Sherryl Woods - The Summer Garden

“And here I thought it was my arrival you’d be looking forward to,” Dillon chided.

“Now, that, my dear old friend,” she said, “goes without saying.”

“I’ll see you very soon, Nell. It’s only been a few months, and I already miss you even more than I did the first time you left me all those years ago. At our age we don’t have time to waste like this.”

She knew exactly what he was saying, especially since the little wake-up call she’d gotten when she’d seen her doctor. In fact, she was thinking more and more about how she wanted to spend whatever time she did have left on this earth, and it wasn’t alone.

Moira debated emailing Luke to tell him about her plans to come to Chesapeake Shores with her grandfather, but she hadn’t heard from him for three straight days. Even making allowances for how busy he was, she found that disconcerting. And annoying.

Perhaps this trip was a mistake, after all. She finally had a chance to start a real business of her own. From the moment Peter had hung her pictures, there had been even more inquiries from the customers. She’d managed one session with a baby that had gone extraordinarily well, and had spread the word about her talent even more.

With regret she’d had to turn down Tara O’Rourke’s wedding and the baby shower, because both were being held while she was to be away. After saying no, she waged an internal debate over the decision. If Luke couldn’t even send a bloody email—which he hadn’t for several days now—how much time would he have for her once she’d arrived?

Still stewing over Luke’s silence, she left the pub on her break and walked the few blocks to her grandfather’s tobacco shop.

“Don’t you look as if you just lost your best friend,” he said, studying her worriedly. “Shouldn’t you be getting excited about this trip we’re taking in a few days?”

“I’ve been reconsidering, to be honest,” she said.

“Now why on earth would you do that? The plans are all made.”

She explained about the photography gigs she was sacrificing.

“Is that the real reason, then?” her grandfather asked. “Or does it have something to do with Luke? Has he been neglecting you? It’s only a few weeks until his pub opens. It’s to be expected that he has a lot on his mind.”

“Of course you’d defend him,” she said irritably.

Her grandfather’s gaze narrowed. “And why would I do that when you’re my family and it’s your feelings that count?”

“Because he’s Nell’s precious grandson,” she said, though she knew better. As he’d said, his first loyalty would always be to her. She might not have known that over the years when he and her mother had been estranged, but he’d proved it time and again recently. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I know better.”

“I hope you do,” he chided. “I just don’t want to see you get in your own way by stirring up problems when there are none. Have you told Luke you’re coming to Chesapeake Shores?”

She shook her head. “I thought it might be best to surprise him.”

“I agree, and I say we need to stick with that plan, unless you’ve decided he no longer matters quite so much to you.”

The problem, of course, was that he mattered too much. “What if we get there and he has no interest in spending time with me?” she asked, then held up a hand. “And before you ask, that’s not the same as having no time to spend with me.”

“I believe I know the difference,” he said, his expression amused.

“Well, what do I do then? Leave?”

“And give the man the satisfaction of having run you off on your very first trip to America?” he asked incredulously. “That’s surely not the Moira I know.”

She laughed. “No, it’s surely not,” she said. “I’m letting myself be defeated before I even know whether there’s to be a fight.” She sobered and looked into her grandfather’s eyes. “Does love make all of us just a little crazy?”

“You wouldn’t be the first to lose sight of who you truly are,” he admitted. “But I’ll be right there to remind you. I doubt you’ll stay lost for long. Keep in mind the woman that Luke chose to spend all that time with during his stay in Ireland. She captured his fancy. I feel certain she’ll do so again.”

Moira wished she were as confident of that. She was already in her twenties, but she swore that sometimes she felt as if she were no more than an unsophisticated sixteen-year-old country girl. That had never been more true than when she’d gotten a glimpse of the older woman who’d flown over to Ireland to be with Luke for a few days right after the family had left.

Luke had readily explained who Kristen was, explained how they’d come to be together and dismissed any notion that she meant anything to him. Moira had accepted his explanation because it was what she’d wanted to believe. What if things had changed now that he was back on Kristen’s turf? That was something else she had to worry about as she counted down the days till her flight.

At this rate she was going to be a complete basket case before she landed on American soil.

Luke was up to his elbows in flour, and making a real mess of things in Gram’s kitchen when his brother walked in. Matthew, blast him, burst out laughing.

“Oh, how I wish I had a camera right now,” Matthew said. “This is a picture that needs to hang above the bar at O’Brien’s once the doors open.” His expression brightened. “Aha, look what I have.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and snapped away.

“Bite me,” Luke said.

“Watch your tongue, young man,” Gram said, then turned to Matthew. “And if you don’t intend to be helpful, you can leave.”

Matthew regarded her with shock. “You’d kick me out? You’ve never thrown me out of your house before, no matter how badly I misbehaved.”

“You’re all grown up now and should know better than to tease your brother,” she scolded.

“But giving Luke grief makes my life so much more enjoyable,” Matthew said.

“Let him stay,” Luke said as he tried to work the dough into the proper consistency for the scones his grandmother claimed were a necessity if he was to offer afternoon tea. He scowled at her now. “Are you absolutely certain I need to bake scones?”

“Afternoon tea is a ritual that will appeal to a lot of the women in town,” she replied. “You want to draw the largest possible customer base, don’t you? And everyone in Chesapeake Shores knows I make the best scones. They sell out at every bake sale and church bazaar. Yours need to reflect my teaching so you don’t embarrass me.”

He sighed and kept kneading, then glanced at his brother, who still hadn’t wiped the amused expression off his face as he busily emailed the pictures to the family grapevine. “Why are you here, aside from a desire to torment me?”

“I wanted to let you know that the shipping company called. The bar will be here day after tomorrow.”

Luke stilled. “Will we be ready to install it?”

Matthew shook his head. “I’m trying to stall them for at least another couple of days. If the piece is as old as you say, we don’t want it getting damaged while we’re still under construction.”

“What did they say?”

“They’ll try to work with us, but they say it’s huge and they’ll need to send it when they have the right truck available.” He gave Luke a concerned look. “Did you actually measure it?”

Luke stilled. “Not exactly.”

“You either did or you didn’t,” Matthew said impatiently. “Listening to this guy talk, I got the impression of really, really big. That’s not a size that’s going to fit across the back of the room.”

“It’ll fit,” Luke said grimly. “It has to.”