An O'brien Family Christmas

Matthew chuckled. “Probably not on the first day,” he advised, then ordered the same things she had.

After they’d ordered and the waiter had brought their tea, she sat back and looked around the hotel dining room. It could have been any hotel anywhere in the world, but it was Dublin! And, risky though it was, she was here with Matthew!

“I can’t believe I’m really here,” she said happily.

“Are you glad you changed your mind about coming?”

“Yes. I would have hated to miss this.”

He leaned forward as if he had something more to say, only to see Luke appear, pull out a chair and join them. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked, though he was already seated.

Matthew frowned at his younger brother. “I thought you were going to rest or go for a run or something.”

“I ran. I showered. And now I’m ready for a full Irish breakfast,” he said, looking around for their waiter.

“Did it even occur to you that you might be interrupting?” Matthew asked testily.

Luke gave him an innocent look. “Interrupting what? The way you explained it to me, you two are adhering to a hands-off policy while in Ireland, which is why you’re in my room instead of Laila’s.”

Laila nearly choked on a sip of tea. She frowned at Matthew. “You told him that?”

“Well, I had to explain why I needed to bunk with him, didn’t I?”

“He did,” Luke concurred. “Because I was hoping to get lucky on this trip and now my plans for a thoroughly raucous holiday are seriously thwarted.”

Laila studied Luke’s expression and thought she detected a hint of sadness behind the cavalier attitude. “You aren’t seriously missing Kristen Lewis, are you? I thought that was over, or that it was some kind of ploy to keep her away from Mack, whatever.”

“Kristen and I had fun, no question about it,” Luke said. “But that’s all it was.”

Laila heard the false note in his voice and shook her head. “Not buying it. It might have started out that way, but something changed. You fell for her, didn’t you?”

Matthew regarded her with surprise. “You can’t be serious. Luke and Kristen? It was a fling.” He turned to Luke. “Right, bro?”

“Sort of like you and Laila,” Luke retorted, then glanced apologetically toward Laila. “No offense.”

“None taken,” she said. “Why didn’t you ask Kristen to come along on this trip if you’re really hung up on her?”

“And have Susie string me up by the you-know-what?” Luke said with a shudder. “No, thank you. She’s not entirely over the fact that Kristen was once Mack’s lover, even though it was years and years ago. I don’t think she’s anywhere near ready to welcome her into the family fold.”

Laila was impressed that he was sensitive to that. “How about you? Does it bother you that Kristen and Mack had a thing?”

Luke shrugged. “Everybody has a past, and I know Mack and Susie have something really special going. It’s not an issue.”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “Delusional,” he muttered under his breath.

Luke’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”

“Mack’s feelings aren’t really the problem, are they? You should be worrying about the fact that Kristen still has feelings for him. Isn’t that the reason you set yourself up to provide a distraction in the first place, to keep her away from Mack?”

For a moment Luke looked taken aback. “Okay, sure,” he said eventually. “But everybody’s moving on now.” His voice didn’t hold much certainty.

Matthew just shook his head.

Laila gave Luke’s hand a squeeze. “Be careful, okay? Sometimes it’s very difficult to get over an old flame, even when you know it’s the only thing to do.”

“Which explains why you and my brother are sitting here having a cozy breakfast together, instead of sitting all alone in your separate rooms?” Luke taunted.

“Watch it,” Matthew warned.

Laila, however, laughed. “Out of the mouths of babes,” she murmured. “Yes, Luke, walking away from Matthew has been much harder than I expected.” She gave Matthew a defiant look. “But I will pull it off eventually.”

There was no mistaking the sudden twinkle in Matthew’s eyes. “I look forward to seeing you try,” he said mildly.

“You might not want to turn this into a challenge,” she warned him. “I can match you stubborn streak for stubborn streak.”

Matthew winced. “Good point.”

Fortunately their breakfast arrived just then, which gave them both time to retreat from positions that might have proved indefensible. While Matthew sulked and she fretted, Luke dug into his food as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Laila scowled at him.

“He is annoying,” she commented, as if Matthew had just recently mentioned it.

Matthew glanced at his brother. “Very annoying.”

Luke merely chuckled. “See, though, I’ve brought the two of you into agreement over one thing. It’s a fine start for the first day of the trip.”

Nell stood across from Trinity College in downtown Dublin and stared at the window of the tobacco shop that had once belonged to her grandfather. She knew that once she walked through that door, it would be like going back in time. That was one reason she’d never chanced it on previous trips. Some things were better left in the past. Charles would never have understood about those long-ago summers before they’d married.

She’d spent so many afternoons in the shop during the summers her parents had sent her here to stay with her grandparents. Surrounded by the rich scents, she’d sip tea and pretend to read books as she listened to her grandfather talk to his regular customers. They said women were gossips, but she learned more about what was going on in the city right there in that room than she ever had by reading a newspaper or a history book.

Of course, her fear of crossing the shop’s threshold was about more than that.

“Gram, don’t you want to go inside?” Susie asked, slipping an arm around her waist.

“I’m not sure I want to know if there have been too many changes,” she admitted. “Dillon O’Malley, who bought it from my grandfather, is surely retired by now. I don’t know how it will feel to find a complete stranger behind the counter.” Nor did she know how she would feel if she happened to be wrong about that and, instead, came face-to-face with Dillon for the first time in all these years.

“I could at least go in and ask who owns it now,” Susie offered. “Then you could decide.”

Nell seized on the suggestion. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not,” Susie said, giving her grandmother’s hand a reassuring squeeze before heading inside.

Nell all but held her breath as she waited for Susie’s return. “Well?” she asked, searching her granddaughter’s face for answers when she came back.

“The man I spoke to says he’s Dillon O’Malley.”

Just as Susie spoke, the man himself appeared in the doorway, his eyes filled with curiosity. Tall, with only the barest stoop to his broad shoulders and just a hint of silver in his black hair, it was unmistakably Dillon. When his gaze settled on Nell, he seemed to go perfectly still.

“Nell?” That one word was part confusion and disbelief, part hope.