by Cora York
“Keegan Devlin.” His tone was precariously low.
“Devlin, Devlin—” Barb snapped her fingers “—Devlin Events. Didn’t your company make a pitch for the wedding?”
Keegan nodded but didn’t speak. The muscles in his cheek worked as he swallowed.
“Why’d you pretend to be her fated fiancé?” Barb continued.
“If you want to know all of the details,” I said, “I’ll tell you.”
Barb poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned over the butcher’s block. “You know, now it’s out in the open, I think I do want the details. My client is shelling out tens of thousands for this farce. I guess I should stop the wire transfer.”
“No, please don’t.” I took a sip of coffee to wet my mouth. “It wasn’t his doing. I needed the job to save my business. I got into some trouble this year. I have creditors who want to be paid. I’d read enough gossip about Violet to know since filming Prophecy here she was crazy about Ireland and Irish mythology, so I figured—”
“You figured if you told her what she wanted to hear then you’d be home free.” The rhythmic click, click, click of Barb’s fingernails against her mug grated on my unraveling nerves. “You, Romeo. If you want to save her sweet little ass, tell me your side of the story.”
Anger radiated from his tight eyes. “I found out she’d lied to win the job. I wanted to be here when she botched everything up, and then I was going to step in and take over.”
I bit down on my bottom lip and wished I could take my words back. Wished I had said nothing. Keeping my mouth closed would have been better for everyone involved.
“Quite the team, aren’t you?” Barb clucked her tongue. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t tell Violet.”
I paced back and forth. “We can make this wedding everything she’s dreamed of. I might have lied, but I’m good at my job.”
The smell of burning bacon filled the kitchen. “I still don’t believe it,” Brendan said. “You two seemed so much in love.”
Keegan snorted.
“No one was supposed to find out,” I said, stopping in front of Keegan and reaching for his hand, “but I couldn’t lie. Not anymore.”
“Seems I’m no longer needed.” Keegan pulled away and headed for the staircase. “It’s time I left.”
“Keegan, wait, please.” I ran up to the foyer after him and grabbed his arm, but he shook me off. He was behaving as if I’d killed someone. “Why are you leaving? I told the truth. I don’t understand. Barb doesn’t care. I didn’t want to lie anymore. I wanted to show you I’m not like your ex.” Even though he stood beside me, the distance between us stretched for miles and then snapped.
“Grace? What’s she got to do with this?” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Don’t you think you should have talked to me before you spilled your guts? You don’t think I deserved to have a say about whether I wanted my character brought into question?”
“How am I bringing your character into question?”
“I promised not to say a word. You should have trusted me. A few more days and this charade would’ve been over. No one would’ve been any the wiser.” He tunneled his fingers through his hair. “I should never have listened to Shane.”
A heartbeat passed before I realized what he’d said. Shane? Shane! He was in league with Shane. A slap across the face would’ve shocked me less.
“You. You’re the wolf. That’s how you knew. And you had the nerve to call me a liar and say I was the one using you to make your lies more convincing. More fool me. What plan did you and Shane concoct?” My hands shook, and my chest tightened. I was on the verge of a panic attack. How could he have done this? All along he’d known. So many lies. The pieces of my heart not already broken by my ex, shattered into smithereens. “Why did you ask so many questions about him if you knew?”
He ran his fingers through his already messy hair. “For Christ’s sake, Tessa, forget about him. He’s not the one who’s wrecked everything for both of us. You are. One word from Barb and both of our businesses are finished. Do you know how many of my competitors would love that?” His fists repeatedly clenched and unclenched. “I’ve worked too long and too hard to have my reputation ruined by someone as desperate as you.”
I blinked back my tears. “Yeah, I was desperate. Desperate enough to trust someone like you.”
“Why did I think you were different?” he spat. “Women are all the same.”
Pain oozed from the splintered pieces of my heart and soaked into every pore. I thought telling the truth would be best for everyone, but now I’d dug myself into an even deeper hole.
