Flowers on Main (18 page)

“The flower shop,” Mack confided in an exaggerated whisper.

“Oh, boy,” Will said, his fascinated gaze now on Jake. “What was that about?”

Jake gave both of them a sour look and stood up. “Hey, Sally, make my order to go. I suddenly remembered I have somewhere I need to be.”

Both men laughed.

“Where?” Mack asked.

“Pretty much anyplace but here,” he told them, then headed for the counter, where Sally managed to produce his take-out order in record time.

“Thin skin,” Mack commented loudly enough for him to overhear.

“Pot calling the kettle black,” Will retorted. “Now, let’s get back to you and Susie.”

Mack’s groan followed Jake all the way out onto Main Street.

Every outfit from Megan’s closet was scattered across her bed. She stared at the mess and shook her head. She’d packed for overseas travel with less anxiety. For some reason the upcoming four-day trip back to Chesapeake Shores had her in a complete tizzy.

Okay, she knew the reason: Mick. Like some teenager facing a first date with the guy of her dreams, she wanted to impress him. No, she wanted to knock his socks off, make him rue the day he’d ever let her get away.

Of course, the last time she’d been down there, when he’d openly admitted his intention to win her back, it had scared her to death. And now she wanted what? To have him whip out an engagement ring because he was breathless at the sight of her? She’d probably pass out on the spot.

When her phone rang, she seized it, eager for anything that would distract her from this utter insanity.

“Hey, Meggie,” Mick said, his low voice sending heat spiraling right through her.

She swallowed hard. Maybe this wasn’t the best distraction, after all. She was having a hard time thinking straight.

“Meggie?”

“Hi. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” she said with forced cheer. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s great down here. Bree’s right on track for her big opening. I don’t know if what she’s doing is the right decision for her in the long term, but she has a sparkle in her eyes these days. I can’t argue with anything that could put that there.”

“I agree. She sounded really excited when I spoke to her yesterday. This may not be the best solution for her future, but clearly it’s what she needs right now.”

“When are you getting here?”

She glanced at the piles of scattered clothes and wondered if she’d ever make any headway with packing. “I’m taking an early shuttle on Thursday morning.”

“Why don’t I pick you up at the airport,” he suggested. “There’s no reason for you to waste money on a rental car when I have extra cars just sitting in the garage.”

“You’d let me drive one of your classic cars?” she asked, stunned.

He laughed. “Not a chance. You can drive my car. I’ll drive the Mustang convertible. It’ll make me feel like a kid again. If you play your cards right, I’ll take you for a spin in it, but that’s as close as you’ll get to being behind the wheel.”

“I have driven it, you know,” she said, deliberately taunting him. She knew how he felt about those precious cars of his.

“When?” he asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

“Every time you made me furious by leaving town.”

“Megan O’Brien, you drove my classic cars?” he blustered. “Do you have any idea what these things are worth? How much the insurance is?”

“I believe you mentioned it a time or two.” More like a hundred, especially when Connor or Kevin pleaded for permission to drive one of them. She doubted he knew about their excursions in the cars and she wasn’t about to fill him in at this late date.

“So you did it just to spite me?” Mick asked now.

“Something like that.”

He fell silent. “I suppose I should thank my lucky stars you never crashed one.”

“Yes, you probably should, given my mood when I was behind the wheel. You have no idea how tempted I was to at least put the Mustang back in the garage with a couple of good-size dings in the fender.”

“Do you have any other diabolical tendencies I missed while we were married?”

She chuckled at his suddenly wary tone. “Perhaps one or two, but I think I’ll keep you guessing about what they might be. Still want to pick me up at the airport?”

“Of course I do. Seems like I’m going to need to keep
a real close eye on you. Then, again, I was planning to do that anyway.”

The edge she’d felt she had vanished in the blink of an eye. When the man said something like that, how was she supposed to resist?

“Meggie?”

“Yes.”

“I’m looking forward to this weekend.”

