Catch Me a Catch (8 page)

Annie stood silent
beside him. She was probably wondering what to tell her mother. They couldn’t
really claim it was a sham. Not after Miley’s phone call. The situation was
beyond ridiculous. She was a grown woman, not a naughty teenager. Jack reached
over and squeezed her hand gently. He would handle it.

“I couldn’t
wait to kiss her until we got here.” He moved closer. “We wanted to tell you
together.” A tentative smile teased the corners of her mouth, and the worry
faded from her eyes.

“Annie and I
have decided to go on a couple of dates, starting tonight.” He smiled back. She
wasn’t in this, at least, on her own.

Her mother’s
mouth opened then closed. Her words remaining blissfully unspoken.

****

As Annie
reported on the day’s matchmaking, Jack climbed the stairs to the bedroom and
powered up his computer. The email was waiting in his in-box: a small
collection of words, so ordinary and inconsequential, but monumental
nonetheless
. Mrs Mary Byrne, Ivy Nursing Home, 4 King Street, Greystones
.
Nothing more, nothing less. The private eye he’d hired before leaving New York
had done his job well.

He checked the
details again. No telephone number. Anger swelled in his breast, as it had more
than once in the years since his parents’ death. He pulled out the letter he’d
demanded from the agency when he turned eighteen. Pain stabbed at his chest
again. Rather than being alone in the world as he always thought, he had a
living relative who could have claimed him after the car crash so cruelly took
both his young parents’ lives.

Mary Byrne
is unable to offer her grandson a home
. Reading the words hurt as much as
it did the first time. Now, years later, he’d found the woman who could have
given him a completely different life. He’d endured the foster homes for years,
longing for someone to come and claim him. Eventually his innocent optimism had
eroded. No one ever would. The only person in the world he could rely on was
the one person he spent all his time with, himself.

He closed the
laptop breathing heavily in the quiet darkness.

****

“He’s the one,”
Bull declared, elbows on the honey pine table’s surface. “I approve. So does
your mother.”

“Ah, Dad.
We’ve only just met.”

“Yes, you’ve
only just met, but there’s something strong between you, there’s no point
denying it. I’ve years of experience.” He slurped his coffee, swallowing his
final antibiotic for the day with it. “I’m feeling better. I’ll have the pills
finished in a couple of days.”

Annie eyed him
critically. His color was better; the sparkle, which had dimmed his eyes over
the past week, was back.

“Well, I like
him.” The words rang with truth. Jack was amusing and interesting. She
certainly found him attractive. A forest fire raced through her every time
their eyes met. He was also amazingly skilled at dealing with her parents. He’d
answered some of Maeve’s questions, and deflected others. All without causing
offence, or finding himself pinned on the spot. It was a skill she’d yet to
master. Her parent’s beady-eyed regard always immobilized her like a butterfly
pinned to a velvet board.

“He had a real
rapport with Noel McDonagh.” She showed him the page full of details. “They
just sat and chatted for ages.”

“Where were
you?”

“I sat it out
in the back of the pub.”

Bull nodded
his approval. “Some men are so shy they’re better talking to other men. That’s
just the way of it. Maybe if Jack’s around for the next couple of days he might
help out again?”

“I’m sure he
might. We want to organize a date for Noel tonight. Who do you think?”

She
successfully diverted her father from his new favorite topic, Jack Miller. Soon
they had drawn up a brief list of potential dates.

“Why don’t you
ask Jack for his opinion?” Bull asked. “After all, he spent all the time with
Noel.”

“Right.” She
climbed the stairs to the bedroom and tapped lightly on the door, wondering at
the lack of light seeping from underneath.
He couldn’t have gone out, could
he?

The door
jerked open.

“Annie.” The
soft rumble of his voice turned her knees to jelly. He hauled her in, backing
her up against the wall and kissing her hungrily. Her heart thundered in her
chest at the assault of his lips on hers. His hands ran up and down her arms.
It was too fast, unexpected. She pushed against his chest, forcing him back.

“What are you
doing?”

Jack stepped
back, running a hand through his hair.

“You kissed me
in the car, I thought…”

“You thought
what?”

