“Believe me, that would probably be better than traveling from village to village with a woman who’s not really seeing the scenery.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Suggesting this trip was probably a bad idea in the first place. I just wanted to get you away from all the bad memories in Boston for a while. Bryan agreed it was a good idea.”
“Bryan was just scared I’d cave in and go looking for Michael,” Kelly said.
“Would you have done that?”
Kelly sighed heavily. “More than likely. I love him. I can’t help it. I think I’ve loved him since I was a kid. These past few months have only deepened what I feel for him.”
“The man hurt you,” Moira reminded her, sounding as fiercely protective as Bryan would.
“I know,” Kelly acknowledged. “But he didn’t do it intentionally. I all but threw myself at him before he was ready to think about anything but getting back on his feet again. I was ready for a relationship. He wasn’t.”
“And you think that’s changed by now?”
“I honestly don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out.”
This time it was Moira who sighed deeply. “By going home,” she concluded. “We can make the arrangements to leave in the morning.”
Kelly knew her friend would do that, too, but she couldn’t let her. “I have a better idea. Let’s call Bryan and see if he can’t come over here and join you. I know the two of you were planning a trip together before you decided to rescue me. When he gets here, then I’ll leave. Until then, I’ll try to throw myself into the spirit of things.” She glanced toward the small dance floor. “I might even try an Irish jig.”
There was no mistaking the faint spark of excitement that stirred in Moira’s eyes. “I can live without watching you trip over your own feet,” she said wryly. “As for calling Bryan, are you sure you wouldn’t mind going back alone?”
“I’m a big girl. I can fly by myself,” Kelly responded with a chuckle. “Stop worrying. I’m not going to throw open the door and dive into the Atlantic.”
Moira regarded her indignantly. “Well, I should certainly hope not.”
“A couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been so quick to say that,” Kelly said. “But now I’m going to go home and fight for the man I love. He’s not going to know what hit him.”
Moira finally grinned. “Good for you.”
“It might be best, though, if we don’t tell Bryan that,” Kelly warned her. “It might give him second thoughts about coming over here to join you.”
A blush tinted Moira’s cheeks. “Oh, I think I can keep your brother’s mind otherwise occupied.”
Kelly studied her friend and noted the new sense of confidence. It made her more attractive than ever. “Yes, I imagine you can. Any hint of wedding bells?”
“Not yet,” Moira conceded. “But then I haven’t taken him on my tour of quaint Irish chapels yet. That ought to get him thinking along the right lines.”
“Maybe you’d be better off just asking him outright to marry you,” Kelly suggested. “Bryan’s head is usually in the clouds. The direct approach has its advantages with a man like that.”
“Is that what you intend to do with Michael, ask him to marry you?”
“Absolutely not,” Kelly said as if she were utterly horrified by the idea. Then she grinned. “Actually I intend to plant the idea in his head and then let him think he was the one who came up with it. Michael has definite control issues, but now’s not the time to work on them.”
Moira lifted her glass of ale. “To us, then, and the men we love.”
“To love,” Kelly said, then added silently, and to getting Michael to believe in it.
Well, this was turning out to be damned frustrating, Michael decided as he spent days trying to catch up with Kelly.
He’d finally heard she was back from Ireland…from his mother. Apparently Kelly had paid her a visit on her return. She’d brought Doris Havilcek a lovely book of Irish recipes.
And Kelly had been spotted at the pub. Maggie reported that Kelly had dropped by with a list of Irish musicians who had upcoming tours to the United States and would be happy to play at Ryan’s Place.
There had been sightings at the clinic, as well. Jennifer told him shyly that Kelly had been there for her last session, which had been rescheduled from Tuesday to Wednesday, a day when he wasn’t likely to be around.
His plan for getting to Kelly and making things right was being foiled at every turn. He was mentally threatening to stake out her parents’ place, when he concluded that maybe he needed to put a little more thought into his approach. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a specific plan in mind.
Years of SEAL training had taught him that every last detail of an operation had to be ironed out in advance to assure success, even if the best-laid plans occasionally went wildly awry and he wound up scrambling. Looking at the alternatives from every angle might mean delaying the start of the mission, but it could guarantee achieving the results he wanted.
While he was at home pondering the best way to handle things, he got a call from an admiral at the Pentagon requesting a meeting.
“Sir, I’ve already resigned,” he pointed out.
“I’ve got the paperwork right here on my desk,” Admiral Stokes agreed. “Haven’t signed it yet.”
Michael bit back a curse at the delay. He’d wanted the ties severed once and for all. “Why is that, sir?”
“It occurs to me that you might not be thinking too clearly after what you’ve been through.”
“Believe me, I’ve been over this a thousand times,” Michael countered. “I’m not suited to a desk job. Whatever contribution I was able to make to the navy came because I was a highly skilled operative. That’s over.”
“Hell, man, your brain still functions, doesn’t it?”
The harsh tone cut right through Michael and made him sweat. “Yes, of course, but—”
“Oh, stop trying to make excuses and get down to D.C.,” Stokes commanded. “We’ve spent too much damned time and money training you to think like a SEAL to have you wasting it by running a bunch of tourists around so they can catch some fish.”
