Flowers on Main

“Congratulations!” Mick said. “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

“She’s the smartest one in the family,” Joe said. “Now, tell me what I can get for you.”

Mick didn’t bother with the menu. “I’ll have whatever she’s having and more coffee.”

Joe nodded and left.

“That man did not say two words to me when he took my order earlier,” Mick said. “You had him chattering like a magpie.”

She laughed. “I come here a lot. Joe treats me like family.”

“So even in a city the size of New York, you’ve created a small-town atmosphere for yourself,” he said.

“I had to work at it,” she admitted. “At first I was too intimidated to talk to anyone except the people I worked with and then Abby once she moved here. Then I discovered that if you ask a few questions, show an interest in people, they behave exactly the way they would in Chesapeake Shores.”

Joe returned and set another cup of coffee in front of Mick and gave her a tall glass of iced tea, then discreetly vanished with a wink, suggesting he’d have a lot of questions for her tomorrow about the man sitting across from her now. For years now, he’d clucked over her lack of a social life like a protective father.

Because she wanted a few answers for herself and not just to be prepared for Joe’s interrogation, she looked Mick in the eye. “You never did tell me what you’re doing in New York. Do you have business here?”

He shook his head, looking surprisingly uneasy for a man of his accomplishments and confidence. “I had business in Seattle last week, then in Minneapolis. I decided to take a little side trip on the way home.”

“You never liked New York,” she said. It was one of the reasons she’d chosen it after the divorce. She’d wanted to be someplace where they’d shared no memories and where it was unlikely Mick would be popping up too frequently.

“Still don’t,” he admitted. “But you’re here.”

She swallowed hard at the glint in his eye. The simple comment held a world of meaning. “Mick, don’t.”

His gaze held hers. “Don’t what? Don’t be honest with you?”

“Don’t say things like that. You and me, we had our chance. It’s best to leave it like that.”

His expression remained solemn. “I don’t think I can do that.”

“Of course you can. We haven’t crossed paths in years, not even when I came home to see the kids when they were younger. There’s no reason for that to change.”

Again, he looked directly into her eyes, the gaze bold, disconcerting. “I think there is. The sparks are still there, Meggie. Just because I was a damn fool doesn’t mean they’ve gone away.”

She reached for a packet of sweetener, not because she wanted it but because she needed something to do with her hands. When she started to tear it open, it flew from her grasp, spreading powdery sweetener everywhere. She would have cleaned it up, but Mick covered her hand.

“Don’t,” he said. “Leave it.” Again, he beckoned for Joe, who was there in an instant with a damp cloth and a questioning look.

She forced a smile for him. “Thanks. I’m all thumbs tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Joe said. He glanced at another waiter heading their way. “Here come your meals. You’ll let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks,” Mick told him. When Joe and the other waiter had left, Mick pushed the plate aside and turned in her direction. “Does it really bother you, me being here?”

She thought about the question, really thought about it. “It’s not that exactly. I mean, you’re on my turf, so it should be easy, but you keep saying things that throw me off kilter. I don’t know what you want.”

“Another chance,” Mick said simply. Before she could even close her gaping mouth, much less respond, he added, “Not right this second, but soon. A little at a time, you know? Maybe dinner here, like this. Then another visit to Chesapeake Shores. Or maybe you’d like to come with me to Seattle. We can play it by ear, do what feels right.”

“I don’t know, Mick,” she said, fighting temptation. “I’ve adapted to living on my own. I have a life here. Yours is …” She hesitated, then shrugged. “Yours is wherever you happen to be working at the moment. That didn’t work for us before. Why take a chance on hurting each other again?”

He held her gaze, his expression earnest. “It’s taken me fifteen long years, Meggie, to figure out everything I did wrong when we were married. Don’t let all that soul-searching go to waste.”

She smiled at the idea of Mick soul-searching. He was the kind of man who seized the moment, who went through life on bluster and gut instinct. “Soul-searching, huh?”

He grinned then. “Swear to God.”

The appeal of that grin reminded her of the way it had been between them when they first met, with Mick persuading her to do a thousand little things that went against her better judgment. Thank heaven most of the risks had been to her heart, because he could probably have talked her into skydiving with that charming way of his and she’d have wound up breaking every bone in her body. Then, again, a broken heart took longer to heal.

She tried her brisket but had no appetite left. Like Mick, she pushed the plate aside, knowing she’d hear about that from Joe later. The only thing he clucked over more than her social life was her habit of merely picking at her food.

“How about this?” she said eventually. “Maybe we can see each other from time to time, the way you said, but let’s not call it a second chance or starting over or anything like that. We’ll just be two old friends getting together, enjoying the moment.”

He sat back, his expression a bit smug, clearly counting her response as a victory. “You can call it whatever you want,” he agreed. “Now, how about coming home with me tomorrow? Ma says there’s a problem with Bree. She thinks we might need to rally the troops.”

Megan saw right through him. Give the man an inch and he took not just a mile, but the entire interstate between New

York and Chesapeake Shores. “I’m not going home with you,” she said flatly.

“Not even if your daughter needs you?” he asked, not even attempting to mask his disappointment.

“Let’s just say I’ll need confirmation on that from someone other than you,” she retorted.

“You don’t trust me?”

She laughed at his indignation. “Not from here to the corner.”

He shrugged, looking sheepish. “It was worth a try,” he said. “And Ma really is worried about Bree.”

“Then she or Bree can call me and fill me in,” she said, not relenting. “Though Bree has never been in the habit of confiding in me.”

“I think that’s part of the problem,” Mick said, his expression thoughtful. “Bree’s not in the habit of confiding in anyone.”

She frowned at his tone and his surprising insight. “You’re really concerned, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “I’ve learned to listen to Ma. When she says something’s wrong, it usually is.”

“Then call me and fill me in once you have a better idea of what the problem is. If Bree really does need me, then of course I’ll come.”

“I’ll tell her you said that,” he promised. “Now, I’d better head for the airport and see if I can still get a flight yet tonight.”

The sharp stab of disappointment she felt at the meal being cut short was a warning. She might think she had control of the situation, but that was far, far from the truth. Once Mick O’Brien got an idea in his head, he was all but impossible to ignore or dissuade. Especially for a woman who still had a soft spot in her heart for him.

3 _____

Jake was very glad the job he was on required hard, backbreaking labor. He hadn’t slept a wink the night before, thanks to that near miss with Bree. He’d worried that Connie could be right, that Bree might be staying in Chesapeake Shores. Then he’d worried even more that she might leave again. Nobody could ever suggest that his life was ruled by logic, he thought dryly.