Harbor Lights by Sherryl Woods Page A

wouldn’t have wanted to involve himself in messy, emotional situations. He’d been focused almost entirely on his career. His family had taken a distant second place. It was the reason she’d finally left him.
    All that was water long since under the bridge, she reminded herself. Lately Mick had been proving time and again that he’d changed his priorities, that he was putting his family first. More and more, Megan was reminded of the caring man she’d married. That he was as attentive to her as he’d been when they’d first been courting helped, as well.
    “You’ll call me when you find him?” she asked him now. “No matter how late it is.”
    “I’ll call,” he promised.
    “In the meantime, I’ll make my flight arrangements for this weekend,” she said. “Even if he rejects me again, at least Kevin is going to know that I care enough to be there for him.”
    “As long as you’re prepared for things not to go smoothly,” Mick said.
    “No one ever said the path to reconciliation was destined to go smoothly,” she reminded him. “I still have a long way to go with each of our children.”
    “As do I,” Mick conceded.
    “The point is to keep trying. Now, go find our boy, Mick. Make sure he’s safe.”
    “He’s not a boy,” Mick said.
    “I don’t care how old he gets to be, when he’s hurting, he’s still my boy,” she said fiercely. “And I’m always going to want to make it better.”
    She had to wonder, though, if this time that was going to be beyond her capabilities.

4
    S hanna frowned as a classic Mustang convertible passed by on Shore Road for the fourth time. Though he made a halfhearted attempt to disguise his interest, it was evident the older driver was studying her and Kevin on each pass. There was no question that he was looking at them, because they were the only two people left at the café. They’d been lingering over coffee for a while now. Kevin hadn’t noticed the man’s odd behavior because his back was to the street. When she spotted the car yet again, she reached for Kevin’s hand.
    “Turn around,” she said in an urgent undertone. “There’s someone watching us. I thought I might be imagining it, but he’s back again. This has to be the fifth time he’s gone around the block and slowed down right in front of us.”
    Kevin regarded her blankly. “What? Who?” He shifted around, took one look at the approaching car, and groaned. He turned back to her with an apologetic expression. “That would be my father.”
    “Your father?” She took another look and saw the resemblance: the same square jaw, the same thick black hair, though his had some gray and Kevin’s was cropped short in a way that kept its natural wave under control. If she’dbeen able to see them at this distance, she suspected the man’s eyes would be the same vivid blue. She turned back to Kevin with a puzzled expression. “Why on earth do you think he keeps circling the block?”
    “I don’t know for sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, he’s spying on me.”
    Shanna stared at him, then glanced back to note that the car had, indeed, slowed to a crawl. The driver lifted his hand in a casual wave, then made a sharp left into a metered, pull-in parking space across the road.
    “Maybe he’s looking for you because something’s wrong at home,” she suggested.
    Kevin shook his head and gestured toward the cell phone on the table. “He and my grandmother both know how to reach me.”
    “Well, he’s definitely coming this way, so obviously he was looking for you.”
    “More’s the pity,” Kevin said grimly. He stood up and met his father before he reached the table. “Dad.”
    She watched as Mick O’Brien gave him a jovial slap on the back as if this meeting had been totally accidental. “Son, I didn’t expect to find you here.” He glanced in Shanna’s direction. “And with this lovely young lady.”
    Kevin gave a dramatic roll of his eyes. “Dad, this is Shanna Carlyle.