Lilac Lane (Chesapeake Shores #14)(45)
Though she didn’t look as if she entirely believed him, Kiera lifted her chin with a touch of defiance. “Then we’ll just have to set him straight. We’ll set all of them straight, if it comes to that. I’m grieving Peter and you...” She hesitated. “Well, I don’t quite know what’s going on with you, but one thing’s for certain, we’re more than content just to be civil.” Her gaze narrowed. “Isn’t that right?”
Though he nodded in agreement, Bryan laughed at her na?veté when it came to O’Brien determination. Even though he wasn’t looking forward to what might happen next, it might be fun to watch Kiera trying to squirm out of that particular spotlight. Who knew? Maybe she was clever enough to do what few others in that family had been able to accomplish.
*
On her drive to Baltimore a few days after the school year ended in Charlottesville, Deanna had deliberately detoured through the little seaside town of Chesapeake Shores. She’d even dared to park across the street from O’Brien’s hoping for a glimpse of Bryan Laramie. But while plenty of people had come and gone from the Irish pub during the half hour she remained park there, none had looked like the man whose picture had been featured in that magazine article.
More than once she’d considered getting out of the car and marching inside to confront her father, but in the end, she simply hadn’t had the nerve. She had to make peace with the whole messy situation before she saw him. She had this awful feeling if she did it without careful planning, she’d take one look at him and burst into a flood of tears.
When she’d realized that people were glancing her way, as if curious about why she was simply sitting in her car for so long, she’d finally pulled out of the space and headed on to Baltimore.
In the two weeks since, she’d been so busy getting acclimated to her volunteer summer internship and meeting new people that she’d managed to push aside any thought of what her next step with her father should be. Nor had she made any progress in mending her suddenly awkward relationship with Ash.
She couldn’t blame the latter on him. Once he’d gotten over her plan to move to Baltimore, he’d done all he could to be supportive. Perhaps that stemmed from guilt over keeping silent all these years, but more likely it was simply because that was the kind of man he was. Despite their rocky relationship at the moment, she knew in her heart he wanted what was best for her. If medicine was her dream now, he’d back her 1,000 percent. He’d proved that by insisting on paying the rent on her apartment for the summer and offering whatever she needed in the way of furnishings to be comfortable.
He’d called to touch base every few days, not lingering on the phone or pressing her about anything, just letting her know he loved her no matter what. Though she understood his goal was to mend fences and reassure her, the calls always left her feeling vaguely guilty for not being quite ready to forgive and forget.
After a fascinating but exhausting week observing and being a glorified gofer in a cancer research lab, she was more than ready to order a pizza and call it a night. The weekend stretched out ahead of her, tempting her with all sorts of possibilities. She could explore Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or drive over to Ocean City, as many of her new coworkers planned to do.
Or she could drive down to Chesapeake Shores.
The tantalizing possibility was always there, taunting her for being a coward, for not being ready to take such a huge step.
When her phone rang, she assumed it was the pizza delivery and answered without even glancing at caller ID. Instead, it was Ash.
“Everything okay there?” he asked cheerfully.
“Everything’s going great,” she said automatically.
“You sure? You sound tired. They’re not overworking you, are they?”
“You are such a dad,” she said without thinking. “As if nobody but you should put in a long day.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, sounding just like something she would have said before everything had changed, she fell silent. So did Ash.
He recovered first. “I’m just saying that it is summer. You should have some fun, too. Any big plans for the weekend?”
“Not really. First I want to sleep for about twelve hours straight. Then I’ll decide what I’m up for.”
“Is Chesapeake Shores on the list of possibilities?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted candidly.
“Sweetie, what’s holding you back? Do you not want to meet your father, after all?”
“Of course I want to meet him,” she said with a touch of impatience, then sighed. “It’s just so complicated.”
“Because of what I told you about your mom and me?”
“That certainly didn’t help. I don’t know which situation I need to figure out first. I’m trying to make sense of what you told me, but I can’t quite get past the two of you creating this whole big fake-family lie.”
“We were a family,” Ash said emphatically. “Not in the conventional way and not in the way you thought, but we were a family, Dee. Your mom was always your mom, and I was the best stepfather I knew how to be. My parents loved you as if you were my own child. Isn’t that what makes a family?”
Deanna’s eyes stung with tears. “I wish it were that simple. I know it should be. I know I should focus on the love and the stability that you brought into my mom’s life and mine. That really is what counts. I just can’t get past the fact that our family was built on a lie.”