“Thank you, sir. You’ve set the bar for this family pretty high. I’ll do my best to deserve to be a part of it.”
“You just love my girl here with your whole heart and you’ll have done everything I’ve ever asked of anyone.” Mick looked around, a beaming smile on his face. “Ma sent me out here to get all your hooligans inside and around the table. Dinner’s ready. Wait till she hears this news. I imagine she’ll be raiding my fancy wine cellar for my best champagne.” He cast a meaningful look toward Mack, Susie and their baby girl. “O’Briens have a lot to celebrate today and more blessings than any man has a right to ask for.”
“Amen to that,” Megan said, linking her arm through his.
As Sam, Carrie and Bobby joined the others heading inside, Sam stopped for a moment to look into Carrie’s eyes. He needed to be sure she understood exactly how he was feeling.
“Just so you know, marriage was part of that whole speech of mine a while ago, even if Bobby kind of stole my thunder by getting the actual words out before I could. I love you, Carrie.”
“I love you, too, with all my heart.” She reached for Bobby’s hand, too, and winked at him. “We’re getting married!”
“Awesome!” Bobby declared.
Sam caught Carrie’s gaze and held it. “It is pretty darn awesome.”
In fact, he couldn’t think of a single thing to top it. Then he glanced at Susie and Mack staring down into the face of their daughter, their expressions filled with awe. Except, perhaps, that, Sam thought. A baby would complete things.
Even as the thought struck, he waited for panic to follow. When it didn’t come, when the only thing stirring inside him was anticipation, he knew all the adventures he’d ever need were right here.
Epilogue
Mick sat at the head of the massive table in his dining room for Sunday dinner and looked around with satisfaction. Smaller tables had been added here and there, squeezed into corners, for his grandchildren. So many leaves had been added to the main table, it actually stuck out of the room and into the foyer. Even so, he could see everyone who mattered to him in this life.
Megan was right next to him. When it came to his greatest blessings, she was right up there. He was thankful every day that they’d made their peace. Their marriage was on a more solid foundation today than it had been at any time since they’d first wed so many years ago.
Ma was at the opposite end of the table, reunited with Dillon, the Irishman who’d been her first love and who’d come back into her life just a few years ago, a timely if unexpected reunion that allowed them to live out their days together.
In between, his brothers and their spouses and their grown children, all married now. His own children were there, too, most of them parents themselves now. Abby’s twins were the first of his grandchildren to marry and Caitlyn had even given him his first great-grandchild, little Jackson McIlroy. Too bad about that Scottish heritage, but Mick could live with it as long as his girl was happy. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Caitlyn’s sister, Carrie, added yet another baby to the mix. She and Sam had the look of two people who couldn’t wait to get started on adding to their family.
He was blessed, to be sure! Everyone always thought that this town that he’d designed and built from scratch, butting heads with his brothers all the way, was his pride and joy. To be sure, Chesapeake Shores was the crowning achievement of his career. It was a community the way a community was meant to be, filled with good people who cared about one another.
But the crowning achievement of his life was right here in this room, a strong family with a solid foundation of values and love. They’d made their share of mistakes, him most of all—not that he’d ever admit it aloud—but they’d learned from those mistakes. They were stronger for having weathered tough times. They were stronger for having each other.
As if she sensed his thoughts, Megan reached over and took his hand in hers. He lifted their clasped hands and brushed a kiss across her knuckles.
“It’s a little overwhelming sometimes, isn’t it?” she said quietly. “Looking around and seeing this family gathered together, thinking of everything we’ve been through.”
“It is, indeed,” Mick said.
For most men the sight would have been satisfaction enough, evidence of a life well-lived, but his glance strayed to the little ones at those tables Ma had tucked into corners of the room. They were the future of the O’Briens, and until they were grown and settled, his work here was far from done.
Megan smiled. “You know, Mick, there are always going to be more O’Brien babies in this world,” she said, as if once more she’d been reading his mind. “We can’t stick around to guide them all. Sooner or later we’ll just have to trust that the lessons you’ve passed on, the values your mother taught you and your brothers are in their hands.”