Lilac Lane (Chesapeake Shores #14)(93)

“But I can’t sing.”

He laughed. “I can attest to that. But you were all very enthusiastic. It was the best homecoming I’ve had in a while. You don’t remember any of this?”

“I remember somebody suggesting we sing a few Irish songs, but things are a little fuzzy beyond that. I’m sorry if we kept you awake.”

“Don’t be. I got my own glass of wine, sat on my deck and enjoyed the show. Just know that I won’t be recommending that Luke bring you all in to entertain at the pub.”

Kiera groaned. “I should hope not. In fact, I’d prefer it if you never mentioned this to another soul. My very first girls’ night and it got completely out of control.”

Bryan gave her a startled look. “Your first girls’ night?”

Kiera nodded. “Unless you count a couple of sleepovers when I was very young.”

“But surely you had a lot of women friends back home. Didn’t you ever get together and kick up your heels?”

“I had three small children at home and a job that lasted practically from dawn to dusk. There was neither time nor money for going out with the girls.”

She would have added that there’d been little time for friendships of any kind, but that made her sound far too pitiful.

She never wanted Bryan to think of her as deserving pity. That also meant she could never fully explain to him or anyone else just how much last night had meant to her. She had, however, given every woman there a fierce hug when they’d left, hoping that would be enough to let them know how much their kindness meant to her.

When Bryan had parked at the pub, she checked her watch and saw that it was still early enough that some of the women were likely to be at Sally’s.

“Thanks for the lift,” she told him. “I have somewhere I need to be.”

Bryan gave her a long look, then nodded. To her surprise, it was understanding she thought she read in his eyes.

“Have fun with the girls,” he called after her, proving that he knew exactly where she was going and why.

*

Just inside the door at Sally’s, Kiera noted that there were still three women at what had come to be known as the O’Brien table. She walked over to Sally and told her she wanted to pick up the check for everyone there and ordered her own coffee and croissant while she was at it. Once she’d paid, she joined them in the back.

“Thank you all so much for coming last night,” she said when she was seated.

“We were just talking about how much fun it was,” Megan told her. “We’ve enjoyed these morning get-togethers for years, but then we all rush off to work. Family dinners on Sundays are great, but there are children running all over and the men are there. We never get to let our hair down the way we did last night. It was really special, Kiera, and we’ve vowed to find other occasions to do the same thing.”

“I’m afraid we might have let our hair down a little too far,” Kiera said. “Bryan caught the whole performance.”

The other women exchanged amused looks. “It was time he saw this side of you,” Megan said. “Sometimes things get so serious between a man and a woman, they lose sight of the fun that can be had. It happened to Mick and me. There were so many crises and issues and fights when we were married the first time that we forgot how much we enjoyed each other’s company and the way we’d always laughed when we were together. Laughter’s as important in a relationship as anything else. It gets you through the tough times.”

To Kiera’s amusement, that set off a lively debate over the importance of laughter versus hot sex that left Megan blushing.

“Too much information,” she finally told the others. “Especially for a mother to hear from her daughters.”

“Amen,” Kiera said with a pointed look at Moira, who’d just joined them and added quite a bit more than her two cents to the debate.

“This has been fun, as always,” Megan said. “But I have a gallery to run. Moira, you’ll be by later to discuss the upcoming shows I have in mind?”

“I will,” Moira agreed.

Megan gave her a curious look. “And you won’t be balking before I even open my mouth?”

Moira laughed. “I think you might find me surprisingly agreeable.”

“Then please do hurry, then,” Megan said.

The women dispersed and Moira walked with Kiera back to the pub.

“You really like them, don’t you?” Moira asked.

Kiera nodded, feeling the surprising sting of tears in her eyes at the thought of leaving them, of leaving this whole town and Bryan behind.

“Don’t go, Mum. You don’t have to,” Moira said.

“It’s what we planned from the beginning,” Kiera said stoically.

“Plans are meant to be changed. Please stay.”

But in all of Kiera’s struggles, the only thing that had kept her going was having a plan and sticking to it. Straying from that slim grasp on control invited chaos, and she’d had more than enough of that to last a lifetime.

*

Bryan had a peaceful morning in the kitchen with no one underfoot, but it had left him oddly disgruntled. Apparently he’d grown used to having Kiera bustling around with her comments and unsolicited advice.

Still, he was not expecting to have the peace shattered by Moira tearing through the door in a full-blown mood with him as her target.