Page 53 of Highballs & Hexes

“Are you all right, love?”

Fionola shrugged a shoulder, unsure what to say. Noah had taken it upon himself to hand her off to another, and she hated that he’d done it as a male relation of old would, handing off his unwanted spinster sister. She also hated that it was so easy for him to walk away. But how did she tell that to the man she was currently with? How did one admit to mourning another relationship they didn’t really want anymore?

With a tired-sounding sigh, Patrick led her to a bench and urged her to sit beside him. “I’ve spent too many hours inside my head, wondering what I might’ve done differently to make Rose not behave as she had or to make other lovers stay,” he said. “Noah left you because he believed you wanted me. But if that’s not the case, Fi, you should go after him.”

“It is the case, but I’m not happy with the way he...” She shook her head, grateful for Patrick’s willingness to listen and understand, yet unable to voice what was in her heart. “Do you think it’s possible to love more than one person at a time?” she asked hoarsely, knowing it might insult him, but needing to be open and real.

He seemed to consider the question for a time as he gazed out over the landscape. Finally, he nodded. “I do. Why else can we love more than one child? More than one sibling or parent?” His smile was tender as he looked at her. “To varying degrees, we can love many people at once, but it’s acting on the urges attached to those feelings that creates a problem. I’m not interested in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t want me or who wants others in addition to what I can give her.”

He released her hand and stood. “I’m a one-woman man hoping for a one-man woman. Think longer on what you want and give me your answer when you’re ready, yeah?”

Before he could turn away, she grabbed his wrist, rising beside him. “You already have my answer, Paddy O. I wouldn’t be here in this garden if I didn’t want you, and you alone.” She stroked his cheek and smiled. “When you were in the throes of healing, Noah tried to comfort me, and all I could think was that any touch that wasn’t yours was unpleasant.”

“But you love him, yeah?”

“I do, but what I feel for you is different. Deeper somehow.” She frowned, knowing she was making ahaymesof things. “I’ve fallen for you, Patrick O’Malley. I don’t want another, but I also don’t want to be forgotten and pushed aside so easily.”

He laughed, and when she scowled, he cradled her face in his hands. Leaning in, he kissed her. As he drew away, his grin was broad and his eyes twinkled. “Noah didn’t put you aside easily, love.Thatwas a tortured man, and onlyyoucouldn’t see it. To the rest of us, his suffering was plain and his pain great. He won’t be forgetting you, Fionola Bohannon. You’re not the type of woman a man can dismiss from his mind without a lobotomy.”

Tears filled her eyes, her throat closed, and her sinus passages burned with the need to cry again. Shaking her head, she swallowed down her emotional reaction. “How is it youalways know how to say the perfect thing to make me feel better?”

“Maybe it’s because, like Noah said, the Goddess planned for us to be together.” Stroking his thumbs along her cheekbones, he nodded. “I think he must be right. How else can you be so perfect for me? How else can you embody all the exemplary traits to feed my starved soul? With you, I want to be a better man.”

“You’re already a good man.” Rising on tiptoe, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against the corded muscles along his throat. She inhaled deeply, registering that he smelled of salty ocean breezes after a storm, when the sand had been washed clean. Her favorite scent. Smiling, she pressed her lips to his warm skin. “I think you’re both right. I’ll be thanking Anu when my time comes to stand before her.”

“That might be sooner than you think,” he murmured, drawing back and pointing to the terrace. “She’s just there, with Ronan O’Connor.”

Fi’s jaw dropped. Never in her life had she met a deity, though she’d heard stories of them paying special attention to their favorite witches. She always assumed she’d never gain their favor.

“Sure, and I don’t know what to say or how to behave,” she confessed as Patrick led her toward the steps.

“Like she’s royalty. Curtsy and bow your head until she gives you leave to look at her,” he murmured as they approached Anu.

The Goddess was tiny, no more than five-one or two, with a build that put an hourglass to shame. Thick auburn hair, leaning toward ruby, fell freely down the entire length of her back in a plethora of corkscrew curls. Pale, alabaster skin was porcelain smooth and set off by plump lips of the deepest scarlet. The overall effect was of a stunningly beautiful yet earthy woman.

Having never curtsied a day in her life, Fi felt off balance as she attempted it. The Goddess took pity on her with a hand onher elbow, and the surge of power running through her body was like eight shots of espresso along with five energy drinks all at once. Her cells seemed to vibrate at a higher frequency, and she’d swear she saw rainbows with pots of gold and chortling leprechauns waving shillelaghs in the air.

“Wow! Your touch packs a punch,” Fi told her.

The Goddess smiled, revealing straight white teeth and perfectly symmetrical dimples. She was thoroughly charming.

“Those with lesser magic feel it the most,” Anu told her. “The effects will wear off soon enough.”

“My Queen,” Patrick intoned with a deep bow. “To what do we owe this visit?”

“You and I need to have a conversation, Patrick O’Malley.”

She didn’t sound remotely pleased, and Fi’s heart started a painful hammering.

Ronan didn’t appear surprised, but then, he never had in the short time since Fi met him. The man was a virtual giant next to the petite deity, and his protective stance cemented the fact the Fates had chosen correctly to bestow him with the powers they had.

“Shall we walk?” Patrick suggested, holding his arm out for Anu to take.

Fi started to fall in behind them, but the Goddess held up a hand. “It’s privacy we’re needing, Fionola Bohannon. I’ll bring him back to you in due course.”

After the two of them cleared the terrace, Fi turned and looked up at Ronan. “Why is she here?”

“Patrick O’Malley disobeyed her orders, and she intends to take him to task.”

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