Read Online A Chesapeake Shores Christmas by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online Page B

thought he’d done a pretty good job of courting Megan up to now, enough to get her to finally say yes to his proposal. Something told him, though, with all the hurdles left before them, he was going to have to kick the whole courting thing up a notch to actually get her down the aisle.

5
    E ven though the afternoon was cool and the wind brisk, Megan felt the need to go for a walk on the beach after she got home from seeing Lawrence and then Bree. She put on the fisherman’s knit sweater Mick had brought her from Ireland one year, added a warm jacket and a scarf around her neck, then headed down to the beach.
    She’d always been able to think more clearly with the breeze in her hair, the scent of salt in the air and the lap of waves against the shore. It should have been a good day. She’d been given the ideal location for her gallery, her meeting with Lawrence had gone smoothly enough, and it had been nice spending time with Bree making wedding and baby plans. Still, she felt vaguely uneasy, as if something was bound to go awry.
    She’d walked along the sand for an hour, until the incoming tide warned her to turn back, when she spotted Mick coming toward her. He wasn’t dressed nearly warmly enough, but he was so handsome he took her breath away. There was something about his windblown hair, the smile lines at the corners of his eyes and the way he looked in a pair of jeans that had the power to make her knees go weak even after all these years. The fact that he was carrying an armload of what looked incongruously like pink tulips made her smile.
    “Did you walk halfway to Annapolis?” he inquired testily when he finally looked up and spotted her.
    “Not quite,” she said, then nodded toward the flowers. “Whose garden did you plunder? It can’t have been anywhere around here this time of the year.”
    “I thought you might like something to remind you of spring,” he said, holding them out awkwardly. “Bree tucked some lily of the valley in there, too.”
    Megan buried her face in the flowers, then beamed at him. “I can smell it. Thank you. What’s the occasion?”
    He regarded her with an uneasy expression. “We’ve spent a lot of time lately worrying about other people and business, that kind of thing. I just wanted to put a little romance back into our relationship before we get off on the wrong track.” He gave her an earnest look. “Meggie, whatever else happens, I don’t want you to forget I love you.”
    Touched by the gesture and the heartfelt emotion in his words, she reached up and put her hand against his cheek. “As if I could ever forget that, Mick. I love you, too. I always have, even when I was most infuriated with you.”
    “Then promise me we won’t let anything throw us off course,” he said. “Whatever comes our way, we’ll handle it together, talk it out.”
    His tone alerted her that he had something in particular on his mind. He wasn’t the kind of man to encourage better communication just on a whim. She studied him with a narrowed gaze.
    “What are you worried about, Mick? What is it you think might throw us off course?”
    “Nothing specific,” he insisted.
    Megan kept her gaze locked with his and immediately saw his words for the lie they were. For all of his many flaws, he’d never been any good at shading the truth, much less lying outright. “Mick, tell me.”
    He took her free arm and tucked it though his, then pulled her closer to his side. “I’m just afraid that this disagreement with Connor will come between us, or that you’ll get so caught up in your new business you won’t have time for us.”
    “Now, wouldn’t that be turning the tables?” she said lightly. “You’d have a taste of your own medicine.” She regarded him seriously. “But I’m not marrying you so I’ll have the chance to retaliate for the past. Surely you can’t believe I would be that petty?”
    Mick frowned at the comment. “Maybe that’s not your intention, but things