Chapter 1
1
SOPHIE
2000
T his might have been a bad idea.
Moving to another country on a whim, that is.
Sophie clutched a notebook to her chest as she eyed her new school. The concrete brick walls, the gunmetal lockers, and even the gray clouds visible through the overly optimistic skylights were a stark contrast to the open-air, sunny high school she’d left behind back in California.
She’d impulsively suggested to her parents that she move here to Dublin and they hadn’t thought twice about shipping her off to another country without even asking why she’d want to leave her life and friends in Menlo Park. And so, here she was.
The student who’d reluctantly given her a quick tour had since left her on her own. She knew no one and had no choice now but to forge ahead in what was the equivalent of the junior year of high school.
A burst of laughter caught her attention. Down the hallway, a large group of kids stood in a circle around a clear ringleader, hanging onto his every word as he gestured wildly.
Sophie moved closer, wanting a better look at the boy who had captured everyone’s attention. His hair fell past his collar in an untamed mix of brown and amber waves. His required school uniform gray and blue striped tie was loose around his neck, the top button of his white shirt undone, and his gray trousers were slung low on his hips. His blue eyes were expressive, his jaw square and set off by a sensual mouth with lips that had an alluring “just kissed” rawness to them.
He wasn’t just good-looking, though. There was something about him that was absolutely magnetic.
As if pulled by his gravitational force, she took another step closer.
“How did you know the fella wasn’t about to take his car out, Gavin?” asked one of the onlookers.
“Well, I didn’t, did I?” he replied with a sly smile.
“You’re mental!” another kid said.
“The added risk is what makes the joyride that much better, anyway,” he continued, his brow arched. The crowd around him laughed. “So, we went out for about an hour or so, me and Seamus did. As we’re turning the corner to get the car back, I could just make out this figure under the streetlamp looking one way and then another wondering where in bleedin’ hell his car went. I take one look at Seamus and he gets me right away, pulling the most incredible move. He threw it straight into reverse and back we went right around the corner and out of sight.”
Sophie found herself as mesmerized as everyone else. This boy, Gavin, had an engaging way of telling his story, pausing for effect at just the right moment and making eye contact with various people as he spoke. The Irish lilt she’d encountered upon arrival had, predictably, charmed her. But there was something about Gavin’s inflections that affected her in a completely different way. His voice was ever so slightly raspy and entirely captivating. So much so, in fact, that she wasn’t even alarmed by the fact that he was talking about having stolen a car.
“Didn’t the sorry bastard see you then?” a girl asked.
Gavin hesitated, building anticipation. “He didn’t. What’s better, though, is he goes back inside long enough for us to park the thing back where we found it so, in the end, he was none the wiser. It was magic, I tell you. Seamus is a wizard at driving, don’t you know?”
The group erupted into laughter and cheers and it soon became clear that this Seamus had been among them but reluctant to take center stage. As Sophie noted the way Seamus’ cheeks turned crimson under the attention of congratulatory slaps on the back and handshakes, she sensed she was being watched in return.
Her stomach flipped the moment she met Gavin’s eyes. She expected him to do what most boys did and let his gaze fall over her body. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he simply held eye contact. Only, there was nothing simple about this connection. It was all-consuming. Everyone else faded away, and she felt like it was just the two of them in that hallway. How that was possible, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she couldn’t have broken their spell if she tried.
Finally, another boy, taller and with jet-black hair and deep blue eyes, threw his arm around Gavin’s neck and pulled him from the others.
She saw Gavin mouth something with a nod of his head in her direction. But she was so overwhelmed by the intensity of … whatever it was she’d just experienced that she didn’t sort out exactly what he’d said until she was seated in class, trying and failing to focus on the teacher at the whiteboard. And then it clicked.
Gorgeous .
That’s what Gavin had told his friend as he motioned to her.
With that realization, she couldn’t keep from smiling.
And wondering just when she might get to see him again.
Two classes later, Sophie’s new-girl nerves had mostly settled. The other kids were curious about her but nice and the teachers were welcoming without directing too much attention at her. She’d always done well in school and was enjoying the challenge of figuring out the expectations of her new classes. It had been the distraction she needed to keep from thinking about Gavin, the boy who had made such a wild impression on her with just a look.
And then the nerves were suddenly back when Gavin took a seat in the chair next to her as she was digging through her backpack for a pen before her next class started.
“Sophie Kavanaugh, is it?” he asked smoothly as if they were picking up a conversation that had only recently been interrupted.
How did he know her name? He must have asked around. That meant he was just as interested in her as she was in him. Her stomach did that flippy thing again as she sat up straight and met his gaze. He was leaning back in his chair, his legs spread wide. He looked comfortable and confident. And yet, he was watching her so intently that it once more felt like they were the only ones in the classroom. How did he do that?
