Had they discharged him too early?
Was he exhausted by the number of people around the table?
He wished now he’d put a stop to it, but trying to stop the O’Neil family from being there in a crisis would have been like trying to hold back an avalanche with a shovel.
It didn’t help that the meal was disturbed twice by calls from his hospital. Each time he excused himself he earned a disapproving glare from his grandfather.
“We’re not even allowed one meal with you undisturbed? If you spent a bit more time around here, you wouldn’t need to ask your brothers what’s been happening. The hospital can’t carry on without you?”
“I left a few ends untied.” It was an understatement. “I’m tying them off now.”
His grandfather grunted. “If you’re so important then perhaps you’d better just go back and save them the trouble of calling you. Work is all you think about.”
Sean counted to ten. He’d hit twenty by the time he felt in control enough to reply. He’d pulled in a dozen favors in order to stay at Snow Crystal for a few more days and now he was wondering why he’d bothered when it was clear he wasn’t wanted.
“They had an emergency.”
“So go. We manage without you every other day. Today is no different.”
Intercepting his mother’s worried look, Sean clamped his jaws down on the words that hovered on his lips.
Driving Walter from the hospital had taken almost thirty minutes. It would have been the perfect time to clear the air. To talk about what had happened the day of the funeral. Instead, the tension between them had grown thicker.
Concerned about upsetting his grandfather at a time when he needed to be kept calm, Sean had decided not to tackle the subject of their row.
“Hell of a welcome, Gramps.” Tyler leaned forward and helped himself to a chicken leg. “Is this supposed to be fatted calf? Because it’s a weird shape.”
“Walter O’Neil, you apologize right now.” Alice gl
ared at her husband. “Sean is not going anywhere. He’s staying right here so I can get some sleep at night. And it’s time you learned when to speak and when to be silent, otherwise I’ll put you back in that hospital myself and if that happens something will certainly be broken!”
Sean decided there was no one more intimidating than his grandmother when she was angry.
His grandfather obviously felt the same way because he subsided slightly. “I’m just saying I can manage without him, that’s all.”
“You’re home because of Sean.” Alice slapped her knitting down on the table. “Those doctors let you out because they know he’s here. He’s a doctor and a good one at that. So if you send him away you’re going straight back into that hospital bed and this time I won’t be sitting with you.”
“He doesn’t want to be here.”
“And whose fault is that?” his grandmother erupted in Sean’s defense. “Life is about people, not places but all you think about is Snow Crystal. You push it down people’s throats until they choke on it! It’s a home, not a labor camp, and it’s time you woke up and saw that. Sometimes a man wants more in his life than a belly full of duty and obligation.”
Sean had grown up amid the frequent explosions but he’d never heard his grandmother speak so directly. For the first time ever he wondered if his grandmother had known just how unhappy his father had been running this place. Did she know about the row at the funeral? He reached out and covered her hand with his, concerned by her outburst.
“Grams—”
“Don’t you worry about me.” Alice sniffed and patted Sean’s hand. “You’re a clever boy. Always were. You spent all those years with your head in a book so it’s right and proper not to waste it. And I’m proud. Very proud. So is your grandfather even if he’s too muleheaded to say it aloud.”
No, he wasn’t.
Sean stared across the table into blue eyes exactly like his own and felt the same way he had when he was six years old and his grandfather had found him with his head in a book instead of with his hand on a saw.
Walter O’Neil couldn’t imagine why anyone would want a life that didn’t involve Snow Crystal. He couldn’t understand why anyone born and bred here would want something more. Something different.
Despite his grandmother’s attempts to clear the air, the atmosphere was tense and it came as a relief when Alice pronounced she was tired and Walter dutifully offered to escort her home. With Kayla driving them the short distance, and his mother and Jess going to help them settle in, that left the three brothers alone.
“Holy shit.” Tyler sprawled in the nearest chair and closed his eyes. “Well, that was relaxing. I’d forgotten how much I love family time. When I grow up I want six kids and a hundred grandkids, preferably all with different opinions and expressing them at the same time. Can’t think of anything better.”
Sean’s phone buzzed again and he glanced at it in frustration and saw Veronica’s name.