Page 156 of Fifth Avenue Fling

Any minute now, Killian will see me.

I can’t do this; I can’t face him in my hometown. I want to flee down the street or hide somewhere.

In fact…

I scuttle over to the side and take cover behind a row of garbage cans next to the furniture store. I’m not good at thinking on my feet when I have to make a fast decision, so this is the best I’ve got.

“Clodagh?” Mam bleats from the street. “What are you doing?”

“Shush, woman!” I hiss, hunkering down. I just need to wait a few minutes, and they’ll pass. “Don’t say my name.”

“Is she going to the toilet?” her friend asks really, really loudly.

Be quiet, women. I think Iamgoing to wet myself.

Mam shakes her head at me and then turns back to her friend. “She’s been acting weird since she returned from New York. I don’t know what’s going on with her.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and attempt to slow my racing heartbeat.

A loud voice booms, “Clodagh, what are you doing down there?”

I open my eyes to see Tommy pushing away the bins to reveal me cowering in the corner.

My heart sinks. The bin plan was a big mistake.

Huge.

When will I see some of this fucking luck of the Irish? It’s not even collection day. What’s he playing at? Now I’m just squatting down on the ground with my arms hugging my knees like an idiot.

“Clodagh?”

“Killian?” I squawk from my position on the ground, perched like a weird bird. I don’t know why I asked it as a question; maybe because he did.

I stare up at him, frozen in confusion. It’s been so long since I heard that low drawl in real life. I had watched interviews with him online as a form of torture a few times. But now the sound of his actual voice knocks the wind out of me.

He extends his hand to pull me up. It takes a minute for my brain to process how to stand. I hope I don’t smell like the bins.

He smiles softly. Something that looks like nerves flashes across his face. “If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think you were hiding from me.”

Teagan rushes toward me and envelops me in a hug. The gesture is a much-needed break from the intensity of seeing Killian.

“Hey, Clodagh!”

“Hey! What a nice surprise. I’ve missed you,” I say into her hair and mean it. If you had asked me on our first day of meeting if I expected to be doing this, I would have laughed in disbelief.

I pull away from Teagan and look between the two of them, my chest tight with confusion and tension. Why didn’t she tell me she was coming here?

Killian clears his throat uncomfortably and looks at Teagan. “Sweetheart, can you give us a moment? Then you can talk to Clodagh. Stay close.”

She pops a large bubble with her chewing gum. “I’ll be over at the crafts store. But hurry up, Dad.”

I glare at Mam and her entourage. “Mam, can you also leave us?”

Her eyes are nearly hanging out of her head. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

I’m perturbed to observe that she casts Killian a gaze of mild arousal.

“Nope,” I say, motioning for him to follow me down the street away from them.

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