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Chapter one
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"You'll never believe who just moved into town!" Branna's big hazel eyes lit up as she turned to her childhood friend Aine, who was working with a cash book behind the counter, she ran a floral shop and her sister of the heart had dropped by to 'say hi.'
"Who?" She asked, looking up from her cash book, a hint of a smile playing at her lips. So much for wanting to just 'say hi.'
"The Maher's son. They're only son, and word is, he's hotter than burning coal." Aine merely rose her brows and snorted, her friend tended to be a bit boy crazy at times. But burning coal? That one was new. And a part of her, the nosy part of her that wagged it's little head whenever she was around this girl purred with curiosity.
"What's his name?"
"Bryan, or was it Brody?" This time Aine gave a little chuckle.
"So, you know of how hot he is, but not his name?" She added emphasis on the 'hot' and made Brianna grin.
"Hey, I know his last name, don't I?"
"Of course." She rolled her eyes at her friend and shook her head. "But, at this rate, you're going to loose him if you can't remember his name."
Branna tossed back her head, black long mane of hair flying and laughed, and Aine watched her with a grin on her face, her heart warmed at the sight of her friend.
"Ah Aine darling, I brought news of him to you, for one purpose." Aine rose a brow.
"Which is?" And now her friend smirked,
"Go grab 'em." it was her turn to laugh, and they both did, bone deep, wild and hysterical and anyone who saw them would have thought they'd lost it.
*****
Bryan Maher put the saddle on the horse and rubbed it's head tenderly.
"Ready for a ride, sweetheart?" The horse gave a soft neigh as though in response to his question. He patted her head and walked her out of her stall through the door of the shed, past two more horses both of which were eating.
He would check on them again once he came back from his ride, he thought to himself. There was a pregnant mare he had to tend specially. Yes, he'd a have to check on them.
Sweetheart gave a louder neigh as they stepped into the evening light, making Bryan chuckle.
"Aye, it's my favourite time for a ride as well." He got on, and so it began. A slow pace at first, even as they turned turned around and past the shed into the woods not so far off.
He sighed, couldn't help himself, He loved to ride, had been riding since he was a little boy. Now he owned horses of his, tended them, sold some, earned his keep. But he could never sell his precious sweetheart, it was like selling a part of his heart. He could sense her need for speed, her need to go fast. But, this evening wasn't for speed, No. He needed the slow pace, needed to go through his most urgent thoughts.
And what were they?
He passed a hand beneath his chin, feeling a week's stubble of beard. There was an unease in his soul. Mild, but however, pesky. Like some fly that wouldn't stop landing on your skin.
He wanted so much to understand it, find the root of it. And wasn't that why, after so long, he'd come home, settled?
He passed a hand over his face, and sweetheart, sensing something, or someone, reared. He made her come to a halt and squinted, looking around him.
"See something?" She let out an huff.
"I'm sure you did, but what?" He looked around again, and on a second thought came down. He took a few steps forward and caught sight of something, No, someone through a small hole in a cluster of branches.
It was a woman, the most beautiful sight he'd ever laid eyes on, she was bent over, plucking what seemed to him like berries and placing them in a basket she held in her right hand, and a massive black dog lying at her heel. She was slender, and something about her was familiar. The black mane of curly hair, the endless legs, and then she straightened and turned around and stared right at him, and he was sure his heart stopped. She had the most beautiful eyes. And then it clicked, he'd seen those eyes before.
He didn't know what came over him, but he began making his way through the cluster of branches , the dog stood on its paws and growled, but she put a hand on its collar and said something to it but he didn't quite catch it and then he was standing before her, staring at her and she staring at him, her eyes wide, his tongue in his throat, the dog, he realised was really big.
" hello." He managed to say.
