Page 48 of An Irish Summer

“And that observation is that you think I’m trying to sell Rhiannon on Galway, is it?”

“It’s that you’re trying to sell her onsomething,” I said. He laughed again, but I did not.

“You do know being a tour guide is my job, don’t you? I’m contractually obligated to try to get people to like it here.”

“Is that why you’ve been showing me around? Because you’re contractually obligated?”

“Ah, come on. It’s not like that with you, Chels.”

“Then what is it like? If it isn’t just part of your long list of jobs.”

“If you have to ask, that means I’m not doing a good enough job of showing ya.” He took a step closer, but we were interrupted by the sound of Lars’s voice down the hall.

“I’m just going to have a quick shower first,” he was saying to whomever he was with. “I’ll be right back. Wait in my room for me, will you?”

A second later he swung open the bathroom door, seemingly surprised to see the two of us standing there, likely too close for coworkers who just happened to share a bathroom.

“Didn’t expect to see you two in here,” he said. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Arewe?” Collin swooped in before I could die of embarrassment. “Seemed like you and whoever you were talking to in the corridor thought you were having a private moment.”

“Last I checked you weren’t the only one allowed to shag theguests,” Lars said with a chuckle. I didn’t laugh. Collin didn’t either. Instead, we locked eyes, but his expression was unreadable, even in the bright light of the bathroom.

“Ah, so you are shagging the guests after all,” I said, recrossing my arms and trying to look more smug than inexplicably crushed.

“It’s not like—”

“I’ve said too much,” Lars said, putting his fingers to his lips. “A few too many pints’ll do that to me.”

“You’ve said just enough. Enjoy your night,” I said to Lars.

I was out the door before he could say anything else, and I felt Collin two steps behind me.

“Chelsea,” he said.

I turned to him and raised my eyebrows to signal I was listening, though he only had about thirty seconds before I backed through my doorway and called it a night.

“He isn’t talking about now,” he said. “We’ve all done stuff like that since we’ve been working here. Especially when we’ve been here a while. It’s just, I don’t know. What happens in here sometimes.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” I said. “What you do in your free time is none of my business.”

“I don’t want you thinking I’m the bloke who shags all the guests.”

“Does it matter what I think?”

“Do you really think it doesn’t?”

We stared at each other, the only sounds the running water in the bathroom and our breathing.

“I don’t know what to think,” I said eventually. I was beginning to realize I might have overreacted about Rhiannon, maybe even misjudged what was really going on, and I probably owedhim the benefit of the doubt. I’d have wanted it if the roles were reversed.

“Let me make it easier for you,” he said. “Let’s drive the Wild Atlantic Way this week. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

“What makes you so sure I want to know anything?”

“We wouldn’t still be having this conversation if you didn’t,” he said. “Besides, I do believe you won a bet, and I am a man of my word, so it’s only fair to follow through.”

“Fine,” I agreed. “But only because I want to drive.”

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