He hesitated, then added quietly, “Looking back with twenty-twenty hindsight, I think your mother could have been the right one, but I met her at the wrong time in my life.”
“I’ve tried to imagine you together,” Aidan admitted. “I can see it, too. I wish I’d had the chance to see the two of you together just once.”
“Aidan, you have no idea how much I regret that we all missed out on so much. Keep in mind, though, that I was pretty self-absorbed and driven back then. Still am, to some degree, but I’ve put some balance into my life, realigned my priorities, so to speak. I’d like to think I might have done the same back then, if I’d been given the chance.”
“I believe that now,” Aidan said. “You didn’t finish telling me about your wife’s reaction. If me sticking around Chesapeake Shores is going to cause problems—”
“Nonsense,” Thomas said. “At least not for Connie and me. Certainly not for anyone else in the family, either. We embrace our own, however they come to be a part of us. Now, you put together another losing football team, and I can’t speak for the rest of the town.”
Aidan laughed. “I’m on it,” he told Thomas. “In fact, I’m heading over to the school to find out just how many unofficial workouts I might be able to squeeze in before the school district comes down on my head.”
“Good luck with that,” Thomas said. “I’ll be in touch about the DNA test as soon as I know anything. Then we’ll figure out where we go from there.”
Aidan considered letting the conversation end on that note, but for some reason he couldn’t. “Do you have some time in the next couple of days? I’d like to talk about that book I’ve been reading, maybe make some plans for the fall projects for the group at school.” He felt surprisingly awkward even making the suggestion and quickly added, “Unless you want to hold off on that.”
“No reason to hold off,” Thomas said, clearly enthusiastic, if perhaps a little surprised. “I’m working in town today. You want to meet for coffee at Panini Bistro in an hour? Or on the pier at Mick’s? Sean’s dying to go fishing. He’d go every day of summer vacation if I were here to take him.”
Aidan liked the idea of spending time with Thomas and his son. It sounded so normal, like something they might have done when he was a boy.
“Does Sean know what’s going on?” he asked, needing to know so he didn’t inadvertently slip up and say the wrong thing.
“No, though something tells me he’ll be ecstatic to have a big brother. He loves having a big sister, but a guy? And one who coaches football? He’ll be over the moon. I won’t tell him, though, till we know the truth. For one thing, I love that boy with all my heart, but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut if he tried. For another, I don’t want him to be disappointed if it turns out we’re wrong.”
“I totally understand,” Aidan said. “I just didn’t want to put my foot in it. But if you don’t mind me being around him before we know, maybe I’ll buy a fishing pole and you can give me a lesson, too.” He couldn’t help thinking that it would be a nice first father-son memory, even if the facts weren’t in yet.
“I have an extra pole I’ll bring along,” Thomas said at once. “We’ll be there in an hour.”
“Great. That’ll give me just enough time to stop by the school.” And maybe a few extra minutes to stick his head in the door at Pet Style for a quick glimpse of Liz to be sure she was doing okay. No matter what she’d said about wanting to be left alone, Thomas’s reminiscence about his courtship of Connie suggested to Aidan that backing off from a relationship that could really matter wouldn’t be the O’Brien way.
* * *
Liz spotted Aidan at the door of Pet Style and was grateful that she’d left home early and gone straight to Sally’s. She’d wanted to be in and out with her morning coffee before any of her friends arrived to cross-examine her about the dark circles under her eyes that even an expert touch with makeup couldn’t conceal.
When Aidan realized the store was still locked up, he glanced toward Sally’s, but to her relief, he turned away and jogged across the street to the town green and kept on going.
“Why don’t you seem very eager to run into Aidan this morning?” Bree asked, startling Liz as she appeared seemingly out of nowhere and slid into the booth.
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Liz said, mopping up the coffee that had spilled from her cup when she’d been startled by Bree’s unexpected arrival. “I just happened to notice he was out there.”
“And knocking on the door of your shop,” Bree said. “Yet you didn’t tap on the window to get his attention. You looked oddly relieved when he went away without coming in here.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“I’m not imagining that you look as if you’ve had a rough night,” Bree said, holding Liz’s coffee cup in the air and gesturing to Sally for a refill for Liz, plus her own cup. “Problems keep you awake?”
“Something like that.”
“Let me be more specific. Problems with Aidan?”
Liz gave her a plaintive look. “Nothing I want to talk about.”
Bree’s expression turned momentarily triumphant at having her guesswork confirmed, but then she frowned. “What did he do?” she demanded.
Her quick indignation actually made Liz
