“Oh, it’s not that. You look…different.” Caroline reached out and smoothed her hand over Gelsey’s cheek.
“I do?”
Caroline nodded, her silver curls bobbing. “You look happy. Relaxed.”
“I am,” Gelsey said. “So do you think I should do it?”
“Let me ask you one question. How much of your interest in staying in Ireland has to do with this Quinn bloke?”
“I suppose some,” Gelsey admitted. “But I’m not really counting on that for the future. I think it’s time I begin to plan my life for myself and not whatever man I happen to fancy at the moment.”
“Antonio has been ringing here, trying to get in touch. It sounds like he’s very sorry for what he did and he wants to make amends.”
“Of course he’s sorry. All men who cheat are sorry. And I suppose I shouldn’t blame him. I ran away to Ireland and he needed someone. In his case, anyone would do.”
“He wasn’t ever right for you, Gelsey.”
She drew a deep breath and nodded. “I know. But after the fight we had, I’m not sure he’s going to want to testify for me in court. He was there when it happened. He saw the whole thing.”
“Perhaps you should try to smooth things out,” Caroline suggested. “For the sake of your future.”
Gelsey shook her head. “I’m done with Antonio,” she said. “And that life. I want to start a new life, here at Winterhill.”
Caroline took her hands and gave them a squeeze. She stared down at Gelsey’s ring finger. “Where is your engagement ring?”
“I threw it in the ocean,” Gelsey said.
“That was a foolish thing to do.”
“I suppose I should have kept it. I could have traded it for all the things I left at his villa in Portugal.”
“That would have been the sensible thing.”
“Agreeing to marry a Spanish race-car driver with an ex-wife, an ex-mistress and a girlfriend on the side was not sensible. From now on, I’m going to make myself happy first.” She paused, then grinned. “Not that I’m giving up men entirely.”
“Well, I think that’s a grand plan,” Caroline said. “Just grand. I have always thought that you deserved more happiness than you allowed yourself.” Caroline’s eyebrows arched. “Now tell me more about this man.”
Gelsey laughed. “He’s very sweet and far too serious for me. And, even though I’m afraid I’ll find some way to muck it all up, he makes me feel…safe.” She shook her head. “I’ve spent my life living dangerously and now I’m happy with a cozy cottage and handsome architect in my bed. How strange is that?”
“You haven’t had an easy time of it, Gelsey. I’ve been witness to that. But it would fulfill your grandmother’s fondest wish if you could find some happiness here.”
Gelsey drew a ragged breath, then smiled. “I love this house. Maybe that’s why I came running here when things with Antonio fell apart.”
“Well, I’ll make sure everything is just so for you,” Caroline said.
“And I’m going to help this year.”
“You’re going to come back, then?”
Gelsey thought about it for a long moment, then nodded. “Yes. And I’m going to bring Kellan with me. Just as soon as I tell him who I really am.”
“Just who does he think you are?” Caroline asked.
Gelsey winced, then shrugged her shoulders. “At first, a mermaid. But now, probably an escapee from a mental hospital.”
“Oh, dear,” Caroline said. “It’s going to take more than a pot of tea to explain that.”
“WHAT THE HELL are we doing here?” Danny grumbled.
“Waiting,” Kellan said.
“I can see that. What are we waiting for?”
“I’m not sure.”
“When you asked to borrow my car, you told me you had an errand to run. We’re not running. We’re sitting here at the side of the road staring at a huge house. Who lives there?”
“I don’t know,” Kellan muttered. “Do you?”
Danny shook his head. “Not really. I’m not sure anyone lives there, at least not year-round. But it looks like a nice place. Well tended. The ironwork on the gates looks original. I’d like to get a closer look at those hinges.” He reached for the door handle, but Kellan grabbed his jacket sleeve.
“Wait,” he said. “Look. There’s someone coming outside. Pull ahead and then turn around.”
