Lilac Lane (Chesapeake Shores #14)(101)
He gave her a surprising grin. “Maybe so.”
And with that tantalizing remark hanging in the air, he walked away, leaving her to wonder exactly when the world had turned topsy-turvy.
*
“Mum, what on earth is wrong with you this morning?” Moira demanded when Kiera had lost count of the pub’s liquor inventory for the third time.
Her mother blinked and stared at her. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m fine.”
Moira shook her head and guided Kiera to a table in a corner, left and returned with a cup of tea.
“You’re most definitely not fine,” Moira said. “You’re distracted. You keep gazing toward the kitchen with this odd expression on your face. Is it Bryan? Or his daughter? Has something gone wrong? Has Bryan upset you?”
“You act as if Bryan’s the only thing I might have on my mind,” Kiera said indignantly. “My life does not revolve around Bryan Laramie or any other man, for that matter.”
Moira wasn’t buying that for a second. She’d hoped that her conversation with Bryan the day before would nudge him off dead center and spur some action, but what if he hadn’t taken that next step, after all? What if she’d only made things worse? It wouldn’t be the first time that her good intentions had gone awry. Luke would happily point out a few other occasions. She simply did not have Nell’s finesse when it came to meddling successfully.
“Mum, I can’t help if you don’t talk to me,” she said in frustration.
“Who said I needed help?”
Moira was about to throw up her hands and go back to counting bottles of whiskey when her mother added, “What do you suppose is going on in there?”
Moira followed her mother’s gaze. “In the kitchen?”
“Of course in the kitchen. There’s no one else about in here this morning. Luke’s gone off to see a supplier.”
“Deanna was trying to follow Bryan’s instructions when I came through there an hour ago,” she said. “Are you worried about whether they’re getting along?”
“It’s not the two of them who concern me,” Kiera said. “Nell’s joined them.”
“Okay,” Moira said slowly, trying to grasp the problem, then giving up. The workings of her mother’s mind eluded her. “Nell’s not likely to cause problems for them.”
“Of course not.”
“Is it the idea of her teaming up with Nell to meddle with your relationship with Bryan? Luke said Bryan had mentioned something about that a few days ago.”
“And then apparently forgot all about it,” Kiera said with disgust. “But that’s not on my mind at the moment. Do you not recall Nell asking for my Irish stew recipe when she was at the house?”
Moira now caught a bit of her mother’s alarm. “You didn’t give it to her, did you? Not before this cooking competition?”
“Do I look as if I can be taken in that easily?” Kiera snapped. “I told her it was all in my head, but that I’d write it down and get it to her soon.”
“Then that’s all okay,” Moira said, relieved.
“Or is it? Nell has been making the stew for years. She tasted mine and knew at once there was a difference. They could be in there experimenting right this minute. Bryan’s a skilled chef. He knows spices. Between the two of them, they could come up with an even better version.”
Moira was honestly stunned that the stupid contest was what was weighing on her mother’s mind. “This is about stew? The distraction? The heavy sighs? All of it?”
“The contest might not matter to you, but it does to me, and I’ve told you why.”
“The whole make-or-break thing about your reputation,” Moira concluded. “And I told you that you were worrying about nothing.”
“I’m entered in this contest because a few clever people—yes, that includes you and Nell—manipulated me into it. Don’t make fun of me because I’m taking it seriously.”
“Do you want me to go in there to see what’s going on?” Moira asked.
Kiera looked startled. “You’d spy?”
“It’s my pub, my kitchen,” Moira said. “Okay, technically, it’s Luke’s, but I have a right to pass through anytime I choose to.”
To her surprise, Kiera drew herself up. “An interesting point. I should have thought of it myself. I work here. I have a right to be in there, too. You stay here. I’ll go in there and see what the three of them are up to.”
She stalked off, her chin lifted defiantly. Moira called after her. “Let me know if you need backup.”
Kiera only waved her off and replied, “I’ve got this.”
Moira chuckled. The sight of her mum standing up for herself was something to behold. Maybe Kiera really didn’t need her to run interference on any front these days, and wouldn’t that be a wonderful testament to how much she’d changed since coming to Chesapeake Shores!
*
To Kiera’s surprise and faint dismay, she found Nell and Deanna huddled in a corner of the kitchen chatting like old friends, while Bryan worked on lunch prep and the stew simmered away on the stove unattended. She sniffed the air but could detect no discernible difference between it and his past attempts. Perhaps she’d overreacted and there was no conspiracy to steal her recipe after all.