Page 102 of Once upon a Summer Night

Why hadn’t she thought of her shop in so long?

Well, she told herself,there was that little side vacation to the Middle Ages. You know, castle life, a real-life Ren Faire, a kidnapping, and an almost-wedding…oh, and the whole broken heart thing.

Distracted seemed a bit of an understatement.

A boat’s horn blew in the distance, and with it came the sudden realization that Ellie wanted to be distracted from herbookshop more. She’d experienced more of life this summer than she had in the entirety of her adult life, and she wanted more.

A second horn blast sounded, as if agreeing with her.

If Colin O’Rourke didn’t want to be a part of that, then Ellie would accept it. But she absolutely wouldn’t let it stop her.

“…glad it went well,”Colin remarked, his dark eyes focused on the screen of his laptop. He sat in a small booth at the village pub, a half-empty beer on the table next to the laptop, from which his ecstatic matchmaker and happy client’s faces were looking back at him.

“Yeah, it’s been some time since our date, but with the fires I’ve had at work, and the unexpected travel to Asia, I wasn’t even sure what time zone I was in for a while there.”

Colin resisted the urge to snort.I can relate.

“She’s just so damn smart. I liked that about her.” Reginald’s smile grew. “And she’s quite pretty, too. Those eyes—they’re the lightest shade of brown I think I’ve ever seen. They’re almost amber.”

“Honey,” Colin muttered.

“Yes! Honey. That’s what they are. She’s got a great body, and this vibe about her, as though she’s up for anything.”

“It sounds like you really like her,” Candice remarked, her own smile tinged with relief.

Colin could well understand—after a year of butting heads, Reginald finally had some sense knocked into him from somewhere. His countenance had been, according to Mike, slow to change, but the end result was a success. When Reg had first signed on, Colin was hesitant, but Candice assured him that she could handle him. Almost a year later, and the man was now truly interested in finding someone hecould be with forever, which meant he was someone the Celtic Connections team could seriously match.

If only he was still the nasty, foul-mouthed, arrogant man-child from a year ago, Colin thought uncharitably.

“I did. We had a connection. And when we kissed, there was definitely something there. She’s got some passion in her soul, and I want to be the one to free it.”

Candice positively beamed, and Colin fought to control his rage.Over my dead body.

“Wow! You haven’t had this kind of reaction before. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It has been a while since you took her on the date. We usually expect a callback to happen much sooner.”

“Sorry about that,” Reg apologized. “Like I said, I had to fly to Thailand to close a deal, and it was such a last-minute thing that all I could do was e-mail. Thanks for explaining it to her, Colin.”

Colin offered a half smile and nod of acknowledgement, though he never mentioned any e-mail to Ellie. She’d been a bit busy herself, but Reg didn’t need to know that.

“Well, Colin spoke with her this morning.” Candice looked expectantly at the screen. “What did she say?”

At one point, Ellie had said she wanted to go on another date with Reg. But that was before she confessed her love for Colin. And before he flat-out rejected her.

He would forever bear the imprint of her slap. She branded him, all the way to his soul.

Colin unclenched his jaw and relaxed his shoulders. “She…”

Then he quickly hit the End Call button and slammed the laptop shut.

“What the hell was that?”

He whipped his head up and found his cousin—or uncle, depending on what branch of the family tree he cared to focus on—sliding into the seat opposite. Aidan signaled for a beer.

“Where’s Emma? And why are you here?”

Aidan stroked his chin, his emerald eyes bearing into Colin’s. “Emma wanted to come, and I am at her mercy. Which works out well, after I spoke with O’Malley today. I have a tale for you.”

“Great,” Colin muttered. He pulled his beer closer to himself.

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