she was always moving, always doing something productive while she chatted.
“It’s been good. I found my way into the company of my dreams. I get to travel the world. Meet wonderful people like himself here,” Liam said, nodding to a beaming Mr. Murphy.
“How do you two know each other?” Mr. Murphy asked.
“Remember when I left uni and took my first job with Sean in Dublin? Liam worked on that project. He’s a colleague of mine,” Fi said, placing him firmly in the friend category. There would be no suppositions around their relationship if she could help it.
“Well, isn’t that nice, then. Are you doing work for Dylan while you’re here?” Mr. Murphy asked.
“Nope, though I’d love to come see the community center project one day. I’m here to plan Gracie’s hen party,” Fi said.
“Sure and we’ll need to clear the streets for that one. The lot of you are terrifying together,” Mr. Murphy said.
Fi let out a loud laugh. “You’ve been warned then.”
“I’d be happy to show you the community center if you want to come by one day,” Liam said, leaning back as the serving girl appeared at his shoulder with a tray of stew. Fi stepped away to get silverware and napkins, and by the time she’d returned, two steaming bowls of Guinness stew with some crusty brown bread sat in front of the men.
“I’d like that, thanks,” Fi said, keeping it noncommittal. Turning, she grabbed another drink order – then stopped in her tracks.
Liam was Dylan’s Liam.
The Liam Gracie had told her about.
The one who had gotten hurt in the cove.
The man Gracie had almost died healing.
The man of her dreams.
Chapter 9
“You didn’t tell me Liam was that Liam,” Fi said, bursting into Gracie’s cottage without knocking. Not that she had ever knocked, nor was she likely do so in the future. Who needed to knock when there was a dog around to announce her presence? Bending automatically to where Rosie demanded cuddles, she looked up at Grace, who was standing by her long kitchen table, hands on hips, looking down at a pile of jars and creams.
“How was I to know Liam was ‘that Liam’ when you’ve never mentioned a Liam to me?” Grace asked, skewering her with a glare. “But now I’m offended that you didn’t tell me you had a thing with this Liam, which you obviously did or you wouldn’t be in such a fuss.”
“I’m not in a fuss,” Fi bit out.
“You come barreling through the door with barely a hello after months away, griping about Liam this and Liam that. I’m no rocket scientist but I do know that when a woman’s all aflutter about a man, there’s been a situation in the past with said man. So now I’m the one who’s offended that me own cousin and best friend hasn’t told me about her time with this Liam.”
“I swear I told you.” Fi paused and thought back. Hadn’t she told Grace? She usually told her everything.
“I’m not daft. I do remember what you tell me. I particularly enjoyed the French lover in the blue grotto –”
“Okay, okay, enough.” Fi waved that away and stood, surveying her friend. “You look great.”
“Thanks. Love will do that to a person, I suppose.”
“No, I mean it. Really great. Your skin’s all dewy and you look… rested. There isn’t the same tension around your eyes.”
“Sleeping through the night these days. Once I was with Dylan, the dreams dissipated. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is not to wake up sobbing every morning.”
“Oh, Grace, I’m so happy for you both. I know what an awful time that was for you.” Fi moved across the room and enveloped her cousin in a hug.
“There, now I get a proper greeting. I’ll put the kettle on. Seems we need to have a wee chat about this Liam of yours.”
“He’s your Liam. Well, Dylan’s, anyway.”
“I doubt Dylan knows Liam the way you’ve been knowing him – and if he has, we might be having to have ourselves a wee bit of a chat before I go and marry him.”
“I didn’t sleep with him,” Fi said, plopping into the beautifully worn wooden rocking chair tucked in the corner by the stove, where it had sat now for sixty years.
“You were intimate with him.” A voice over her ear made Fi jump from the chair and whirl around. Rosie danced at her feet and barked, delighted at the sudden movement.
“Fiona, you know better than to scare Fi like that.” Grace made