“Me, too.”

“You gonna be my date for the party?”

“I assumed the whole family would be going together,” she said, hedging.

“Probably will,” he agreed. “But I want it clear that you’ll be there with me, even if you and I are the only ones who know that.”

“You could always resort to a branding iron,” she commented dryly.

“I’m not claiming you as my property,” he chided. “I’m asking you to be my date, a partner, the way we used to be.”

“Oh, Mick,” she whispered, her voice filled with nostalgia and regret. “We stopped being partners a long time ago, way before the marriage ended. You made decisions unilaterally that affected all of us. When I questioned anything, you told me everything you were doing was for the good of the family. If I disagreed, you told me I didn’t have any faith in you.”

Mick sighed. “I can’t deny any of that, but I do remember how good it was when we were a team,” he said. “I want that back, Meggie. I miss it.”

“I’m not sure it’s possible to recapture the past.”

“Then we’ll make ourselves a new set of rules, put our relationship on a whole new footing. What do you think?”

“I think that optimistic streak of yours is in overdrive,” she responded.

“You used to think that was a good thing,” he reminded her.

“It was,” she said. “It is. I want to feel what you feel, Mick. I really do. I’m just not there yet. Losing you, long before the divorce, that took a toll.”

“Then we’ll take all the time you need,” he said, giving in, but clearly not giving up. “See you on Thursday. You tell that pilot to fly safe or he’ll have to answer to me.”

She laughed at that. “He’ll have to answer to me first.”

“Bye, Meggie.”

“Good night, Mick.”

Long after he’d hung up, she sat clutching the phone and wondering how she was going to resist all that charm of his. She hadn’t been able to do it over thirty years ago. It was unlikely her resistance had improved with age.

Mick walked onto the porch after his conversation with Megan and found his mother already out there, rocking the way she did when she was worried. He sat down next to her.

“What’s on your mind, Ma?”

“Megan,” she said, slowing the rocker long enough to direct a hard look his way. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Mick?”

“Of course I do.”

“Tell me what happens once you’ve won her back.”

“First of all, winning her back isn’t a sure thing,” he began.

She waved off the comment. “Don’t put on a show of modesty for my benefit. We both know you usually get whatever you set your mind to. Failure’s never been an option for you. Do you recall how many people told you this town couldn’t be built the way you envisioned it? You never once lost faith in your vision.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence,” he said, “but Megan’s changed. She’s not the sweet, docile woman I married.”

“She never was sweet or docile,” Nell corrected. “She just loved you so much that she tried to do things your way. For a time that worked because you adored her and tried to meet her halfway. There was balance in the relationship.”

“And then I let work consume me,” Mick said. “I’ve heard it before, Ma, and I can hardly deny it.” It was the second time in less than a half hour that he’d had to admit as much. He directed a look her way. “I know none of you believe me when I say I’m changing, but think about this. How much time have I been spending at home recently?”

“More than usual,” she conceded.

“I walked away from one job,” he told her. “Two more offers came my way just this past week and I turned both of those down. There are half a dozen projects in various stages of construction right now all over the country and I’ve assigned people to oversee each of those. That doesn’t mean I won’t fly in to take an important meeting or have a look around. After all, my name’s associated with these developments, but I’m pulling back from the day-to-day operation of the company.”

“How long is that going to last?” Nell asked, her skepticism plain. “One crisis and you could be gone for weeks. I’m not saying that’s unreasonable, but it will pretty much shatter the illusion that you’ve changed.”

“Megan and I were married long enough that she can understand the difference between a crisis and a lifestyle,” he claimed, though he was sure of no such thing. Crises had a way of coming up back to back. The next thing he knew, the new pattern could look pretty much the same as the old. He could tell from Nell’s dubious expression that she knew that as well as he did.