“Who’s coming?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know. Someone that Gelsey knows. She came here this morning. Drove the Fiat over. I couldn’t stick around because she would have recognized my car, so I decided to come back and check it out once she returned to Ballykirk.”
“You followed her here?”
“Not exactly,” Kellan said. Then he cleared his throat. “Well, yeah, I did. I was driving back to the cottage to try to convince her to go to Cork with me after Jordan canceled. And I saw her turn down the coast road, so I followed her-at a discreet distance. I was curious. And this is where she came. To this house.”
“What kind of sick obsession is this?” Danny said.
“I was beginning to think she was a feckin’ mermaid. I’m losing my mind, here. She won’t tell me anything about herself. I decided to find out on my own. Now I just have to figure out why she came here.”
“Maybe it’s where she lives?”
“If she lives here, why is she staying in the cottage with me? This place looks a lot more posh than anything I can offer. Look at the bleedin’ chimneys. There must be five or six fireplaces in that house.”
“Look, a woman’s come out,” Danny said. “She’s putting a wreath up on the door. I’m going to go talk to her.”
“No!”
“I’ll just tell her I’d like to take a photo of her gates. I do it all the time.”
Danny hopped out of the Land Rover and started off toward the woman, leaving Kellan no choice but to follow him.
“Hello, there!” Danny called, striding confidently up the driveway. “We were just looking at your gate. I’m a blacksmith. Would you mind if I took a photo?” He glanced back at Kellan and motioned him forward. “Do you have your mobile with you?”
Kellan reached into his pocket, then handed Danny his phone. “Just flip it open and press that button on the side. Then press it again to take the photo.”
“Would you mind?” Danny asked again.
“No, not at all,” the old woman said.
“How long have you owned the place?” Danny asked.
“Oh, I don’t own it. I work here. I’m the housekeeper. For thirty-five years. My mother worked here before me.”
“Big house,” Danny said. “A lot to keep up with, I’d reckon.”
“Oh, it’s not all that bad. The owner only comes now and then. She’s here now, so I’ve been a bit busier.”
“She?” Kellan asked.
“Yes. Miss Gelsey. I’ve know her since she was just a wee baby.”
“Really.”
“Her grandmother owned the house up until the time she died. That was six years ago. She was Lila Dunleavy Woodson. Her husband was a surgeon in London and they kept a summer home here. Her son, Gelsey’s father, became a diplomat with the British Foreign Service and married an American.” She chuckled. “You wouldn’t need to know all that genealogy just to look at a gate, now, would you?”
“I guess not,” Danny said. “I’ll just get a few snaps and we’ll be on our way.
By the time they got back in the car, Kellan’s mind was spinning. Woodson. Her name was Gelsey Woodson. She had parents and a home-a very lovely home from the look of it. And she had a housekeeper. She’d obviously come home to pick up the expensive clothes, expensive clothes that had magically appeared in the wardrobe sometime before lunch.
Kellan stared out the window, watching as the scenery passed by. “What the hell am I doing?”
“You are definitely in love with this girl,” Danny said. “I’ve never seen you so out of joint over a wom
an.” He gave Kellan a sideways glance. “She did seem a bit more posh than the average girl. She has good manners. Jordan even mentioned that the other day. Nan thought she might be a ballerina because she has such nice posture, but Jordan guessed fashion model. I figured she was rich from the way she talked.”
“I don’t even know why I’m interested,” Kellan said.
“Because she’s drop-dead gorgeous. Hell, Kellan, you’d be an eejit if you walked away from a goddess like her.” Danny pointed up the road. “Are you coming into town with me or should I drop you at the cottage?”
“Let’s go to the pub,” he said. “I think I could use a pint or two. And I left my car there.”
When they arrived at the pub, they found a crowd inside, oddly large for a Monday afternoon. But as Kellan stared at the group clustered around the bar, he suddenly realized why they had all come.
“Looks like your mermaid is holding court,” Danny said.
