Luke recalled the plea he’d made to Mick weeks ago to let him be the one to fill Jeff in on his plans. “Yes, it’s only fair,” he confirmed. “Good night, everyone. Thanks so much for being here.”
Once again he was left alone with his father, but only for a moment, because his mother returned just then, her expression perplexed. “I couldn’t find Moira anywhere,” she said. “Nell said she thought maybe she’d already left.” She gave Luke a sharp look. “Why would she leave early on a night like tonight? She should be here so the two of you can sit quietly and share a toast to the pub’s success.”
“I don’t know,” Luke said evasively, but, of course, he knew precisely why she’d left. What he didn’t know was how he was going to fix things.
On the walk back to Nell’s, Moira told herself a thousand times that she should have stayed at the pub till the final customer had gone. Leaving had been cowardly, and she had never in her life been a coward.
Her convenient excuse was that she hadn’t wanted to ruin Luke’s exhilaration by forcing the fight that had been brewing since Kristen’s untimely appearance.
Grateful to have Nell’s house to herself, she took a shower, wrapped herself in a thick terry-cloth robe and made herself a cup of tea. With the tea in hand, she settled into one of the Adirondack chairs in the yard, hoping her grandfather and Nell wouldn’t even notice her out here when they eventually returned home. With the soft sound of the waves breaking on the shore and a gentle breeze in the air, she finally managed to relax and think about what had happened earlier tonight.
Luke clearly hadn’t been expecting Kristen. As Luke had reminded Moira, Kristen hadn’t been on the official guest list, which said a lot about her character. She’d intruded for the sole purpose of making Moira uncomfortable and stirring up trouble between her and Luke. Should she really blame Luke for that? Probably not.
But she did blame him for not calling it quits sooner, for coming back to Chesapeake Shores and spending even a moment in that woman’s company, much less in her bed. Had he thought that was okay because he hadn’t yet made a commitment to Moira, in fact, hadn’t even expected to see her again soon? Well, it wasn’t okay! And if he didn’t get that, then she intended to make it plain to him.
Satisfied that she would face the issue head-on, she allowed herself to relax at last and enjoy the night air and the pub’s amazing success. She even let herself bask in satisfaction over her tiny part in it. She heard Nell’s car in the driveway, the slam of a door, a murmuring of voices, but no one came around the side of the house. Lights came on in various rooms, then went out again, filling her with relief.
Curled up and comfortable, she might have fallen happily asleep if it hadn’t been for the sound of another car, another door and then the sound of pebbles against glass. She knew at once it was Luke trying less than subtly to get her attention. She could ignore him, hoping that the new moon wasn’t casting enough light to give away her presence, or just bite the bullet and deal with the issues between them now.
In the end, she opted for the latter. Padding across the lawn in her bare feet, she said, “Stop that before you wake up the whole house!”
He whirled in her direction, obviously startled. “You’re out here,” he said, stating the obvious.
Despite her mood, she smiled. “So I am. I was having a lovely quiet time of it until a few minutes ago. Could I persuade you to leave me to it?”
His jaw set stubbornly. “Do you really want me to go?”
She debated her reply, then sighed. “I suppose not,” she said, and returned to her chair and her now-cold cup of tea.
Luke followed her over and sat down next to her. “It was quite a night,” he said, clearly testing the waters.
She smiled. “A glorious success from all the comments I heard.”
“You and Gram played a huge part in that,” he said. “I’ll never be able to tell you how much that meant to me.”
“It meant a lot to me to share the occasion with you,” she said.
He drew in a deep breath, then said, “I’m sorry if Kristen spoiled it for you. You do know she wasn’t invited, right? I wasn’t just saying that for your benefit.”
“I’d seen the list,” she said. “I knew. Obviously, though, crashing a party is nothing new to her.”
“No, she definitely goes wherever she wishes, welcome or not.”
“I don’t understand how anyone can do such a thing,” Moira admitted. “It’s one thing for her to want to get a closer look at me or make me uncomfortable, but surely she has to know that everyone there hates what she tried to do to Susie.”
“Oh, believe me, she knows that, but she believes time will eventually make everyone forget. I have to admit that I might have been partially responsible for giving her that impression.”
Moira frowned. “How?”
“Right when things were at their trickiest a few months ago, I took her with me to Mick’s for Sunday dinner.”
Moira didn’t even try to hide her astonishment at his insensitivity or Kristen’s audacity in accepting the invitation. “Why on earth would you do such a thing?”
“I was in peacemaker mode,” Luke admitted, his expression rueful. “Kristen was here to stay. She was working for Mack. She was with me, not him. I thought we should all forgive and forget.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Except nobody had forgiven or forgotten. It was the most miserable Sunday I’d ever spent, especially with Gram looking at me
