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He cupped her cheeks and kissed her, and she marveled over how he could pack so much into just one kiss.
One kiss.
Pleading.
Passion.
Possession.
And a promise that he was coming back.
Soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Colm returned to the pub…begrudgingly.
He’d put up a hell of a fight back at Kelli’s, and she’d still asked for more time. He’d had the last two weeks to prepare his case, to come up with what he’d considered an ironclad argument. He knew Kelli’s only defense would be the fact they’d only been a couple less than a month.
So he’d started a list of all the ways he could counter that argument. And he sort of thought he’d nailed it.
Until she’d looked at him with those sad, scared blue eyes and asked him for time to think.
He’d always thought himself made of pretty stern stuff, able to stand firm when he knew he was right, but dammit if she hadn’t slayed him with one look.
She could have asked him to build a space shuttle and fly her to the moon with those eyes, and fuck him if he wouldn’t be googling for a way to buy rocket fuel right now.
“What are you doing here?” Padraig asked as he dropped down onto a stool at the bar.
“I live here.”
Padraig didn’t respond to the sarcasm. Instead, he poured Colm a pint of Guinness and slid it in front of him.
His twin waited until Colm took a long swig, sucking down nearly half the beer, before he started the questioning. “What did you do?”
“Why do you assume I’m the one who fucked up?”
Padraig grinned. “I don’t assume anything. It’s you and Kelli. I had a fifty-fifty shot either way.”
“I told her we were dating.”
Padraig gave him a funny look. “She didn’t know that?”
Colm grimaced. “It’s Kelli. She didn’t want to know that. Even though she did.”
It spoke to the level of Padraig and Kelli’s friendship that he not only understood that ridiculous statement but found it amusing. “That’s my Kell. She’ll always go down swinging.”
Colm narrowed his eyes. “Thought we’d already determined she was my Kelli.”
Emmy, who was sitting at the end of the bar, tapping away on her keyboard, paused and looked up at that. The woman was a master eavesdropper, though Colm could never quite figure out how she could write and listen to all the conversations happening at the pub at the same time.
Colm caught her eye. “She’s my Kelli,” he repeated for her benefit, feeling the need to stress that point to anyone and everyone.
Emmy just nodded and smiled and started typing again.
“So clue me in, Bro,” Padraig said, leaning on the counter. “I thought things between you and Kelli were good. Why would she be so resistant to the concept of dating you?”
“You know about her baby plans.” Kelli had pulled Padraig away after dessert at Thanksgiving, the two of them finally talking for ages about her hopes for the future and what she’d planned to do.
