“What are you doing down there?” he asked, looking left and right to see if someone else was around. “Did he hurt you? I’ll kill him.”
“No.” Maribel shook her head then propped her chin on her knees. “No, Kenan is a perfect gentleman. He’s just a guy trying to save this little town by drumming up some business like a big wedding. I’m the one who’s going to end up hurting him when we leave and he gets nothing out of all the time he’s been spending with me.”
“Then why are you sitting in the hallway outside my door?”
“I didn’t want to knock.”
“Why not?”
“There are a lot of reasons, Aden.” There was a snap of anger in her voice that sent him stepping back. But her eyes were sad.
“Tell me one.”
“Elsie was poisoned by Junie’s father. She was pregnant, and he didn’t want her to keep the baby. He got his hands on some stuff that was supposed to terminate the pregnancy and instead it killed her.” Maribel wiped at her eyes and shook her head. “So that’s one reason I didn’t want to knock. I knew you’d tell me we need to leave here.”
“We do. But what was another reason?” He crouched down and tried to get her to look him in the eye, but she wouldn’t.
“It’s late and you might invite me in.”
“I would have.” He nodded and then gestured with his chin for her to come in. “You don’t want to?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” she snapped. “We want very different things. And maybe one thing that’s the same, that could happen in your room late at night, but our intentions and motivations would be very different. I opened my big mouth and ruined something we had. I miss it. I miss how easy things were with you.”
“I do too.”
“Shut up,” she sighed. “I am in this painfully romantic setting and was with a man who by all accounts wants to cheer me up by any means necessary. Every woman’s fantasy for a trip like this. And all I could think about was getting back to this room. That’s why I’m sitting in the hallway, because I’m a damn mess and I wish I could go back in time and shut my mouth in that cab.”
Aden wanted to take her pain away. She hadn’t caused this with her honesty, he had with his panicked reaction. But what could he say now that wouldn’t make it worse? If he knew, they never would have been in this situation. “I don’t want to hold you back from having the experience you want while you’re here. I shouldn’t have said anything about Kenan. You should do what you like. If you want to stay here another day or whatever, you can catch up with me later in the week.”
She finally looked up but not with the expression he’d hoped. “Thanks, Aden. I was asking for permission. That’s what I wanted to hear.” The barbs of sarcasm fired at his head. Maribel pushed herself up from the floor and shoved by him.
“What did you want me to say?” He considered chasing after her but thought better of it. She was right. He did intend to invite her in tonight. He even considered giving in to the desire that was always just below the surface for them. Pulling the trigger when Kenan clearly couldn’t. But what could he give her after that? What could he promise that wouldn’t be a lie? Aden was not boyfriend material. You didn’t take him home to Mom and Dad. Maybe he was changing the trajectory of his life for the better, but he certainly hadn’t accomplished it yet. The only options he had for Maribel were to disappoint her now or hurt her later.
As he closed the door to his hotel, he let the thought of Maribel slip away. Had she just said that Ian, Junie’s dad, had poisoned a young pregnant woman which resulted in her death?
He had a thousand questions, but he knew better than to try to track Maribel down to ask her. No one in town cared to talk to him, especially about this. His instinct to bolt was kicking in. Aden was the kind of guy who could ghost right out of his own life. Toss the work phone so Hugo wouldn’t be able to reach him. Withdraw all his cash and live as a nomad, traveling around Ireland. It was easy for him to imagine. In the past it would have been simple for him. But now there were people who counted on him. People he called friends. Now, even as he tried to fight it, he had to admit, there was Maribel.
Chapter 16
Maribel
* * *
Maribel had won the imaginary fight she waged in her hotel bathroom with Aden. She sure put him in his place. Everything she’d been holding back, she found the courage to say. Maybe it was a little easier when your sparring partner was your own reflection in an ornate hotel mirror. She flopped onto the lush down comforter on the four-poster bed and felt the edge of something sharp jab her.
The journal she’d picked up from the bookshop and thrown on her bed was her best shot at distraction. She pulled it out from beneath her and started thumbing through the pages. The entries were mostly what you’d expect from the author, a young girl probably in high school. She thought for a moment what a thrill it would be if the journal belonged to Elsie. But it didn’t. The author signed each entry with GB. The dates were off too. The entries started a couple years after Elsie died.
There was, however, a whole box of journals at the bookstore. She shot up in bed and considered the possibility. What if there was a better explanation? It didn’t seem possible that a man who was the hero in Junie’s life could have been the villain in Elsie’s. The hope Maribel was holding out for went deeper than this old story of broken hearts and a girl who died too young. She wanted to believe there was more to the story, because then she could believe maybe there would be more to her own story. She wouldn’t be a sad woman who pined after a man who couldn’t care less about her.
She grabbed her cell phone and headed to the hotel kitchen. Kenan said he’d be up checking the breakfast prep to make sure everything was ready for guests in the morning.
Maribel changed her mind every ten steps. It was crazy to go to him now. And what she’d be asking for was even more insane. But if she didn’t, she’d always wonder.
