Page 84 of Once upon a Summer Night

A moment passed as they both caught their breath.

“This…we can’t. I won’t do this to you.”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “There’s something between us, something powerful…”

He took another step back. “Forgive me, Ellie. I can’t do this.”

Ellie’s heart cracked a little at the distance, but the hurt made her bold. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

He shook his head, then beckoned for her to head down the stairs, but she crossed her arms and planted her feet.

“So everyone gets a happy life but you?”

He froze. “What?”

Ellie stood firm. “Your cousin Brianagh, she got her happily ever after. And your cousin Aidan—you set him and Emma up using that hire-me-a-publicity-manager stunt. She told me all about it. And then, of course, there are the countless couples who’ve come to Celtic Connections. You’ve helped them, too. Why not you?”

Colin slowly tucked an errant piece of hair behind her ear, leaving his hand on her jaw, and gave her a heartbreaking smile. “The Fates have a different tale for me.”

“Maybe it’s a fairy tale,” Ellie replied in a low voice, cursing the hope that crept into her tone.

Slowly, his hand fell from her jaw and his eyes locked on her mouth, and he shook his head. “No, Ellie. They aren’tthat kind to me. But I’ll be damned sure they’re that kind to you.”

He turned away, and Ellie’s heart, which she was certain hadn’t yet fully mended from his last rejection, broke all over again.

Chapter 13

“Afaire? When?”

Claire’s face showed her excitement. “Oh, how exciting! We haven’t had a faire in years!”

“When?” Reilly repeated.

“It’s truly the most exciting thing that happens here,” Brianagh explained to Ellie and Gwen, as the foursome blatantly ignored the basket of mending in the middle of their circle of chairs. “People come from all over. Goods, everything from jewels and cloth to spices and food, are bought and sold. There are usually horse races, and sometimes even a small tournament!”

“Don’t forget about the midsummer fires!” Claire added enthusiastically.

“Midsummer fires?” Ellie asked, eyeing a particularly filthy piece of cloth in the basket.

“Still waiting for an answer,” Reilly groused.

“It starts tomorrow, you big oaf.” Bri gave him a slight push on the arm. “If you took any time to visit the village, you’d see they’ve been preparing for days. Now go away. We ladies have much to discuss.”

“Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?” Reilly pretended to pout. “I’m being the perfect gentleman by not pointing out how you’re not doing anything even remotely lady-of-the-castle-esque.”

“That’s not even a word,” Bri said.

Reilly stretched his legs out in front of him and clasped his hands behind his head. “Perhaps not inyourlimited vocabulary.”

Ellie watched them, fascinated. The entire family bantered like this in private; she and Gwen had been invited into Bri’s solar each of the last few days they’d been here, as they waited for some battle between neighboring clans to blow over before they headed home.

As Colin liked to remind her, protecting the clan came before all else.

“Oh. Well, in that case, stay if you like,” Bri replied breezily. “As I was about to say, carrying on from our earlier conversation, when the baby is just about to crown—”

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Reilly interrupted her, though it was hard to hear the words as the door to the solar slammed shut.

Claire let out a sigh of relief. “Well played, Mama.”

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