“I think we should check in on them in a few weeks. A surprise visit,” Raven’s eyes twinkled in mischief. “Riv, you’ll only be sixish months along, so flying shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps we can invade the compound and force a family get together. We can judge whether a few weeks of fighting have sorted them out or not.”
“Or whether more drastic measures are needed,” River added.
“Fine, Rave,” Bran said, “but if this whole plan blows up in our faces, Pat and I will be pointing all our fingers in your direction.”
8
Rowan survived a Matilda O’Faolain inquisition. She would survive dinner with Diana Gaines. Her sisters laughed hysterically when Rowan told them that Tina had picked out Diana approved evening wear for her to try on. During their daily video chat, where the sisters told each other the minutia of their days and Rowan got to tell her nephew how much Auntie Row loved him, she also tried on the outfits.
Raven and River both chose a simple black silk wrap dress. It boasted long flowy sleeves with buttons to the elbow. The skirt was above the knee with a slit up the right leg. If conservative sexy was the goal—winning. River voted heels. Raven voted for strappy sandals. Sandals won. Hair down and wavy, a silver comb with three silver triskelia decorating the top held one side back.
Rowan exited her Uber at the Country Club’s grand entrance. The meeting with the boutique's contractor had run over because Rowan wasn’t happy with the dressing room lighting. Seriously though, was there a woman alive that wanted fluorescent lighting beaming across their bodies while they’re stripped down?
She told the contractor, and the owner who showed up before the meeting ended, that the store would be hard pressed to sell an outfit if the woman was confronted with every wrinkle, dimple, and roll before they slipped the clothes on.
Her client gasped in horror. The contractor groaned. Rowan smiled.
Winning aside, she was late for dinner. It didn’t matter if her excuse was valid or if it was one minute or one hour, DG had a zero-tolerance policy. For everything.
Rowan knew to avoid eye contact and order whiskey straight away. In this instance, Diana wasn’t the biggest trap to avoid. That award went to Matilda O’Faolain.
Rowan’s face still burned from embarrassment over their…“talk.”
“You love my son?”
No foreplay. Noted. “Yes. I do.”
“And my son is being an idiot?”
“I believe so.”
“I know his feelings are engaged. They have been for quite some time. He has tried to hide them, but concealing something from his mother is an exercise in futility.” Matilda shook her head in annoyance at her son.
“It’s fine, Tilly. He has made his feelings toward me, or his lack of feelings, I suppose, more than clear and on more than one occasion.”
“Will you tell me…I mean…can you explain his reasons?”
“Our age gap. Nothing trumps our ages in his mind—not our attraction to one another, not our similar tastes, not even the fact that he knows me better than anyone in the world, possibly even my sisters, and I know him. I know he loves his family, his mother and sons, and his grandson and daughters-in-law. He is protective, opinionated, passionate, and stubborn as a mule.
“He sees me, and I see him, but it isn’t enough. Not for Hugh anyway.” Rowan took a deep, shaky breath, embarrassed that she’d shared all that with Hugh’s mother but too far in to pull back. “It’s enough for me. Hugh is enough for me.”
Matilda pulled Rowan into a deep, maternal hug, where her aches were smoothed, and her tears could disappear onto her shoulder. Rowan didn’t believe she’d ever opened up about Hugh that much to her own sisters, but damn it, she was tired of hiding.
“Why did you leave Dublin then?” Matilda asked while she walked them slowly to two comfortable swivel chairs in the living room.
Rowan sat down, wiping her eyes across her sleeves. “A woman can only take being told ‘no’ or ‘it will never happen’ or ‘leave me alone’ so many times before self-preservation kicks in. So, I left. I hope to gain a modicum of control over my emotions before I have to see him again.”
“That makes sense. Do you think all hope is lost? Truly?”
“It took a while, but yes, I have accepted we aren’t to be. Our story is about loving the same group of people, just not one another. He…he hurt me too many times, Tilly. I know he’s your son, and I wholly admit he’s one of the most honorable men I’ve ever known, but he threw me away and what we could have had together too many times.
“Itisover.”
“Never say never, my dear. That bull-headed Neanderthal may surprise you.”
The hostess ledRowan to Mrs. Gaines table where Matilda and Diana were sitting with two gentlemen. Clearly father and sonif genetics were to be believed. They both stood at Rowan’s approach, causing her cheeks to pinken at the fuss, but she’d been to enough fancy soirees since meeting the O’Faolains, she wasn’t completely thrown.
Rowan smiled and held her hand out to the older man first. “You needn’t have stood on my account. I’m Rowan Byrne.”