Gelsey was perched on a bar stool with the Unholy Trinity lined up to her left. Doc Finnerty occupied the stool to her right and a small group of townspeople filled out the rest of her circle.
Kellan strolled to the end of the bar to greet his mother. “How long has she been here?”
“About an hour,” his mother said. “Where have you boys been?”
“I’ve been draggin’ Kellan around the countryside looking for leprechauns,” Danny said with an exaggerated Irish brogue.
Frowning, Kellan watched as Dealy and Markus commandeered the conversation. If they were bothering Gelsey with their plans, he was going to put an end to it right now. He pushed away from the end of the bar and strode through the small crowd to stand in front of Gelsey.
Reaching up, she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss. “You’re back,” she said. “I came in here looking for you, but your mother said you and Danny had left together.”
“I thought I’d find you at the cottage.”
“I walked into town to talk to Maeve, then decided to stop here after. Then these gentlemen came by. They said you sent them.”
Kellan glared at the trio over Gelsey’s shoulder. “They did, did they? Well, that’s interesting. As I recall, I haven’t spoken to them since the day before yesterday when I told them to keep their silly plans to themselves.”
Gelsey glanced back at Johnnie, Markus and Dealy. “But they’ve been wonderful,” she said. “They thought I might be interested in a business opportunity and I told them I was.”
“You don’t need to listen to these gits,” Kellan whispered.
“Really,” Gelsey said. “It’s an interesting plan. One I’ve actually been considering.” She grabbed Kellan around the arm and pulled him along with her toward the door. “It was a pleasure meeting all of you and I’m sure I’ll see you again soon. And thank you for the beer, Mrs. Quinn.”
“No trouble,” Maggie Quinn called, a satisfied grin on her face. “Come back soon, Gelsey.”
When they got outside, Kellan drew her along to his car, parked just a few steps from the front door of the pub. He opened the passenger side. “Get in,” he muttered.
Gelsey hopped inside and a few moments later, Kellan got behind the wheel, gripping it with white-knuckled hands. “Gelsey, I don’t want you perpetrating this mermaid stuff anymore. It might have been fun at first, but it will only make things difficult for you.”
“I wasn’t,” she said. “And it’s just silliness. No one really believes I’m a mermaid. Why are you so angry?”
Kellan’s jaw twitched. That was a good question. He’d become so protective of Gelsey, yet he couldn’t figure out his motives. He cared about her, yet he’d been very careful about letting himself feel too much. He enjoyed her company and didn’t want anyone or anything interfering with that. And he sensed that she was searching for something, something she’d never be able to find in Ballykirk.
“It is an intriguing opportunity,” she said. “And with the proper marketing, it might bring more tourists into Ballykirk. The mermaid thing would just be a…what did Dealy call it…a hook, to get people interested.”
Kellan glanced over at her. “I thought you couldn’t commit to something like that. Isn’t that what you said?”
Gelsey nodded. “Yes. But I have to make a life for myself somewhere. Why not here?” She swallowed, forcing a smile. “Unless, of course, you don’t want me to. You can tell me, if that’s the case. I’m perfectly fine with that. And don’t think that, just because I buy the shop, I expect us to continue a relationship. I know what we have might not be…”
“What do we have?” Kellan asked.
“You know.”
“No, I’m not sure I do. At least, I’m not sure what you think we have. What would you call it?”
She thought about her answer for a long moment. “Did you ever see the film Roman Holiday, with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck?”
Kellan shook his head. What was this about?
“It’s about these two people who know that being together is probably impossible, but they spend a wonderful two days together in Rome. She was a princess and I’m not. And they never had sex. And we’ve been together a lot longer than two days, but…” She cursed softly. “It’s the idea of it. We can still be great together even if it isn’t meant to last forever. Does that make sense?”
Kellan frowned. “It might make better sense if I watched the movie.”
“Well, maybe we should find a place to rent it and we can watch it tonight. It will all make sense then.”
