Page 16 of An Irish Kiss
“And this country sure is full of history.”Ancient burial mounds and stone circles, towns and villages that had existed for hundreds of years, churches and cemeteries older than the so-called New World.“That’s something that should be celebrated.”
“Even if it means people keep looking at the past instead of working towards the future?”she asked wryly.
Okay, he could see her point.Too much focus on the past could lead to stereotypes and clichés, and tourists who wanted to box their visit to Ireland into leprechauns and Guinness.“I guess nobody likes to feel typecast.”He glanced at her.“Like, I hardly look like the beach-bronzed surfer some might expect an Aussie bloke to be.”
She bit her lip, which made him wonder if she’d had exactly the same thought.Hmm.He was used to counteracting expectations with his job, from people who judged others based on what school or university they attended, or their address in the western burbs.
But still, for all her valid points about cultural stereotypes, it didn’t change the fact that she was still one of the lucky few whose family lived in a castle—even if they’d had to open it to guests to afford to keep it.On his way here he’d passed through plenty of villages where far more humble housing suggested most people lived far more modestly.
His fingers clenched.Unclenched.Like his kin no doubt would have been, seeing this place was no longer his family’s.Still, there’d be plenty of time to investigate further.Like tonight, at the Story Circle Mary had invited him to.
He joined her in looking out across the drenched middle lawn, much of which had been ploughed into what looked like a vegetable garden.“Do you grow vegetables there?”
“Well, I personally don’t, but yes.There’s a gardener who leases the land.It’s like a walled garden from years ago.We use some of those vegetables in the restaurant at the castle.”
Hmm.So his relatives were still being exploited.And while he didn’t want to admit it, it felt like this pretty woman’s family had done much of the exploitation.At least that was the gist of what he’d learned today, when he read between the lines of what Mary Connolly had said.And what she hadn’t.
Rory peered up at him.“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.”No.But everything felt too complicated to explain in neat sound bites, especially when he still didn’t fully know exactly what had happened to the ownership of the property.And it also probably wasn’t helping to have her so near to him like this, in this dark place that felt like a cocoon from the outside world.Space like this could lead to an intimacy he couldn’t afford to foster, even if he did find her intriguing.
Just why had she followed him out here?
Her phone buzzed with a notification, and she glanced at it then winced.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing.Just my sister, wondering where I am.”
“We could walk back together if you want.I’m pretty sure I won’t melt in the rain.Whereas I know you’re a little thingy about getting your hair wet.”
Her mouth opened then closed, her eyes narrowing.Then she laughed.“Fine.But if you had hair like this you’d be fussy about things too.I hate it when it goes frizzy, which it does whenever it gets too hot or too damp.”
“Funny, it hasn’t seemed too frizzy to me, and it’s not exactly been forty degrees.”
“I think if we ever reached forty degrees here we’d all melt.”
He smiled at that, then offered her the umbrella.“Want to go back together?”
She eyed it, then him, then shook her head, leaving him with another unsettling feeling, like loss.
“Thank you, but I don’t think that’s big enough for us both.”She shrugged from her jacket, then unzipped a hood, then put it on again.“Come on.Let’s brave the rain and go get warm.”
CHAPTERFIVE
How to explain the weirdness with Aidan… It was like this instant soul-deep connection she’d experienced was a magnet that only one person felt.And she was so surprised at the intensity of the draw of him she would do all she could to inch away.Even though that very intensity was also powerful enough at times to overcome her hesitations and let herself relax around him, like she did with her too-frequent truth spills, like she’d shared before.
He was a guest!She wasn’t supposed to be airing the family’s financial laundry for him to sniff at.Though he hadn’t seemed to turn up his nose, more like he was surprised at just how much it cost to keep the castle roof doing what it ought.Which was fair enough.That sum had shocked them all.
She peeked at him, huddled under the umbrella as they passed the golf course’s eighth green.He glanced across, and she instantly averted her gaze, shrinking into the hood of her raincoat.She was pretty sure she’d snagged her hair on the zipper, which would make it fun to extract when they got back.
They passed the base of another oak, and he chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s not funny so much as kind of cute.”
“What is?”Her tone held defensiveness, she knew.But exposing too much before made her feel extra antsy now.And she really didn’t want to be patronised.Especially by him.
