“I’ve barely been in town six months,” Liz protested.
Bree grinned. “In his opinion, that’s plenty long enough. Trust me, you do not want Mick deciding to find a man for you.”
“Heaven forbid,” Liz replied with heartfelt emotion. “I’ve heard the stories. Next time the subject comes up, you tell your father that he can find me a date right after he agrees to take in Archie. That ought to shut him down.”
That earned a chuckle from Bree. “Now, why didn’t the rest of us come up with a threat like that?”
“Maybe you weren’t as eager to evade his matchmaking as I am,” Liz said, standing up. She hated lying to her friend, to anyone, in fact, but she didn’t think she’d ever be ready to share the real story behind the night she’d lost her husband. Better to escape now before Bree coaxed her into revealing something she didn’t want to remember, much less talk about.
She reached into her purse for money to pay for her coffee and raspberry croissant, treats she allowed herself only after strenuous outings with her animals. Chasing Archie all over Dogwood Hill today definitely qualified.
“No. It’s on me today,” Bree protested. “It’s the price I pay for sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.” She stood up and hugged Liz. “We may be well-meaning, but don’t you dare hesitate to tell any of us to butt out, okay?”
Unexpected tears stung Liz’s eyes. “I won’t, but to be honest, knowing that you care enough to butt in means the world to me.”
It was almost as if she’d found a whole new family after losing her husband on a rain-slicked road one terrible night a year ago. The pitiful truth was, though, that she’d apparently lost him long before that and never known it.
* * *
After his disconcerting conversation with Liz, Aidan drove around town trying to convince himself that Chesapeake Shores wasn’t the place for him. He diligently focused on the downside.
It only had a tiny district of shops and restaurants, for one thing. There were more businesses and a greater diversity of fancy and take-out food options within two blocks of his apartment in Manhattan’s Upper West Side than there were in this entire town, maybe even the whole region without going all the way to Annapolis or Baltimore.
He picked up a copy of the local weekly Liz had mentioned and compared it to the daily New York newspapers, then shook his head. When a meeting of the town’s beautification committee was front-page news, he was definitely in the wrong place.
Then, of course, there was the insight Liz had given him into a town where seemingly everyone knew everyone else’s business. In New York, though he had plenty of friends in the city, he was barely acquainted with most of his neighbors. That had always suited him just fine. There were enough real celebrities around town that a professional athlete could easily avoid the limelight if that was his choice. In his case, it had been.
How could this possibly be the best match for him? Even if the town didn’t come with a whole slew of emotional baggage attached, small-town living probably wasn’t right for him. He’d go stir-crazy in a month, quite probably sooner.
Sighing heavily, he came to what had to be the best decision. He’d set up an interview for tomorrow, because he’d made a commitment and commitments meant something to him. He’d even try to listen with an open heart, but his mind was already made up. He’d decline the job, wish them well, then take off right after the interview.
There were bound to be other coaching jobs, jobs that wouldn’t put him anywhere near a man he’d now convinced himself he didn’t really need to know or even meet. Thomas O’Brien was a name on a piece of paper, an important piece of paper to be sure, but meeting him wouldn’t change the fact that he’d been nothing to Aidan his entire life. At least he knew where to find him if some genetic health issue cropped up years from now.
An image of Liz crept into his head and he felt a moment’s regret. Not only was she beautiful, she had a good heart. He’d felt an instantaneous connection to her, something that rarely happened with the women who tended to flock around professional athletes. Liz was real.
Still, he couldn’t allow a momentary attraction to a woman to sway him into making a decision that was so obviously all wrong. He’d have a nice dinner, get a good night’s sleep, meet with the high school principal and then go on his way.
Satisfied with his plan, he checked the directions and headed toward The Inn at Eagle Point. As he drove along the winding road, he couldn’t help noticing the nearby bay, and once more Liz’s mention of Thomas O’Brien’s passion for that body of water slipped past his defenses. He pieced her words together with what little his mother had told him over the years and wondered what it must be like to be so idealistic that a cause mattered more than people, more than a son. If he left, he’d never know the answer to that.
“Stop it!” he muttered, as emphatic with himself as Liz had been with Archie earlier. The decision was made.
Somehow, though, it didn’t seem quite as valid as when he’d first reached it.
* * *
When Liz got home that night, Archie, Sasha and Dominique met her at the door of her little bungalow across the street from Dogwood Hill. The two terrier mixes that she’d rescued soon after coming to Chesapeake Shores might be small