Michael didn’t waste time asking how the admiral knew what he’d been up to.
“We need to talk,” Stokes continued. “Be here at oh-eight-hundred hours. And that’s an order, Lieutenant. You’re not out of the navy yet.”
“Yes, sir,” Michael said and slowly hung up the phone. To his astonishment, rather than fury over the presumptive arrogance of the admiral, what he felt was a faint stirring of excitement.
Kelly was feeling really pleased with herself. She’d made very sure that Michael knew she was back in town, while managing to avoid him catching so much as a glimpse of her. If she knew him half as well as she thought she did, he was probably going a little crazy by now. The fact that he’d been trying to catch up with her added to her conviction.
She had one last stop she wanted to make, possibly the riskiest one of all, because she wasn’t entirely sure she could avoid getting caught this time. She headed to Greg Keith’s charter boat headquarters, ostensibly to make an inquiry about chartering a boat that was captained by Michael. She wanted him to hear about the request, wanted him to wonder why she’d suddenly decided to take up fishing.
“To be honest,” Greg told her, “I’m not so sure Mr. Devaney’s going to be taking out any more fishing charters.”
Kelly stared at him in shock. The announcement was the last thing she’d expected when she’d come here. “He’s not? Why? Did something happen? He’s not injured again, is he? His recovery is still on track?”
The ex-SEAL, whom Ryan had willingly sent her to, grinned at the barrage of questions. The smile transformed his face from a rugged ruin to something intriguingly handsome.
“Whoa,” he ordered. “Don’t panic. Michael’s fine. It’s just that he’s gone out of town for a few days, and I’m not sure what’s going
to come of the trip.”
“He went away on business? What kind of business?” The only kind of business Michael had, as far as she knew, was SEAL business.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it. Why not ask him yourself when he gets back?”
“When will that be?”
“Hard to say,” he said with a shrug. He seemed to be enjoying her growing agitation. “Should I tell him you’ve been by asking a lot of questions? Men usually like to know when a beautiful woman’s been poking around in their life.”
Kelly slapped a business card on his desk. “Yes, indeed, you be sure to tell Michael that I came by. And tell him that I am interested in chartering a boat, but only if he’s at the helm.”
“Got it,” Greg said, his grin spreading.
She was at the door, when he called after her. She turned around and saw him studying her card.
“If things don’t work out between you and Michael,” he said, “you give me a call. Something tells me you’re the kind of woman who only comes around once in a man’s lifetime.”
She laughed. “Tell that to Michael. See what he says.”
His dark, serious gaze never wavered. “I just might do that.”
Oh, my, Kelly thought. Greg Keith might be confined to a wheelchair, but he could definitely give a woman a run for her money. If he reported their encounter to Michael the way she intended, she’d have to reciprocate by finding him a woman who’d be up to the challenge.
Michael was still in a daze when he got back from Washington. The admiral had been extraordinarily persuasive. Michael had left his office with a promotion to lieutenant commander and a job in the counterterrorism intelligence unit, working out of Boston. Being able to stay close to his family had sealed the deal. His days of fishing were pretty much over. He’d enjoyed the work, but he couldn’t honestly say he regretted the dramatic turn things had taken during his Pentagon visit.
Now he just had to get Kelly on board. En route to her place, he took three detours: one to a jeweler’s, one to a florist’s and one to Greg’s office to resign.
Greg took one look at the bouquet and grinned. “For me? You shouldn’t have.”
“Very funny.”
“I don’t suppose those are for Kelly Andrews, are they?”
Michael froze in place. “What do you know about Kelly?”
“She stopped by while you were gone. She wanted to charter a fishing boat for the day, with you as captain.”
“Are you serious?” he asked incredulously.
“I am. She seemed to be, too. Attractive woman. You going after her?”
Michael nodded. He was definitely going after her, though before he proposed, he might ask what the hell she thought she’d been up to the past couple of weeks. If he didn’t know for a fact that she believed in the direct approach, he might have concluded she’d been deliberately taunting him.
Greg gave him a penetrating look. “I assume I can cross you off my list of available captains, then?”
“In more ways than one,” Michael said. “I really appreciate you giving me a job, Greg. It helped to get my confidence back in ways I can’t even begin to explain.”
“You staying in the navy?”
Michael nodded. “I’m just discovering that there’s more than one way to skin an enemy. You ought to think about that.”
“Not me. I like my laid-back lifestyle. You go on and get the bad guys.” He winked. “And while you’re at it, good luck with getting the girl.”
“Thanks, pal. I’ll be by from time to time and I’m sure I’ll see you at the pub.”
“Count on it.”
From the office, Michael headed for home to change, then went straight to Kelly’s. When he finally showed up at her door, he was in his dress uniform and carrying a bouquet of spring flowers that had cost an arm and a leg in midwinter.
