Nancy Warren - Aftershocks

And he’d jumped to that conclusion because he knew all about political dirty tricks and influence peddling.

And the irony was, that was the only part of the story that wasn’t true.

Her uncle had been wrong on so many levels. Patrick hadn’t set Uncle Cecil up. Patrick hadn’t known a thing about the arrest until he’d read it in the paper. It was the arresting officer’s son-in-law who’d made a timely news story out of an averted scandal.

The only person who’d been set up, she now saw, was her own gullible self.

“Are you all right over there?”

She’d dropped her head in her hand and closed her eyes as the shock of the truth hit her. “Yes. Yes, thank you. I’m fine. I-I’m glad to hear that Mayor Patrick O’Shea had nothing to do with starting false rumors.” That at least was true.

“If that mayor of yours is anything like he was ten years ago, when he was a young fireman, why, he’s as honest as the day is long. He comes from a good family, but he was one of the biggest sticklers for honesty and integrity I ever saw.” The older man leaned forward. “After the scandal with the last mayor, I’m awfully glad you’ve got a good man doing the job now. Especially since you’ve had all that trouble down there.”

“Yes,” Briana said, smiling shakily. “Yes, Mayor O’Shea is a good man.” And she wished the same could be said of her uncle.

Silence stretched between them. “I’m not sure I can tell you any more.”

“You’ve been very helpful,” she said, rising to her feet. “Thank you.”

“I’m not going to tell you it was a pleasure, but it was a duty, and I’m glad I’ve discharged that duty.”

She looked at him and saw a fine man who’d done something he wasn’t altogether proud of, something he’d been forced to do because of her uncle. She felt like crying. “Is there…I hate to ask you this, but do you think I could talk to your daughter?”

“You think I made all this up?” Joe had risen, too, and now he was staring at her as if she were nuts.

“No. Of course I don’t think you made it up, but I have to be sure. A lot is at stake here.”

He glanced at her with those cop’s eyes again. “Knowing my daughter, she’d be more than happy to talk about anything.” He reached for the pencil that perched on top of his newspaper. He’d been doing the crossword puzzle, she saw, and had more than half of the squares filled in. She was sorry she’d had to interrupt such a quiet Sunday afternoon activity with reminders of an incident in the past that he’d rather forget. He tore off a corner of the paper and carefully wrote down a name and phone number. “That’s their home. Joan will talk to you. Tell her I said it’s okay.”

“Thank you, Joe. Thank you very much.”

“Well, I’m ashamed I had any part in that, but I’m glad the truth is finally coming out.”

“It can’t have been easy for you,” she said, sorry he was still beating himself up over something that had happened two decades earlier. “You had a family. I’m sure you needed the job.”

Joe shook his head at her. “Young lady, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. I’ve regretted keeping quiet for a lot of years.” He smiled at her. “One of the nice things about getting old is you’re allowed to give a lot of unwanted advice. But here’s a piece of advice I hope you’ll take to heart. Don’t ever make the mistake of compromising your integrity for someone else.”

She felt tears spring to her eyes at his words.

Too late. She’d already compromised her integrity by agreeing to go undercover in Patrick’s office with the express purpose of destroying his career.

Loyalty and integrity. She’d misplaced the first and compromised the second.

She only hoped she wasn’t too late to act with both.

After saying her goodbyes to Joe, she realized she was going to have to confront her uncle before she did anything else.

Her thoughts were grim on the drive back to Courage Bay. She’d imagined a lot of scenarios, but never had it seemed possible that the uncle who’d helped her so much when she was growing up would use her so despicably.

She was furious on her own behalf, and she was equally furious on her aunt’s. How could he profess to love that woman so deeply and do something so awful behind her back? She could still barely believe he had gone with a hooker. Had it been a regular thing? she wondered. Her poor aunt.

Yes, she needed to see Patrick and come clean about what she’d done, but she had to see Uncle Cecil first.

Then she was going to have to tell Patrick the truth about why she’d applied to be his admin assistant.

She really hoped his love was blind. She needed him to be blind to her faults when she finally told him the truth.

PATRICK HADN’T FELT this good in years. Three years to be precise, he realized as he drove away from Briana’s place and a night he’d never forget.

After living through grief, and then getting on with life because he had to, because he had kids to raise and a job to perform, he felt amazed to be experiencing this incredible emotion he’d almost forgotten.

Happiness.

Oh, he’d been content for the past couple of years, with healthy children, a wonderful family and a challenging career. But he’d felt sort of numb. And here, when he’d least suspected it, he’d gone and fallen head over heels in love.

He felt corny even thinking about it, never mind the fact that he was whistling along to a love song on his car radio by the Bee Gees. But after almost forgetting he was capable of it, he’d rediscovered love. Briana had brought him that goofy-smile-on-your-face kind of happiness that comes with new love.

Maybe he shouldn’t have sprung his feelings on her like that. He hadn’t intended the words to spill out, but he’d been feeling so damned good that the words came out before he could stop them.

At the time, he’d felt more than a little foolish, especially when she hadn’t blurted those magic words right back, but now he was glad he’d admitted his love. He liked everything out in the open. He loved Briana and his feelings were honest. He was proud to love her, so why shouldn’t he tell her?

He planned to tell her often, he decided with a grin that seriously impaired his whistling, so she’d better get used to it.

He picked up his kids, and the single-eyebrow-raised look from his kid sister told him his newly admitted feelings were blazoned all over his face. Not that he minded Shannon knowing how he felt, but he’d be a lot happier to go public once Briana worked for someone else.

“Dad!” Fiona squealed when he entered the kitchen, where they were just finishing up breakfast. “I missed you.” She ran up and threw her arms around him. He lifted her up, anyway-sticky fingers, syrup-streaked cheeks and all-for a good-morning hug.

“I missed you, too, Fiona.”

Dylan, more manly and restrained, said, “Hi, Dad,” and continued to eat. Patrick ruffled his hair and took the mug of coffee John had already filled and held out to him. He nodded his thanks.

Fiona ran back to the table to finish her breakfast and Patrick sipped his coffee.

The three adults took their coffee out on to the back deck.

“I’m guessing my little ploy to give you two some couple time worked,” Shannon said with no pretense at discretion.

“Really?” He tried to keep a straight face, but it was impossible when she looked so desperate to hear all about his night with Briana.

“Yeah. And I’m guessing someone I know owes me a big fat favor!”

“Really?”

Shannon narrowed her eyes at him. “If you keep saying ‘Really?’ you’re going to be wearing that coffee, big bro.”