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Aine O'conellpluckeda fresh blackberry from the branch and dropped it in the basket she held in her left hand. "The berries look so good, kenell, and I bet they taste even better, I can't wait to jam these." The black Irish wolfhound lying down beside her simply let out a breath, he was used to her going on and on about berries and jamming. Kenell stired and growled, a slow warning growl, it meant they had company. She straightened and turned around and had her heart slam hard against her chest, as she caught sight of a man watching her from a distance through the clearing amongst a cluster of branches. Just how long had he been watching her? She wasn't sure what to do and automatically put her hand on kenell's collar as he got up to keep him from charging after the intruder, but ready to release him if she had to. "Hold on, let's see what this is about." she could feel his anger at the disturbance still,
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Bryan made itback to his cabin and stretched out on a long brown sofa. "Aine." He sighed out, a smile on his lips. His plans to stay seemed to be looking up. He would still have to work on getting people to check out his horses. He'd done the extra check on them after his ride, showered and now all he wanted to do was stretch his legs. And think about the beautiful Aine. The truth was, he still couldn't remember where he'd seen her before, however he was sure he had, her eyes were all too familiar. A sweet memory. He would remember, maybe he could ask his parents. yes, he'd do just that. He sighed again, got up and stretched, moving to where the light switch was he put off the light in living room, put on the lights on the porch and walked to bedroom where the only light on was from the lamp on the table by his bedside. He laid on the bed and in seconds he was out, and in dreams he was visited by brown curious eyes that held so
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Hedid not know what made him do it. Or perhaps he did, but didn't just recognize it yet. But as he took his seat beside her, and felt the warm tender skin of her hand collide with his from time to time, any doubts he had about the move he made fell away. Plus, her friend seemed welcoming enough. "Hello." he stretched out his hand to branna. "I'm Byran Maher." "Branna Sweeney, pleasure." She said, taking his hand. He gave his most charming smile before letting go of her hand and then turning to Aine. "So we see again, Aine." "Small world, Bryan." Aine said, making him chuckle. "I guess it is." he replied. "So, Bryan, you plan to stay?" Branna asked with no preamble, But Byran didn't seem to mind as he took a gulp from his beer and set it down to answer her. "Actually, I do. I have done a lot of roamings, but I guess in the end, nothing beats home." He said honestly, and helped himself to some fries. They w
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Hehad her caught up. That's the only way she could describe how he made her feel. It was as though she was floating. She never had floaty feelings around men she was attracted to. He was different. With him, things were different. "You're quiet." He said, drawing her out of her thoughts. They were lying side by side on the cool grass. He had taken her on a picnic in the middle of nowhere.Okay, not in the middle of nowhere.They were somewhere in the woods not so far off from his cottage. He'd planned it. The Woods, picnic, good wine, good food(he cooked!) wonderful array of flowers, and as the moon shone above them, they'd simply lain on their backs admiring the heavens, God's great work. "I'm just thinking about what a nice time I'm having with you. That wasn't in the plan." "Gush, Aine, you're going to make an old man blush." She looked up into his smiling face, and was struck by how handsome he was. "Aren'
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“Take a break,” Bryan said from the other side of the counter. He'd been dogging her all afternoon, Helping around, making somewhat fruitful conversations with Cedric– Cedric liked him, but was trying not to, she could tell– Attending to customers. She thought, with a smile, she just might give him a raise.“ In ten minutes.” she looked at the clock, “make that fifteen ”Bryan lifted his eyes upward which made Aine giggle, and peered down at the book in front of her.“Inventory?”“uh hun.”He looked back at her and got lost in her eyes.“I wonder, ” he started, “I wonder if I distract you, the same way you distract me.”Her smirk came quickly but it soon faded as she began to study him.“you do.” she said honestly, “but today, you've been such big help, you've made up for my shortcomings.”“Good.
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Bryan registered the look on Aine’s face and promised himself that if he ever came across the Callum bloke he was going to give him a good pounding.“Do you... do you want to open it?” She asked Bryan, looking at the letter as though it was a key to unlock all sorts of vile evil things.“I should be asking you, Aine.” He said and place a hand on her cheek. She was pale and clammy and although he touched her gently, he was brimming with absolute anger.“I don’t, not really. But if it’s connected to Rhoda in any way. Connected to everything that is happening, then I suppose I need to. I don’t want to, but I might need to.”“Inside. We will take this inside.” He opened il the door and took her hand in his, leading her into the house,“Lord, why won’t these people leave us alone.” She groaned out as she sat on the couch, burying her face into her hands.“Hey, hey.” He sat beside her, and place a hand over her shoulders, gently dropping her hands and lifting her head by her chin. “It’s oka
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“I get really worried when you get quiet this way,” Callum said as he stood watching Rhoda while she brooded at the dining table in the home they shared.“What do you care?” She said, without looking up at him. “I’m sure you can’t wait for the day this is all over so you can be rid of me.”True, he thought. But said nothing. Sometimes he asked himself why he even said yes to her in the first place.“Here we go.” He said, and sat on ie of the chairs, “alright, tell me. What’s got your buns in a twist?”“That’s highly unlikely. C’mon, tell me about it.”“As you’re aware, the officer is on to me.”“So you see, that I was right and that we need to leave .”She turned to face him and shot him daggers through her eyes,“Leave? Leaveeee? I’m not going anywhere! Well, of course, I need to hasten up now. But I’m not going anywhere until I’m done.”He shook his head.“Your desire for revenge is going to send you to jail.”“My desire? This was our desire, Callum. Remember? Me and you? It was what
