Running Back (New York Leopards 2)

“I don’t know. Do you still talk to Lauren?”

He shrugged and looked away. “We were just having some fun.”

“Don’t give me that.”

He shrugged. “She lives in the States, I’ll be back in France for school. And we never talked much, so it would be pointless to keep in touch.”

“Direct quote, huh?”

He made a face and waved down Finn for another pint. “Since we’re both sad and lonely, maybe we should keep each other company tonight.”

I swatted the back of his head hard enough that his nose hit his glass. “Don’t be gross.”

He laughed, and then pinned me with those serious black eyes. “You two were good together, you know.”

“I know.”

“So what happened?”

“I told him I didn’t believe in forever. And he interpreted that as not believing in now.”

“You’re joking.”

I put my drink down and stared at all the rows of colorful bottles. “I’m not going to go with Jeremy. I’m not going to keep looking for Ivernis. I’m staying here.”

“That’s grand.”

My lip started to wobble. I’d wanted Ivernis for so long, but it wasn’t real. Or maybe it was, but so was this. What if Jeremy found Ivernis and I’d left?

But there was so much here I wanted.

I wiped away streaking tears. “I’m sorry. I never used to cry before I met Mike.”

Paul regarded me with frank terror. “Come on, then. Let’s get you to Aunt Maggie.”

She made me tea and gave me shortbread, and I felt better in minutes. I curled up on the faded couch in the fading light and imagined two men I’d never met playing here as boys.

Maggie sat down across from me. “I fell in love with Brian when we were fifteen years old. I thought we were soul mates.”

“But you weren’t.”

She regarded me with frank surprise. “Weren’t we?”

Oh. Foot in mouth. “I guess I just assumed—since you both married other people—”

“I never loved Patrick. Poor Patrick. Maybe he would have been happy with someone else.”

“But I don’t understand why you didn’t follow Brian. If you loved him, and he loved you. I mean, I know you were mad that he went off and that he spent all that money—but if you loved him—what was your reason?”

She sighed. “He destroyed my dream. That’s not easy to let go of.” When I just stared at her, she went on. “I’d started up a library and I agreed to let him take a loan out against it. Which he never paid back, so the bank foreclosed on the center.” She shook her head. “I loved him, but he was a mad one. Ruined his family. Ruined me. Sunk all his money into a cause but never knew when to stop, and ended up running from the gardaí to America. Left Patrick to clear everything up. Which he did, credit to him.”

“He sounds—” A little like me. “Like a jerk.”

She raised a brow. “Don’t most people, when they’re so single-minded in following their dreams?”

I blushed.

She shook her head. “There’s a difference between having a dream and never waking up.”