Page 105 of Once upon a Summer Night

Ellie shook her head. “No, Winnie, he didn’t break my heart.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

Ellie smiled a little. “I was smitten and swept off my feet,” she continued slowly. “I was in love with theideaof love, but I know now that I wasn’t in love with Andrew Beaufort.”

Winnie looked at her curiously. “And how do you know for sure?”

Ellie swallowed hard. “Because I’ve experienced real love, and it’s a lot more painful than anything Andrew could’ve ever done to me.”

Her aunt’s eyes filled with compassion. “Oh, Eleanor. Can it be saved?”

Ellie dashed a tear away. “I don’t think so.” She drew a shuddering breath in an attempt to bring her emotions under control. The now-familiar ache in her chest resurfaced. “I gave it everything I had.”

“Are you certain?”

Ellie gave Winnie a watery smile. “I told him I loved him…and he told me I could never make him happy.”

Winnie’s sharp intake of breath reinforced Ellie’s certainty.

Ellie forced a bright smile. “It’s for the best. I deserve someone who loves me back.”

“Bravo,” Winnie exclaimed with a clap. “Heartbreak is never easy. And it’ll hurt for a good, long while. But let Candice try her hand at easing the pain. If for nothing else, the dates will be a necessary distraction. And Mr. O’Rourke needs to know that you won’t wait around forever.”

“Who said it was Colin?”

Winnie rolled her eyes. “Eleanor. I might be old, but I’m not dead. Anyone with a modicum of sense can see that you two have a connection. I knew he was the one for you the first time I met him.”

“At the press conference?”

“Oh, heavens no, dear. Before that, he came here to discuss my article. He sat right in that chair you’re sitting in, andclaimed I was blackmailing him! His determination was quite refreshing.”

Ellie clenched her jaw, and she asked the question, even though she knew the answer. “Wereyou blackmailing him?”

Winnie looked affronted. “Of course not! I merely put forth a set of my own requirements, in order to write an article that put his business in a better light.” At Ellie’s motion to explain, she added, “Requirements for your special someone.”

“Such as…?” Ellie encouraged her. Though she didn’t doubt Colin’s words, she needed to hear them directly from her aunt.

“The details remain a bit unclear—”

“She demanded that you experience true love that would sweep a girl off her feet and never put her down. She also expected a title, and threatened that if the man ultimately moved you away, she would ensure his business failed.” Alan, who had appeared silently, finished refilling the teapot, then tapped his head with a finger. “Steel trap.”

“Wow,” Ellie breathed, both at Alan’s memory and her aunt’s deviousness. She swung her gaze to her aunt, who had the grace to look abashed.

“Before you judge my motives, think on this, Eleanor Rose. You know that I have more money than I know what to do with, and that I could fly you back here whenever you wanted. Where you live is not as important to me as to your happiness. But—and listen closely, love, for it’s a big but—if a man were to come in and sweep you off your feet, and make you fall in love with him so spectacularly that you wouldn’t be able to tell which side is up, that man needs to prove that he is worthy of your love. You would need to know that you would be his heart, just as he would be yours. If there’s one thing I know, it’s stubborn men,” Winnie informed her. “Colin O’Rourke ranks in the top three most stubborn men I’ve evermet. If your love is worth less than his company, then he’s not worthy of you.”

Ellie closed her eyes, pain lancing through her. “Oh, Winnie. There’s so much more to it than that.”

“He’ll come to his senses soon enough, Eleanor, mark my words.”

If he was just a businessman, you’d be right,she thought miserably.But he has obligations that are bigger than me. Bigger than us.

She and Colin were over; in fact, they never truly began. Of course, she knew now that he had feelings for her—she imagined a man didn’t kiss the way he did her unless there was something more powerful than a mere liking to drive it. But when he told her she couldn’t make him happy, he was completely serious.

His career was important to him. She saw it in the way he worked, the way he interacted with his clients. His personal life was dedicated to protecting generations of O’Rourkes before and after him.

No one could make him happy. But he could make others happy, and it was enough for him.

Ellie wanted to be an important part of his life, but to be his everything, as her aunt had all but demanded, was unrealistic.

---