Michael's Discovery - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,39
just inside the garage.
“Come on in here, Michael,” she said briskly. “It’s freezing out there this morning. What brings you by? It’s too early for the pies to be out of the oven, you know.”
He regarded her slyly. “But not the cinnamon rolls, I’ll bet.”
She grinned. “With milk or coffee?”
“Milk, of course.”
She waited until he was settled at the kitchen table before sitting opposite him, her expression suddenly serious. “What’s on your mind, Michael? Did you and Kelly have a fight last night?”
Startled by the question, Michael paused with a forkful of gooey cinnamon roll halfway to his mouth. “No. Why would you think that?”
“Something changed during the evening. You were so clearly happy when you came in, but when you left, you both looked…” She hesitated, then said, “Serious, I guess. I thought something might have happened.”
He let the cinnamon roll practically dissolve on his tongue as he studied his mother. “You like her, don’t you? It would really bother you if we’d fought.”
“Well, of course I like her. The two of you seem good together, but it’s your feelings that count.”
He ought to be pleased by the assessment, but instead it made him uneasy. “We’re not dating, you know. She’s my therapist.”
His mother grinned. “If you say so, dear.”
Michael frowned. “I do.”
“Then you might consider not kissing her quite so enthusiastically,” she teased. “It could give people, including Kelly, the wrong impression.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he said wryly.
His mother studied him intently. “Okay, then, if you didn’t come to talk about Kelly, why are you here?”
“You and the cinnamon rolls aren’t excuse enough?”
“We certainly could be, and I’d be flattered if we were, but I have my doubts.”
“Do you realize how disconcerting it is to have a mother who can virtually read your mind?”
“I can be vague if you’d prefer it,” she offered.
“Hardly. Okay, here it is. Ryan thinks he may have found one of our younger brothers in Maine. He wants all of us to go up and check it out.”
She nodded slowly. “I see. And you don’t want to go?”
“It’s not that. I just keep trying to put myself in Patrick’s place. He was little more than a baby when the family split up. For all we know, he’s lived happily ever after, and now here we come barging in to tell him that his idyllic situation cost the rest of us a family.”
She regarded him knowingly. “Are you so sure it’s Patrick you’re worried about?”
“Of course.”
“Michael,” she chided in the tone she used when she thought one of her children wasn’t being entirely forthright.
He frowned at the unspoken accusation. “Okay, maybe I’m the one with the problem. I lucked out. I wound up with the best family a boy could ask for, but a tiny part of me resents the fact that the twins got to keep our biological parents and the rest of us were sent away. I don’t think I even realized how much I resented it until last night when Ryan said his investigator had a lead on Patrick.”
“You know that none of this was Patrick’s fault,” his mother said. “Any more than it was yours or Ryan’s or Sean’s.”
“Yes, but…” He sighed. “You know what I really don’t get is why Ryan’s suddenly so anxious to find the twins and our parents. He should be the angriest of all, and, deep down, I think he is. It’s Maggie who’s convinced him to do this.”
“Maybe he’s simply wise enough to realize he’ll never let go of that anger until he has the whole story.”
“Then you think we should go,” he concluded, knowing that was exactly what he’d expected her to say when he’d come here. Maybe he’d wanted her blessing even more than he’d wanted her advice.
She rested her hand against his cheek. “Michael, I love you as much as if you were one of my own,” she said quietly. “But this is not my decision. You need to listen to your heart.”
That was going to be hard to do for a man who’d grown used to ignoring anything his heart had to say, especially if it happened to be the least bit inconvenient. He’d always thought of himself as a man of cool actions, not emotion.
“And while you’re at it,” she added slyly, “you might see what your heart has to say about Kelly. You could be surprised.”
“Careful,” he teased. “Some men might find your meddling annoying.”
“Not the smart ones,” she retorted. “Now, shall I turn off the