Page 83 of After Indigo Irish Nights
She nodded. “Mad is fine. Losing faith isn’t. Declan won’t make this next part easy for you. He’s going to be one of the most stubborn men you’ve come up against. The question is, will you trust your heart and his when his words don’t match his feelings?”
Pain gathered at the back of her head. “I’m tired. I’m pissed. And I’m done being the nice guy here. He can’t say he loves me and then not even text me.”
Sorcha’s mouth twisted. “You will have to decide if you’re willing to look deeper and trust both of your feelings. It’s always been your choice, Kathleen. Choose wisely.”
She wanted to rail—at a ghost. “You should talk to Declan then. Not me. I’m the one who stayed at his place all night waiting.”
“Women wait on men in Ireland.” She wiped her brow. “I did. My mother did. My grandmother did. We might be eejits for it, but we loved and were well loved in return. When we weren’t dumping cold soup on them for being late.”
“I need to make soup then. I’d dump it on him right now for sure.”
She chuckled, and with it, her white dress fluttered. “It has its satisfaction. Declan might not be easy to love, but you love him all the same. Can you accept who he is and still love him? That is what you must wrestle with. Because he did tell you he loved you only yesterday. He left the boxing club to check on your well-being. You might remember that when things don’t add up.”
Terrific. She sounded like Liam. “Soup it is. You have a recipe you can give me?”
Sorcha’s dress stilled along with the rest of her. “One last thing, Kathleen. Watch out for Owen.”
Their eyes met and held.
“Take care, sister.”
Kathleen sat down in the nearest chair after the ghost vanished. Sorcha’s final warning rolled over her. She didn’t scare easily. But she rose and locked the door.
Then she went into the kitchen and pulled out a big pot.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Usually the mist hovering over the Irish hills brought Declan an ounce of peace.
Not this morning.
Staying away from Summercrest and bunking at Jamie’s last night was one of the hardest decisions he’d ever made. Now he would go to the cold sea to soak his stiff body like he used to after past matches.
Leaving the club, his muscles had been rubbery. Hours later, after he’d lain awake all night covered in ice packs and arnica cream, he couldn’t even bend his fingers as he dressed slowly. Everything hurt. His slip-on shoes scraped on the hardwood floor as he let himself out of the spare room.
He heard rustling, and then Jamie cracked open his door and emerged, tying his blue robe. “You’re walking worse than a hunchback. Where are you going?”
“Home. I mostly have my head back on straight.” He’d needed time to clear his mind and sort out his misery and humiliation over losing in front of the entire village. His wild emotions. His rage at Jimmy and Owen. His heartache for having to turn his back on Kathleen. And, worst of all, his fear that he wouldn’t be able to protect her.
“Do you now?” Jamie scratched his curly brown head. “If it were me, I’d still want to take Owen to task for what he’d done to Kathleen.”
He sighed heavily and leaned against the hallway wall. “I talked myself down from going after Owen. I’m glad Eoghan had the sense to put you in front of the door of my locker room just in case. You always were a good influence on all of us. Last night, I saw the teacher side of you too. You were a calm presence until my worst urgings left me.”
Jamie managed a smile. “I can understand if you still want to give Owen a good punch in the mouth for what he did. But somehow I’ve always known violence comes from violence. We’ve known him since he was a boy. He was a bully in school. Meeting him on his level would only make things worse, especially as you are not his target.”
“Right,” was all he said.
That was why he’d gone willingly to the locker room, after all. To protect Kathleen.
Now he had to make sure she didn’t become Jimmy’s target too. It had been the right move for him to walk away from Kathleen last night.
Jimmy had seen him go ten rounds with a good fighter. He’d pull out all the stops to keep from losing their upcoming fight. If he knew Kathleen and Declan were together, he would targether—and given his apparent friendship with Owen, he had the perfect way to do so. Using Owen to get to Kathleen, and thus Declan, was exactly the kind of thing Jimmy would do. He liked to burrow into a person like a wasp into wood and wreak havoc on their foundation.
So did Owen. Declan couldn’t get rid of that insolent wave he’d given Kathleen and the way he’d called out to her. Going to the shed had been bold, and it hadn’t ended there. He’d keep bothering Kathleen, and if Jimmy egged him on, he was likely to do something much worse.
That scared him, down to the bone.
“Do you want me to drive you home?” Jamie asked. “I can’t imagine what you feel like after that fight. I’ve watched many of your fights, but that was one of the best.”