“And here all the way from America?” he continued before she could utter a response to his first question.
So, he didn’t just know her name. He knew she was far from home. Word definitely traveled fast around here. Thrown by both his familiar manner and the information he had, she only nodded. It didn’t help that up close, he was even better looking than she’d thought before. He radiated a kind of energy that made her want to lean into him, to try to … absorb him.
It was disorientating.
“Kavanaugh—that’s an Irish surname. Must mean you’ve come here to reclaim your heritage as you Yanks like to do, yeah?”
Just as she was trying to figure out if he was teasing her, he winked.
She tried to think of something flirty to say back but nothing clever came to her. “No, not exactly.”
His eyes followed her hands as she toyed with the solitaire diamond pendant on her gold necklace.
“That looks very dear,” he said.
Her eyebrows came together as she tried to decipher what he meant by “dear.”
“Expensive,” he clarified. “It looks expensive.”
“Oh. It was a gift from my parents for my birthday.”
Leaning toward her, he lowered his voice. “I’m dying to know what a gorgeous girl such as yourself is doing in these parts.”
The compliment sent a thrill through her, but there was no way she would admit to him that real story of why she’d moved here. The truth being that after one too many bullying incidents from the circle of girls who used to be her very best friends, she’d come up with this as an escape plan.
Instead, she blurted out, “I just wanted something new. New experiences.”
That made him smile and she realized how it might have sounded. Like she was the eager new girl, ready for anything. Not exactly what she meant, and she scrambled to give him a different explanation, even if it wasn’t the whole truth.
“I mean,” she started, “I told my parents that I’d like to visit Ireland and they thought it would be a good learning experience for me to come here for the school year.”
He squinted at her. “Is that how it is? You want something and your parents just—” He snapped his fingers. “Make it happen, do they?”
“Well, um, the thing is, my parents, they own a tech company. In Silicon Valley. That’s in northern California.”
“Yes, I’m not so backwards that I haven’t heard of Silicon Valley.”
She winced. She hadn’t meant to sound condescending. But that was clearly how he was taking it. She was nervous and not explaining this well at all. There was something about him that put her off-balance. She’d never felt like this around a boy before.
“Yes, of course, you have. Anyway, they’ve expanded their operations here. So, to them, it made perfect sense for me to take a year of studies abroad.”
He let out a low whistle. “Aye me. A year abroad. ”
She wanted to respond, to downplay how she’d described herself and the whole situation but didn’t get the chance.
“So, you’re a rich girl slumming it with us Paddies, is that it?”
There was an edge in his voice now and she wasn’t sure what to say. That insane moment of connection they’d shared in the hallway was suddenly long gone.
“Paddy is another word for an Irishman,” he said with exaggerated patience. “It can be harmless or a put-down.” He sat back in his chair. “If you’ve come here thinking you’re better than us lot, go ahead and use Paddy as you like.”
Her heart sank. Not only was he not interested in her like she’d fleetingly hoped, but it also seemed like he was trying to pick a fight with her. Her first instinct was to retreat, keep her head down and hope the taunting would all go away. But that was exactly what she’d done back home when things got rough and it had only made her miserable.
“Actually,” she said, forcing herself to push back, “my parents having money just makes me lucky, not the entitled jerk you seem to think I am. I came here with an open mind. Because, unlike you, I’d never make assumptions or talk down to others.”
He opened his mouth, hesitated, and then pressed his lips together. He watched her in silence, brow furrowed. She held his stare. They weren’t sharing the same electric connection they’d had earlier in the hallway. This was more like him trying to figure her out. And her desperately trying to hold her ground.
“Oh, would you look at what you’ve done,” a girl to Sophie’s left said.
The girl’s chocolate-brown hair was cut into a severe, but cute, bob. Heavy makeup covered her eyes and multiple earrings filled her lobes. But her smile was genuine and it made her instantly trustworthy as far as Sophie was concerned.
“What did I do?” Sophie asked softly. She’d been so fixated on Gavin that she hadn’t even considered that anyone else was paying attention to their interaction. A blush of embarrassment heated her cheeks when she thought what she must have looked like to this girl. Like some outsider who was feeling a little too comfortable speaking up, probably.
“Only the impossible. You’ve shut up Gavin McManus. And rightly so. He was being a complete arse, so fair play to you.” She gave Sophie a round of applause and Gavin smiled sourly. “I’m Felicity, by the way. Look, class is about to start, but I want you to promise me we’ll have lunch together. You can tell me all about America, yeah?”
Sophie smiled, relieved to have found this ally just when she needed it. At the same time, her heart was still beating wildly after standing up to Gavin. She chanced a look at him and found he was still watching her, his expression less confused now and more curious.
“Sure, that’d be great,” she said to Felicity.
Taking a deep breath, she faced forward and tried to shake off those new-girl nerves once more.