He felt his heart breaking. Beyond his pain, he only knew confusion. This was not a man she’d ever been around. Her family had that hair, but the intruder was not one of them.
Her body was plastered to the man’s. He watched as the man cupped the back of Bébhinn’s head lovingly to his chest.
The scene was nauseating. Maddening.
Nothing about this scene was right. In fact, the wrongness of it had bile building in his throat.
How had his plans gone so awry?
Clenching his jaw, he admitted defeat. In this moment. Only this moment. There would be another chance for them to connect. He would make sure of it.
twenty-six
BÉBHINN
“Come on,man. A handshake. Really? You helped me through the scariest night of my life, and I don’t mean the snowstorm. Give me a hug, you big brute, and mean it.”
Air whooshed out of her lungs when he did as she commanded, lifting her until her toes barely touched the pavement and crushing her to his chest.
The thump of his heart against her ear was Heaven and over all too soon. Once her heels touched the ground, she forced herself to take a step back.
Looking up into Dagr’s serious, intense expression had her stomach flexing. “Come on, Dagr. A hug shouldn’t put that look on your face,” she teased, when in reality, she was shriveling from embarrassment.
He made it clear that he considered her a friend, not girlfriend potential. She went and made it awkward.Damnit!Though he was the one who took the hug from casual to “I don’t want you to leave.” Confusing, after the friend comment.
He didn’t comment on the hug, moving past it with, “If you leave now, you’ll easily catch the four o’clock ferry.”
Ouch.She was pretty sure she’d just been dismissed. “Oh, right. Sure. I’ll get out of your hair, then.” She opened her Jeep door and slightly hopped to reach the seat before shutting herself in. Flicking the window button down, she waved as she backed out of her parking spot. “Safe travels, Dagr.”
She took several deep breaths as she left the park station, refusing to look in her rearview mirror to see if he was watching her drive away.
An hour later, Bébhinn was walking across the ferry’s deck to make her way inside and hopefully grab a drink and a calorie-laden cheeseburger before starting the arduous task of returning the innumerable texts from her friends.
She kept trying to get her elation back to what it had felt like to complete her first crazy solo hike, but her brain was stubbornly stuck on Dagr Griffiths.
She sat at the same table she’d occupied the first time and dug into her burger while she opened her texts. She’d called her mom on the drive to Holyhead. She would let her sisters, Bran, and Patrick know that Bébhinn was on her way home and would see everyone tomorrow for a mandatory family lunch.
She pulled up her friends’ group chat, Devils & Angels.
Daniel: I hope that prick with the sat phone kept his hands to himself, B.
Jonathan: Dad said he looked him up, and he is who he said. Still, when he saw that it was only Bébhinn in that cave, he should have bailed.
Mags: Love that you two think Bébhinn needs or wants your opinions.
Bébhinn grinned at the support.
Gray: I have a hot date tonight. Tall, dark, and Nigerian. I might be in love. Wish me luck.
Daniel: Has your dad vetted him yet?
Gray: Jesus, Daniel, you’re annoying. Blair—you never told me if you want to go on a double with us.
Mags: If I weren’t visiting my parents, I’d go. Your guy’s friend is a smoke show. I just found out the guy I’m seeing doesn’t read, AND he called my embroidery cute. Idiot. You should go, Blair, and stop fiddling with those Bell things.
Blair: Nettle-leaved Bellflower. Campanula trachelium, to be exact, and it will be part of my thesis. They’ll go extinct without help.
Mags: Which isn’t happening until next year!
