A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

Connor looked faintly surprised by her recitation. “What, did you hire a private detective to dig up all that information when you started seeing Dad again? You must have figured you’d need a way to worm your way back into all our lives.”

Megan sighed. “I didn’t need to hire anybody, Connor. I’ve kept tabs on each of you. Abby and I grew close again after she moved to New York. I went to Chicago to see Bree’s plays. I even came to a few of your college ball games.”

He snorted with disbelief.

“Remember the game against Carolina?” she said. “You hit an inside-the-park home run, and when you slid into home base, you broke your wrist.” She shuddered at the memory of his face contorted with pain. “It took everything in me not to run to you on the field.”

“You could have read about that in the paper,” he said.

“I could have,” she agreed. “Or someone in the family could have mentioned it to me. But if I’d found out either of those ways, would I have known that a pretty blonde cheerleader left with you in the ambulance?”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “Okay, fine. You were there. Big deal.”

“It was for me,” she said quietly. “Knowing that I had no right to come to you even when you were hurt tore me apart, Connor.”

“So it was all about you, as usual.”

“No, it was about you, and knowing that you wouldn’t have appreciated me showing up out of the blue at the hospital. It’s always been about you and your sisters and Kevin. Everything I did, I did because I thought it was for the best for you. Even leaving your father.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “You can’t spin that now. Leaving was all about you, Mother. You can’t deny that. You didn’t give a second thought to what it would be like for us after you ran off to make an exciting new life for yourself.”

“Okay, I’ll admit that I needed to leave and build a new life for myself, but I thought that would be better for all of you, too. You wouldn’t have a mother who resented your father the way I did. You’d have one who was strong and sure of herself again.”

“That sounds to me as if it was all about you.”

“Well, it wasn’t,” she said defensively. “Surely you know by now that I planned for all of you to come to New York with me. I had rooms ready, schools picked out. I even had your father’s blessing.”

“Funny, but I don’t recall spending even a day in New York.”

“Because you and Kevin took your father’s side and refused to consider moving. You didn’t want to leave your friends. You wouldn’t even spend time with me when I visited you here. Abby said she wasn’t going anywhere without Jess and Bree, and they threw fits at the thought of leaving Chesapeake Shores. Your father and I finally agreed to give it more time, to start with visits.”

“How’d that work out? I’ve been to New York a dozen times, and never once did I see you,” Connor retorted.

“Because you turned down every invitation,” she reminded him quietly. “And I don’t recall you phoning on any of those visits you made, either. Relationships work both ways, Connor, even between parents and their nearly grown children. Every time I knew you were coming—and I did know about most of those trips—I sat by the phone, hoping against hope that this would be the time you’d reach out to me.”

“So now you’re the neglected saint of a mother and I’m the terrible son?”

She gave him a pitying look. “Oh, Connor, no. I’m just trying to make you see that there are two sides to every story. You have your perspective, and I have mine. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Don’t you think it would be worth it to try to find it, to make peace after all this time? I’m still your mother, and I’ve always loved you.”

“How convenient that you’ve discovered this maternal love after all these years!”

“Do I need to remind you of the time I devoted to you, to all of you, before I left?”

“Give me a break, Mother. This is all about stopping us from interfering with your plan to marry Dad again, your scheme to take advantage of him. I won’t allow it, you know. There will be a prenup this time. I’ll see to it.”

“Fine,” she said readily. “Bring it on. I’ll sign it happily, though I think your father might have other ideas. My relationship with your father has never been about money. We were church-mouse poor when we started out.”

“But not by the time you left,” he reminded her. “You were happy enough to take a bundle of his money so you could live in New York.”

“I took only what was necessary to find a place that would be a good environment for you children,” she corrected. “When you didn’t come, I moved into a smaller place and never took another dime from him.” She met his gaze. “Did you know that? I’ve paid my own way for years now, Connor. That’s not going to stop if your father and I marry.”

He seemed startled by the news. “You’re planning to work?” he scoffed. “Doing what?”

“My boss and I have been discussing the possibility of me opening a branch of his art gallery here. Now that your father and I have set a wedding date, I’ll speak to Phillip about proceeding with that.” She gave him a steady look. “Any other concerns?”

“A boatload of them, but I’m sure you’ll have an answer for everything,” he said sourly.

“And I imagine some of them will be things you don’t particularly want to hear,” she replied. “Now, since we’re parked on Shore Road and neither of us ate a bite of our meal, why don’t we get something to eat? My treat.” Again, she leveled an unyielding look at him. “Or you can take me home, then sulk for the rest of the afternoon and complain that I bailed on you yet again.”

She held her breath as she waited for him to make his choice. It seemed to take an eternity as he weighed the options.

“I suppose I could eat,” he said grudgingly.

She resisted the temptation to reach over and ruffle his hair as she said, “You always could. You and Kevin were bottomless pits.”

“We were growing boys,” he countered as he got out and, to her surprise, came around and opened the car door for her. It was evidence, she thought, of Nell’s stern emphasis on manners. It also demonstrated that no matter how badly Connor wanted to hate her, on some level he still had at least a tiny grain of respect left for the mother she’d been before the fateful day when she’d left Mick to save herself and turned all their lives upside down in the process.

Mick paced around the kitchen as Nell and Abby cleaned up after their dinner.

“I think I should go looking for them,” he said for probably the tenth time since Connor had stormed off and Megan had gone after him.

“No!” Nell said emphatically. She and Abby had taken turns talking him out of doing anything rash.

“Mom needs to deal with Connor,” Abby repeated. “If she’s smart, she’s probably somewhere in town feeding him a steak about now.”

Mick paused. “You think they went to dinner? I could drive around, look for his car. Make sure no blood has been shed.”

“No!” Abby said, regarding him with impatience. “Dad, you can’t fix this. It’s up to Mom.”

“Some of what happened was my fault,” he argued.

“A lot of it was,” Nell agreed, “but that’s not the point. This is between your son and his mother. You can sort out your issues with him later.”

“Well, I can’t just sit around here,” he grumbled. “I’ve never been any good at sitting on the sidelines and waiting.”

“But this time that’s exactly what you’ll do,” Nell said firmly. “Now grab a dish towel and dry some of those pots and pans.”

Mick sighed and took a towel from Abby, who promptly announced she was going to get Trace and her girls and head for home. She nodded silently toward Nell and mouthed to him, “Talk to her.”

Mick got the message. After Abby had gone, he put the last of the pans back in the cabinet and turned to his mother. “Ma, sit down.”

She regarded him with a narrowed gaze. “Why?”

“Because you’re the one person who hasn’t said how you feel about Megan and me getting married again.”

She looked him directly in the eye and said, “I’m happy for both of you. This has been in the wind for a long time now. I’ve had time to get used to the idea.”

Though her words and tone were meant to be convincing, Mick didn’t buy it. “You do know that our marriage isn’t going to displace you, right? This has been your home for a long time now, and Megan and I both want you to stay right here.”