Ean returned the picture to the bookshelf. “Trinity Falls could use a local lawyer.”
“And you’re going to fill that role?” Megan collected her purse from her bottom desk drawer and shrugged it onto her shoulder. “For how long?”
Ean turned to her. “How can I convince you I’m home to stay?”
“You’d have to stay.” Megan led Ean from the room and turned off the lights. “Even then you’d have a credibility problem because your goal in high school was getting out of Trinity Falls and never coming back.”
“I’m not in high school anymore.”
Megan locked her office door. “Trinity Falls wasn’t able to hold you fourteen years ago. What’s changed?”
“I have.” Ean paced beside Megan as she strode to the store’s front exit.
Megan set the alarm before joining Ean outside. Was he really home to stay? That couldn’t be possible. A longer visit—he’d already been back for more than a month—was more plausible. He’d reconcile with Ramona and then they’d both return to New York. That was a scenario she could believe. She was far more familiar with people leaving than with people actually wanting to stay.
Then why was he opening a solo practice and claiming his relationship with Ramona had ended? Ramona probably would have something to say about that.
Megan joined Ean on the sidewalk. “Did you ask Doreen about your father’s illness?”
“You were right. It was his idea not to tell me he was dying.”
She turned toward home. “So now you have the answers you were looking for.”
Ean shoved his hands into his front jacket pockets. He kept pace beside her. “I’m beginning to think you don’t want me here.”
“I don’t believe you want to be here.”
His chuckle was dry. “Because when I was eighteen, I wanted to leave. I’m thirty-two now.”
“And you now know that you no longer crave the bright lights of the big city. After fourteen years, you’ve finally realized that you’re a small-town boy at heart.”
“That’s right.”
Megan smothered a sigh of frustration. Were all men this difficult to communicate with, or was Ean a special case? They walked for several blocks in a preoccupied silence. The evening breeze carried a sharp chill. Megan pulled her overcoat tighter around her body.
Another peaceful night in Trinity Falls. It was only a little after eight o’clock, but already the streets were empty of traffic. Their footsteps echoed against the redbrick pavement. A few townspeople were gathered in quiet conversations in front of darkened storefronts. The intermittent streetlights kept the deepest shadows at bay.
Megan inhaled the clean, crisp fall air. If she stood still and closed her eyes, she could imagine she was the only person on the planet. She’d attended the University of Illinois and had experienced what the big city had to offer in Chicago.
The noise, congestion, sirens, shortened tempers. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia—they could all keep their cultural attractions, nightlife and skyscrapers. She was more than happy with the peaceful solitude of small-town life, thank you very much.
But what about Ean?
“After seven years in New York, what made you decide to come home?”
Ean’s introspection ended with Megan’s quiet question. She was persistent. He’d give her that. And she didn’t shy away from confrontations, another formidable trait. But why didn’t she believe him?
He looked at her cool chocolate eyes beneath her knitted brows. “Why are you angry?”
Megan didn’t hesitate. “I’m not angry. I’m concerned. I don’t want Doreen—or the town—to be disappointed when you return to New York.”
“I won’t.” What about her? Would she be disappointed if he left?
“Then explain why you’ve come home to stay after achieving your dream in New York.”
Ean would have laughed if the statement hadn’t been so absurd. The dream had become a nightmare. “I hadn’t realized my father was dying. What does that say about my dream life in New York?”
“That your priorities were wrong.”