feigning an insulted look. “Always a pleasure to see you, too.” She glanced at Sam. “A minute ago I would have told you Kevin was my favorite uncle, but now he’s on probation. I’m thinking Uncle Connor has the edge.”

The teasing interaction was a revelation to Sam, whose own family life, if it could even be called that, had always been filled with tension and long, awkward silences.

There was a sudden whoop of glee from the sunroom.

“Video game?” Kevin asked.

“Always,” Shanna said with a sigh. “Sounds as if maybe Davey actually won this one.”

Kevin glanced toward Sam. “You any good at those games?”

“I’ve played some,” Sam said, though from what he’d observed tonight, he wasn’t nearly as competitive as the males in this family.

“Want to go out there and take them on?” Kevin asked.

“Sure,” Sam said at once, eager to get away from the kitchen and the unwanted attraction that seemed to be simmering between him and Carrie.

“Twenty minutes,” Shanna reminded them sternly. “Once I get dinner on the table, I’m not calling you all twice. And make sure all the boys wash their hands. And don’t forget the baby, the way you did last night.”

Sam bit back a smile as he followed Kevin to the sunroom. “You forgot the baby?”

“Hey, she’d fallen asleep,” Kevin explained in his own defense. “Since she’s almost never quiet for more than a heartbeat, I think I should be forgiven for not realizing she was there.”

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that,” Sam told him.

Kevin regarded him with a puzzled look. “Why’s that?”

“Because I’ve only had responsibility for my nephew for a couple of weeks and I’ve spent most of that time terrified I was going to do something totally stupid. And as if I didn’t have enough doubts myself, Carrie has caught me twice doing things she apparently considered unforgivable.”

“What things?” Kevin asked.

“I left Bobby sleeping in the car while I ran into O’Briens to pick up takeout. Even though I kept my eye on him the whole time, that wasn’t good enough for her. And the next day she thought I wasn’t watching closely enough while he was climbing on the jungle gym at the playground.”

“When it comes to kids, Carrie’s a natural-born worrier,” Kevin consoled him. “Just like her mom. And just like Abby, Carrie will be a great mom someday. We all trust her to keep an eye on our kids, but we also know she’s overprotective. She’ll get over it once she sees that not even she can be everywhere at once. Kids are adventurous. They do crazy things and sometimes they’re too fast for us to catch ’em before they fall. All we can do is be alert and minimize the risks, then be ready to patch up any bumps and bruises, dry any tears.”

“Voice of experience?” Sam asked.

“As a dad and as a former paramedic,” Kevin confirmed. “There’s a big difference between letting kids be kids and allowing them to take the occasional risk, and being a negligent parent. You’ll figure it out, too.”

Sam was doubtful. “I hope so. By the way, Bobby was asking if there’s T-ball in town.”

“Sure. Show up at the high school field on Saturday. We’ll get him on a team.”

In the sunroom, Kevin muscled Henry away from the controls for the video game, took the other remote from Davey and handed it to Sam. “Let us show you how it’s done, boys.”

“Oh, please,” Henry taunted. “I’ve been beating you since I was a kid.”

“Me, too,” Davey gloated. “Dad, you’re really bad.”

Sam laughed. “Then maybe I have half a chance.”

“Loser takes on Carrie,” Henry said, his expression innocent. “You’ll need a confidence boost.”

Something told Sam he’d better win against Kevin. The last thing he wanted was to be humiliated for his ineptitude yet again by Carrie Winters.

* * *

“Are you convinced now?” Carrie asked Shanna as Kevin and Sam left the kitchen. “He barely even looked at me.”

Shanna waved off the comment. “That meant nothing. If anything, it was more telling than it would have been if he’d fawned all over you.”

“Seriously?” Carrie said, trying to follow her logic.

“Sure. Men act all indifferent when they’re feeling exactly the opposite and don’t want to give anything away.”

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