Page 162 of Fifth Avenue Fling

Of course I want it, but I don’t want to scare her away so soon. “I’m thirty-six. I’m through playing games. I want you with me.”

Her eyes go wide, then she smirks. “Are you trying to get me to clean your bathroom again?”

“Fuck no.” I chuckle, trailing my hand down her bare stomach. “You were terrible at it the first time. Mrs. Dalton does a much better job.”

Shame she’s retiring, though. She’s moving to Boston to be with her daughter. From here on out, it’s just me and Teagan... and the cleaners from my seven-star hotel.

I gaze into those mesmerizing green eyes of hers and breathe in deeply. “I want you to move in because I love you.”

“Okay.” She nods, then shakes her head contradictorily. “That’s a good reason, but no.”

“No?” I jostle her hips. What the hell?

“I love you too, Killian, and I want us to be together forever, but I want to live in Brooklyn with Orla first. Life in New York isn’t afairy tale,remember?” She smirks. “In a few years, I’ll move in.”

“I guess I’ll just have to wait.” I sigh with a smile on my face. “You’re the boss.”

EPILOGUE

Clodagh

One year later

“Come on, Teagan!” I yell into the wind as she sprints toward the goal. “Killian, are you watching?”

Killian stands beside me, his hands over his eyes and an expression of pure agony. He’s such a scaredy-cat sometimes.

I don’t know what he’s worried about. Since Teagan started playing for the Queens Gaels ladies’ team, she’s taken no prisoners.

People say Gaelic football is between Aussie Rules and English football. Teagan plays in a full-forward position, which means she’s the attacking player going for goals, and she is amachine. She quit ballet a few months back, deciding Gaelic football was more her thing.

Killian takes a deep breath. “It got a bit rough out there. I wanted to run onto the pitch and drag her off.”

I roll my eyes playfully. “I don’t know what you’re worried about; the opposing team is terrified of her.”

Teagan and I still haven’t broached the topic of her having a boyfriend on the guys’ team, but I don’t think Killian is ready for that yet.

“Five minutes until penalties,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Then you can relax.”

He nods. “How about a drink at Marek’s restaurant afterward to calm my nerves?”

I smile. It’s the first time Teagan’s team is playing at the new Brooklyn community center that Killian built.

“That sounds great. Although I’m not staying out too late. I have to get up early in the morning.”

“Your boss must be a real tyrant,” he teases.

“Nah, not a five o’clock kind of tyrant.” I’m now my own boss and have been pushing myself out of bed at six o’clock every morning.

I’m renting a tiny studio from Uncle Sean’s friend Paddy, who I think might be in the Irish mob, but he offered me a good deal on the place. It’s so small that you couldn’t swing a cat in it, but it’s only twenty minutes by bike from Orla’s and my apartment in Brooklyn. I wish I’d never told Granny Deirdre, who messages me daily about cyclists killed in the city.

The orders have been steady lately, and I recently got a more significant order from a chain of furniture stores. I finished my online business course. There were even a few tears with some of the modules, but I did it. I didn’t get any special recognition—no graduation hat or fancy certificate—but I feel better equipped to take baby steps in the business world. Now I’m like Scrooge, tracking every penny and monitoring where it goes.

Killian is mentoring me with the business side of things, and even Teagan is helping out for a few hours on Saturday. However, Killian insists on making her work for minimum wage so she can learn the value of money. To make up for it, I take her out for burgers afterward.

“Why don’t we just have one beer and then get some takeout from L’Oignon du Monde?” Killian suggests.

“That sounds like a great plan,” I reply with a smile.

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