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“Now, I did not say that. I like her just fine. She’s polite, Irish, sweet, easy to talk to. I just never imagined Braydon settling with someone like her. She surprised me. That’s all.”
Braydon shoulders sagged like sails turned out from the wind and betrayed by the weather. He deserved a decent woman and suffered no misconceptions about his appearance. He was tall, fit, heading toward a successful career. Resentment tickled his spine as his confidence wavered.
“There’s nothing wrong with plain,” he heard his older sister, Kate, declare.
If ever there were a champion of Braydon’s, Katherine was it.
“I imagine it would take a simpler kind of girl to leave the city and not be turned off by Center County. It isn’t like we’re anything fancy out here.”
He wondered at their use of words like “simple” and “plain”. Samantha lacked the lace and frills of most females of his generation, but she was by no means lacking. She was pretty. Of course her type of pretty was inconsistent with what he normally deemed beautiful. Typically he leaned toward leggy blondes. Samantha had a nice set of legs, but he never saw her in any kind of high heels.
Still, she always looked nice. Samantha was smart and easy to spend time with. She was graduating and becoming an English teacher in the fall. She was wife material. Braydon always imagined he’d meet his wife in college and get married soon after graduation.
With only a year left to graduate he figured he better start shopping in the wife department. Samantha Dougherty was model wife material. What wasn’t to like?
“I’ve no doubt Samantha will enjoy the land,” his mother added. “I could see it in her eyes how taken she was with our home. I imagine when she sees the territory in the light of day it’ll take her heart for a spin.”
“Does Braydon love her?” Kate wondered. “Do you think she’ll break his heart?”
“Ah, my boy must first give his heart in order to risk having it broken. When Braydon finds the woman he’ll marry you’ll all know it. She’ll own every bit of his soul and he’ll be hopelessly ruined for all other women. I saw it with your father. I saw it with your Uncle Paulie, and I saw it with Anthony when he asked to marry you, Katie.
“Braydon thinks he’s ready to settle down, but he isn’t. He isn’t ready to let go of reason enough to let someone else in, to truly fall in love. And anything less than true love is a sham, one I certainly would not want to see a child of mine settle for. This woman’s a good girl and she seems to understand exactly what she and my son share. Braydon’s making assumptions, but I believe Samantha doesn’t have a misleading bone in her body. She will clear the air soon enough. At least before he makes a complete arse out of himself.”
“Well, no man’s ever going to own my soul,” Sheilagh announced.
Kate overrode Sheilagh’s statement, “Then why did she come here with him?”
His mother sighed. “Braydon invited her. They may not be soul mates, but they’re friends. If your brother wants to bring a friend back from school with him he’s more than welcome to. Let them work things out on their own. He doesn’t need you cautioning him now, ya hear, Katie? I know you don’t want to see your brother get hurt, but sometimes a touch of wounded pride can go a long way. It’s high time Braydon learned the world is bigger than our little corner of the mountain. If he doesn’t want a woman from Center County then he’s going to have to put in a bit more effort. Not every woman’s waiting around for a handsome golden haired boy from a small town to smile prettily at her.”
The back door opened and Braydon heard his brother Luke, “Morning, Mum.”
“Luke, we’ve a house guest with us. Go put on a shirt.” Braydon took the distraction to slip past the kitchen and out the front door.
As Samsoftly stepped into the foyer she took a moment to gather her courage. It sounded as if over twenty voices collided from within the large open kitchen. She wished Braydon had waited upstairs for her or at least woke her up when he journeyed down with the rest of the family.
Taking a solidifying breath she drew back her shoulders and took a step into the kitchen then froze.
Over all of the voices she could only make out a few distinct words. Someone yelled to pass the poundies, whatever they were, and a shirtless man yelled across the table, “I heard Kelly was wasting time with Ashlynn Fisher last night.”
“I was not and you know it. I cannot help it if she likes to spend her free evenings staring at me. I hardly even looked back.”
“Ah, well, little brother, I’m not sure if anyone told you, but you can enjoy a woman with your eyes closed,” said another man Sam hadn’t seen before. Braydon was nowhere to be found in the kitchen.
“Enough of that talk at the table,” Maureen scolded as she hefted a large plate of flapjacks onto the center of the table. “Ashlynn Fisher’s no mutt. If you cannot keep your eyes open for her you don’t deserve her. I better not hear tales of you misleading that sweet girl, Kelly.”
“Wouldn’t ride her if she had pedals, Mum.”
“And why not? She’s quite pretty. Don’t you think she’s pretty, Luke?”
“Pretty enough,” the shirtless man agreed without giving the question much thought. As he lifted his fork to his mouth Sam noticed he had a large Celtic cross tattooed on the side of his muscled rib cage.
A toddler with strawberry blonde pigtails began to cry and the boy and girl Sam had seen earlier were listening raptly to something their Uncle Kelly was whispering in their ears.
A young woman with fiery red hair Sam guessed was Sheilagh announced, “Kelly doesn’t want to diddle Ashlynn because she scares the shite out of him.”
She smiled proudly when Kelly looked up then she shoved a large bite of potatoes in her mouth with smug pleasure.
“You shut it, whelp.”
