Harbor Lights (12 page)

“Well, your timing was impeccable. I needed to see a friendly face.”

He looked pleased by the comment, then gave her an earnest look. “Megan, seriously, think about moving home. You can open your own art gallery. You know the business. You have the contacts. And I have the money to back you.”

“Which wouldn’t make it my business now, would it?” she countered. “No, Mick. It’s a generous offer, but I can’t accept it.”

“Then marry me again, dammit, and just come home.”

She looked into his eyes and laughed. “Now, if that isn’t the loveliest proposal a woman has ever heard,” she said, shaking her head. “It absolutely makes me want to swoon right into your arms.”

“If you want the whole hearts and flowers thing, I’ll do it,” he vowed. “Come to dinner with me tonight, and I’ll arrange for candlelight and music and I’ll bring along the biggest rock you can wear and still lift your finger.”

“Oh, Mick,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I don’t need a diamond ring. Truth be told, I don’t even like diamonds all that well. And I can’t marry you again, so please don’t drag out all the romantic gestures.”

He pulled his hand away, the hurt in his eyes unmistakable. “Are you saying I’m wasting my time courting you? Have you already made up your mind that you’ll never come back to me?”

“No,” she said, immediately regretting the way she’d phrased her response. “I haven’t decided anything.”

“Well, you sounded pretty darn sure of yourself not a minute ago,” he groused.

“I just meant I couldn’t marry you
now,
or even say yes now. We still need time, Mick. Neither of us are who we were when we met, or even when we divorced. We can’t drift back together and expect to fit together the same way.”

“I suppose I should be relieved by what you’re saying, but all I feel is aggravated,” he admitted.

She smiled at that. “Because patience has never been one of your virtues.”

“True enough.” He stood up. “Well, since you won’t let me set up some fancy dinner, I suppose we should get back to that gallery of yours and find those missing paintings.”

She regarded him with surprise. “You don’t have to help.”

“I do if I expect to spend any time with you this evening,” he said. “And I didn’t come all this way just to wander around the city on my own.”

She gave him a coy look. “With all the attractions New York has to offer, you care only about me?”

He laughed. “Meggie, don’t you know by now that for me, you’ll always be the main attraction?”

“There’s more of that Irish blarney I always loved,” she said as she followed him from the coffee shop.

“It’s not blarney,” he said indignantly. “It’s the gospel truth.”

Heaven help her, she thought. She was beginning to believe he meant it.

Shanna didn’t see Kevin for more than a week after he’d gotten that call from his former mother-in-law. She knew what he was going through and why, but she hated that he seemed to have lost some of the forward momentum in his life. Bree had stopped by yesterday morning and mentioned that he was moping around the house again. The only positive thing he seemed to be doing was going to the required classes to get his captain’s certification.

She’d picked up the phone half a dozen times to call him, then put it back. Friends certainly called friends, but she knew that wasn’t exactly what they were. There was too much attraction sizzling between them for the label to fit.

Even more worrisome than her indecision about calling Kevin was the fact that she was spending so much time thinking about him in the first place. Every casual remark Bree had made about her brother when they’d chatted in front of their shops had been as welcome as rain drenching the parched flowers in a garden. Shanna recognized that it wasn’t a good sign.

Of course, thinking about Kevin did keep her from dwelling on her former stepson. Whenever she saw children running eagerly toward the beach in the morning
or families waiting in line to get ice cream at the shop around the corner, she thought of Henry and her heart sank. Today it was a toss-up which of the two worries ran deeper—Kevin or Henry.

Since Kevin was an adult and his problems weren’t hers to solve, the next time she reached for the phone, she called the number that had once been her own. It was the nanny who answered.

“Greta, it’s Shanna.”

“Oh, Mrs. Hamilton, how are you?” She clucked at her mistake. “Sorry. I know it’s Ms. Carlyle now. I just can’t get used to that.”

“Shanna is fine,” she told the woman who’d been caring for Henry since his mother had died in an accident when he was three. “How’s Henry? Is he there?”

“Standing right here beside me,” Greta said. “As soon as he heard me say your name, he came running. I’ll put him on.”

“First tell me if he’s okay.”

Greta hesitated, then said unconvincingly, “Everything’s fine.”

