O'Reilly's Bride. Trish Wylie

searched his eyes, looking from one to the other. She tilted her head to the other side and searched again, then an eyebrow quirked and she asked, ‘What?’

      The smile remained. ‘What?’

      She stared back at him. ‘You have a look.’

      ‘Do I?’ He continued smiling his usual self-assured smile, his eyes giving nothing away.

      It bugged the hell out of Maggie that he had the ability to do that and that he still felt the need to do it around her. He was just so controlled sometimes that she wanted to smack him silly. He held everything inside, guarded from the world so that in the brief instances he did open up it made it all the more of a gift to whoever was allowed in. But he still didn’t completely trust her, did he?

      The fact that she’d had to hold back so much from him of late made the realisation almost hurtful. She hated that a relationship that had come to mean so much to her had got to this point.

      He searched her eyes in a similar way to how she’d just searched his. ‘What?’

      She mimicked his answer. ‘What?’

      ‘That mind of yours works in mysterious ways.’

      ‘At least I have a mind.’

      ‘Meaning I don’t?’

      She only had to search for the briefest of seconds to find the spark in his eyes. ‘Not you, but possibly some of those other women you keep company with…’

      ‘At least they have brains enough to see what an amazingly sexy, damned good-looking, generally all-round great guy I am.’

      What would usually have been taken as one of their usual ‘sparring type’ answers was imparted with a somewhat huskier tone of voice than Maggie was used to hearing from him. But as she searched his eyes again he turned his head and looked back over the crowd, raising his bottle to his mouth.

      Maggie’s eyes automatically followed the bottle, watched as his mouth fitted around the lip, saw his throat contract as he swallowed. She hated that she noticed but she did.

      ‘I already know what a great guy you are.’ The words were spoken with sincerity, even though she didn’t have to point out that she hadn’t agreed with the other descriptions of his ‘assets’.

      ‘Do you, now?’ He studied the last of the liquid in the bottle, swirling it around against tinted glass.

      Maggie felt her heart miss a beat at his question. He had an uncertainty in him she’d never seen before. Sean was just always so confident on the outside. Everything he did, the way he held himself, it all spoke of a complete lack of self-consciousness. Until now. What had her sister said to him during the long conversation they’d been having on the far side of the lawn?

      ‘OK, what’s going on?’

      He didn’t look at her. ‘You’re the one who seems to think that any woman interested in me might not have a brain in their head.’

      Maggie frowned. ‘I was kidding.’

      ‘Were you?’ He glanced at her, then away again.

      The question astounded her. For crying out loud she had even introduced him to a couple of the women he had dated way back at the start. That was, until she’d learned better than to get involved in all that would inevitably follow. Now she guarded her single friends with the ferocity of a lioness guarding innocent cubs.

      But those earlier women most certainly had not been brainless. They had been smart, successful, pretty women. Like anyone he had been even remotely interested in. So what was with the sudden concern? It wasn’t as if he’d even done that much dating of late. She’d noticed that.

      The thought then crossed her mind that maybe he had met someone he had more than a passing interest in. She’d certainly been less aware of him being with anyone new but that didn’t mean there wasn’t somebody. Maybe he was serious about someone and having those feelings was making him insecure. Wasn’t that what happened with something that important?

      The idea made her stomach churn ridiculously and she had to take a deep breath when she looked away from his profile. God only knew she wanted him to be happy, to learn about real love and to have all the things he hadn’t quite completely admitted out loud he wanted for himself down the line. A woman to love, to love him back. A family of his own. Children who would look just like him.

      Maggie wanted those things for him.

      But that didn’t mean that losing something of the friendship and the closeness they had wouldn’t hurt. Even the thought of it already hurt. Because in her own way she was already taking the initial steps that would distance her from him.

      Clearing her throat, she looked down at the ground and then back at his profile. ‘Did you meet someone new?’

      His eyes shot round to meet hers and he wanted to ask her if it would matter. But the words got stuck. He smiled to ease the tension. ‘Me?’

      She smiled back at him, her composure in place. ‘Yes, you, unlikely and all as that may be. You tend to go through women faster than most.’

      ‘No, I didn’t meet someone new.’ He said the words softly and watched for her reaction. To see if she looked at all relieved. But when she just continued to smile at him he jumped right on in with both feet. ‘But then I haven’t advertised myself anywhere or felt the need to, funnily enough. Unlike someone I could mention.’

      Her smile faltered. So that was it, then. Her sister had told him about that during their little tête-à-tête on the other side of the lawn. She straightened her spine again and moved a couple of steps away from his side.

      ‘I may as well have announced it on the news.’

      He continued to study her intently before she turned her face from him. ‘What’s going on?’

      ‘If you’ve been talking to Kath then you know exactly what’s going on.’

      ‘She said you’ve decided to hunt down some poor unsuspecting single parent.’ His mouth twisted at one edge. ‘What’s the thinking there, then? You want to make sure he can be a good father before you tie yourself down? Sort of already broken in, kinda thing?’

      Maggie flushed under his scrutiny. ‘Funny, Sean, really hilarious. You just have such insight into the female mind that it’s a miracle you’ve stayed single this long.’

      He frowned at the sharp tone in her voice; frowned even harder when she turned on her heel and walked away. In the space of a heartbeat he was on her heel. ‘Well, explain it to me, then, ’cos I just plain don’t get it.’

      ‘You don’t have to get it. It has nothing to do with you.’

      ‘Doesn’t it?’

      She swung round so suddenly he walked straight into her and had to reach out his hands to grasp hold of her upper arms to steady them both. A little juggling saved both them and his bottle from an ungraceful contact with the hard ground that would have been aided by a small thing known as gravity.

      When they were both firmly on their feet his hands remained, his hold loosening a little, thumbs brushing back and forth against her skin. He laughed. ‘Did the earth move for you too?’

      Maggie felt her skin heat where he was touching, felt the warmth moving up her arm and spreading across her chest. Her heart fluttered and she looked up at him from beneath long lashes. Sean looked down at her with his deep, fathomless dark eyes, the smile still on his lips, and her cheeks flushed a deeper red than before.

      Swallowing, she took a shaky breath and asked, ‘How could it possibly have anything to do with you?’

      He wondered if she had any idea how much she had got under his skin? They’d been flirting around a deeper involvement up until recently; he wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know that. But did it really add up to anything more in Maggie’s mind?