The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

pub. And every one of us since has changed it in one way or the other. This is your change.”
    “Ours.” Aidan said it quickly, as it was very much on his mind. “That’s one of the things we’ll talk about. I didn’t catch Darcy. The girl was out of the place like a ball from a cannon. Do you remember playing out here?”
    “I do.” Absently, Shawn rubbed his nose. “Aye, that I do.”
    With a quick laugh, Aidan walked around the side. “I’d forgotten that. We had a ball game going out back from time to time, and that’s where Brenna rapped one right in your face. Christ, you bled like a pig.”
    “The bat was as near as big as she was.”
    “True enough, but the lass has always had an arm on her. I remember you lying there, cursing and bleeding, and when she saw it was no more than your nose that was broken, she told you to stop shouting and offer it up. We had some fine games back of the pub.”
    “Impending fatherhood’s making you sentimental.”
    “Maybe it is.” They crossed the street, quiet this time of day, this time of year. “Spring’s coming,” Aidan added as they worked their way down to the curve of beach. “And the tourists and holidayers come with it. Winter’s short in Ardmore.”
    Shawn dipped his hands in his pocket. There was still a bit of bite to the wind. “You won’t hear me complaining over that.”
    Sand crunched softly under boots as they walked west. Where it met the horizon, the water was a dreamy blue. Here, where it rolled to land, it fumed, white against green, driven by small, choppy waves. Their tips sparkled in the generous stream of sun.
    They walked in silence, away from the boats already docked for the day, and the nets hung for drying, and toward the cliffs that layered their way up toward the sky.
    “I spoke with Dad this morning.”
    “He’s well? And Ma, too?”
    “They’re well and fine. He’s expecting to meet with the lawyers early next week. Papers, at least some of them, should be ready to sign. He’s decided, while he’s about that, to have more drawn up. Papers that would put the pub in my name, in a legal way.”
    “It’s time for that, as we’ve known they’ve found their spot in Boston.”
    “I told him my thoughts, and I’ll tell you. I feel it would be better, and more fair, if the pub was titled between the three of us.”
    When a shell caught his eye, Shawn bent, picked it up, examined it. “That’s not our way.”
    Which had been precisely what his father had said. Aidan hissed out a breath, paced off, then back. “Christ, you’re more like him than any of us.”
    “Sure, that doesn’t sound like a compliment to either our father or myself just at the moment.” Tickled, Shawn stood where he was while Aidan paced a bit more.
    “It wasn’t meant as one. You’ve both heads like bricks about certain things. Wasn’t it you who just spoke of change as a good thing? If we can change the pub, why the devil can’t we change the way it’s passed down?”
    Absently, Shawn tucked the shell in his pocket. “ Because some things you change, and some you don’t.”
    “Who decides, I’d like to know?”
    Shawn cocked his head. “We do. You’re outnumbered on this, Aidan, so let it go. Gallagher’s is yours, and you’ll pass it down to the child Jude’s already carrying. It doesn’t make it less ours, Darcy’s and mine, not the heart of it.”
    “I’m talking about a legal matter.”
    “Exactly. It’s going to be a fine, fresh evening,” Shawn said, considering the matter closed. “Business should be good.”
    “What about your children when you have them?” Aidan asked. “Don’t you want them to have some legal standing in all of it?”
    “So why does it have to get legal all of a sudden?”
    “Because it’s changing, Shawn.” Exasperation sparked from him as he threw up his hands. “The theater changes Ardmore, changes Gallagher’s. Changes us.”
    “It doesn’t, not the way you’re worrying right now. More people will come, for different reasons,” Shawn mused, trying to see it in his mind. “Another B and B might pop up along the way, and someone might be inclined to open another shop along the water. But Gallagher’s will still be serving food and drink, and offering music as it always has. One of us will man the bar. And while we’re about it, the boats will go out, nets’ll be cast. Life goes on as it means to, whatever you do about it.”
    “Or whatever you don’t?” Aidan