Mick knew there was only one surefire solution. He’d have to retire, turn the company over to the men he’d hired and trained, then trust them to manage it as he would have. Retirement might have been easier if any of his children had been interested in the business, but they weren’t. To his regret, they’d all made that plain. Kevin and Connor, the most likely choices, could barely tell a hammer from a saw. As for putting anyone else in charge, he just didn’t know if he was ready to do that or even capable of keeping his nose out of the business he’d started.

“I’m too young to retire,” he said glumly. “I’d go completely stir-crazy.”

Nell’s lips twitched. “More than likely,” she agreed. “You’re a man with a lot of energy and drive.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“It’s not up to me,” she said, suddenly all innocence.

“But you have an opinion, I’m sure.” To his knowledge, she’d never been without one, not on any topic related to their family, anyway.

“First, this is something for you to be discussing with Megan. Put all your cards on the table, tell her how you’re feeling about her and the business, and work it through together. It’s important to make her part of deciding the best solution.”

He nodded. “No problem.”

“Okay, then. Second, I think you should turn your energies toward something you can do right around here. Maybe not in Chesapeake Shores, but close by.”

He could tell from the glint in her eyes that she’d given this some thought. “Such as?”

“Habitat for Humanity,” she said at once, her expression alive with excitement. “Let’s face it, you’ve accumulated enough money to last for two lifetimes. All of your children
are provided for. You don’t need the income. Put all of that energy and expertise to work as a volunteer, helping to build homes for folks who desperately need them. You could live right here at home. You’d have control of your schedule. And you’d be doing something good.”

She gave him a sly look. “A man who’d do something selfless like that might be the kind of man his ex-wife could trust.”

She was suggesting he walk away from his company, walk away from the acclaim that had gone along with it. But what she was offering instead had definite allure. Mick had done precious little for others during his lifetime beyond writing checks to charities. He’d certainly been generous about that, but not with his time. And hadn’t he learned from his experience with Megan and his children that time was the more valuable gift?

He reached over and squeezed his mother’s hand, noticing how much more frail she was these days. A part of him wanted to do something like this just because she’d suggested it, just because it so clearly mattered to her, but there was a lot to consider.

“Well,” she prodded impatiently. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s an intriguing idea,” he admitted.

Her expression immediately brightened. “You’ll consider it, then?”

He nodded slowly. “I’ll make some calls, explore the possibilities.”

“I have a list of people you should start with,” she said, reaching in her pocket and extracting something that looked like one of her grocery lists, filled with names and phone numbers in her tidy handwriting.

“Of course you do,” he said with a laugh. “Ma, do you have any idea what a treasure you are?”

She looked a little flustered by the question, but pleased. “When you look at me like that, I do,” she said.

“I hope I’ve made you proud.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, you have,” she said with her usual blunt candor. “But we’ll get that up to a hundred percent yet. For one thing, you need to start making peace with your brothers. It’s way past time to let go of all the hard feelings that split the three of you apart when you were building this town. Those differences don’t justify keeping either Jeff or Thomas at arm’s length, especially after so much time has passed. They’re family, Mick. Seeing them out of duty when I demand it isn’t the same as acting like brothers.”

He knew she was right, but he wasn’t the only one holding on to an old grudge. His brothers bore their share of blame for the rift. “Let’s just focus on this plan of yours with Habitat for Humanity for now,” he said tightly.

“Pulling this family back together with you at the middle of it is even more important,” she corrected. “Helping all these other folks at the same time would be a wonderful bonus.”

Though he was only partially convinced that this was something he wanted to do, when she said things like that, she made it all but impossible for him to say no.

“I’ll make these calls,” he told her. “For now that’s all I can promise.”

She beamed at him. “And for now, that’s enough.”

But they both knew she wouldn’t let him alone until he’d considered the idea from every angle. In the end, there was every likelihood she’d get her way, even when it came to reconciling with his brothers. After all, despite all his reservations, Mick knew one reconciliation could lead to another. Making peace with Tom and Jeff, showing he could be the
bigger man and make the first overture, might very well pave the way to starting over with Megan.