“Well, Jenny’s written a lot of it,” Connie said, her pride evident.
“And I can sing most of it, too,” Sean piped in. “And Caleb’s been teaching me to play guitar.”
Connie regarded her son with amusement. “Sean and his cousin Emily Rose—that’s Bree’s daughter—would very much like to tour with Caleb. If I don’t stay on my toes, Caleb might actually let them. He claims he’s had worse opening acts.”
Aidan glanced at Thomas, who was regarding his wife with a besotted expression. “How do you feel about your son going on a concert tour?”
“We’ll talk about it when he turns eighteen and not a moment before,” Thomas replied without hesitation.
“Dad!” Sean protested. “That’s, like, forever.”
Thomas shrugged. “Education first.”
“There’s no school in summer,” Sean pointed out just as his pile of pancakes arrived. As he drowned them in syrup, he added, “That’s why we’re celebrating, remember?”
Connie winked at her husband. “I told you not to bother arguing with him. He’s got an answer for everything, just like his dad.”
Thomas chuckled. “But I’m older and wiser and I’m the dad,” he said triumphantly. “I win!”
Observing the tight-knit family, it was all Aidan could do not to sigh with envy. This was what he had missed. This was what his mom had missed, though she’d apparently given up the chance at it willingly. He’d had no choice in the matter. And for the first time, he allowed himself a brief little moment of surprisingly strong resentment directed toward his mom, then immediately felt guilty for it.
He might not understand her reasons, but he had to respect that Anna had done what she thought was best by keeping him and his father apart. Maybe Thomas really hadn’t been a good candidate for marriage or fatherhood back then, and as Aidan had learned, there were two failed marriages in Thomas’s past to add proof to that. Aidan needed to remember that, because casting blame now was a wasted effort.
As he looked around at the man who was his father, the woman who had no idea she was his stepmother and at his half brother, Aidan felt for the first time in his life as if he had no idea of who he really was. All these years he thought he’d known himself. He was, first and foremost, Anna Mitchell’s son, her pride and joy. He’d been a smart student and an excellent athlete who’d become a professional football star for a short time. He’d even thought, given time, he’d be a solid high school coach. He’d envisioned a future with a wife and kids. Those were all the things that mattered to Aidan Mitchell.
But Aidan Mitchell O’Brien? He didn’t know that man at all. And every time he envisioned trying to fit into the family he was coming to know, he felt as if he’d be turning his back on the man he’d always believed himself to be.
He was relieved when Thomas slid out of the booth and announced he had to get to a meeting. Connie and Sean followed his lead, leaving Aidan alone with his increasingly confused thoughts and a cup of coffee that had gone cold.
* * *
Liz passed Thomas, Connie and Sean as they were exiting Sally’s and paused to say hello. Inside, she spotted Aidan sitting at the end of an empty booth. Since the table was still cluttered with dishes, she jumped to the conclusion he’d been eating with Thomas and his family. And since his expression was anything but cheerful, she concluded it hadn’t gone well. Once again her sense that there was something going on between Thomas and Aidan stirred to life.
“Want some company?” she said, slipping into the vacated booth before Aidan could even think about trying to stop her.
He regarded her with amusement. “It’s a little late for me to say no now, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much. All the other seats are taken, anyway. You can’t hog this whole booth to yourself. I assume you had breakfast with Thomas.”
He nodded.
“How’d that go?”
“Fine. Why wouldn’t it?” he asked, an edge in his voice that suggested she’d touched on a sore point.
Liz waited until Sally had cleared the table, then brought her coffee and her usual croissant, plus a fresh cup of coffee for Aidan, before saying another word. She kept her gaze on Aidan, who finally gave her an apologetic look.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap your head off.”
“Why did you? Just because I asked an innocent question about the meal you’d shared with Thomas?”
“I’m pretty sure there was nothing innocent about the question,” Aidan contradicted. “You’ve been hinting for a while that you think something’s up between the two of us.”
“Because that’s the way it seems to me,” she said agreeably. “Is there?”
“I never laid eyes on Thomas or any other O’Brien before I moved to Chesapeake Shores,” Aidan said, his gaze steady.
“That’s not exactly the point, though, is it?”
“What is the point?”
She tried to think of a reasonable explanation for his behavior, but couldn’t come up with a thing. The situation didn’t really seem to call for guesswork. “I don’t know. It just worries me to keep detecting these strange undercurrents and observing how unhappy you seem to be over something.”
“Let it go, Liz.”
“The same way you’ve let go of trying to figure out my past?” she inquired.
He smiled. “Yes, just like that. I may have a whole slew of questions, but I’ve stopped asking. I’ve accepted that you’ll tell me what you want me to know when you want me to know it.”
She doubted he was as accepting of that as he claimed. Studying him over the rim of her cup, she asked, “Do you remember what you said to me the day you brought a cup of Sally’s coffee to my house?”
“I’m sure I said a lot of scintillating things,” he retorted glibly.
“Of course you did,” she said, her tone dry. “I was specifically referring to your insistence that dropping by with coffee and checking on me was something a