Hearing an off note in her voice, Shanna persisted. “No, it’s not. What’s going on?”

“I really can’t get into that now. Here’s Henry.”

“Mommy, is it really you?” Henry asked.

Relieved by the familiar excitement in his voice, she put aside her fears. She saw no need to correct him for calling her Mommy, either, though Greg and his family had objected to the continued use of it after the divorce.

“We gave him permission to call me that even before the wedding,” she’d reminded Greg. “If someone else comes into the picture, then we’ll worry about which of us he calls Mommy.” Her ex-husband had finally relented.

For a moment now, she simply basked in knowing that her boy sounded happy. Then she asked, “Hey, buddy, how are you? Have you grown another six inches since last time we talked?”

He giggled. “Nobody grows that fast.”

“I think you do. I had to buy you new school clothes three times when you were in kindergarten. How about that sweater I sent you for your birthday. Have you outgrown that already?”

“No way,” he said. “It’s awesome. I’m going to wear it forever and ever.” He paused, then said, “Guess what, Mommy?”

“What?”

“Daddy promised to take me to a Phillies baseball game next week, and maybe to a Baltimore Orioles game later this summer. He said someday we’d go to every ballpark in the whole country. Isn’t that the best?”

Knowing how much Henry loved baseball, she agreed. “It’s definitely the best.” She just hoped it didn’t turn out to be one of the hundreds of promises that Greg broke. Each time it was harder and harder for Henry to bounce back from the disappointment. Each time the light in his eyes dimmed a bit more.

“Tell me what else you’ve been doing,” she encouraged him. “Are you having a good summer vacation?”

“Greta took me fishing at the lake,” he said, mentioning another of his favorite things. They’d gone almost daily when she’d been there. He sighed heavily. “But she didn’t like baiting the hook. I don’t think she’ll take me again.” He paused then asked, “Could you maybe come and take me?”

“I wish I could, buddy. I’ll talk to your dad, and maybe one of these days we’ll be able to work something out. No promises, though—understood?”

“I know. It’s because the court said so,” he said glumly. “I hate the dumb court.”

Shanna wasn’t especially fond of it, either. The judge had been a close friend of Greg’s father; she’d never stood a chance. A more compassionate and less well-connected judge might have taken into account the bond she’d had with Henry rather than focusing solely on the legalities. These infrequent calls weren’t satisfying to either one of them. Still, they were better than being cut out of Henry’s life completely, which would have been the Hamiltons’ preference.

“Did you open your bookstore?” Henry asked.

“I did and it’s wonderful.”

“I wish I could see it,” he said wistfully. “Maybe Grandma will bring me.”

Shanna had her doubts about that. Loretta Hamilton had never been one of Shanna’s biggest fans. All evidence to the contrary, she’d blamed Shanna for the breakup of the marriage after only a few months. Though she was well aware of the tight bond Shanna and Henry had formed, she’d backed her husband and son a hundred percent in their efforts to keep Shanna out of Henry’s life after the divorce.

“I need to go, but I love you, Henry,” Shanna said. “Can you put Greta back on?”

“She went downstairs,” he told her. “I think she’s fixing lunch.”

“Okay then,” Shanna said, hiding her disappointment at not getting to ask the nanny a few more questions. “I’ll speak to you again soon.”

“Really soon?” he asked plaintively.

“Really soon. Love you,” she said and waited.

After a moment came the hard-won response, “Love you.”

Shanna hung up, tears in her eyes. It had taken her months of repeating the phrase every time she said good-night, both before and after the wedding, to get Henry to utter those words. In a family that thought effusive emotions were a weakness, he’d rarely heard them and learned to distrust them when they were spoken.

Sadly, when she and his dad had split up, he’d felt betrayed by the simple phrase yet again. At the age of six, when she’d left, he’d learned that love didn’t mean people stayed in his life. He’d remained stubbornly silent when she’d uttered them during their conversations. It was only in recent weeks, when he’d begun to believe that she still cared despite being separated from him, that he’d started to say the words again.

“Oh, Henry,” she murmured, brushing at the tears dampening her cheeks. “What have we done to you?”

It wasn’t the first time she’d asked herself the question, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Greg, in his own highly dysfunctional way, had gone on after the divorce. So had she, building a new life that promised to be fulfilling in ways her marriage had never been.