I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t breakdown. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as disappointed by anyone in my life, and that includes Shane.”
“That makes two of us.” He turned his back on me and took the stairs two at a time.
Chapter Sixteen
Keegan
I charged into the bedroom and threw my clothes into my suitcase. How could I have fallen for her? Trusted her? Why the fuck hadn’t she discussed her plan with me before opening her mouth? No one needed to know. To think I’d wanted to help her. Got rid of Shane for her. I was a fool.
I zipped up my suitcase and left the room. If Barb told anyone what I’d done, how I’d pretended to be someone’s fiancé, Devlin Events would become a joke. I’d call my office manager from the car and prepare her for damage control.
I had to get away from the castle, weddings, and deceitful brunettes. I wouldn’t allow Tessa to manipulate me any further with her lies, her smile, or her body. I’d head to my parents’ house and say I’d come home early for Christmas as a surprise.
Fuming anger consumed me, and I stormed downstairs. Tessa stood at the bottom, but I didn’t stop.
“Keegan. Wait. We need to talk.”
“We don’t. Save your words for some other gullible sap.”
The intensity of her stare prickled my neck, but I left the castle without a backward glance.
Black ice would cover the roads to my parents’ house, and even though every forecast had warned people to stay indoors, I wouldn’t listen. All that mattered was putting as much distance between us as possible. If the airports were open, I’d jump on the next flight to New York.
Bitter wind whistled by, yanking my hair and stinging my cheeks. I pulled my wool coat tight and hurried to my rental car. Thick clouds hung in the Arctic-blue sky, and the cold sun glistened off the snow-packed ground. The calm wouldn’t last. Another storm was rolling in, and I wanted to get out of the castle grounds before the plowed driveway filled with snow again.
My fingers rested on the door handle, but my feet turned toward the castle, my heart willing me to go back. But if I went back, the hurt on Tessa’s face might make me forgive her, and I couldn’t do that. No way. Not now. Not ever.
I got into the car, turned the ignition, and watched the snow slide down the windshield.
Snow wind-drifted over the car, and I let out a stream of curses—as if the driving conditions weren’t already miserable enough. I glanced in the rearview mirror at the castle entrance and saw Tessa. Her hunched body appeared waiflike. Thoughts of getting out of the car and swooping her up in my arms looped through my head like a Christmas movie, but as much as my heart wanted me to turn around, my mind point blank refused.
Flurries blurred my visibility. The wipers scraped back and forth hypnotically, and I had to make an effort to stay focused on the roads. I’d called my brother during the drive to explain the full story—leaving out Shane’s involvement. Brody laughed and called me a flipping’ eejit. He wasn’t wrong.
My car slogged through the grit and snow, and a drive that would usually take an hour lasted five, which added to my bleak mood. By the time I pulled into the driveway of my parents’ house, my head, eyes, and shoulders burned from concentrating on staying alive.
A log fire blazed in the fireplace, and the twenty-year-old Christmas tree, complete with a tattered fairy on top, twinkl
ed by the window. I inhaled and exhaled deeply and turned off the engine. I hoped Brody hadn’t called and blathered to our parents about me being home. If he had, I would never hear the end.
I crunched over the snow to the front door, and a soothing sense of familiarity washed over me. Tonight, I’d sleep in my childhood bed, and my mother would feed me to the point of bursting. I didn’t want fussing over, but it would be nice to be surrounded by people who knew who I was. People who wouldn’t betray me or make me feel like a fool.
I dug the spare key out from beneath the loose brick on the porch and let myself in. The aroma of cinnamon candles assaulted my nose, making me want to sneeze, and Dean Martin’s velvety tones told me it was cold outside. Dean was right. I kicked off my shoes and placed them in the basket beneath the hall table. No one in their right mind carried dirt from outside onto my mother’s polished floors.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, someone’s in our house,” my mother shrieked from the kitchen.
