The Summer Garden by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

myself be defeated before I even know whether there’s to be a fight.” She sobered and looked into her grandfather’s eyes. “Does love make all of us just a little crazy?”
    “You wouldn’t be the first to lose sight of who you truly are,” he admitted. “But I’ll be right there to remind you. I doubt you’ll stay lost for long. Keep in mind the woman that Luke chose to spend all that time with during his stay in Ireland. She captured his fancy. I feel certain she’ll do so again.”
    Moira wished she were as confident of that. She was already in her twenties, but she swore that sometimes she felt as if she were no more than an unsophisticated sixteen-year-old country girl. That had never been more true than when she’d gotten a glimpse of the older woman who’d flown over to Ireland to be with Luke for a few days right after the family had left.
    Luke had readily explained who Kristen was, explained how they’d come to be together and dismissed any notion that she meant anything to him. Moira had accepted his explanation because it was what she’d wanted to believe. What if things had changed now that he was back on Kristen’s turf? That was something else she had to worry about as she counted down the days till her flight.
    At this rate she was going to be a complete basket case before she landed on American soil.
    Luke was up to his elbows in flour, and making a real mess of things in Gram’s kitchen when his brother walked in. Matthew, blast him, burst out laughing.
    “Oh, how I wish I had a camera right now,” Matthew said. “This is a picture that needs to hang above the bar at O’Brien’s once the doors open.” His expression brightened. “Aha, look what I have.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and snapped away.
    “Bite me,” Luke said.
    “Watch your tongue, young man,” Gram said, then turned to Matthew. “And if you don’t intend to be helpful, you can leave.”
    Matthew regarded her with shock. “You’d kick me out? You’ve never thrown me out of your house before, no matter how badly I misbehaved.”
    “You’re all grown up now and should know better than to tease your brother,” she scolded.
    “But giving Luke grief makes my life so much more enjoyable,” Matthew said.
    “Let him stay,” Luke said as he tried to work the dough into the proper consistency for the scones his grandmother claimed were a necessity if he was to offer afternoon tea. He scowled at her now. “Are you absolutely certain I need to bake scones?”
    “Afternoon tea is a ritual that will appeal to a lot of the women in town,” she replied. “You want to draw the largest possible customer base, don’t you? And everyone in Chesapeake Shores knows I make the best scones. They sell out at every bake sale and church bazaar. Yours need to reflect my teaching so you don’t embarrass me.”
    He sighed and kept kneading, then glanced at his brother, who still hadn’t wiped the amused expression off his face as he busily emailed the pictures to the family grapevine. “Why are you here, aside from a desire to torment me?”
    “I wanted to let you know that the shipping company called. The bar will be here day after tomorrow.”
    Luke stilled. “Will we be ready to install it?”
    Matthew shook his head. “I’m trying to stall them for at least another couple of days. If the piece is as old as you say, we don’t want it getting damaged while we’re still under construction.”
    “What did they say?”
    “They’ll try to work with us, but they say it’s huge and they’ll need to send it when they have the right truck available.” He gave Luke a concerned look. “Did you actually measure it?”
    Luke stilled. “Not exactly.”
    “You either did or you didn’t,” Matthew said impatiently. “Listening to this guy talk, I got the impression of really, really big. That’s not a size that’s going to fit across the back of the room.”
    “It’ll fit,” Luke said grimly. “It has