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Vickie was facing the window, but she watched Zoey out of the corner of her eye, looking for any hidden spark of chemistry at the mention of dating Mike. But there was nothing. Too bad. She would have liked to see two of her favorite people together, but you couldn’t force chemistry.
“And what about you? Are you ready for another match? Rick said there’s a very nice associate professor at the college this semester. I hear he’s a looker.”
“And Rick couldn’t get a date with him himself?”
“Apparently not.” Vickie chuckled. “But he thinks the man might be open to female companionship.”
Zoey hesitated. “I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway. I made a vow to Hazel that this year would be aboutherneeds. And...lay off Mike for a while, okay?”
Vickie held up her hands in surrender. She couldn’t help wondering whyZoeywas saying this instead of Mike, but maybe he’d asked her to.
“I’ll tell the book club when we meet. If he’s not ready, he’s not ready.”
Zoey looked at her phone and turned. “I gotta run. There’s a washing machine in Penn Yan that needs my healing hands, and I have two vacuum cleaners at the shop to repair this afternoon. Thanks for recommending me to Jack Nelson, by the way. He was skeptical at first, but I think I won him over.”
“I’m glad. Jack’s a little crusty, but he’s a good guy. He and his wife help me out once in a while.”
“Help you with what? You know you can always call me if you need help.”
“The Nelsons have been helping me for years, honey. If they can’t help, I hire someone.” She looked out at the crushed corner of the deck. She needed to call Gordon and put a fire under his ass. Again. “Although some hires are more reliable than others.”
MIKESTAREDACROSShis desk at his two o’clock appointment. Who was also his grandmother. God save him from all the meddling old ladies in his life.
“Nana, why are youreallyhere? We just redid your will last summer, and nothing has changed that I’m aware of.”
Maura McKinnon’s eyes narrowed on him. “What’s changed, Michael, is that I apparently need to make an appointment if I want to see my grandson these days. How are you?”
He sat back in his chair. “I work at the pub every Friday night, Nana.”
The Purple Shamrock was originally owned by Mike’s great-grandfather, then Nana’s husband took it on, and then her son, Patrick. And now Patrick’s daughter, Bridget, and her husband Finn were running the place.
“And is your poor old grandmother supposed to go to thepubto see her grandson?”
Maura McKinnon had won a scary battle with breast cancer and was now looking more fit than ever. She wasn’t anyone’s poor anything.
“Knock off the Irish-Catholic guilt trip. What’s really going on?”
“That’s why you’re such a good lawyer, Michael. You can read BS from a mile away. But youhavebeen hard to pin down lately. You’ve missed two family dinners this month, and you weren’t at the last business breakfast for the pub. Your cousins and I are worried about you.”
He tapped his pen restlessly on the manila folder in front of him. She wasn’t wrong. He loved his big Irish family, but lately he’d felt suffocated by all the noise and chaos and questions. So many questions.
How are you, Mike?
Met anyone lately, Mike?
Isn’t that house getting lonely, Mike?
You know there’s more to life than just business, right, Mike?
They meant well. They loved him and wanted him to be happy. But they seemed to have decided as a group that it was time for him to “move on.” That after three years, he should be over losing his wife. That he couldn’t possibly be happy alone.
Except...hewashappy. Or at leastcontent. And that was enough right now. His law office might not be the thrill-a-minute drama of some fictional TV lawyer defending people in criminal court. But he was proud of the work his little one-man office did. Mom and Dad still hadn’t given up on convincing him to follow them to Albany, where Dad was raking in the big bucks as a lobbyist in the state capital. It seemed no one in his life wanted to accept that he was doing just fine.
“I don’t know what people want from me, Nana.” Mike raked his fingers through his hair, absently thinking to himself that he needed a haircut. “I’m tired of being everyone’sproject.Find Mike a date. Find Mike a fancier job. Find Mike a way to be—” he raised his fingers to make air quotes “—old Mikeagain.”
His grandmother was quiet for a moment, her eyebrows gathering together.
“It’s been—”
