Free Gaining Hope by Lacey Thorn

Prologue
     
     
    Shawn O’Grady looked at his mother and shook his head in disbelief. She couldn’t possibly mean what he thought she did.
    “Oh, quit looking at me as if I’ve gone daft Shawn Michael O’Grady! Did you really think that you were keeping any secrets from me?” Maureen O’Grady was still a force to be reckoned with though she was heading into her sixties. She had outlived both her husband and Shawn’s older brother Robbie. She was small in stature, barely five feet tall but no one would dare think that meant that she couldn’t hold her own with anyone. And today Shawn was feeling the full force of his mother’s attention.
    “I’m not sure what you mean,” was all he could think of to say to her. Nothing else was computing in his brain right now.
    “You know exactly what I mean.” Maureen fired back. “You’re just embarrassed because I called you on it.” Her expression softened as she stepped forward and hugged Shawn tight. His mother’s head barely reached his chest as he loomed over her at six feet three inches.
    “It’s not that easy Mom.” He relented enough to tell her.
    “It’s just that easy.” She replied. “You and Tommy have been together since you were boys. You’ve shared a lot in that time, some things that even a mother doesn’t want to know about.” This last was added almost under her breath but Shawn heard it and blushed to the roots of his black hair.
    His mother glanced up and laughed before patting his cheek and stepping back. “You go after him and tell him that he was right. Patty wasn’t for you because she couldn’t accept that you and Tommy were a pair, a matched set if you will. Some day the right woman will come along and she’ll accept you both. Destiny has a true mate for you. You’ve only to be patient and let the fates bring you all together.”
    “Mom, you know that Tommy and I don’t…” he broke off, unsure of exactly what his mother thought they did do. He didn’t want to plant any ideas in her head if they weren’t already there.
    “I know that you and Tommy don’t share a physical love with one another if that is what has you all twisted up inside. But I do know that you love each other as brothers. I know that you two have shared your women since you were fifteen and snuck out to meet the widow visiting down the street.”
    Shawn lowered his head and felt his mother’s tinkling laughter wash over him. “Not much you can get past me, Shawn Michael, and best you not forget it. Now go find Tommy and together you’ll find your destiny.”
    Shawn kissed his mother and grabbed the duffel she had put together for him. It was time that he head back to his home anyway. Business would be booming and hopefully Tommy would be there, keeping the office running smoothly. How he had ever fancied himself in love with a selfish woman like Patty, he would never know. He could only pray that he hadn’t lost his best friend and blood brother through his stupidity.
     
    Hope hid in the hallway listening to her father on the phone. She couldn’t believe he was already agreeing to wedding terms when her birthday was still three months away. But he was. There was frustration in his voice and she wandered at it. She’d love nothing more than to hear both sides of the conversation. But the only thing that she was sure of at the moment was that she needed to finalise her plans to get the hell out of this town and the life that waited for her here.
    Her father slammed the phone down and let a four-letter word loose that almost had her laughing. He would be so angry if he knew she was standing there listening. Sometimes she hated him and sometimes she wandered if any of them even knew him at all. She had caught him with odd looks on his face, almost as if he felt sorrow or pain or some other tender emotion that seemed beyond him on a good day.
    Faith had escaped three years earlier, the night before her wedding. Now it was up to Hope to take the place of