Page 58 of What Love Can Do

Yesterday, Quinn and his four brothers, who’d arrived several days earlier, had met Lilly, Paul, and Dara at Mulligan’s. After shooting the craic, they’d clinked glasses in a final toast. Then, Paul had walked to the front door and whistled to get their attention. With a flourish, he’d held up a CLOSED sign, gave them a sad smile, then disappeared on the other side of the door to hang the sign. When he’d come back in, there were tears in his eyes, and Dara stood to give her father a hug.

Slowly, the two had walked to the bar and began taking down old framed photos, one after another, leaving the one of Maggie Phillips and Grant O’Neill. Then Paul had called the O’Neill boys over, wanting a shot of the five of them for posterity. When that picture had been taken, Quinn had asked Lilly to take one that included Paul and Dara. And then he’d made sure pictures were taken with Lilly in the mix. Every second of every day, Quinn made it clear that even though they’d be living on opposite sides of the country for the next six months, Lilly was indisputably part of his family now.

Within minutes, Quinn pulled up outside Mulligan’s once more, except now it was the tavern-formerly-known-as-Mulligan’s. He and Lilly would be having brunch there with his brothers. Lilly gave Quinn’s hand a squeeze and smiled when he winked at her. Together, they plucked out shopping bags of goodies from the backseat. Lilly had made enough muffins of every variety to last both fresh and frozen a few days until her mother’s new baker arrived next week, and she’d swiped a few in every flavor for the boys. In addition to the muffins, there were brioches, pain au chocolat, and buttery, homemade croissants.

“I like this one,” Brady said fifteen minutes later in his deep, gigantic man’s voice.

The way to a man’s heart being his stomach certainly rang true with these guys.

Sean held up an orange-cranberry muffin, talking with his mouth full. “These are the fookin’ best,” he mumbled, shoving the second half of the muffin in his mouth.

“Thanks.” Lilly handed him a glass of orange juice. “Wash it down with this, and you’ll love me forever.”

“I already do love you,” he muttered boorishly, lacing his arm around her shoulder, chugging down the orange juice like a frat boy. He sighed and kissed her cheek.

As he scurried to the table to try another muffin, Lilly wiped the orange juice kiss off her cheek. She walked up to Quinn. “Your brothers look like they haven’t eaten in weeks,” she said.

“They probably haven’t.”

“Hey,” Lilly said, squeezing Quinn’s arm. “I need to go back for something in the car. A present for you.”

“I like when you lead me to cars to give me presents,” he said, giving her an evil, lecherous look.

“Not that.”

“Damn.”

She smiled. “Actually, I have presents for all of you, but I wanted to show you first.”

He set down his glass of cranberry juice and followed her out the door and over to the car. “What is it?” he asked.

“Come with me and see.”

Together, they made their way back out to the car. Lilly opened the trunk and pulled out one of the Mosaic books tied in a purple ribbon, along with his mother’s journal. “Here,” she said, handing both to him. “I made this for you. Well, this one,” she said, pointing to the photo album.

“Aw, yeah? That’s so sweet, Lil. Thanks.” Resting his back against the car, he flipped open the book to the first page, and Lilly watched his reactions extra carefully. She didn’t want to miss a single facial expression, a single sad smile, or a single lip press. “Whoa.” He stared straight at the photos, many taken with his mother’s journal resting, propped up, and held within screen shot of places around town. “Are these…?”

“The places your mom mentioned in her diary. Places she loved. Whether she went there alone or with your dad. I don’t know…I just thought, since she never made it back…that maybe I could memorialize them somehow. Maybe it was a dumb idea, but—”

“Are you joking?” His eyes widened, still staring at the next page, eyelids reddening. “These are magnificent. Look at that, the flower shop where they stopped and he bought her the flowers. Is this the playground…and the gazebo?”

She nodded, hardly able to contain her smile.

“Amazing, Lil. Are those the school bleachers?” he asked, gaping at the photo.

“Yes. Those are their initials. Go have a look with your brothers sometime. Quinn, your parents really loved each other. They were married thirty years. There is no one who can mess with that, not one person—I don’t care if it’s your grandfather, aunts, or my mom—who can dispute that they had a connection. It was meant to be. You should be proud of that.”

“I am.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and turned to the last page. “Crikey, look at us.” A laugh burst from his chest, dissolving his sobs. “That’s a great picture. Thanks so much for this. You don’t know what this means to me.” Thick, muscular arms wrapped around her, and she inhaled the spicy scent of his skin. She was going to miss that scent in Miami, but they’d promised not to go more than two weeks without seeing each other face-to-face. It would mean a lot of flying for both of them, but being able to look up into those big brown eyes of his and feel him in her arms would be worth it.

“I’m glad you like it. I wasn’t sure if I should go to those spots without you, but I was fascinated by her story, and Quinn…she’s a hero to me. I just want you to know that.”

He brought his mom’s journal up and laid it on top of the Mosaic. “You’re an amazing woman, with an even more amazing soul. Thank you, Lilly Parker, for being that way. And I have something for you too.”

Her face lit up in surprise. “What is it?”

“Ah, you’ll see. Come on.” He jogged across the parking lot to the front door of the tavern and held the door open for her. As he led her to the bar, his brothers smiled at them, obviously in on Quinn’s surprise. He paused at a plain door next to the bar, unlocked it and let it fly open. It looked like a huge storage room. “Wow, Quinn, you got me a closet? I…I don’t know what to say.” She suppressed a giggle.

He cast her a chastising smile. “Jolly joker. Imagine all this…” He spread his arms out wide and walked around the empty room, “opened up. We knock this wall down, and all this becomes an open space with just some columns separating the two stores.”

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