The only thing that would make sense to Kellan would be a complete explanation of who she was and what she was really doing in Ballykirk. And if it took watching some silly chick flick to get her to talk about herself, then he was prepared to do that.
“Our library has a decent collection of DVDs,” Kellan said. “Maybe we can find it there.”
“THIS IS NOT ANYTHING like Roman Holiday,” Gelsey said. She was curled up against Kellan’s body, her gaze fixed on the laptop that rested on his belly. She reached for the popcorn bowl and grabbed a handful, then slowly munched. “This has cowboys and covered wagons. Roman Holiday has ancient ruins and Vespas.”
“The library didn’t have Roman Holiday. But Gregory Peck is in this one.”
“How the West Was Won,” Gelsey said. “Couldn’t we have at least gotten a romance? Or a Christmas film? It’s a Wonderful Life or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
“I like this one,” Kellan said. He glanced over at her, then reached for the computer and closed the top. “All right, we probably could have done better for our first movie night.”
“Next time, I get to pick,” she said.
It was odd how something as simple as movie night was so satisfying. For so many years, her idea of an exciting evening involved an expensive dress, an even more expensive bottle of champagne and a nightclub filled with handsome men. Tonight was just one man and a movie and it was perfect-except for the movie.
Kellan leaned over and kissed her, his tongue tracing the shape of her mouth. “Next time, you can choose.” He set the computer on the floor, then crawled beneath the bedcovers. Gelsey stretched out beside him, slipping into the curve of his arm, her head resting on his shoulder.
“I had a really good day today,” she murmured.
“Yes?”
“Yes. And I think tomorrow is going to be even better.” She glanced up at him. “I get to start work tomorrow. I have a real job and I’m going to be gainfully employed.”
“Not everyone is so excited to go to work,” he said. “Are you really serious about buying her shop?”
“Maeve would sell me all her recipes,” Gelsey said. “And we would manufacture them at the shop to start. We’d have to update the jars and the labels. I know they’d sell at five times the price, especially in some of the exclusive shops in Europe.” She paused. “I have a lot of ideas.”
“So, you’ll look for investors?”
She shook her head. “No. I won’t n
eed investors.”
“How will you pay for it?”
“I’ll figure that out,” she murmured. It was an awfully big hole in her plan, at least from his point of view. “I have a little money of my own.”
Kellan cursed softly, then tossed the bedcovers aside and got out of bed. He grabbed his jeans from the floor and pulled them on. “I could really use a walk. I’ll be back in a bit.”
His sudden change of mood stunned her at first. But then she realized that this was bound to happen sooner or later. “I’ll come with you,” she said.
“No, I need some time to myself.”
“You’re angry.”
Kellan gritted his teeth, then shook his head. “What kind of game is this?” he asked. “And why the hell have you decided to play it with me?”
“I-I don’t know what you mean,” Gelsey said, avoiding his gaze. She knew exactly what he meant, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to admit that.
“I don’t know who the hell you are,” he said, pacing back and forth at the end of the bed. “We share the most intimate things and yet, I don’t know anything about you.”
“What’s wrong with that? What difference does it make? The past is in the past. Why are you so determined to dredge it all up?”
God, he was so beautiful when he was angry. Kellan was always so controlled, so sure of himself. She wanted him to crawl back into bed and make love to her, to turn all that anger he felt into passion.
“And why are you so determined to hide it? You’re playing a dangerous game here, Gelsey.”
“I’m not afraid,” she retorted.
Kellan drew a long, deep breath, then shrugged. “Well, maybe I am. How the hell am I supposed to figure this all out if I don’t have any of the facts?”
“What do you need to figure out?” she asked. “Can’t you just be happy living in the moment?”
“No,” Kellan said. “That’s not who I am. I’m a thinker and a planner and an organizer. I don’t like…ambiguity.”
“Not everything is worth knowing.”
“You think this is some game? Well, I don’t want to play anymore. It’s over. The clock’s run out. And I think it’s time you told me.”
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