But Henry, living in the midst of the chaos that was his father’s life, had no choices open to him, no defenses against the turmoil that was a daily occurrence with a man like Greg, who lost himself in an alcoholic haze more frequently than not.

Shanna had tried so hard to make all of that clear to the judge, but her word had been up against the testimony of Loretta and Harrison Hamilton, even against the word of Greg himself, who’d sobered up sufficiently to make his case to the court. Charming and intelligent when sober, Greg had given testimony about their marriage that had been impossible to refute with his powerful parents there
to back him up and no one at all to support her claims. Even with a stack of exorbitant liquor store receipts as evidence, she couldn’t place those bottles in Greg’s hands. For all anyone knew, they’d been gifts to business associates or supplies for extravagant parties, as Greg’s counsel had suggested.

She’d walked away from the brief marriage with her heart in tatters but her dignity intact. Yet the real damage had been to a then-six-year-old boy who’d been left with no one to protect and love him beyond a nanny too frightened of her boss to speak up in court when it might have counted.

Shanna sighed. The call had been unsatisfying in so many ways, but hearing the wistful note in Henry’s voice had accomplished one thing. It had stiffened her resolve to watch over him as best she could from a distance.

And if the time ever came when she suspected that he was being hurt—emotionally or physically—by his father, she would act in a heartbeat and damn the legal consequences.

T
ired of the pitying looks he was getting from just about everyone in his family, Kevin invited Jake, Trace, Will and Mack to go fishing with him on Sunday. It would give him a chance to test his skill at handling his new boat. More important, it might reassure everyone that his life was on track.

The other four men met him at the Harbor Lights Marina at dawn. Of all of them, only Mack was looking a little the worse for wear.

“Late night?” Kevin inquired.

“He was out on another one of those nondates with Susie O’Brien,” Will said. “For two people who insist they’re not even remotely into each other, they spend an awful lot of time together.”

“We’re friends,” Mack said, giving him a sour look, then jumping on board the fishing boat to get away from them. No sooner had Kevin brought his cooler aboard than Mack popped open a beer.

Jake frowned at him. “What’s going on with you? It’s not even seven in the morning.”

“I’m telling you, he’s totally messed up,” Will said.

“Is that your professional opinion?” Mack retorted. “What kind of shrink tells someone they’re messed up?”

“One who cares, dammit!” Will retorted. “This nonsense has to stop. Either date the woman or don’t, but this ridiculous denial you’re both in isn’t working. The last time I ran into Susie, she was as much of a basket case as you are.”

“Did you share that insight with her?” Mack asked.

Will looked appalled by the suggestion. “Of course not.”

“Well, FYI, I’m not the one you need to be lecturing,” Mack said. “Now, can we please drop this? If not, I’m going back home.”

Trace took out a beer and dropped down into the chair next to his. “I think I’ll join you,” he announced. “Misery loves company, right?”

Kevin’s head snapped around at that. “Misery? What do you have to be miserable about? You and my sister are about to get married.”

Trace shrugged and took a long, deep drink from his bottle of beer. “Couldn’t prove it by me. Have you heard a date? I haven’t. Every time I ask, I get the look.”

Mack nodded sorrowfully. “I know that look.”

“Me, too,” Jake said.

Kevin stared at all three of them. “What look is that?”

“The one that says we’re idiots for pushing something, am I right?” Trace said glumly. “Wouldn’t you think Abby would want to get on with this? I’m surprised that ex-husband of hers hasn’t raised a ruckus about us living together with the twins under the same roof. Of course, Wes has his own relationship issues, which is probably the only reason he hasn’t been on Abby’s case about this.”

Feeling the need to defend his sister, Kevin said, “Abby’s been pretty busy whipping that brokerage office into shape. She’s in Baltimore as much as she’s here.”

“And that’s another thing,” Trace said, seizing on the remark. “You’re exactly right, Kevin. She’s hiding out up in Baltimore half the time, and I’m down here with the twins.”

Before Kevin could question why he thought Abby was hiding out, Trace gave him a quelling look.

“Not that I don’t adore those little girls as much as if they were my own,” Trace added. “And taking care of them is not a problem, since I’m working at home. Believe me, that is not the point.”