Blood heated
her face. She’d told him all her secrets. Had exposed her core. The balance had
shifted between them after her confession. Did he pity her? Was that what this
was about, a mercy roll in the hay?

“Did you think
I was coming in here to tumble into bed with you?” A potent mix of anger and
vulnerability rippled through her. She yearned to feel the heat of his body
against hers again, but her mind rioted at the thought. She couldn’t resist
Jack. The knowledge scared her silly. There was no way in hell she was going
down this road again. She’d been there, done that. Never again would she fall
for a man who would walk away, leaving her behind.

“Yes.” Stormy
indigo eyes clashed and blazed. “There’s something between us. I feel it, and
so do you.”

“An
attraction.” She bit her lip, admitting it. “I know. I shouldn’t have let you
kiss me in the car. I’m not in the market for a relationship, and neither are
you. We barely know each other.”

“What’s to
stop us getting to know each other better?” His arms fell to his sides.

“Good sense,
for one thing.” She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “We will pretend to
be falling in love, but I’m not fooling myself. Anything between us would be temporary,
and then you’d be headed home again. It will be easier to face the pitying
glances if I’m not really dumped.”

“So what did
you really come up here for?” His jaw clenched tightly in the light spilling
into the room from the open door.

“Dad asked me
to get you. To look at the list of dates we’ve chosen for Noel.”

He strode to
the window and stared out, tension evident in the set of his shoulders. “Tell
him I’ll be down in a moment.”

“Jack.”

He turned to
her. “I’m in no fit state to go downstairs, Annie. I need some time alone. I’ll
be down in a minute.”

He walked to
her and grasped her arm. Words froze in her throat as he propelled her to the
door and nudged her through it.

****

The door
clicked closed behind her and Jack escaped to the window again, staring out
into the darkened garden with sightless eyes.

Dammit, she
had him tied up in knots.
He’d never been so attracted. He was so out of
control around her it was like being a teenager again. When he’d seen her
standing in the doorway he hadn’t been able to stop reaching for her. Kissing
her. He breathed out heavily. He’d behaved like a Neanderthal. He pushed his
fingers through his hair. His rioting body remembering the feel of her, and her
taste. Pretending to be her lover would be hell. A summer fling in Ireland
might be exactly what he needed, but Venus Anne Devine didn’t do
casual
.
Her response just now had proved that. Casual was all he could offer; he sure
wasn’t in the market for a relationship, no matter how attractive the package.

He clumped
noisily down the stairs to the kitchen. Pushing open the door, he bit back a
savage grin at the three faces turned his direction. If he hadn’t known better,
he would have sworn they were talking about him.

“Jack, we’ve a
couple of ideas of a match for Noel. Come and let us know what you think.”

He pulled up a
chair, and swiveled the book around to face him. “Tell me about them. Noel was
pretty definite about the sort of woman that interested him, let’s see if any
of these meet the bill.”

It was surprisingly  easy
to decide on a candidate. A pretty girl who had recently moved to the area, and
was beset with acute shyness.

“I’ll call
them and set it up.” Annie picked the phone off the wall.

“I’ll talk to
Noel,” Jack suggested. “I told him I’d call.”

“Right.” She
dialed the number and passed the phone over. Her brow creased in concentration,
and she listened to their easy banter with rapt attention.

“Right, you
call Annabel now.” He passed Annie the phone. “So she’ll be expecting Noel’s
call.”

There was a
touch of pink high in her cheeks when she talked to Noel’s intended. Her long
slender fingers fiddled with a pen. Her leg jiggled with unspent energy.

She’s nervous,
she finds talking to people difficult.
He struggled with the idea, but
giving it headspace, realized it was true. All the markers were there in their
earlier encounters, but since they’d spent their time either disagreeing or
kissing, he hadn’t picked up on how uncomfortable she was talking to people.
She had been as caught up as he was upstairs, but for some reason denied it.

The
conversation over, she replaced the phone in its cradle on the wall, and
returned to the table. “She’s ready.” Annie’s excitement was infectious. “I
think it’s going to work. They seem a good match.”