“Calm down, Ma. It’s me.” I tried to put some enthusiasm in my voice but failed miserably. “Surprise.”
My mother barreled from the kitchen and toward me. Her eyes widened, and her hand reached for her mouth. “Paul, would you look at what the snow blew in?” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a CoCo Chanel-scented hug. The duty-free perfume was something she asked for every birthday and Christmas.
I leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I wasn’t expecting you until Christmas Eve. I don’t have your room ready.” She gave an expectant glance behind me. “You couldn’t talk your brother into coming?”
“It’ll be the twelfth of never before Brody comes back.”
“I live in hope.”
Brody hadn’t been home since he’d left and would never step foot in Derry again. He said he was fine now. Denied anything was wrong. But what had happened to him and Sarah had scarred him for life, so it was up to me and our other brothers Lorcan and Rian to come home whenever we could.
My dad entered the hallway. His glasses perched on the end of his nose and a cup of tea in one hand. “I don’t believe it.” He set his cup down on the hall table and gave me a back-slapping hug. “This is a grand surprise. I was about to get ready for work, but I’ll give it a miss now.”
I hung my coat on the rack behind the front door. “You aren’t going to go to work in that, Da. I don’t think many people will be out looking for taxis today.” Despite having four sons and three daughters who had more than enough money to allow him to retire comfortably, he insisted on going out to work every day. He was a proud man and had passed his work ethic onto his children.
“It gets me out of the house for a few hours and out from beneath your mother’s feet.”
“You’ve got that right.” My mother gave my dad a playful push into the kitchen. “Well, don’t just stand there growing moss, Son. Come on. I’ll make you a cuppa, and you can fill me in on your news.”
“Nothing much has happened since we talked last week.” What could I say? I’d blackmailed a woman into saying I was her fiancé.
My mother leaned against the cooker. Her gaze started at my feet and worked its way up to my hair. “Something’s up. I can tell.”
“Something’s up, all right,” I said, “I don’t have a beer in my hand.”
“It’s much too early for that.” My mother pressed a hand to her chest.
“What do you say to a wee Baileys?” my dad asked with an affectionate pat on my mother’s bottom.
My mother simpered and smiled. “A small one.”
“What about you?” He asked, pulling the Baileys from the booze cabinet.
“Thanks, Da, but I’ll stick to the beer.”
I warmed at my parents’ never-ending affection. After thirty-six years, they still couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Tessa’s smiling face flitted into my mind, and my heart sank, but before my emotions overwhelmed me, I shoved her image away and accepted a cold bottle of Smithwicks from my dad.
“Sláinte.” I tipped my bottle against my dad’s wine glass filled with Baileys and ice.
“Your sisters will be more than delighted you’re home.” My mother picked up her phone. “I’ll call them now.”
While she busied herself phoning my three sisters, my dad pulled out a chair and sat at the table. “What’s troubling you, Son?”
I ran a hand over the scratches covering the tabletop—some as old as me. “Nothing. Exhausted from the flight.”
“And what flight would that be? I’ve done the airport run for longer than you’ve been living, and I don’t recall a flight that gets in around this time. In fact, I didn’t even know they’d reopened the airports.”
“Leave it, Da. It doesn’t matter.”
My dad sipped his creamy liqueur. “Suit yourself. I won’t pry, but you know we’re here for you.”
My taste for ale gone, I tore strips from the label. “Thanks. I know that.” I pushed my chair back from the table and stood with a stretch. “I’m knackered. Think I’ll head to bed for a while.”
My mother lowered her phone. “I’ll make the bed for you in a minute.”
I placed a kiss on her head. “I’m almost thirty, Ma. I can make the bed.”
She nodded and returned to her phone call. When she thought I was out of earshot, she said, “Something’s not right. He looks as if he hasn’t slept in days. I haven’t seen him like this since Grace.”