Kevin regarded him with skepticism. “Not a problem? Are you sure you’re talking about Carrie and Caitlyn? I love my nieces, but those two are a handful.”

“We have a system,” Trace insisted.

All three men stared at him.

“A system?” Will echoed. “Really?”

Trace scowled at their doubting expressions. “I’m telling you, I have everything under control at the house.”

“Are you locking them in their rooms?” Kevin asked, not entirely in jest.

“Absolutely not,” Trace insisted. “Could you all please focus? The girls are not the problem. Abby is. I think she’s getting cold feet. Why else would she get that look on her face every time I mention setting a wedding date?”

Kevin didn’t believe for a second that his sister didn’t want to marry Trace. He was the man she should have married years ago. “I’m telling you, you’re wrong. She’s just been too focused on work.”

“You know what I think?” Will said to Trace. “I think you need to leave the girls with someone here and go to Baltimore to be alone with your fiancée for a few days. Abby jumped into a new job. You jumped into living together and being a parent. All of that requires some sig
nificant adjustments. You need some time to be a couple, to get your emotional feet back under you and remember why you fell in love in the first place.”

Trace regarded him with a thoughtful expression. “You could have something there,” he agreed.

Will grinned. “I don’t get to charge those big bucks without having some credible insights every once in a while.”

“I’ll take the girls,” Kevin offered. “Gram will love having them at the house for a few days. And it’s the least I can do after all the times you and Abby have bailed me out by looking after Davy.”

“There you go,” Will said. “Problem solved. Am I good or what?”

Mack grinned and draped an arm over his shoulder. “Oh, you’re good, all right. Maybe one of these days you’ll use all that expertise to hang on to your own relationship for more than a few weeks.”

Jake nudged Will in the ribs with an elbow. “He’s got you there, pal.”

Will sighed. “Give me one of those beers.”

Kevin stared at the other men and shook his head. “Do any of you actually want to go fishing? Or did you just want to sit here at the dock and drink?”

“Staying right here works for me,” Trace said.

“Me, too,” Jake confirmed.

“Never did care that much about catching fish,” Will added, settling into one of the lounge chairs on the deck. “Sitting here like this, though—” he sighed deeply “—now, this is the life.”

“Amen,” the others chorused.

Kevin grinned and reached for his own beer. “At the price of fuel, this suits me just fine, too.”

“And there are some mighty fine-looking women who wander around these docks wearing next to nothing,” Mack said.

“Look all you want,” Jake taunted. “But it’s not going to change the fact that you’re hooked on Susie.”

Mack sighed heavily. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said glumly.

And though he wasn’t about to say it aloud, Kevin knew that no amount of babe-watching was going to change the fact that recently he hadn’t been able to get Shanna out of his head, either. Maybe, though, it would distract him from the overwhelming guilt that attraction was causing him.

It had not been a good morning. Shanna had walked into the shop to find water all over the floor in the back room. The pipe under the sink in the bathroom had apparently sprung a leak overnight. She’d turned off the water, but so far she hadn’t been able to locate a plumber who could get here until tomorrow.

She’d had so many customers this morning that she hadn’t been able to get into the back room to thoroughly mop and to check out the damage to the boxes of inventory that had been sitting on the floor. At least she’d managed to move most of them off the ground so they wouldn’t be further damaged.

She sighed with relief when the last of the customers left right on schedule around one o’clock and the usual lull set in. She was halfway to the back room when the bell over the door rang. She heard a familiar squeal and turned to have Davy launch himself at her. He was followed at a slightly more sedate pace by Carrie and Caitlyn and Kevin.

She forced a smile for the sake of the children, but suspected it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Kevin noticed at once.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“A plumbing malfunction in the back,” she told him. “And I haven’t had two minutes to do more than shut off the water and get some boxes out of the puddles. I couldn’t locate a plumber who could get here today, either. This is the first chance I’ve had all morning to get back there and try to deal with it.”

“Show me,” he said at once. He turned to Carrie and Caitlyn. “Girls, I want you to stay in the children’s section and look at books with Davy, okay? If you’ll do that for me for a few minutes, you can each pick out a book to take home.”

