An Irish Affair (Heart of Hope 2)

“Fiancé? I didn’t know he was engaged,” Debbie said.

“Apparently it’s been set up for a long time.” Not wanting to talk about it, I said, “Let’s finish up here. The faster we’re done the sooner we can be on the road.”

When we were done, I left the bill in an envelope with Devin’s name on it on the breakfast bar. Normally, we personally handed it over along with a th

ank you for their business, but I didn’t trust myself to keep it together talking to him.

We were fifteen minutes up the road when my phone rang. Noting it was Devin, I pushed the “Don’t answer” button. A few seconds later a text came in.

I’m at the B&B. Where are you? Are you okay?

At first, I ignored the text, but then I worried he might call the police or something if he thought I was missing, so I responded, Had to go home.

His reply came quickly. Why? Is everything all right?

No, it’s not all right, I thought. I nearly told him to find Evie. She could attend to his needs. Instead, I texted back, Don’t worry.

A few more texts came after that, but I didn’t look at them. In fact, perhaps it was time to delete the contact info for Devin. Maybe even block him from contacting me. The only thing that kept me doing it at that moment was the possibility it would be needed at work.

I wanted to turn the phone off, but since it was the only way for my parents to reach me in an emergency, I left it on. The last text came from Devin an hour into the drive. I ignored that message too. I hoped he’d get the message that I didn’t want to communicate with him. I should have stuck to my original plan of not getting caught up with him. I’d been right to want nothing to do with him and his family, and to keep Andrew from them. They were selfish and entitled people. My son didn’t need that in his life.

10

Devin

I was either a putz or completely clueless about women. Maybe I was both. I’d been so sure that Serena was into me and our plans to spend the weekend in the Hamptons. Now, a week after my parents’ party, I had to admit that she wasn’t into me at all. I supposed the first clue was how she avoided me at the party, but at the time, I thought she was just being hyper-focused on her job. Then she wasn’t at the B&B I’d arranged. She said she had to go home, which I suspected meant a family emergency, but her texts came through as cool, maybe even angry. But why would she be angry at me? I didn’t do anything wrong.

I sought out Brianna to see if she noticed anything at the party that might have upset Serena. I’d noticed her in the kitchen with Serena when I pulled Evelyn aside to tell her not to worry about my mother’s constant insistence that we were to get married.

“She seemed all right to me,” Brianna said as she went through her wardrobe to find that night’s fashions for her club-hopping venture.

“You sure?”

“Yes. She did think you were shirking your responsibilities with the guests, but I took care of that.” She turned and frowned at me. “What do you care anyway?” Then her frown turned into an accusatory glare. “You’re not messing with her, are you?”

I didn’t want to lie, but neither did I want to tell her the truth. Especially since it wouldn’t seem to matter that I liked Serena. She clearly didn’t like me. “I just want to make sure everything was taken care of with the party.”

“If you paid the bill she left, then I suppose the answer is yes.” She turned back to her closet. “What do you think of a speakeasy theme for the club we’re going to open here in New York?”

“I think it’s been done.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s all been done including Irish pub.”

“We’ll talk about that another time.” I checked my watch, knowing I needed to get to the office for a meeting.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said dismissing me with the wave of her hand.

I left her to sort through her attire and headed to our building downtown. I wanted to stop thinking of Serena, but so far, that wasn’t working.

I managed to push her aside long enough to have a productive meeting. Then I hid in my office. As I sat behind my desk to look over the plans for hosting a St. Patrick’s party at the Roarke, my phone rang. The caller ID indicated the VP for the European office.

“Hey Colin, how are you?” I asked when I picked up the phone.

“Good. Listen, we’re about ready for plans on the Paris club and wanted you to come out to review them. We’d like to walk you through it.”

I had total confidence in the European office, but I did see a quick trip to Paris as a chance to get Serena out of my system. It had to be done, and it had worked five years ago when I had to leave for Europe. Well sort of. I supposed I’d always had a feeling that she was the one that got away. But now I knew she didn’t get away, she ran away.

“Yeah, okay. When do you need me?” I said.