Driftwood Cottage (21 page)

He shrugged. “Well, who knew there were so many shades of green? You said something about sage. I figured herbs are all bright green. What do I know?”

“So you got a couple of things wrong. The point is that this house should be a reflection of what you want.”

He held her gaze. “I want what you want. What’s it going to take to convince you of that?”

“Spending thousands of dollars according to my preferences is helping,” she told him, only partially in jest. “But, Connor, you do know we’re not going to be living here together, right?”

He remained stubbornly silent, so she continued, “Now that you’re back in Chesapeake Shores for good, it makes sense that you’d want a home of your own, but you shouldn’t fix this house up with the idea that I’ll love it so much, I’ll move in. That would be crazy, for both of us.”

Rather than taking offense as she’d feared he might,
he dropped down to the ground beside her, then looked up. “Tell me something.”

She regarded him with suspicion. “What?”

“How’s it been having your mother here?”

Heather was completely thrown by the change of topic. “It’s been good. I’d missed her. Why do you ask?”

“How long is she planning to stay?”

“I’m not really sure,” she said. “She’s not bad-mouthing you every second of the day and night, if that’s worrying you.”

“Never crossed my mind,” he claimed. “What about your dad? He still hasn’t been over here to visit, has he?”

“No.” She gave him a puzzled look. “Connor, where are you going with this? Why the sudden interest in my family?”

He met her gaze. “Honestly? I’m wondering if maybe that situation isn’t coloring the way you’re looking at the possibility of a real future with me.”

“How?” she asked incredulously. “One thing has nothing to do with the other.”

“Are you so sure about that?” he asked. “You’ve always said that you believed in love and in marriage, despite the tension you lived with growing up. And yet, despite that tension, your parents did stay together. Now I have the feeling that your mother might be ready to make an official break from your father. She certainly doesn’t seem anxious to get back to Ohio.”

Heather immediately shook her head in denial. “She’s only here because I need her.”

“And that’s it? She’s said nothing about staying on?”

Heather thought about her mother’s quick, off-the-cuff
comment a few weeks ago that she liked Chesapeake Shores and might want to stay on indefinitely. Heather hadn’t put much credence in it at the time, but her mother was showing no signs of leaving.

She studied Connor with a narrowed gaze. “Do you know something that I don’t? I didn’t think the two of you had been having talks behind my back.”

“We haven’t been,” he said. Then amended, “Well, just once, but her marriage wasn’t a topic of discussion, I can guarantee you that. I’m just making an observation.”

“And there’s a point to this observation beyond the fact that you’re speculating that my parents might be breaking up their marriage?” she inquired testily.

Connor looked a little uneasy. She could almost see him wrestling with the decision of whether to keep pursuing this. She wanted him to see it through, so she waited impatiently for him to get to the point. She had a hunch she wasn’t going to like it when he did.

“It just occurred to me that if your mom is suddenly thinking about divorcing your dad, it might have thrown you, even though you’ve obviously seen something like this coming for years.”

Heather thought about all the times she’d overheard her parents arguing deep into the night. When her friends’ parents had divorced, she’d always been relieved that it wasn’t hers, but she’d waited with a sense of dread nonetheless for that day to come. And even though it had made no sense to remain married and miserable, she’d been glad that they had. Somehow that had gotten all twisted up with her conviction that marriage was meant to be forever. Though her mother might have stayed married because of deeply held religious beliefs, Heather had
never been that rigid. She didn’t approve of divorce as a quick way out, but she understood that sometimes it was the only solution to a truly terrible situation. What if her parents had reached that point?

Even though she found Connor’s comments to be unsettling, she couldn’t ignore what he was suggesting. “You think a divorce is inevitable after all these years,” she said flatly.

“You know them better than I do,” he said, clearly not willing to commit to such a drastic prediction. “I just wonder if you’re not shaken up by that possibility. It must call into question a lot of your beliefs.”

“
If
my parents were divorcing—and I don’t know that they are—sure, it would rattle me,” she admitted. “What’s your point?”

“That maybe that’s why you’re so determined not to believe that I’ve changed,” he said, holding her gaze as if trying to gauge her reaction.

“Are you crazy?” she said at once. “Is your ego so huge that you can only imagine me refusing your proposal by laying it on the shaky status of my parents’ marriage?”

Connor didn’t back down. “The idea’s not that crazy,” he insisted. “I discussed it with Will and…”

Her temper flared. “You and Will talked about my parents? Their marriage is none of his business. It’s none of yours, either, for that matter.”

“It is if it’s the thing that’s keeping you from marrying me. As for Will, he’s a really good shrink. I value his opinion.”

“Then get him to psychoanalyze you and leave me and my family out of it,” she said. “You’re the one with issues about marriage. I think that’s been pretty well-
documented. And nobody turns off beliefs that deep on a dime.”