When she opened the door, there was a brief moment when he thought she might turn right around and slam it in his face. Instead, she squared her shoulders and stood fast. That little display of courage made him want to scoop her up and kiss her, but he resisted the urge.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
She spoke in a cool tone that didn’t quite go along with her recent forays into all the corners of his life. Still, it was disconcerting. Suddenly hesitant, he thrust the flowers toward her and said, “I brought you these.”
She accepted them with apparent reluctance, breathed in the sweet scent, then looked at him over the extravagant bouquet. “Why?”
He shifted uneasily at her lack of enthusiasm. “Could we go inside?” He didn’t want a lot of witnesses if she turned him down flat.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I see you’re wearing your uniform. Does that mean you’re going back to work for the navy?”
He nodded. “I’ll tell you about that in a minute. The important thing is, I’m gainfully employed again.”
“I thought you were gainfully employed by Greg Keith.”
His lips twitched. “Yeah, I heard you’d paid him a visit. What’s with the sudden desire to go fishing?”
“I’m exploring new interests. I thought it might be fun.”
“And spending the day at sea with me had nothing to do with it?”
“Not really.”
“Then why didn’t you go through with the charter?”
She shrugged. “Changed my mind.”
“That’s not the way I hear it, Kelly.”
“Men have a tendency to imagine things and then exaggerate,” she told him.
“I see. Okay, then, let’s get back to the reason I’m here.”
“I figured you wanted me to know you’d gone back to work for the navy,” she said. “Now I know. Did you really think that mattered to me?”
“No, but settling into a career mattered to me,” he said.
“And fishing’s not good enough?”
“No, dammit. Stop twisting everything I say. It wasn’t about money, Kelly. Or about prestige. It was about self-respect. I need to do something that matters.”
A flicker of understanding warmed her eyes, but then that shuttered expression fell back into place. “I’m happy for you, truly I am, but if that’s all you came to tell me, I need to get going.”
She was about to close the door, when Michael jammed his foot in it. “Wait.”
She looked into his eyes.
“I love you,” he said, blurting it out before he messed up again. “That’s what I came to tell you. That and to ask you to marry me.” He fumbled in his pocket and drew out a ring, a diamond solitaire that could never in a million years match the sparkle in her eyes when she was happy. “I know I’m the worst sort of fool and I don’t deserve you, but no one will ever love you more or work harder to make you happy.”
Her eyes unexpectedly filled with tears and made his heart wrench.
“Are you sure, Michael?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Really, really sure? Because this is it. If you take it back this time, I will never forgive you.”
“I won’t take it back,” he promised, hardly daring to believe that he’d finally gotten it right. “I love you and I want to marry you.” He searched her face, looking for a clue about what she was feeling. “If you’ll have me. Will you, Kelly?”
She stepped toward him then and lifted her hand to his cheek. “Oh, Michael,” she whispered, “all you ever had to do was ask.”
Epilogue
“I still don’t understand why you’re in such a hurry,” Bryan said to Michael as he ran a finger around the collar of his tuxedo. “I know my sister. If she hasn’t changed her mind about you after all these years, she’s not going to. There’s no rush.”
Michael frowned at him. He’d had enough trouble waiting the month Kelly had insisted it would take her to plan the perfect wedding. “I take it you’re in no big hurry to get Moira to the altar.”
Bryan stared at him blankly. “Married? Me and Moira?”
“You haven’t even considered it?
I thought you were in love with her.”
“I am, at least I think I am. I’m not even sure I know what love is.”
“And you’re a psychologist,” Michael said, shaking his head. “I pity your clients.”
“Wait a minute, how did we go from discussing this rush into marriage you and Kelly are taking to picking apart my relationship with Moira?”
“Just a diversionary tactic,” Michael admitted cheerfully. “Plus, if you were in love, you’d understand why we don’t want to wait. Too bad, because I really thought you and Moira had something special. Mind if I introduce her to someone at the reception?”
Bryan’s expression turned dark. “Forget about it.”
Michael gave his best man a triumphant look. “That, my friend, is love.”
Bryan looked vaguely bemused by his analysis. “Do you suppose that’s why she kept dragging me into all those little churches all over Ireland? Was she trying to tell me something?”
“I’d say that’s a safe bet,” Michael said, regarding him with a pitying look. “Have a couple of glasses of champagne at the reception and ask her.”
“Ask her what?”
“Ask her to marry you, idiot.”
“Oh.” A slow smile spread across Bryan’s face. “Maybe I will at that.”
Kelly stood at the back of the church and studied the man waiting for her in front of the altar, his back ramrod straight, his cane nowhere in sight. He was stunning in his uniform, but he was darned good-looking out of it, too. In fact, she preferred him that way, naked and eager. A blush climbed into her cheeks at the wicked thought. On her wedding day and in church, no less. She was surprised a bolt of lightning didn’t strike her dead on the spot. Then, again, she was about to marry the man. Why do that, if he didn’t get to her?
“You ready, pumpkin?” her father asked.
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation.
“Have been for a long time, haven’t you? Michael’s always been the one.”
“Always,” she agreed. “This just proves teenage fantasies can come true.”
“Not without a little nudge from your brother,” he reminded her. “You given him the credit he’s due?”
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