Lilac Lane (Chesapeake Shores #14)(89)
Bryan stopped and turned her to face him. He kept his hands resting gently on her shoulders. “Kiera, tell me something. If you had your way, what would you do? Stay or go?”
“I’m not certain anymore,” she said candidly.
“I think you are.” His gaze held hers and he simply waited.
“I’ve come to like it here,” she admitted at last. “Far more than I expected to. I thought if I had a change of scenery for just a bit, it would help after Peter’s death, but being here has turned into so much more. There’s little Kate, who’s such a joy, Moira and Luke, my father.” She sighed, avoiding looking at him as she added, “The whole town.”
“And am I a part of that? Am I one of the reasons you’d like to stay?”
She took a deep breath, steadied her nerves and resolved to be honest about her emotions for once in her life, to say what was in her heart and take the risk. “You know you are.”
He nodded slowly, apparently letting her words sink in, while her nerves struck again, making her jittery as she waited for him to say something, anything.
“You know it’s a complicated time for me,” he said, making her heart sink.
“Of course I do. It’s no time for me adding to the pressure. I wouldn’t want to, which is why I’ll go home as planned.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“I think we’ve said quite enough about this for now,” she said tartly, her pride kicking in. “And we came out here to talk about you, not me and certainly not us.”
“Kiera—”
She cut off whatever protest he intended to utter. “What was that display of temper in the kitchen all about? I thought you’d be thrilled by Deanna’s news. You’ll have your daughter close by, and all the time you need to get to know her.”
He looked as if he wanted to drag the conversation back to her, but he must have read the determination in her eyes and simply let it go. He thought about his earlier display of temper in the kitchen and tried to explain what worried him.
“She had a plan for her life and I’m interfering in that. What if this move is all wrong for her and she comes to resent me for it?”
“Did you beg her to move closer? Did you say a single word about this transfer?”
“Of course not. I had no idea it was even an option.”
“Well, then, it seems to me to be a decision she reached all on her own, or perhaps with a little help from the man who’s been guiding her for most of her life. If they think this transfer makes sense, why would you argue?”
“I don’t want to be responsible for throwing her life off track.”
“Perhaps you’re only helping her to put it onto a newer, better track. She’d been intending to be a doctor when you first met her. She’s still intending to be one, as far as I can tell. And isn’t this Johns Hopkins one of the best places for training?”
“That’s what I hear,” he admitted.
“Then is it some other reason that has you skittish? Have you discovered that being a father holds no appeal, after all?”
He regarded her with a shocked expression. “Never!”
“Well, then, if you want my opinion, this is all good. And just for the record, Deanna seems to be a very grounded young woman who takes her goals seriously. I doubt she came to this decision without careful thought. You should be rejoicing that she wants to get to know you better, instead of keeping you on the periphery of her life like some stranger. When she first walked into O’Brien’s, that’s exactly what she intended, I think.”
“Am I overthinking it?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Speaking of grounded, you’re pretty amazing yourself. I hope you know exactly how much I value your opinion. One of these days I’d like to hear your thoughts about something else I’ve been considering.”
Lovely, Kiera thought. And wasn’t it every woman’s dream to have a man value her for her opinions, just when she’d started to think he might value her in so many other ways?
*
Moira hung up the phone after talking to her mother on Monday night and turned to Luke.
“I hope to heaven Nell knows what she’s doing with this whole cooking competition. My mother is a wreck. I’m to pick her up first thing in the morning, take her to the grocery, then on to a butcher shop if she doesn’t like the meat she finds at the grocery, then to a farmers market for vegetables and herbs. When I suggested she just pick a few things from Bryan’s garden, she practically bit my head off.”
Luke laughed. “Though he won’t let anyone see it, Bryan’s a bundle of nerves, too. He stands over his stew pot talking to himself, tasting, then muttering. I believe at least three perfectly edible pots of stew have been taken to the homeless shelter today alone to save them from being dumped into the garbage. He may not think they’re perfect, but he can’t bring himself to waste food when he knows there are so many who’d be grateful for a good meal.”
“I don’t see how this is bringing them one bit closer,” Moira said.
“While the matchmaking gene pretty much bypassed me, I think it’s only one piece of a very complicated puzzle,” Luke responded. “In an ironic way, they’ve bonded over their common misery. To be honest, it seems to me they would have found each other on their own, but this might be nudging things along a little faster.”