He stared at her indignantly. “And you think that’s what I did—turned on a dime?”

“Didn’t you?” she challenged. “I had an accident and suddenly you woke up to the joys of marriage? I didn’t buy it when you told me at the hospital, and I still don’t.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time a crisis made someone reevaluate his life,” Connor said defensively. “It happens all the time.”

“Not to you,” she countered. “Your beliefs haven’t changed in years. You’re surrounded by people who are happily married, and even after your own parents reconciled, you still held out. Then, in a flash, it all changed? No way!”

“If you can’t buy that I’ve changed, how do you explain what’s happened with you?” he asked reasonably. “Ever since we met, you’ve been a huge proponent of marital bliss. Then I propose, and suddenly you’re not interested.”

“Because I don’t believe it’s what you really want!” she practically shouted at him, her patience at an end.

Connor threw up his hands in exasperation and walked away. She stared after him, stunned to find that tears were rolling down her cheeks. She had no idea why, other than the fact that the man infuriated her, but that was nothing to cry about.

“Heather, are you okay?”

She looked up into Mick’s worried gaze. “I will be,” she said, brushing impatiently at the tears.

“Where’s Connor? I thought I heard his voice out here.”

“Oh, he’s off somewhere making up excuses for why I won’t marry him. He can’t seem to believe I turned him down because I know it’s not what he wants.”

Mick gave her a sympathetic look. “Are you sure that’s what you’re doing, letting him off the hook?”

“Of course. He just had an attack of conscience or something after my accident.”

“I don’t think so,” Mick said. “Connor’s timing might be lousy, but he loves you. There’s not a doubt in my mind about it. Don’t throw that away.”

“I’m not throwing it away,” she said softly, then wondered if that wasn’t exactly what she had done. She’d thrown Connor’s words and his proposal right back in his face. More than once now. Why?

Could he possibly be right that seeing how her mother was literally blossoming away from her dad had shaken her values, made her question everything she’d believed about marriage and the possibility of happily ever after? Had seeing Bridget slowly reach out for her own fresh start reminded Heather of all the reasons she’d had when she first left Connor?

No, she thought fiercely, that couldn’t be right. She’d left Connor not because she’d craved independence, not because she didn’t love him and want a future with him, but because he wasn’t offering one. Now he was, and she’d said no. Maybe she did need to see a shrink, after all.

Or maybe it was time she went back to listening to her heart.

H
eather couldn’t seem to shake Connor’s theory about why she was holding back on marriage now that he was ready for it. Did it have anything at all to do with whatever was going on between her mother and father? And what was going on?

Certainly Bridget seemed to be in no big hurry to get back to Ohio. She was going to church on Sundays with Nell and had even joined her women’s group at the church on a couple of occasions. Last week, she’d played bingo there one evening, as well. And she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying working at Cottage Quilts and teaching classes. It appeared she truly was settling into Chesapeake Shores.

Feeling oddly disgruntled, Heather watched her mother’s efficient movements as she prepared dinner for the three of them. She was making spaghetti. It was one of little Mick’s favorites—and also his dad’s. Bridget didn’t even seem to mind the mess he was bound to make. In fact, she had incredible patience with her grandson, who could test even Heather’s nerves from time to time.

Heather maneuvered herself to her feet and used her
crutches to cross the room. She settled on a stool at the kitchen counter. “Mom, can I ask you something?”

Bridget looked up from the sauce she was stirring. “Of course.”

“What’s going on with you and Dad?”

Her mother’s expression froze. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Of course you do,” Heather said impatiently. “You must. You’ve been here for several weeks now. He hasn’t come to visit. He hardly calls anymore. At least, not when I’m around. Is this some kind of separation?”

To her horror, a tear leaked from her mother’s eye and trickled down her cheek. “Mom?” she whispered, shaken by the sight of her mother crying. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, it’s okay,” her mother insisted. “You should know what’s going on. The truth is, your father and I separated months ago.”

Heather regarded her with shock. “Months ago? And you never said a word to me? Why?”

“You had a lot going on in your own life.” Bridget sighed. “The truth is we should have done it years ago, but we thought staying married was for the best.”

“Because of me,” Heather guessed.

“You, and because I wasn’t raised to accept divorce as an option. When I spoke those vows in church, they meant something to me. With divorce off the table, it didn’t seem to make sense to disrupt everyone’s lives with a separation.”

“And now?”

“I just don’t know,” Bridget said wearily. “I still believe divorce goes against God’s will, but it seems wrong for
two people to remain tied together forever when they’re both so unhappy. It’s not that I expect to meet someone new at my age, but just separating indefinitely the way it’s been these past few months would be like living the rest of my life in limbo. I honestly don’t know what my next step should be. Being here, not having to face that decision right away, has been a relief.”