“Yay,” Carrie said, her expression eager. She grabbed Davy’s hand. “Come on. What book do you want us to read to you?”

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Shanna offered.

“After you show me the problem and sit for a minute,” Kevin said. “You looked completely frazzled.”

She tried not to take offense at the description, especially since he was right. She was frazzled. “It’s been a hectic morning. If you can deal with this leak, you’ll be a lifesaver. I think I could fix it, if I had the right tools, but I don’t.”

She showed him the pipe and where the water had been coming out.

“Sounds like a bad washer,” he concluded.

Suddenly she recalled something his father had said to her a few weeks back. “Kevin, not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but do you have any idea what you’re doing under there?”

He poked his head out from under the sink and winked. “There are a few household repairs that not even I can mess up. I drove over here in Dad’s SUV because I had the girls. His toolbox is in the back. I’ll have this fixed in a jiffy.”

Taking him at his word, she debated dealing with the damp boxes, then decided that she really needed to be with the kids. Though they were being fairly quiet, there was no telling what mischief they might be up to. Besides, nothing would more quickly take her mind off her problems than listening to those three chatter about anything and everything.

“Ms. Shanna,” Caitlyn said as soon as Shanna had sat down with them, “do you have a book about girls?”

Puzzled, Shanna said, “I have lots and lots of books about little girls.”

“No, it’s about a family with little girls. Mommy told us about it. She said Grandma Megan read it to her when she was our age. It’s a movie, too.”

“Are you talking about
Little Women?
”

Caitlyn’s expression brightened at once. “That’s it. Do you have it?”

“Of course I do,” Shanna told her, going to the section of classic children’s books. She reached for the Louisa May Alcott book that had once been her own favorite. “This copy has wonderful illustrations, too.”

When she’d pulled it from the shelf and sat down, all three children settled down with her, Davy in her lap and the girls on either side. The immediate feeling of contentment that stole over her was amazing.

As she began to read, the girls leaned in closer to study the illustrations. Davy fell asleep. When she finished reading the first chapter, she closed the book and looked from Carrie to Caitlyn. “Do you like it?”

Carrie nodded.

“Me, too,” Caitlyn said. “That’s the book I want Uncle Kevin to get us.”

“Uncle Kevin would be happy to get that book,” he said, startling Shanna.

She met his gaze. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to see what a pretty picture you make sitting there with all three of those kids,” he said. “You have a way with them.”

Shanna blushed. Because she didn’t know how to respond to a comment like that, she asked, “How’s it going with the pipe?”

“All fixed and the water’s back on. I mopped the floor, but you’re going to need to go through those boxes. I think a few things got pretty soaked.”

“I was afraid of that. I’ll go back there and deal with that now.”

Kevin shook his head. “Not until you’ve had lunch. We’re going for pizza. You’re coming with us.”

Carrie and Caitlyn immediately jumped up and reached for her hands.

“Yes, Ms. Shanna, you have to come,” Caitlyn said.

“Please,” Carrie coaxed.

“And we’re going to have ice cream after,” Caitlyn added.

Shanna regarded Kevin with amusement. “This is your idea of babysitting? Feeding them till they’re so stuffed, they’ll fall into a stupor?”

“What’s a stupor?” Carrie asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Kevin told her. “They have big appetites.”

“And small tummies,” Shanna countered.

“Not these two,” Kevin insisted.

“We can eat lots and lots,” Caitlyn confirmed.

Carrie held her arms wide. “At least this much pizza and then ice cream.”

Shanna handed Davy to Kevin, then stood up. “I need to see this,” she said, then grinned at Kevin. “And I definitely want to see how you handle it when they start turning green.”

“Former EMT and army medic,” he reminded her. “It’s all good.”

She laughed at his confidence. “We’ll see.”

An hour later, Kevin was tucking two very sick little girls into his car and trying to avoid Shanna’s told-you-so expression.

“I had no idea anyone could get so sick, so fast,” he mumbled as the girls groaned in misery.

“Two and a half slices of pizza topped off by hot fudge sundaes could explain it,” Shanna said. Though she’d jumped right in to take care of the girls when they’d thrown up, her sympathy boundless and her tone gentle and soothing, with him she hadn’t even tried to hide her amusement.