The Courage To Love (Love On The North Shore) (25 page)

“Sounds good,” Mia answered before anyone else.

His father disappeared into the kitchen and the last of Sean’s tension disappeared.

“What belt did you get to?”

He looked back over at Taylor, she’d folded her legs up on the chair and sat leaning forward with her elbows on her legs.

“Third degree black. I had to quit before I got any further because—” Just in time he stopped. Whatever existed between him and his father didn’t apply to Taylor. “I got a job.”

“Dad said you played a lot of sports. Charlie, too.”

Her statement surprised him. What other information had their father shared with Taylor? “Um, yeah.”

“Me, too. My mom wanted me to do dance, but I hated it. My favorites are football and basketball. Dad just signed me up for town football. They told him I’ll be the only girl. I was the only girl last year when I played, too.”

He’d played town football before middle school and not one girl had ever played. When Charlie was about seven she’d asked to play, but their mom refused to let her. “What position do you play?” Sean asked.

The next hour or so disappeared in the blink of an eye as they discussed sports and shared information about each other. The amount that they had in common floored him. Before that afternoon he’d expected Taylor to be like the young girls he saw on the rare occasion he went to the local mall. With the exception of perhaps her outfit, she wasn’t anything like the giggling girls who hung out with their friends.

“I really want to learn to hike and ski,” Taylor said, once they’d finished talking about their favorite professional sports teams. “Dad said there are some great places in New Hampshire to do both.”

He’d not considered any future meetings with Taylor before today, now, after getting to know her and connecting with her, he wanted to include her in his life. “There are some decent places here, too. I’ll show you if you want.”

“You will? Really?”

Her excitement and enthusiasm fueled his own. “Of course. What are brothers for? Next weekend I’m busy, but the one after that we can go for a hike if Dad says it’s okay.”

Seamus appeared in the doorway a few pizza boxes in his hands. “If what’s okay?”

Taylor bounced out of her seat and jumped in front of their father. “Sean said he’ll take me on a hike in a few weeks. Can I go?”

His father’s eyes met his as he nodded. “Fine with me,” he said with his mouth while his eyes said thank you.

“Thank you.” She hugged her dad, then turned toward Sean again. “I can’t wait,” she said as she hit him like a high speed train.

Caught off guard, only shock registered at first, but once it wore off he embraced her. “Me either,” he admitted.

“The pizzas are here. Lets eat and you can talk more about your plans,” Seamus said.

Taylor followed their father into the kitchen, her mouth going the whole time. “Colton, that’s my boyfriend, goes hiking all the time with his dad. Last time he went he saw a rattlesnake. And once he said their dog got sprayed by a skunk. They had to give him a bath in tomato juice.”

Even after Taylor disappeared from sight, her voice reached him as she rattled off all Colton had told her about hiking.

“Want some help up?” Sean asked as he extended his hand toward Mia.

Mia’s hand disappeared in his and he pulled her up. “I’m proud of you,” she said as she kissed him. “You’ve done great today. I think you just made her day.”

Sean planted a light kiss on her lips. “She’s a good kid. Besides, you were right. She’s family.”

“I’d love to go with you,” Mia said with a pout.

“Next time.”

“I cannot wait to get this stupid cast off.”

Uneasiness raised its ugly head when he thought about her return to California to complete her movie once the cast came off. “I can.” The words slipped out before he caught himself.

“You could always quit and come with me.”

As tempting as it sounded, he couldn’t do that. For the first time in his life he had a job doing something he loved. The work at the lab challenged him every day and he got along well with the people he worked with. Even if he hadn’t loved his new career at the lab, he couldn’t let his girlfriend support him. “We talked about that. You know why I can’t.”

“I know, but I expect to see you every weekend. No excuses. Once filming is done, I’ll be home. Then you’ll never get rid of me.”

“Sounds perfect.” Just the way he wanted it.

Epilogue

Squeezed in between Mia and her sister Angelina, Sean took in the organized chaos around him. He’d never seen anything like it. Tables and people filled every possible space in the Troy house.

“Before we eat I want to say something,” Sandra Troy, Mia’s grandmother, stood at the head of the dining room table, but her voice carried into the great room where four additional folding tables had been set up.

“Today is the first time, in I don’t know how long, that we have not only all our children here for Thanksgiving but also all of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We just want to say thank you. You’ll never know what it means to have all of you here today with us.”

Even from the other room he heard the catch in her voice.

“That’s all. Now lets enjoy this wonderful meal.”

No sooner did the words leave her mouth and dishes began to be passed around the tables. From what he’d seen, everyone had contributed to the meal, including those that had traveled from out of town like him. In fact, even he’d shown up with pies that his mom prepared.

“Can you pass the stuffing, please?” Angelina, Mia’s younger sister, asked from his left side.

Unlike Avery,  Angelina looked a lot like Mia and many of their cousins, though Angelina’s hair was much darker, almost black. Avery, on the other hand, looked more like their mother, whom he’d met for the first time today.

He picked up the casserole dish filled with stuffing. “I’ll trade you the stuffing for the carrots.”

“So what do you think? I warned you it’d be a bit of a zoo today,” Mia said from his other side.

Before he drove out to Woodlawn that afternoon, he’d picked her up at the airport in Boston, making today the first time he’d seen her in almost two weeks. Since the first week in September, she’d been living in California again completing the movie she’d started in Boston. With the exception of his mom’s wedding in October and one weekend near the end of September, she hadn’t made it back to the East Coast again until today. Instead he’d traveled out to her almost every weekend. However, yesterday she completed the film and then caught a red eye back to Boston.

