“I’m sorry,” Moira apologized. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Of course you should have,” Megan replied. “And it was a terrible sacrifice. I’m still making up for it. The hurt I caused might not have been intentional, but it’s taken me years to make amends to my children.”
“Knowing all that you know now, would you do it again?” Moira asked.
Megan’s lips curved slightly. “I like to think that I’m far wiser now, that I would fight harder for what I wanted in the first place, rather than walking away in frustration and anger. In the end, though, if the circumstances were precisely the same, I would probably do it over again. I hope, though, that I wouldn’t allow my children to stay behind. That was the real mistake I made. I let Mick convince me that they should stay here in their own home, surrounded by friends and family. I could see the blessing in that, but I know now that they lost something as well. They lost me. Worse, they didn’t understand why.” She shrugged. “So, while they might have hated moving with me to New York, they wouldn’t have felt abandoned. The scar that left will never be entirely healed.”
“I suppose there can be unplanned repercussions to any decision, even those that are the most carefully thought out,” Moira said.
“No question about it.” Megan smiled. “And have you carefully thought about yours? Or did you make the decision on impulse?”
“A mix of the two, I imagine,” Moira admitted. “I gave it thought, of course, but there hasn’t been a lot of time to weigh the pros and cons.”
“Could we make a deal, then?” Megan suggested. “Will you promise me not to give up entirely on photography? Will you continue to build your portfolio and work with me to mount a show here? There’s little risk in that, and you’ll be right here with Luke while you try. It seems to me it could be a win-win. If the show’s the success I envision, you’ll have a real choice to make then, not one that’s based on fear or what-ifs.”
Under the circumstances, it was the fairest offer imaginable. Moira knew she’d be an idiot to reject it. “I can promise that much,” she said.
And if it turned out that the path she thought she wanted—one that led to a home with Luke and a family—was her destiny, she’d have chosen it fair and square, rather than by default.
“You’ve a great talent for negotiating,” she told Megan.
Megan winked at her. “In my business, it’s why I make the big bucks for my clients. I’m convinced that you’re going to be one of them, Moira. Perhaps one of the best.”
When Moira was about to speak, Megan held up her hand. “Before you argue that I shouldn’t count on that, that you could decide photography is not what you want, keep in mind that there’s a third option. Some people manage to blend a family and a career without sacrificing either one of them. It doesn’t have to be an either/or decision. You could have the best of both worlds. The only certainty, Moira, is that you’ll never know if you could be one of them unless you try.”
Moira was still sitting where Megan had left her, sipping her fourth cup of coffee, when Nell and her grandfather came in.
“Here you are,” Dillon said, looking delighted. “Everyone’s been wondering where you were.”
She smiled at that. “It’s not as if the town much cares about my comings and goings,” she said.
“Luke does,” Nell responded. “And he’s been watching the door at the pub all morning. You’re supposed to be there to begin training the waitstaff soon.”
Moira had a moment of panic, then drew in a breath. “Not today,” she said. “Luke’s only hiring them today. Training’s due to begin tomorrow.”
“When we were there just now, he was grumbling that he wanted your input on his final choices,” Nell said.
Moira brightened at once. “Really? I thought he’d made the decisions.”
“I gather it dawned on him that he should run them by his consultant,” her grandfather said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “How exactly did you get hired on in that capacity?”
She grinned at him. “I was very clever about it. You would have been proud. I suppose for the exorbitant salary I intend to talk him into, I’d best get over there.” She met Nell’s gaze. “You’ll be training the new cook starting tomorrow?”
Nell nodded. “I hope to goodness he comes to us with more experience than my grandson. Not that I would ever say this to Luke, but he was the closest I’ve ever seen to hopeless. I thought for sure I was going to wind up with a full-time job at my age.”
Moira chuckled because Nell almost looked as if she regretted that it wasn’t going to turn out exactly that way. “Well, he’ll obviously need the both of us, if he’s to make a success of his place.”
“And though Thursday’s a test run for family and a party, I’ve promised to help with the cash register for the official Friday opening, since we expect the place to be mobbed,” Dillon said, looking pleased to have been asked. That had been Moira’s suggestion, after explaining to Luke that he’d need to be spending his time with the customers, not counting out change as he might on a regular night.
“It’s all coming together quite nicely,” Nell said. “I predict that O’Brien’s will be a huge success.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear,” Moira said.
Because if anything went wrong, she couldn’t imagine how Luke would cope with it. He was counting on the pub to measure
