Cavanaugh Reunion by Marie Ferrarella

written a better story.”
    “Thank you, dear,” Andrew deadpanned. “I can always count on you to extol my many talents.”
    She laughed. Standing on her toes, she brushed a kiss against his cheek. “Don’t worry, dear. No one can touch your cooking.”
    Still holding his wife to him, Andrew turned his attention back to his younger brother and Brian’s allegations. “Satisfied?”
    Rose looked from one man to the other, a curious expression filling her eyes. “Satisfied about what? What’s this all about, Andrew? Brian?” She waited for one of them to enlighten her.
    “Brian thought he saw me clear across town last Friday. At the Crystal Penguin. With another woman. I don’t know which is more absurd, the restaurant part or the other woman part.” He caught the look on Rose’s face. “The other woman part. Definitely the other woman part,” he assured her.
    Amused, Rose laughed. “Not unless Andrew’s suddenly gotten superpowers and found a way to be in two places at the same time.”
    Brian sighed with relief. “You don’t know how glad it makes me to hear that.” But then he frowned slightly. There was still a mystery to be unraveled. “But whoever I saw looked just like you, Andrew.”
    “Maybe it was one of the boys,” Andrew suggested.
    But Brian shook his head. He’d already thought of that. “Too old.”
    Andrew gave him a quick jab in the arm. “Thanks a lot.”
    He hadn’t meant it as an insult. “You know what I mean. Around our age, not younger.”
    “Someone else out there with those handsome features?” Rose teased, brushing her hand across her husband’s cheek.
    “I know. Lucky dog,” Andrew deadpanned. He grew a little more serious as he asked Brian, “And you’re saying this isn’t the first time this doppelgänger’s been spotted?”
    Brian nodded. “Jared’s mentioned seeing ‘you,’” he told Andrew, referring to one of his sons. “Said you ignored him when he called out to you. And Zack said he thought he saw you walking into the Federal Building about a month ago. Same scenario. He called out and was ignored.”
    Listening to this, Rose glanced at her husband. He’d become quietly thoughtful. “I know that look,” she said. “You’re working something out in your head.”
    “What’s on your mind?” Brian probed.
    Andrew raised his eyes to look at Brian. “That maybe Mom wasn’t imagining things all those years ago.”

Chapter 5
    S till completely in the dark, Brian and Rose exchanged quizzical glances.
    Brian was the first to speak. “Mom wasn’t wrong about what?”
    Andrew looked up as if he’d suddenly become aware that he wasn’t alone and talking to himself. “That the hospital had given her the wrong baby.” He doled out the words slowly, thoughtfully, as he continued sorting things out in his mind.
    “The wrong baby?” Brian echoed, staring at Andrew as if his brother had just sprouted another head. This was making less sense now, not more. “Which one of us is supposed to have been this ‘wrong baby’? Mike or me?”
    Andrew took a deep breath before answering. It had been a very long time since the name he was about to say had been uttered. An entire lifetime had gone by. It hadbecome a family secret, known to only his late parents and him. Maybe it was time to air out the closet. “Sean.”
    “Sean?” Brian repeated, more mystified than ever. “Andrew, maybe you’ve been standing in the kitchen too long and the heat’s gotten to you. I know that there are a lot of Cavanaughs to be tallied these days, but there is no Sean in our family.”
    “I know.” Andrew’s eyes met Brian’s. “That’s because he died.”
    Brian shook his head as if to clear it. It didn’t help. “Andrew, what are you talking about?”
    In for a penny, in for a pound. He needed to get this whole thing out. It was long overdue.
    “Something Mother and Dad never wanted to talk about.” He looked from his brother to his wife. “Sit down, Brian.