Aidan nodded and led the way inside. “I could use a beer. How about you?”
Thomas nodded. “I wouldn’t say no.”
Aidan came back into the living room with two bottles of beer and handed one to Thomas, then sat down across the room. They each took a long sip of beer, exchanged a look and then Thomas set his bottle aside and glanced at Aidan.
“You ready?”
Even though he was convinced of what they’d find, Aidan’s stomach filled with butterflies. “Sure.”
Thomas unsealed the envelope and removed two pieces of paper, one apparently a letter, the other a copy of the detailed results. He scanned the letter, then the paper, then regarded Aidan with tears in his eyes.
“You’re my son,” he said softly.
Aidan felt his own eyes fill with tears. After all these years, the truth was out there. He knew now exactly who he was—Anna Mitchell’s son, to be sure, but an O’Brien, too.
He studied Thomas’s pale complexion. “Are you okay with this?” He gave a scratchy laugh. “Not that you could change it, but I mean really okay?”
“It’s taken some getting used to,” Thomas admitted, then smiled. “But, yes, I’m okay with it. We have a lot of time to make up for, you and me, a lot of catching up to do. I find myself longing to see baby pictures, report cards, anything you have from the years I missed.”
Aidan gave him a hard look that he had a difficult time sustaining. “It’s too late for you to be setting curfews and disciplining me,” he warned.
At last Thomas—his father—laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of trying. Connie wanted me to invite you over for dinner, so we can tell Sean.”
Aidan stared at him, surprised. “She really was confident of what that report would say, wasn’t she? I mean, she told me she knew the outcome, but I thought she just wanted to make me feel better.”
“My mother is the wisest woman I know, but Connie is a close second,” Thomas said. “I’m thinking she can help us decide the right way to tell the rest of the family.”
Aidan nodded. “I only have one request. I need to be the one to tell Liz, and I need to do it before anyone outside of you, Connie and Sean find out the truth.”
“Then let’s have this dinner,” Thomas suggested. “Then you’d better track down Liz, because I can almost guarantee no matter how we try to keep my boy quiet, he’ll have the news all over town before morning.”
It wasn’t at all difficult for Aidan to imagine trying to contain news that big once a little boy was in on the secret that he had a big brother. And that sort of premature disclosure, Aidan thought, was exactly what he hoped to avoid.
* * *
None of the women got especially rowdy on book club night at Susie’s, so Liz was unprepared for the level of raucousness they achieved at Luke’s pub. Even with two of the pregnant women not drinking alcohol and she herself carefully sticking to diet soda for her own self-protection, the noise level around the tables they’d pushed together at the back of the room was pretty high.
While several of the other women had been targets of good-natured teasing over dinner and drinks, attention had come back time and again to Liz and her relationship with Aidan. It was mostly amusing to see the variety of tactics they chose to try to dig into her personal life. Bree had been wrong. So far, they’d tried nothing that she hadn’t been prepared for.
She turned just in time to see Bree and Susie exchange a frustrated look.
“She’s tougher than I expected,” Susie admitted.
Bree nodded. “I definitely thought she’d crack before now. I think it’s the lack of alcohol in her system. Do you think we could convince Luke to lace her drinks with vodka or something?”
“Not a chance,” Susie said with real regret. “My brother values his liquor license and his reputation. He also tries to remain impartial in family disputes.”
Bree’s gaze went to the door of the pub and her eyes lit up.
“Ah, reinforcements!” she announced happily. “This should be fun.”
Liz turned in time to see Mick walking in with Megan and with Jeff and his wife. To her shock, though, they barely spared a glance for the table of women and, instead, sat down at the bar. Heads together, they were whispering about something. Judging from their intense expressions, whatever it was appeared to be big—and not necessarily good news.
Bree’s gaze narrowed. “What do you suppose that’s about?” she asked, clearly puzzled.
“One way to find out,” Susie said, standing up, wobbling for a minute, then steadying herself. She grinned. “That last ale might have been one too many.”
She crossed the pub and inserted herself between her parents. For an instant Jeff, Jo, Mick and Megan fell silent.
Then Mick’s booming voice said, “Oh, go ahead and tell her. The whole family’s going to know soon enough.”
Megan jabbed him with her elbow. “Hush. Thomas swore us to secrecy, remember?”
At the mention of Thomas, Liz strained a little harder to try to hear the now-muted conversation. Unfortunately Megan’s reminder had succeeded in quieting all of them, Mick included.
Susie returned to the table, her expression filled with frustration.
“Well?” Bree demanded.
“Aunt Megan shut them down,” she grumbled. “All I heard was something about Uncle Thomas.” She frowned, then added, “And something about Aidan, but that doesn’t make sense. What could possibly be going on between Uncle Thomas and Aidan?” She turned to Liz. “Any idea?”
“None,” Liz said, but her heart was suddenly pounding. Whatever it was, she had little doubt that it was the big secret Aidan had been keeping from her. And if it was so huge it could reduce even Mick O’Brien to silence, then it was clearly something a man should have
