one of them without waiting for the link between him and Maggie to be formalized.
With so many people giving their blessing, Ryan might even have been tempted to get involved in a fling with Maggie-of-the-roving-hands…if she’d been another kind of woman. But Maggie was all about happily-ever-after. One look at her family was evidence enough of that.
Unfortunately, Ryan knew better than anyone that there was no such thing. Someday a man would let her down and she’d know the truth, but it wasn’t going to be him.
Besides, he couldn’t help thinking that she’d adopted him as she might a bedraggled kitten she pitied. One day she’d tire of him and move along to a man whose heart wasn’t cast in stone. Since abandonment had been a sore subject with him for some years now, he didn’t intend to risk it a second time.
None of that kept him from his yearning, though. Right now, she was across the room, chatting with a customer, her auburn hair flowing to her shoulders in shiny waves, her face devoid of any makeup beyond a touch of pale lipstick, and beautiful just the same. Ryan stared at her and barely managed to contain a sigh.
“You wouldn’t be so frustrated, lad, if you’d make a move on the lady,” Rory observed.
“You’ve hit on the problem,” Ryan responded, his gaze not shifting away from Maggie. “She’s a lady.”
“But I think you’d find her more than willing.”
Ryan didn’t doubt it. In fact, there were so many signals and unspoken invitations sizzling in the air, it was a wonder half his customers didn’t wind up singed. “That’s not the point,” he said testily.
“There won’t be any rewards for saintliness in this instance,” Rory said.
“I’m not looking for rewards. I’m trying to be sensible. I have nothing to offer a woman like Maggie.”
“She seems to think otherwise.”
“Because she doesn’t know me that well,” Ryan said. She didn’t know that he had no heart, no love at all to give. Quite likely, even with what she did know, she’d dismissed the possibility that he would never allow himself to fall in love, would never marry and risk disappointing a family as his parents had disappointed him. She was deluding herself, because she wanted to believe the best of him.
“Again, I say she thinks otherwise,” Rory said. “She seems to know all she needs to.”
“Then it’s up to me to protect her from herself.”
“She won’t thank you. Women seldom appreciate a man doing their thinking for them.”
Ryan gave him a rueful look. “It’s not her thanks I’m after. A man protects a woman he cares about because it’s the right thing to do.”
“We’re back to that bloody try for sainthood again,” Rory chided. “You’re a mere mortal, Ryan. Why not act like one?”
“Is that what you do? Is that why any woman who crosses the threshold in here is fair game to you?”
“Whatever happens between me and any woman is a mutual decision,” Rory countered. “That’s because I think of them as equals and respect that they know their own minds. Perhaps you should give Maggie some credit for knowing hers.”
There was sense to what Rory said. Ryan could admit that, but he couldn’t dwell on it. If he did, the game would be lost. He and Maggie would have their momentary pleasure, but the regrets would pour in on its heels.
No, his way was better…even if he was having the devil’s own time remembering why.
Lamar’s surgery was scheduled for Friday morning. As of midnight on Thursday, Jack Reilly had had absolutely no luck in finding the boy’s father. Ryan decided he was going to have to take matters into his own hands. If there was even a chance that Monroe was anywhere around the Boston harbor, he was going to find him before that boy went into the operating room in the morning.
“You can’t be serious,” Jack said when Ryan asked him to describe every single place he’d already searched. “If I haven’t found him, he’s not there.”
“I refuse to accept that,” Ryan said, aware that Maggie had joined them and was blatantly eavesdropping. “Now, are you going to tell me and save me some time, or do I have to spend the entire night covering ground you’ve already covered?”
Jack sighed. “Never mind. I’ll come with you. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“I’m coming, too,” Maggie announced, running to grab her coat and purse.
Ryan stopped her in her tracks, frowning at her. “It’s late. You have no business wandering around down there at