“Thanks for saying that,” Aidan said. “I know I understand a lot about playing football and I have a whole notebook filled with plays and game strategy, but working with boys this age is new to me. For all their bravado, their egos are still pretty fragile. I’m not so old that I can’t remember what that was like. I don’t want to do anything to shatter their confidence and self-esteem. I think that’s as much a part of my job as turning them into decent players.”
“Well, I just wanted to tell you the impact you had on one boy today,” Liz said, backing away. “Have a good evening, Aidan.”
She turned to go inside her shop to finish closing up and was surprised when he followed her.
“How was your day?” he asked, glancing around. “I see you got those toys on display. Are you going to be ready for the flood of tourists by Friday?”
Liz sighed. “I hope so, but there’s no way of telling. I’ve never run a business like this before.”
“You mean one that depends on seasonal tourism?”
She smiled sheepishly. “I mean any business. I used to teach elementary school, which is one reason I know a little bit about motivating kids.”
Aidan looked surprised. “Boy, when you make a change, you do it in a big way. What made you decide to open a pet store?”
Though she’d had to come up with an answer for a lot of people over the past few months, she still took a moment to frame one for Aidan. “When I decided I wanted to make a fresh start, I decided to embrace it wholeheartedly.”
“Didn’t you enjoy teaching?”
“I loved it, but if I’d just changed cities, it wouldn’t have felt like that much of a change.” She didn’t want to mention that being around young children would have been a stark reminder of the family she’d longed to have, the one she’d anticipated being just around the corner, only to discover that it wasn’t in her husband’s plans at all.
“I grew up with pets and I thought it would be fun to have a store, so I could meet new people all the time. I deliberately chose Chesapeake Shores because it’s a tourist town, yet it’s small enough to get to know your neighbors well.”
“Any regrets?”
She laughed. “At the end of almost every month all winter when I was trying to balance the books,” she admitted. “But I’m eager for summer and the onslaught of customers everyone has been promising me. The other business owners have provided a real support system, so I’m far from discouraged. I came here for a change and a challenge. So far I haven’t been disappointed.”
“Are you always this upbeat and optimistic?”
She frowned at the question. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
“Not at all. I’m a big believer in choosing to look at the bright side, but not everyone can pull that off.”
“It is a choice, isn’t it?” she said quietly, thinking of the weeks after her husband’s death when bright spots had been few and far between. If there had been any at all, she’d chosen not to see them, deliberately wallowing in her pain.
And then a very wise friend had suggested she could decide whether to live her life mired in grief, self-pity and regrets, essentially ending her own life right along with her husband’s, or whether she wanted to live as fully as possible. She’d started making plans for the future the next day, eventually choosing a path that excited her in a way nothing else had for weeks. Perhaps even longer, if she were being entirely honest.
Aidan seemed to be studying her closely. To her shock, he reached out and touched a gentle finger to what she knew were shadows under her eyes.
“What put these there?” he asked.
Shivering a little at the tender touch, she backed away a step and forced her brightest smile. “No idea what you mean.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “Seriously?”
“Hey, don’t you know it’s never polite to point out that a woman looks as if she hasn’t slept in days?” she asked brightly. “I have about a million lists of things to do running through my head. That’s not nearly as effective for getting to sleep as counting sheep.”
“No, I imagine it’s not,” he agreed. “Maybe you need to take a quick break, get your mind off all those details for a little while. How about taking a walk around the corner to O’Brien’s? I hear Nell trained the chef, so the food’s bound to be good. I’m getting sick of my limited culinary skills, which tend to rely too much on frozen entrées. If I’m going to preach to my players about the right nutrition, I should practice what I preach.”
She hesitated. “I really shouldn’t,” she protested, thinking not only of all she had to do, but that spending more time with Aidan was definitely a bad idea. He had a way of sneaking past her defenses when she least expected it. And, the real kicker, he wasn’t planning to stick around all that long.
“An hour at most,” he countered. “And I’ll stay and help you unpack inventory or whatever you need after we eat. I’m a stranger in Chesapeake Shores. It’s probably your civic duty to see that I don’t eat dinner alone.”
She laughed at that, then thought of all the people who’d taken her under their wings when she’d first moved to town. There had been very few nights when she’d had to eat alone unless she’d chosen to do so.
“Okay, fine. An hour, though, and I expect you to haul all the empty boxes to the recycling center for me, so I can get them out of the back room.”
“You’ll just have to point me in the right direction,” he agreed.
“I can certainly do that. Give me a second to wash up and grab my purse.”
As they left the shop, she couldn’t help saying a little prayer that Bree and Shanna were both long gone from their own businesses, because if either of them caught a glimpse of her with Aidan, she was going to face an onslaught of questions at tomorrow morning’s gathering at Sally’s.
* * *
Aidan thought he heard Liz groan when they walked into O’Brien’s on Shore Road.
“Something wrong?” he asked, glancing around at the packed room. He noted then that Liz’s gaze was locked on the bar, where several O’Briens were seated and gesturing for the two of them to come over. He grinned. “Ah, another center for town gossip, I presume?”
She sighed. “You have no idea. I should have thought of that before I agreed to come here with you.”
“Liz, we’re two friends and neighbors having dinner. What’s the big deal?”
She gave him an incredulous look. “Two single friends,” she pointed out. “In a pub filled with O’Briens, who have taken matchmaking to new extremes.”
“Well, it seems we have no choice but to join them or cause a major stir by taking off. What’s your preference?”
“We’ll have to go over there,” she said, clearly resigned.
When she looked as if she was bracing to face a firing squad, he put a hand on her arm to hold her back. “First, remind me of who’s there.”
“That’s Luke behind the bar. This is his pub. He’s Jeff’s son, Mick’s nephew. That’s Susie, his sister, on the stool at the end.”
“That’s right. She drew up my lease, though I didn’t meet her when I signed it. She’s also the one who’s married to Mack Franklin,” Aidan