“I wish you’d talked to me about this sooner,” Heather told her. “Not that I have any answers for you, but at least I could have listened.”

“I didn’t want to burden you. I was still struggling to accept that you and Connor had a child together and had no intention of getting married. Because of the way I raised you, I knew you had to have conflicting feelings about that. I thought my problems might just add to your confusion.”

Heather wasn’t ready to admit that perhaps they had. Instead, she asked, “Mom, do you believe marriages ever work?”

Bridget looked startled by the question. “Well, of course, I do. There’s evidence all around of that.”

“But there’s just as much that proves they don’t,” Heather reminded her. “Look at the divorce statistics. Look at your own situation, for heaven’s sake.”

“Too many people run at the first sign of trouble,” Bridget declared with feeling. “I’m not saying marriage isn’t hard. It is. It requires determination and compromise and enough love to weather the storms. But even with all of that, sometimes people just have to admit they’ve made a mistake. That’s the way it is for your father and me. We were a mismatch from the beginning. I’m a homebody. I like my routines. He’s a spur-of-the-moment kind of
guy who’d rather hang with his buddies in a bar than sit at home with me. I thought when you came along, he’d change, but that only made things worse.”

She gave Heather an apologetic look. “Not your fault, of course. He had no idea what to do with a baby, and I started to resent him not being around to help. I could go on and on. We tried, though. I even got him into counseling for a couple of sessions, but the truth was, he didn’t want to change. I just had to accept that.”

Heather regarded her mother with sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She turned the heat under the sauce to low and sat down next to Heather. “I’m painting a picture of all the things that went wrong, but there were some good times. Quite a lot of them, if I’m being honest.”

Her expression turned nostalgic. “Nobody could make me laugh like your father could. And there was many a night in the early days when I’d go with him to the Irish pub down the block just to hear him sing. The man has a voice like an angel. I think that’s why I fell in love with him.”

Heather tried to recall a single time she’d heard her father sing, but none came to mind. “He never sang at home, not even in the shower,” she said. “I would have heard him.”

“He did in the early years,” Bridget told her. “And he sang you to sleep more than once when you were a baby and I couldn’t get you to stop crying.”

“I wish I could remember that,” Heather said wistfully. What she remembered most was a handsome man who seldom smiled and had little to say. Though he rarely yelled and had never lifted a hand to her, she’d always had
the sense she needed to tiptoe around him, taking care not to anger him. There were none of the warm, loving memories all of the O’Briens seemed to have of Mick. It was as if her father had been there, but hadn’t been involved in her life, almost a stranger on the fringes of it. And yet she had adored him, had longed for his approval just as most young girls did with their fathers.

“Do you want to stay in Chesapeake Shores?” Heather asked tentatively. “You could go on working with me at the quilt shop. It won’t pay much, but if you stay here with me, your living expenses will be modest.”

Her mother looked touched by the offer. “Sweetheart, thank you for that. I have to admit, the thought has crossed my mind more than once since I’ve been here, but I just don’t know.”

“Is that because you don’t want to stay?” Heather asked. “Or because you don’t think you should?”

“Mostly the latter,” her mother said candidly, “though not for the reason you’re probably thinking. It’s not that I think leaving your father permanently is wrong. I just wonder if I won’t be in the way here. I don’t want to be the reason you and Connor don’t work things out.”

“What’s happening between Connor and me has nothing to do with you,” Heather protested. “We agreed long ago not to get married.”

“But things have changed,” her mother protested. “That was Connor’s decision back then, not yours. Now, it seems he’s changed his mind. What I don’t understand is your reluctance to accept his proposal.”

Heather sighed. “That does seem to be the question of the day,” she said. “I’m not sure I have an answer to it.”

Her mother patted her hand. “Then you need to spend
some time thinking about it because if I’ve figured out one thing about that young man of yours, it’s that he’s not patient.”

“Well, I’ve waited this long for him to come to his senses, now he can wait for me to catch up with him,” Heather said with a touch of defiance.

Bridget’s gaze narrowed. “So, this is payback?”

Heather was stunned by the observation. “Of course not,” she said at once.

But was it? Or was Connor right that the turmoil in her mother’s life, which she now understood more clearly, had shaken her faith in marriage? She simply didn’t know.

But her mother was right about one thing. She needed to figure it out, and she needed to do it quickly before she lost everything she’d ever wanted.

On Saturday, a few minutes after the quilting class had ended downstairs, Connie burst into Heather’s apartment.

“You need to come with me,” she declared urgently, pacing from one end of the small space to the other, clearly agitated. “Right now.”

Heather gestured toward her propped-up leg. “Hello! Not very mobile here.”

“I’ll get you down the stairs and into my car if I have to carry you myself,” Connie said.

