Lilac Lane (Chesapeake Shores #14)(47)

A guilty flush spread across her daughter’s pale-as-cream complexion. Kiera nodded without a word being spoken. “I thought so. You heard that Mick revealed your part in getting that cottage ready for me. And after you’d played the part of indignant daughter so well, insistent that I stay here under your roof.”

“I had to be convincing, didn’t I? Are you furious with me?”

“I’m wondering why you felt the need to pretend you didn’t want me to move there in the first place, since moving me into close proximity to Bryan Laramie was clearly part of the plan.”

Moira laughed. “Because, just like me, you always do the opposite of what’s expected, just to be contrary. If I’d told you I thought it was the right place and that I thought it might bring you and Bryan a little closer, you’d have moved to the outskirts of town just to spite me.”

“I thought you believed any friendship between Bryan and me would be disloyal to Peter’s memory.”

“Friendship wasn’t the problem,” Moira said. “It was the sparks between you that I found worrisome. So friendship is absolutely all I’m encouraging.”

“Carefully noted,” Kiera said, not even trying to hide a smile.

“And that’s all that’s going on between you, right?”

“Absolutely,” Kiera said.

“Despite what Mick thinks he saw at Panini Bistro and what Luke and I have seen with our own eyes?” Moira pressed.

Kiera laughed outright at the indignation and worry in her daughter’s voice. “You do realize that I’m your mother, and as an adult of reasonably mature years, I have a right to a personal life of my own choosing. Weren’t you the very one who reminded me of that several times since I arrived in Chesapeake Shores?”

Moira frowned at the scolding. “I suppose,” she said reluctantly.

Kiera nodded. “As long as we’ve an understanding about that, then I will tell you that Bryan and I have made peace in the name of cooperation and teamwork at the pub. Nothing more.”

“And those sparks? I know none of us have just imagined them.”

“An interesting outcome,” Kiera said.

And one she was not at all ready to examine too closely and certainly not with her daughter. It was enough that they’d kept her up late at night, her thoughts whirling in unexpected ways, ways she’d thought she was well beyond experiencing.





Chapter 11



“Moira, I know it’s last minute, and more of a commitment than you prefer in terms of time, but an opportunity like this might never come along again,” Megan O’Brien told her as they sat in Megan’s cramped office at her gallery on Shore Road.

Ever since she’d first seen Moira’s photographs, Megan had been an ardent champion of her work. And thanks to her contacts and credibility in the art world, Moira’s career had not only been established, but had taken off in ways she’d never anticipated.

Balancing the opportunities that came her way with her life with Luke and the baby had become a constant tug-of-war. Moira would have been content with life as a stay-at-home mother, but Megan had Luke’s sincere backing when it came to pushing Moira to take advantage of the opportunities to show her work to an increasingly expanding audience across the country.

Sometimes, though, like now, she simply had to put her foot down. After a couple of rough mornings at home with Kate, perhaps she should have been eager to escape. Instead, though, it had made her all the more determined not to fail as a mother. Megan needed to grasp that her family came first.

“Not this time,” she told Megan very firmly, then seized on what had become her latest excuse. “Megan, you know the timing is off. My mother is here—”

Megan cut her off. “Which should make the decision even easier. She’ll be available to help with Kate while you’re away.”

“It’s one thing to have her sit with Kate for an afternoon or evening. It’s entirely different to expect her to manage the baby day in and day out, while working at the pub, as well,” she said, despite evidence that her mother seemed more than capable of juggling both tasks rather well. Hadn’t she had years of experience at just that? Moira was coming to appreciate the toll of that more and more. Her mum was due a break, not more of the same.

“She raised you and your brothers while working,” Megan reminded her as if she’d been reading Moira’s mind.

Moira recalled those days, her mum exhausted and short-tempered. No, she simply didn’t want Kate exposed to that, even if it appeared things weren’t remotely the same these days. Kiera had mellowed, just as Moira herself had.

“Talk it over with her, at least,” Megan suggested. “This show in San Francisco would open all sorts of doors for you. The gallery there has regulars from not only the West Coast, but from Hawaii, Japan, even China. It’ll be your first international exposure.”

“I started in Ireland,” Moira reminded her, “and there were European collectors when I did my show in New York.”

Megan shrugged those reminders off as if they were of no consequence. “You know what I’m saying, Moira. This is another opportunity to expand your audience that simply shouldn’t be ignored. My role is to give you the best professional advice I can, and I’m telling you this is an invaluable invitation. Sit down with your mother and Luke. I’ll come back to the pub with you right now. We can explain the significance of this to them together. You know Luke will do whatever it takes to support you, and I’m sure your mother will jump on board.”