“Leave it, love,” my dad replied. “He’ll tell us when he’s good and ready. You pushing him for an answer isn’t going to make him tell us anything.”
“I should talk to his brothers.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” My dad’s voice rose, something that only happened if he was annoyed. “We’ve never poked around in our children’s business before, and we won’t start now. He’s a grown man.”
“You’re right. I just worry about my boys being so far away.”
I tore upstairs. Grace. Why did it always come back to her?
Chapter Seventeen
Tessa
When I opened my eyes, late evening darkness surrounded me, and an emptiness leaked into places that, until earlier, had overflowed with happiness. It’d been seven hours since Keegan stormed out. Seven hours since I’d discovered he’d been in cahoots with Shane the entire time.
How could he betray me like that? And how could I have fallen for another sweet-talking Irishman? I balled up the covers and pulled them over my face. My head throbbed in time with my heartbeat, and my eyes stung, grainy from crying. Why was I so upset over a man I’d met five days ago? Five unimportant days. Not five months. Not five years. One-hundred and twenty insignificant hours. He wasn’t my dream man. He was a stranger. A fabrication. Make-believe.
A sob fell from my lips. Who was I kidding? He was everything I’d dreamed of. The piece of tin engagement ring I still wore strangled my finger. It had to go. I yanked the trinket off and threw towards the fire. Good riddance.
Curling into a ball, I pulled a pillow over my head in an attempt to silence my thoughts. I might stay hidden away forever. Pretend nothing else in the world existed. I could live in this bedroom for the rest of my life. If only. I’d have to face everyone eventually, plus if Barb hadn’t already fired me, I still had a wedding to plan.
There was a knock on the door. “Tessa, sweetheart, you in there?” Brendan called.
I peeked from beneath my fabric fortress. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll come downstairs.”
“You okay? It’s been a few hours since… well, you know…”
Since I committed personal and professional suicide.
“Is Barb still here, or has she left?”
“I’m going to come in,” he said matter of factly. “Are you decent?”
“Apart from looking like I’ve been dumpster diving, I’m fine.”
The door opened with a creak. The light flicked on, smarting my eyes, and I
tunneled beneath the blankets again.
“Come out, chicken.” Brendan tugged at the covers.
“I’d rather not.”
“Barb’s still here.” He sat at the edge of the bed. “You need to talk to her.”
“Does everyone know how I ruined Violet Hale’s wedding?”
“Why would you think that?”
I moved the blankets down, so my eyes were visible. “I’m sure Barb has already been on the phone to Violet.”
“You’ve got her all wrong. Whenever you’re ready, come down and talk to her.”
“I don’t think I can face the world right now.” I never wanted to face anyone ever again.
“No matter what happened, no matter what’s true and what isn’t, you and Keegan care about each other. You have a connection.”
“We don’t. He destroyed everything. He was in league with my ex.”
“Destroyed everything, did he?”
“If he hadn’t lied to me about Shane, things wouldn’t be the mess they are now.”
“Tell yourself whatever’ll make you feel better, but you have a job to do.” He lowered his head and interlaced his fingers as if in prayer. “Take it from someone who’s been there, lying in a bed of your own sweat and tears isn’t the way to get things done.
“The airport’s opening as soon as it can and will be fully functional by tomorrow. If you want this to work for both of us, then you need to get your arse in gear. You committed to a job that needs finishing. If you give up now, we’ll both be in trouble.” He left the room without looking back.
I kicked off the covers and stared at the ceiling. Brendan was right. I couldn’t hide away piecing back my shattered heart and feeling sorry for myself. It wasn’t as if I’d die if I never saw Keegan again. It wasn’t as if the world had ended. It wasn’t as if there weren’t other men who would make me weak with one glance.
****
Barb sat on a fireside chair in the kitchen with her legs tucked beneath her, and a fishbowl-sized glass of red wine cupped in her hand. Max snoozed by her feet, his ears and legs twitching every few seconds.