Heather could see that her friend was thoroughly flustered. What she didn’t understand was why. “How about you sit down, take a deep breath and tell me what on earth has you in such a state?”

Connie kept right on pacing. “There’s no time. I have to
get to one of those events for Thomas’s foundation—you know, the ones that Shanna and I have organized.”

“Okay,” Heather said slowly. “And you want me to come along?”

“You
have
to come along,” Connie corrected.

“Why? Do you need extra help? Did Shanna bail on you?”

“Shanna bailed, but that’s not the problem.”

“Sweetie, you’re going to have to spell this out for me, because I’m a little lost here. You know I’m willing to do whatever I can to help, but I need to have some clue about what that is.”

Connie stopped, sucked in a deep breath and blurted, “I think I’m falling for Uncle Thomas. I mean Thomas. He’s not my uncle, is he? That would be bad. But it’s pretty bad anyway because he’s my brother’s uncle-in-law, and he’s older than me.” She sighed and finally sank into a chair. “Am I insane or what?”

Even though she knew it was precisely the wrong thing to do, Heather chuckled. She tried to hide it, but the scowl on Connie’s face told her she’d been unsuccessful.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “You’re obviously upset, and all I can think is how fantastic this is.”

“It is not fantastic,” Connie retorted. “Were you not listening to me? This practically shouts disaster.”

“How does he feel about you?” Heather asked.

Connie looked bewildered by the very logical question. “I have no idea. I guess he likes me well enough, but that’s the thing. He’s smart enough to know this is crazy. Even if there was some kind of attraction, he’d never do anything about it. I mean we’re practically family, for heaven’s sake. Just think of the furor.”

“You are
not
family,” Heather said firmly. “Let’s get that out of the way once and for all. And you’re both consenting adults. I’m not saying it might not get complicated—we’re talking O’Briens. Everything about them is complicated.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Connie said. “I need you with me today. I need you to keep me from doing something I’ll regret.”

Heather bit back a smile. “Such as? Have you ever thrown yourself into a man’s arms out of the blue? Impulsively kissed one senseless?”

Connie looked appalled by both suggestions. “Of course not.”

“Then I think you’re going to be just fine. You’re over-thinking this. This project the two of you are working on is the best scenario possible under the circumstances. You’ll be thrown together innocently for a good cause, and you’ll have time to really get to know each other. If there’s something between you, it will develop naturally and when the time is right.”

“I suppose,” Connie said, then asked plaintively, “Are you sure you can’t come with me?”

“Oh, I’m coming,” Heather said, struggling to her feet. “Do you think for one second I’m going to miss a firsthand glimpse of what’s going on between you two?”

Connie’s gaze narrowed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“It definitely beats sitting around trying to figure out how things got so mixed up between Connor and me,” Heather said, heading for the landing. “Grab my purse. I think if I’m really careful and you go down ahead of me, I can make it down these steps without breaking my
neck. I’ve been envisioning the way I need to do it for days now. You’ve just provided the motivation I needed to try it.”

Connie took her place in front of Heather and helped her take each step at an excruciatingly slow pace. Only when they’d reached the bottom and Heather had managed to get into the passenger seat of her car did Connie turn to her with a beaming smile. “I suppose I should tell you that Connor’s filling in for Shanna today.”

Heather stared at her. “You sneak! Was the whole Thomas thing some kind of subterfuge to get me to go with you?”

“Oh, no. That’s real enough. I just figured if I was going to let you watch me squirm, you should know that I’m going to keep my eyes on the two of you as well. I’m today’s designated meddler.”

Heather wasn’t sure whether to take her seriously or not. “Are you telling me the family has drawn straws to see who’s going to mess with my head or Connor’s on any given day?”

“The arrangement’s not quite that formal,” Connie admitted. “But we’ve all taken an interest in the situation. You may as well get used to it. Even if we weren’t talking you and an O’Brien, we’re talking Chesapeake Shores. It’s a town that likes its happy endings.”

“Oh, sweet heaven!” Heather murmured. She and Connor were doomed.

Connor had now filled in at a couple of these events to save the bay, and he’d discovered he enjoyed them. He was getting to spend some time in communities around the region, helping a worthy cause, and little Mick loved
running around outside and eating hot dogs or whatever else was being served.

Connor’s understanding and admiration for the work his uncle and Kevin were doing had deepened as well. He was even thinking of offering to do the group’s legal work pro bono as his own contribution to the cause.

Today he’d driven down ahead of Connie and set up the tables for selling books and foundation memberships. He’d toted all the boxes of books over as well. Now he and little Mick were walking around to visit the handful of vendors who’d used the occasion to set up their own booths selling locally grown produce, crafts and even baked goods.

“Cookies, Da!” his son announced excitedly, spotting a tray of big chocolate chip cookies. “Please?”