Page 28 of An Irish Summer

“We’re just different,” I said, though it came out more of a sigh. “We don’t make any sense, so I need to reel it in before it gets any worse.”

“At least kiss him first,” she said. “I’m dying to know what it’s like.”

“You come here and kiss him then.”

“Please,” she said. “You know if I wasn’t dating Ben I’d have been there already.”

Ada always said things like this, which I ignored. She and Ben were so in love it made me nauseous, and sometimes she tried to offset it by jumping on the ball-and-chain bandwagon. She was horribly unconvincing.

I groaned into the phone, flopping onto my bed. “I can’t,” I said eventually. “It would be stupid since it has an expiration date.”

“You say that now.”

“You sound like Collin.”

“Maybe I will come kiss him after all.”

“Ada!”

“You’d be jealous, wouldn’t you?” I could hear her smile through the phone.

“No,” I said, though we both knew I would be. “And I’m sure he’s already kissing someone else if this is how he’s treating everyone who comes through the Wanderer, so I need to put it out of my mind either way.”

“Good luck,” she snickered.

“I’m serious, Ada.”

“So am I,” she said. “The man fed you a drink through a straw tonight, Chels. He put his beautiful bartender hands on your face and you loved it. You’re not putting him out of your mind.”

“Well, I don’t have a choice, so. Consider it done.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I’m hanging up now,” I said.

“To get a good night’s sleep for your date tomorrow?”

“Good night, Ada.”

“Fine, fine, message received. Good night, Chels. Love you.”

“Love you back.” I dropped my phone on my chest and stared up at the ceiling, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands as if that would do anything to get Collin out of my brain.

Unsurprisingly, it was hopeless. There was nothing I could have done in that moment that would have stopped me from savoring thewhat-ifs. What if these weren’t the circumstances, what if I didn’t have to hold back, what if he kissed me. What if I had the chance to find out what his lips felt like against mine, what his tattoos looked like under his clothes, what his accent sounded like when he said words only I was meant to hear.

I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep, but a knock on my door at the crack of dawn woke me before my alarm. I expected Flo to be locked out or maybe Lori to need emergency coverage at the desk, so I pulled a hoodie over my head, ran my hands through my hair, and opened my door without looking in the mirror.

When I swung the door open to see Collin standing on the other side, I immediately regretted not so much as glancing at my reflection.

“Morning,” he said, bright-eyed and grinning like he’d been up for hours. Where did he get all this energy?

“Am I late?” I asked, fumbling for my watch on the nightstand.

“No, no,” he said. “I’m early. Just thought you might like to blend in with the locals today, that’s all.” He handed me a shirt, and I unfolded it between us. It was a jersey for what I assumed to be the local hurling team. “I know you’re desperately trying not to embrace Irish culture, but you’ll stand out at a match in regular clothes. Which I think you’d hate more than you’d hate looking Irish, to be fair.”

Once again, Collin proved to be more observant than I was willing to give him credit for.

“Thank you,” I said. “That was thoughtful.”

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