“It’s incredible.” He accepted the platter of turkey she held out to him, and after adding some to his own meal, he handed it to Angelina. Across the table another platter of turkey meat was making its way down that side. “Is it like this every year?”

“More or less. Some of my cousins switch between here and their in-laws so the numbers vary a little every year. It’ll be similar again next year if we come.”

After so many years celebrating with just his mom, the idea of huge family feasts like this one appealed to him. Still he would like to spend the holiday with his sister and mom, too. Charlie had invited him to join her and her in-laws in Newport for dinner. Since Mia had her heart set on Thanksgiving with her grandparents and the rest of her family in Woodlawn, he’d declined. He had promised they’d join her in Newport for her in-laws annual New Year’s Eve party at Cliff House.

“Christmas Eve won’t be as crazy.”

Sean leaned closer and kissed her on the cheek. “As long as I’m with you, I don’t care.” It was the truth. Since their reconciliation after her car accident not much put him in a foul mood anymore. Now he could even carry on a polite, if not almost friendly, conversation with Ray Larson again. His relationship with his father was even improving. While they may never have a relationship like Tony Bates had with his father, they could interact with each other and talk without him losing his temper.

“You’ll be here for Christmas Eve?” one of her cousins across the table asked.

Sean thought the pregnant cousin was Rae Ann, but he wasn’t positive. He’d met so many of her relatives today.

“I’m not going back to California. Well, at least not for awhile. I’ll be living in North Salem, so I should be around a lot.”

As they’d discussed in the summer, Mia had not accepted any new projects despite being offered several proposals. With no commitments to fulfill, she planned to take an unspecified amount of time off from acting. She’d explained that while she didn’t want to officially retire, she wanted to work on more important areas of her life. She’d even mentioned them getting married and having children.

A year ago, discussions like those with anyone would have seemed improbable, but not now. In fact, he planned on taking a giant step closer to one of those things tonight when they got home. He’d picked up the ring earlier that week and now it sat in their bedroom. Anxious to ask her, he’d considered taking the ring with him that morning. He’d even gone so far as to put it in his pocket, but before he left he returned it upstairs. As much as he wanted to ask, he didn’t want an audience.

Between dinner, dessert, and some football in the backyard, Thanksgiving dinner stretched throughout the entire day. Only when the sun began to set did family members began to trickle out. Even then, those that left first were the ones with a long drive home, including Sean and Mia.

Despite the day’s early start, the long drive out to western Massachusetts and the drive back home, he wasn’t tired. He suspected enough energy buzzed around inside him to light up an entire city block.

“Wow. It looks great from out here,” Mia said when they pulled into the driveway.

The last time she’d seen the house it’d still been in desperate need of paint and the outside lights had been missing. Now a fresh coat of light blue paint covered the Victorian and all the exterior lights had been replaced. To make the place look even more inviting for her return, he added colorful mums to the front steps.

“I’m glad you went with the blue and not the red.”

“You were right about it needing to be different from The Victorian Rose.” Sean pushed the front door open and waited for Mia’s opinion on the interior.

On her visit in October, they’d still been using the living room as their bedroom. Since then the entire first floor had undergone a complete transformation. The hardwood floors gleamed under the light thrown from the new fixtures. The main stairway was repaired and a thick runner covered it. The dining room and living room lacked much furniture, but thanks to help from his mom and Jessie, curtains hung from all the windows.

He watched the expression of surprise and wonder flutter across Mia’s face and pride exploded in his chest. “I thought you might want to help decorate so I didn’t buy much furniture.”

“This looks amazing.” She turned toward him. “But you said the upstairs wasn’t done yet.”

“It’s not. Only our room and one of the spare bedrooms are done. Or maybe I should say only our room and Taylor’s room.”

Since their first meeting, he and Taylor had developed a strong brother-sister relationship and she often spent weekends with him. Sometimes she’d help with work around the house; she loved to paint. Other times they’d go hiking or just hang out and watch movies. He’d even started to teach her how to play pool.

Sean tugged her toward the stairs, his heart rate accelerating with each step. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

Mia followed him up the stairs. “Is your dad dropping her off tonight?”

With Mia back, and Taylor on Thanksgiving break, he’d surprised them both and announced they’d go to Mount Washington Valley for some skiing that weekend.

“No. We’ll stop and get her in the morning.” He led her down the hall toward what he’d turned into the master suite by removing the wall between two bedrooms and turning a half bath into a full bathroom. The project had been a major undertaking, but he was pleased with the outcome.

“Let me guess, Taylor decorated this room.” Mia paused near an open bedroom door. Two of the walls were painted purple while the other two were red. A crimson bedspread and purple pillows covered a twin sized bed and a purple throw rug covered much of the floor.

Sean pulled her away from the door and across the hall. “She picked out the colors herself and helped paint. I can always repaint when she gets tired of it.”

“In a hurry tonight?” she asked, teasing him.

Yeah, but not just for the reason you think.

All week she’d looked forward to this moment. With her contract obligations fulfilled, she could focus on her relationship with Sean. She hated spending so much of the last few months apart. Even with the almost weekly visits, it’d been hard.

Now that filming was done, she had no intention of returning to Hollywood in the near future. Her relationship and future with Sean meant more to her than movie credits and money.

Almost cautiously, Sean pushed the door open for her and ushered her in. He’d left a few decorative lights on inside and they bathed the room in a warm romantic glow. Several vases of flowers sat around the room. A king sized four-poster bed with a light blue-and-black damask bedspread took up much of one wall with a matching dresser opposite it. What really caught her attention, though, was the small table near the windows. A large vase of red roses sat in the middle with a wine bucket next to it along with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. Drawn by her curiosity, she headed straight for the table.