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Bryan drove back to Aine’s shop with a lot of questions. He might have asked Winslow about them, but the thing was, he wasn’t sure even Winslow had the answers he was looking for, not when the questions sounded like,‘Why? Why did it all have to be happening? In what way could he have stopped it?’Those questions played over and over in his mind, and sadly, they remained rhetorical .Endlessly Rhetorical, even to the point of unease.He did not step out of the car the moment he got to Aine’s shop, instead he looked around him to spot the discreet way Winslow’s team was parked far behind him. If he wasn’t aware of the plan , there was no way he might have known about them. And of course, that was the point. At least, where Aine was involved.He spotted her through the glass doors, speaking to a customer and just watched her. The lady she spoke to was pointing at a vase and he seemed to him that Aine was answering some questions, soon after , Aine walked to vase , picked up and carried
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She cursed them as she watched them walk into Aine’s shop. No disguise, she was too angry to care about a disguise. But she kept her distance and did so in a newly rented car.She had thought to wait for it all out a bit. Watch, plan and make sure that the injury she inflicted was lasting. One that they both would feel for a very long time.And then there was Callum. Some days, some days she felt like sparing him. Felt as though she could simply inflict her revenge on Aine and Bryan and move on, starting afresh. Maybe even start afresh with Callum himself. But then she would bring up the idea of all the hurtful things she would like to do to Aine and he would bulk, he would try to play her down and it made her so angry, and so hungry to hurt her even more and hurt him too, because he was choosing Aine over her.“Aine, always Aine.” She said and nearly spat. Nearly.Then there was the officer. The Officer had threatened her with the idea of jail so that she no longer thought about prec
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“You’re not going to tell me then,” Aine said to Bryan, sometime in the evening when they both had gotten home. He had brought her back from work and although he didn’t think she knew, she was well aware that he had gone to see Winslow if Winslow’s card she had seen on his dashboard that morning was any indication. She had reached for it and when she asked why he had it, he just shrugged and said Winslow had given it to him in case.But she knew him well enough to know that there was more. And as the overthinker that she was, it was all she could think about during work that day. And making up her mind that it was only hurting her unnecessarily to constantly think about it that way. She decided it would be best to ask him. Only in a much more sly way.“ Tell you what Aine?” He replied, his back toward her as he searched the fridge for cheese. He had the mind to make her a hamburger. He knew she had a tenderness for it.“Tell me what you discussed with Winslow?” She noticed his pause,
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Meet me Halfway(chapter 30)“What do you mean leave?” Rhoda asked Callum in disbelief and he turned toward her in frustration,“You want to go to jail?” He asked bordering close to hysterics. He was so close to jail once, and there he was, teetering close to that point once again and it was not sitting well with him.“No one’s going to Jail, Callum. I’ll go see the sheriff as he requested, and that will be the end of it. You worry for too much, Callum puff.” She walked to where he sat on the bed, and sat beside him, linking their fingers.“You’ve never been close to losing your freedom, have you?”“And you have?”He turned to look at her at that moment, looked into her eyes. There was nothing in there, no feeling, no emotion, but a cynical glint that bordered on scary.What had he gotten himself into? And where was his way out?For if there was one thing that he was sure of, it was the fact that Rhoda would not leave well alone. She was going to push and push until she got what she wa
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Bryan arrived right as Winslow was on his way and although Winslow didn’t feel right about keeping secrets from Aine, he knew it had to be done if he was going to keep her safe.“Bryan!” Aine called out as he got out of his car, and Winslow looked down to look at his friend.He makes her happy. He thought to himself and nearly sighed when Bryan all but lit up. He didn’t know the man personally, but the hopeless romantic in him could see love when it was right in front of him.He watched as Bryan’s eyes move away from Aine and rest knowledgeably on him. He was still in his uniform.With a smile, Aine took Bryan’s hand,“Bryan, this is Officer Winslow. Winslow, This is Bryan Maher.”With his Freehand, Bryan shook Winslow. And just that act of not letting go of Aine’s hand told him that in some ways the man was just what Aine was needing in her life. He was a cop after all.“Nice to meet you Maherson.” Bryan smiled at the name. When he had first arrived he had heard a couple of women cal
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“What are you doing?” Callum asked her as he watched her fold up clothes and dropped them in her suitcase.“I know it’s very obvious. “ she replied, without glancing at him. She had managed to get him to let her stay with him while she carried out her plans to get Bryan back. And when that plan became futile, she stayed with him while she plotted against Aine and Bryan. And if he was ready to admit it, he was sure she plotted against him as well. He saw the bean grande in her eyes every time he didn’t give into her whims and wiles.Nevertheless. It made no sense to him why she all of a sudden wanted to move away. However, he was sure of one thing. If he wanted her to talk and be reasonable, he was going to have to be diplomatic rather than emotional. Not that he much of the latter anyway,He walked to the dresser table and sat down and watched her for a few seconds before he finally spoke up,“Alright, tell me, what’s all this about?” She turned to him just once and gave him the stink