“Well done,
Annie.” Bull patted her arm. “Now, what have you two got planned for the
evening?”

“I’m taking
Jack to check out the village nightlife. I just need to change first.” No more
tempting legs then. The thought was oddly depressing. She turned her chocolate
gaze to him. “I’ll be down in a couple of minutes.”

****

She parked in
a tree-lined square up the hill from the restaurant they’d lunched in. People
were everywhere. They sat on benches under the leafy chestnut trees and at
tables outside bars and cafes. Music swelled from open doorways, drifting on
the warm evening breeze. It all made for a cosmopolitan scene. Not one he’d
imagined finding on Ireland’s west coast.

“We have
thousands of visitors during the festival. It’s the biggest event of the year.”
Annie strolled toward a café. “The food’s good here.”

He nodded, and
she bagged the last available table and sank onto a chair.

“How long has
the festival been running?”

“About forty
years. In the early days it was all about the matchmaking, now it’s the perfect
excuse for everyone to get together and have a good time.” She brushed her hair
back from her animated face. “A ceili is organized by the community council.”
She laughed at his confused expression. “That’s a dance, Jack. Everyone goes.”

He nodded,
enjoying the flirtatious note in her voice.

“There is a
film festival in the cinema, and all the bars and restaurants offer festival
specials. It’s a great place to be for a couple of weeks.”

“I fell on my
feet then, arriving when I did.”

“Well, you
won’t find a better time in any town in Ireland. Not this week anyway.” She
grinned, gazing out at the couples, who strolled with arms around each other in
the square.

A waiter
approached with two menus. Jack ordered a bottle of Chianti to start the
evening off, and glanced at the food on offer.

“The risotto
is to die for.”

“Two.” Jack ordered.
Her eyes glowed in reflected lights strung along the café’s awning. Warm,
inviting.

“So, tell me
about your work.”

“I work in
advertising. I have a potential client I’m giving a presentation to in Dublin
on Monday. I have a few other small things to take care of while I’m here.”
Small things. What an understatement. Finding the woman who’d rejected him was
one of the biggest things he’d ever done.

“An airplane
would be faster,” she teased, leaning closer. She’d changed into jeans and a
sparkly top, which revealed acres of creamy cleavage. His gaze dipped, until he
dragged it up to her mouth.

“Yes, it
would. But the client I’m meeting has a special interest in sailing, so it made
more sense to sail.” He grinned. “And I love the sea, so…any excuse.”

“You need to
follow your passions.” It was one of those loaded comments. His current passion
was Annie, he’d made that only too clear. He picked up the wineglass and drank.
If she wanted him, she’d have to be clearer. He wasn’t putting himself on the
line for rejection again.

The waiter
arrived with flat dishes of creamy risotto topped with slivers of parmesan. He
picked up a fork and started eating.

“Tell me about
your people, Jack. Where are your parents from?”

Jack
swallowed. Even after so many years, he couldn’t talk about his past without
pain piercing his chest like a dagger. “My parents are both dead,” he answered
flatly. “But they were Irish.”

“I’m sorry.”
Annie’s eyes were full of compassion. “That must be hard for you.”

“It was a long
time ago.” She was silent, waiting for more. There wasn’t any. Talking about
his childhood would be a complete downer.

“I’ve moved
on.”

“This must all
seem alien after New York.” She forked a mouthful of risotto into her mouth and
chewed.

“Yeah, it’s
different all right. A lot quieter.” Her small pink tongue darted out to swipe
a morsel of rice from her top lip. His core blazed with awareness at the tiny
movement.

He covered her
hand with his, and her pupils expanded at the touch of his flesh on hers. She
stilled, staring at him. A passing girl who’d had too much to drink, bumped
against the table, jolting it. The interruption broke the mood stretched tight
like the fairy lights above.

“I have an
apartment in Manhattan, and an office downtown.” Cold, empty and sterile. He
walked past thousands of people everyday. Thousands of strangers.

Not so here.
Passing people smiled. Some said hello, some didn’t. The vast majority
acknowledged Annie in some way. It was a potent reminder of the connection he
was missing. The one he’d come half way across the world to discover.