Page 11 of The Matchmaker
“Really?”
“No.”
When it becomes clear I’m not going to blind him again, Callum drops his hands, watching me as I do him, except he’s much more obvious about it, appraising me like I’m the one who interrupted his night and not the other way around. But before he can say anything more, a shattering of glass sounds from the pub, followed by an ironic cheer, and I remember why I’m out here in the first place.
The torches.
Crap. The keys are no longer in my hand, that much I register, and I pat my empty pockets before shining the light at my feet, trying to spot them.
“What are you looking for?” Callum asks.
“I dropped my keys.” And Adam will lose his shit if I can’t find them. It may or may not be the third time I’ve lost them. Though, to be fair, I did find the last set in the inside pocket of my coat two months after we replaced them. But who checks the inside pocket? Who even regularly uses an inside pocket? Not my fault.
Okay, a little bit my fault.
I startle as a new beam of light joins mine and turn to see Callum sweeping his own phone over the patio. Right. This guy.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I say, abandoning my quest for the moment. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.” He says it like it’s the most natural thing in the world. “I figured this place is small enough that it shouldn’t be too hard. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t,” I lie. “You just have suspiciously quiet feet for someone so…”Strong. “Tall. And what do you mean, you were looking for me?” I stiffen as soon as I say the words, my skin heating with embarrassment at the thought of what happened this morning. Am I in trouble? Is that what this is? Are they going to try and arrest me for trespassing or something? I don’t know if they can, but Nush always talks about how much money these people have and how ruthless they are, and I guess I did piss off the big boss man and—
“I wanted to apologize.”
Callum’s words interrupt my spiralingI’ve never been in real trouble beforepanic, and I swallow, grateful he can’t see me too well in the dark.
“For this morning,” he continues. “And the mornings before that. The team are going to sort it out.”
“You’re going to stop building the hotel?”
He starts to smile, his lips curving up before he realizes I’m not joking.
“No,” he says after a long second. “As captivating as your case was, Glenmill Properties is not going to stop their multimillion-euro construction project. But we can stop the traffic. We’d actually planned that route to avoid too many vehicles going through the village. Unfortunately, that means they all seem to be going right by you. I talked with the team, and rerouting the entrance shouldn’t be a problem. Most of the guys are coming in from the city anyway, and there’s no reason they can’t approach from the main road. I can’t do anything about disruption from the site, but it will buy you a few hours in the mornings and maybe you could—”
“Are you serious?” I interrupt, and he pauses, taken aback by my sudden excitement.
“We’ll need to trial it,” he says carefully. “But yeah. We’ve been told not to piss off the locals and you’re a local. Didn’t take much sign-off.”
I can’t believe it. It worked.
My delirious activism worked.
“Hopefully better than nothing,” he continues, when I just stare at him.
“It is,” I say quickly. “It is much better than nothing. It’s something. It’s great. It’s…thank you.”
“No problem.”
“And I’m sorry about this morning,” I add, feeling charitable. “I was a little out of it. Probably wasn’t the best way to start your day.”
“You kidding me?” He laughs, a pleasant, husky sound that I instantly want him to make again. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in weeks. I’ll let you know when Jack’s visiting next, and you can swing around again.”
“Not likely,” I mutter, wincing at the thought. “You’re sure I didn’t get you in trouble?”
“The surest,” he says. “So, what kind of keys?”
“Oh, you don’t have to— small,” I say, when those green eyes swing my way. Shutup, Katie. “Blue key ring. Thanks.”
