Page 2 of Irish Rose
“Aye, I’m Erin.” Charmed, Erin bent down to catch the little girl’s chin in her hand. Nerves vanished into genuine pleasure. “And the last time I saw you, you were just a wee thing, all bundled in a blanket against the rain and bawling fit to wake the dead.”
Keeley’s eyes widened. “She talks just like Momma,” she announced. “Hannah, come see. She talks just like Momma.”
“Miss McKinnon.” Hannah kept one hand firmly on Brendon’s shoulder and offered the other. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Hannah Blakely, your cousin’s housekeeper.”
Housekeeper, Erin thought as she put her hand in Hannah’s weathered one. The Cunnanes she’d known might have been housekeepers, but they’d never had one. “Welcome to Ireland. And you’d be Brendon.”
“I’ve been to Ireland before,” he said importantly. “But this time I flew the plane.”
“Did you now?” She saw her cousin in him, the pixielike features and deep green eyes. He’d be a handful, she thought, as her mother claimed Adelia had always been. “Well, you’re all grown up since I saw you last.”
“I’m the oldest. Brady’s the baby now.”
“Erin?” She glanced over in time to see Adelia rush forward. Even heavy with child she moved lightly. And when she wound her arms around Erin, there was strength in them. The recognition came strongly—family to family, roots to roots. “Oh, Erin, it’s so good to be back, so good to see you. Let me look at you.”
She hadn’t changed a bit, Erin thought. Adelia would be nearly thirty now, but she looked years younger. Her complexion was smooth and flawless, glowing against the glossy mane of hair she still wore long and loose. The pleasure in her face was so real, so vital, that Erin felt it seeping through her own reserve.
“You look wonderful, Dee. America’s been good for you.”
“And the prettiest girl in Skibbereen’s become a beautiful woman. Oh, Erin.” She kissed both her cousin’s cheeks, laughed and kissed them again. “You look like home.” With Erin’s hand still held tightly in hers, she turned. “You remember Travis.”
“Of course. It’s good to see you again.”
“You’ve grown up in four years.” He kissed her cheek in turn. “You didn’t meet Brady the last time.”
“No, I didn’t.” The child kept an arm around his father’s neck and eyed Erin owlishly. “Faith, he’s the image of you. It’s a handsome boy you are, Cousin Brady.”
Brady smiled, then turned to bury his face in his father’s neck.
“And shy,” Adelia commented, stroking a hand down his hair. “Unlike his da. Erin, it’s so kind of you to offer to meet us and take us to the inn.”
“We don’t often get visitors. I’ve got the minibus. You know from the last time you came that renting a car is tricky, so I’ll be leaving it with you while you’re here.” While she spoke, Erin felt an itch at the base of her neck, a tingle, or a warning. Deliberately she turned and stared back at the lean-faced man she’d seen step off the plane.
“Erin, this is Burke.” Adelia placed a hand on her skirt at the stirrings within her womb. “Burke Logan, my cousin, Erin McKinnon.”
“Mr. Logan,” Erin said with a slight nod, determined not to flinch at her own reflection in his mirrored glasses.
“Miss McKinnon.” He smiled slowly, then clamped his cigar between his teeth again.
She still couldn’t see his eyes but had the uneasy feeling that the glasses were no barrier to what he saw. “I’m sure you’re tired,” she said to Adelia, but kept her gaze stubbornly on Burke’s. “The bus is right out front. I’ll take you out, then we’ll deal with the luggage.”
Burke kept himself just a little apart as they walked through the small terminal. He preferred it that way, the better to observe and figure angles. Just now, he was figuring Erin McKinnon.
A tidy little package, he mused, watching the way her long, athletic legs moved beneath her conservative skirt. Neat as a pin and nervous as a filly at the starting gate. Just what kind of race did she intend to run? he wondered.
He knew snatches of the background from conversations on the trip from the States and from Curragh to this little spot on the map. The McKinnons and Cunnanes weren’t first cousins. As near as could be figured, Adelia’s mother and the mother of the very interesting Erin McKinnon had been third cousins who had grown up on neighboring farms.
Burke smiled as Erin looked uneasily over her shoulder in his direction. If Adelia Cunnane Grant figured that made her and the McKinnons family, he wouldn’t argue. For himself, he spent more time avoiding family connections than searching them out.
If he didn’t stop staring at her like that, he was going to get a piece of her mind, Erin told herself as she slid the van into gear. The luggage was loaded, the children chattering, and she had to keep her wits about her to navigate out of the airport.
She could see him in the rearview mirror, legs spread out in the narrow aisle, one arm tossed over the worn seat—and his eyes on her. Try as she might, she couldn’t concentrate on Adelia’s questions about her family.
As she wound the van onto the road, she listened with half an ear and gave her cousin the best answers she could. Everyone was fine. The farm was doing well enough. As she began to relax behind the wheel, she dug deep for bits and pieces of gossip. Still, he kept staring at her.
Let him, then, she decided. The man obviously had the manners of a plow mule and was no concern of hers. Stubbornly avoiding another glance in the rearview mirror, she jabbed another loose pin back in her hair.
She had questions of her own. Erin expertly avoided the worst of the bumps on the road and trained her eyes straight ahead. The first of them would be who the hell was this Burke Logan. Still, she smiled on cue and assured her cousin again that her family was fit and fine.