“Kenan,” she said as she pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen.
“How did I know you’d come find me?” He put down the clipboard in his hand and grinned. “Irresistible charm.”
“More like possible access.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I need to get into the bookstore.”
“Now that I didn’t see coming. You’re a sexy cat burglar. I like it. Do I get to see you in spandex, slipping in a window?” He rubbed his hands together in excitement.
“I was hoping you had a key or something. If you don’t that’s fine. I’ll just say goodnight.” She took a few nervous steps back, feeling like a fool.
“What do you need from the bookstore?” He dropped his shoulders down and matched her folded arm stance, raising a skeptical brow.
“I think it could be a very special place for the bride and groom. He’s a real book nut.”
“Yeah, no. I’m not buying it. If you want in the bookstore, you’re going to have to give me the real reason why.” He planted his hands on the steel prep table in front of him, and his smile vanished.
She considered it for a moment. Should she just tell him the truth? No. Kenan had loyalties to Gallamare, and she had hers to Junie back home. Telling him would require the kind of trust she had with Aden.
“Okay, you got me.” She dipped her head low and let her hair fall in front of her face. With careful precision she tucked it coyly behind her ears. “I’m the book nut. When I was in there I found this box of old journals and notebooks and stuff. I read the one I took already, and I wanted to get another one. I know I’m a nerd.” She couldn’t blush on cue but she could look embarrassed without too much effort. All she had to do was think of that night in the cab with Aden.
“It’s cute. But you didn’t have to come here. The bookstore is unlocked.”
“How do you know? Its nine o’clock at night.”
“It’s never locked. Auntie Aileen doesn’t believe in keeping people away from books if someone wants them. Even for nerds late at night. Places l
ike Gallamare, you can do that.” Kenan seemed to dance between pride and disdain for the place he was born. It was perfectly safe and small and at the same time quiet and painfully tiny.
“I’m going to go there now.” Maribel propped a hand up on her hip, challenging him to stop her, to tell her if he was kidding.
“I’ll walk you.” He pulled his apron over his head and tossed it down on the counter. “I’m in the market for a new read myself. Not much else to do around here. I think I’ve read almost every book on the shelves, but maybe I’ll get lucky.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Lucky with a book. Nothing else.”
“Luck of the Irish knows no bounds.”
She rolled her eyes and followed him out the door. If she could find the right journal, maybe she could understand better what happened between Elsie and Ian. Something she could hold on to. Because otherwise it was a horrific story of the past with the possibility of rippling damage through the present.
Kenan tucked his hands in his pockets as they strolled down the quiet street toward the bookstore. All the quaint storefronts were empty and the lights were off. But Kenan had been right. The bookstore was unlocked. “Let me get the lights.”
“You’re sure she won’t mind us being in here?”
“My auntie’s dream come true would be me in here at night with a woman like you. Her middle name should be matchmaker.”
“Even though I’m only here for a week?” Maribel figured a dose of reality might help in a moment that could easily be considered a fairy tale come to life.
“A lot can happen in a week. Don’t you think?”
Maribel shrugged as he found the light switch and the room came to life. Forgetting everything else, she let herself sink into the romance of this little place. Words meant everything to her. Books were her friends, and this store had an ambience unmatched by any other she’d been in. The books were old and mostly full of things she’d never read before. So many opportunities right at her fingertips.
Kenan let out a little chuckle that zapped her back to reality. “I might wait my whole life to see someone look at me the way you’re looking at this place.”
“I told you I was a nerd.”
“You’re too hard on yourself.”
“My confidence has taken a few hits lately.” She moved through the shelves running her fingers over the books, a little greeting to a friend.
“Maybe it’s time to get it back.” He peeked at her through a shelf on the other side and smiled.
“All I want is a good distraction.” She cleared her throat. “In the form of a book.”
“Then you’re in the right place.” They both reached the end of their aisles and she felt his eyes on her.
“I can’t stop thinking about poor Elsie. What a tragic story.”
“I tried to research it once when I was in school.” He pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through it. “I figured I could read the articles in the newspaper. Maybe talk to some folks and try to get past the rumors. But there was nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“There wasn’t a single article in the paper about Ian O’Malley and what had happened. Just an obituary for Elsie. Her family was good friends with the owner of the paper, and they asked for their privacy.”
“And no one wanted to talk to you about it?”
“By then her parents had moved to Australia. Rumor was they were devastated, and everything here reminded them of Elsie. Everyone else clammed up about it.”
“But you’re curious? You think there’s more to the story?”
“Don’t know. Might be. If it were an open-and-shut case the police would have grabbed Ian and prosecuted him. I think running away makes him look guilty, but I’ve wondered.”
“It certainly is interesting.”
“I have always wanted to know where O’Malley ended up. I want to understand how a guy can do what he did and then bail. Go on and live a life somewhere like nothing happened.”
“It’s amazing what people can convince themselves of when they want to. Look at me, digging through old journals, convinced somebody else’s story is going to be more interesting to read than living my own.”
