down into the offered chair, Molly looked up at him. She frowned for a moment, looked around, and then patted the chair beside her. ‘Sit down. I want to talk to you.’
‘I’ll just get some of that nice birthday coffee first.’
‘No!’ She grabbed hold of his shirtsleeve. ‘No, now.’
Ryan watched as the wheels slowly turned in her head. Then she smiled at him. Looking at him from beneath long darkened eyelashes, she was positively flirtatious, and for some reason he couldn’t stop himself from noticing it. Damn but she’d grown up. And it wasn’t just the removal of her braces that had got her noticed by Kieran, his university roommate. She just seemed to have blossomed overnight.
Almost in slow motion, he sat down beside her. ‘What’s up?’
‘Do you think I’m pretty?’
The question caught him off guard. Especially considering he’d already begun to notice how she looked. For a split second he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.
Molly giggled musically. ‘Why, Callaghan, I do believe for the first time ever I’ve managed to make you speechless. Happy Birthday me.’
He tried to stand up. ‘I’ll just get that coffee. I’d really like a cup, wouldn’t you?’
She placed her hand on his thigh and pushed him back into the chair. Another dangerous smile. ‘Don’t avoid the subject at hand.’
Ryan was too busy trying to ignore ‘the subject at hand’. The burning sensation on his thigh where her hand rested. Hadn’t anyone told her what happened to twenty-one-year old males whenever good-looking females touched them that close to…?
He carefully removed the hand, placing it into the safety of her own lap. ‘Why would I avoid it? Of course you’re pretty, Moll. That brace thing being off really helps.’
‘Is it just the brace?’ She leaned in close to him, her voice low. ‘Is it just the brace, or have I changed at all—you know, anywhere else?’
If that rabbit didn’t move soon it was going to get squooshed. A blink, then another, and then Ryan’s brain started to work. ‘Uh, what exactly are you fishing for?’
‘Have you noticed anything different about me?’ Her face was dangerously close to his. ‘I mean, since you last saw me?’
Ryan swallowed hard to moisten his dry throat. Wow, but she smelled good—all soapy and slightly perfumey. Like flowers. Hello, Ryan! Get a grip here. Hormone alert.
‘In what way, exactly?’
‘You tell me.’
Molly stood up in front of him and turned full circle before holding her arms out at her sides. ‘How do I look to you?’
Ryan did as he was bid and looked at her. He took a real good, long look at her. She was sensational. Really. He’d never thought of himself as a sexist kind of guy who ogled women’s legs, but—wow. In a split second he decided he was a legs man. Not that he hadn’t known that Molly had legs. Hell, he’d seen them in shorts or swimsuits every summer for the past four years. But not like this. Not encased in the sheerest of black stockings with her feet in the silliest strappy high heels he had ever seen. Not displayed to the world from beneath the teeniest of miniskirts. Had she actually paid money for that scrap of material?
‘Well?’
‘Huh?’
‘Well? What do you see?’
He waved away her protests with one arm. ‘I’m still looking.’
She had the smallest waist he thought he’d ever seen. Was she too skinny? Was that it? Did she have some kind of dumb obsession with her weight? No. His eyes travelled upwards. No, her weight was just fine. She had breasts now—small, full breasts that peeked out at him from the deep vee of her tight top. Maybe he was a breasts man after all. Then he looked back down at her legs. Nope. Still a legs man.
Then he looked up at her face. The freckles had faded down over the years. From somewhere she had got this creamy complexion. Full moist lips that drew into a wide smile over perfectly straight white teeth. Thank you, Mr Orthodontist. Wide green eyes above an elegantly upturned nose…
A hand waved in front of his face. ‘Well—can you see it?’
His voice was sharp. ‘Damn it, O’Brien, see what?’ He’d seen plenty, and it irritated him that he’d noticed as much as he had. ‘You look just fine to me.’
‘Fine? I look just fine?’ She looked annoyed. ‘Well, thanks a bunch, big man.’
‘Oh, hell.’ Ryan ran long fingers through his short hair. ‘What am I supposed to notice?’
With a sigh he could hear above the newly started music, she moved forwards. Placing one slender hand on either side of his face, her eyes smiled into his. ‘Don’t you see it, Ryan? I’m in love. For the first time in my life I’m in love. And it’s with your friend. Thanks to you, I’m going to find out exactly what it’s like to be with that someone who really matters.’
Ryan’s gut twisted. How could he have known? How could he have seen that his two friends would end up this wrapped in each other? He’d met Kieran his first term at university in Dublin and had instantly liked the guy. With his golden good looks and extrovert nature he was popular on campus. And so much more outgoing than Ryan himself. He had an ease about him that people instantly took to.
Captain of the rugby team, top of his class in business studies, rich family in Galway. The guy had everything. All the criteria that overly protective brother figures would look for in a boyfriend for someone they really cared about. So why did he suddenly wish they’d never met?
Much as she hated to admit it, Ryan had been right. Yet again. This time about the evening being perfect for swimming at Doon Shore. Situated on the side of the lough furthest from the main tourist amenities, it tended to be a place that only the locals and a few cruise boat tourists ever knew about. Which also meant that on a sunny summer evening it was normally filled with townsfolk. Most of whom seemed to be smiling more than usual when they greeted them.
Lying on their stomachs, side by side on a large rug, they watched as people watched them. Molly pushed her sunglasses onto her head and turned to look at Ryan, beside her. His eyes had closed, long lashes dark against his tanned skin. ‘I had never realised we were so all-fired interesting, had you?’
He didn’t open his eyes, but with his head turned towards her as it was he didn’t have to raise his voice above a conspirator’s whisper. ‘We’ve always been interesting. We just didn’t notice it so much before.’
‘Doesn’t it bother you now that you know?’
‘You’ve been away. I’ve had this kind of attention and speculation aimed at me ever since I came back here. That’s what comes of being single in a small town. You can’t so much as say hello to a pretty female without the gossips starting. They’ve got nothing else to do.’
The wheels turned slowly in her head.
Ryan smiled a slow, sleepy smile, still with his eyes closed. ‘Okay, I can hear those wheels a-turnin’. What?’
She hated the way he could do that. What was he? Psychic?
‘Haven’t you dated anyone since I’ve been away?’
‘Why?’ The smile transformed to a grin. ‘Jealous?’
‘Ha, ha.’ She nudged him with her elbow. ‘No, I mean, well, you can’t not have dated anyone since you moved up here. So I guess what I mean is—I’m not cramping your style, am I? Living with you, I mean?’
He opened his eyes and squinted up at her, curious as to what her face might tell him. But she turned away before he could see anything, studying the crowd who lined the shore.
‘Moll,