She skimmed the books looking for dates that would fit the timeline of Elsie’s death. The goal wasn’t to find hers or Ian’s journal. That was a too much of a long shot. But with an event so big, other people must have had something to say about it too. She gathered up six books that seemed to fit and stacked them in her arms.
“Let me take those for you.” He looked at her with wonderment in his eyes. “This place is really that interesting to you?”
“Yes. This store. This town. It’s spectacular.”
“Hmm.” He looked around the bookstore as though he were trying to see it with fresh eyes. “To me it’s just an old and dusty place I used to have to come to every day after school. I hated it. Boring. The books taunted me. But Auntie had to be here, and I had nowhere else to go.”
“She raised you?”
“Ya, God bless her soul for putting up with my teenage antics. She’s a good woman.”
“She raised a good man. I really appreciate all you’ve been doing for me. This trip is nothing like I expected it would be.”
“And you’re disappointed?”
“I’m nothing yet. I’m still waiting to see.”
Chapter 17
Aden
* * *
It was his turn to sit in the hallway. The difference was Aden was now outside her doorway, and she wasn’t there at all. Where had she run off to so upset?
“Someone’s going to call security on you.” Maribel’s smile had returned as she balanced a stack of books in her arms. Aden hopped to his feet and took them from her.
“I’m sorry about earlier. I wanted to come talk to you. That stuff you found out was heavy, and I’m sure it’s weighing on you.”
“It is.” She put her key in the door and waited for him to go in first. “Just throw those books on the bed. I’m going to break into the mini bar and get to work. You going to help?” She pulled her sweatshirt over her head and tossed it over a chair in the corner.
“Help with what?”
“Finding the truth.”
“What truth?”
“Do you really believe a man could poison a girl he loved then flee the country and go on with his life completely unfazed by that? It’s impossible. Foolish to even think it. So I’m getting at the truth.”
“To what end?”
“So we can know what happened and then have the wedding here.”
“Maribel.” His voice was sad. “Even if we stumbled upon some little nugget of truth that created doubt about Ian being guilty, it wouldn’t matter. He’s been tried in the court of public opinion here.”
“It matters.”
“Why? There are other places to have the wedding. Let Junie keep the memories of her father completely intact. There is no point.”
“No point?” She shook her head and bit on her bottom lip the way she always did when she was readying her argument. “I root for the underdog. I dream the really big dreams. Not because they always come true, but because sometimes they do. We have stumbled across something, and I am going to spend as much time as I need to this week getting answers.”
“As much time as you need? You’re going to use the entire week here only to find out what you already know. She can’t come here. Then you’ll go back completely empty-handed, looking like you squandered away an all-expenses-paid trip from your boss. Hugo is a very understanding man, but we don’t intend to tell him the truth about this place, so you’re going to come out looking like a fool. Maybe without your job.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Yes!” Aden’s voice boomed. “It would be awful. I don’t want you getting fired over this. We can leave in the morning. Get to Dublin, find a beautiful hotel. You can try cakes and dress options, color schemes, whatever. And you go home with something to show f
or this trip.”
“I’m not leaving things like this, Aden. I won’t.”
“Take off the rose-colored glasses for one second, Maribel. Forget about the one-in-a-million shot. That’s not what life really is.”
“Oh right. Life is about the safe bet. The distance you can keep between yourself and pain. Excuse me for taking a few risks. Trust me, I understand completely they don’t always work out.” She walked to the door.
“For the next few hours I’m going to be reading through those books, looking for what other people in this town were writing about before and after Elsie died. Then tomorrow I’m going down to the police station and try to get my hands on the report. If you want to help, stay here with me tonight. If you don’t, leave now. I don’t need someone who is half in. Someone who half believes. I’m willing to risk my reputation and maybe my job on the slim chance I can bring something amazing to my friends and maybe some peace to a legend here in Gallamare. What are you willing to risk, Aden?”
He stood and made his way to the door too. This was mad. She was twisting things up and pretending they had better odds than they did.
“Or are you going to keep playing it safe?” Her eyes bore holes in him and her nostrils flared as she fought back tears.
“One condition,” Aden announced as he stopped right in front of her, inches from her body, “I get to pick the snacks from the mini bar.”
She couldn’t help but laugh, the tension melting away for a second. “Are you serious? You’re going to help?”
“I think it’s nuts, and it might cost us plenty in the long run.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because what it would cost me to leave right now is more frightening.” He watched as her breath caught in her throat for a moment. Rendering a woman like Maribel speechless was not easy, but he took his opportunity seriously. Leaning in, he kissed her lips slowly. Gently. Giving her the chance to pull away. He owed her at least that. But instead her hand flew to his chest, the other to his cheek as they passionately kissed. It had been there forever. That they’d waited this long seemed crazy. But a flash of truth stopped him. This kiss would end. The first kiss was always easy. Full of reckless abandon and passion. It was the second kiss, the one you had time to consider and second guess that would trip him up.
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