What Love Can Do: O’Neill Brothers (Home to Green Valley Book 1)

Nine

A familiar ringing sound blared nearby. Nightstand, Quinn thought, as he blindly reached out for his phone. Who the hell was calling him so early? “Filthy bowser…” he mumbled, feeling his way across the bed sheets until he finally grabbed his phone and brought it up to his face to check the time. “One o’clock? What the feck?”

He vaguely recognized the number flashing on the screen as belonging to Brady before the phone stopped ringing and the call clicked over to voicemail. His eyes roved across the gray walls in midday light to the crown molding along the ceiling to the window where a light rain fell outside. For a moment, he wasn’t even sure where he was. Knackered, was all he knew.

Must be the jet lag.

Then, he remembered: bed and breakfast…the States…a beautiful, sexy woman who’d blown his mind last night—among other things. “Lilly,” he said her name, trying it on for size.

It all came back to him… He’d fallen asleep next to her out on her private deck. Almost as hard as he’d come. When he’d woken, it was still pitch dark outside and he’d ignored the beauty of the stars above them to stare at the beauty beside him. He’d looked at her so long he’d been tempted to kiss her awake—specifically, by burying his face between her luscious thighs—but he’d held back. They had agreed to only one time while driving back from Mulligan’s, and he hadn’t wanted to make things difficult or awkward for her when she woke up, so he’d let himself out. Now, he seriously regretted it. He didn’t have her phone number, but if he did, he would’ve texted her saying what a great time he had last night, maybe try to tempt her to have another go, maybe even take a pic of himself in his boxers lying suggestively in bed, just to tease her.

What an amazing hideaway that third floor balcony and garden had been. But damn, it was Lilly who was truly amazing. Lilly had been laying low from the moment he’d met her. There she’d been, innocently making muffins, wholesome and pure and talking wine and American football at the pub, and meanwhile, she was a total ride—the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. He should’ve guessed it after seeing her apron that tempted others to lick the bowl clean.

Aye, he’d have trouble forgetting her.

But he had to.

Last night had been it—one time together, no more. They had a pact to keep.

It took a few minutes, but he realized Con wasn’t with him. Must’ve gone home with that Dara bird after he spent the night giving her the glad eye. Good for him. He’d needed to get laid, if only to get his mind off Mam.

Quinn sat up, threw his legs over the edge of the bed, and rubbed his eyes. He used the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and got dressed and ready to head out. He’d probably run into Lilly in the dining room so he brushed his hair and made sure he looked well put together, but not too well to look like he’d done it for her.

A light knock came at his door. Padding over barefoot, he opened it, pleasantly surprised when he saw who was there, all gleaming and working-goddess-like. “Hullo, Lil.” How did she keep getting prettier every time he saw her? Today, her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail with a few wisps around her forehead. She wore her Lick the Bowl apron again, flour stains, and a pencil above her right ear. “You look good enough to eat.” He opened the door to let her in and brushed off splotches of flour from her sleeve.

“Quinn.” There was a drag in her voice. No smile for him this morning either. Bummer. “Can I come in?”

“That’s why I’m holding the door wide open.” He smiled. She seemed nervous, with the way she was wringing her hands and all, pushing her hair behind her ears. He shouldn’t be joking with her now. “Sorry, I mean, of course, you can come in. Are you alright?”

A few steps into the room, Lilly made no pretenses. She looked like a woman with a secret burning a hole into her brain. Her worried gaze landed on his mother’s leather-bound journal on his nightstand then back at him. She got straight to the point. “Why did you say you were in town again?”

This was her first thought after the amazing sex they’d had last night?

“My mother passed away almost two weeks ago. She hailed from Green Valley, though my brothers and I, we never knew that until recently. I only have that…” He pointed to the journal, marked about halfway with Post-It Notes. “It was my mother’s from when she lived here.”

“May I see it?” she asked, moving towards it.

“No.” His voice was firm, resolute, and she stopped in her tracks. From the scolded look in her baby blues, he immediately regretted talking to her that way. “I mean, it’s personal. Only me and my brothers have looked through it, though I’m the only one who reads it over and over.”

“Why? What are you looking for?”

“Clues, hints of who she was before she came to Ireland.”

“Why? What difference will it make?”

Quinn sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. He wasn’t sure what was up with this interrogation, but it seemed important to her. “I don’t know that it will. But like I told you last night, I’m at a point in my life where I may or may not leave Dublin, Lil. That’s not an easy decision. I need to know what was so special about Forestville that she couldn’t even talk about it after she left. I want to know who was the woman who became my mam.” He had said too much. Yes, he had shared very special, very intimate times with Lilly last night, but that was no reason to go getting so personal. “Why do you ask?” He turned a fixed gaze on her. He desperately wanted to slide his hand over and link fingers with hers, tell her that he’d had fun last night, but she didn’t seem in the right frame of mind.

“Would you read me a bit from the journal then?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

Quinn tilted his head. “You know, I have to say, I’m a bit baffled right now. I thought we’d have things to say to each other about last night, about that awesome finale to a wonderful evening.” His eyes searched hers for any clue that the shared connection was still there. It seemed gone. Whatever happened between last night and now, it had wiped the light from her eyes. “Or don’t you remember?”

The words reached her heart, seemed to awaken her, if only for a moment. The furrow on her forehead flattened. “Of course I do. It was an amazing night.”

“So then, what’s the problem?”

She bit her lip and looked away, paced the room, stood at the window to stare outside at the driving rain. “Where’s your brother?”

“He hasn’t been here. I was going to start calling him, though I’m sure he’s fine.”

She sighed, softened a bit. “Just a page or two, Quinn? From your mother’s journal. Please?”

Something in her eyes. Maybe she’d looked into things. After all, this was a small town, and people talked, and he had called his grandfather prior to coming to tell him he would be here. Word, technically, could have gotten around about him and Con. She probably wanted to know where she stood with him.

He sighed, reaching for the journal, flipping to the last page he’d read from:

“Dear Diary, it was raining again tonight, but I went to Mulligan’s Tavern anyway. I went, because it’s new, and I heard they’d be having live music and because Gracie told me she would let me drive the scooter she’d won in a sweepstakes around town if I went with her. She was scared of Irish boys, but not me. Yes, they’re far out crazy with their whoopin’ and hollerin’ and they can make a girl feel self-conscious with their obvious stares, but they’re sweet and funny and they’ll charm the pants off of you.

I would know, because I met one. In town today, visiting just for a week. His name is Grant (second one), and he said he’d be at Mulligan’s if I wanted to talk to him some more. That’s the real reason I didn’t want to go at first, Diary. I didn’t want to get in trouble. But it looks like I already am. More later.”

Quinn looked up.

Lilly stood by the window, listening intently, mesmerized, gnawing at her fingers. “Is that it?”

“Well, no, there’s a whole journal, but you said read a little bit, and now I’ve gone and done that. Why do you look that way, like the river is rising and flooding the whole of Green Valley? All nervous, as though something’s wrong?”

She shrugged, twirled her hand around. “Gracie is Avery’s cousin,” she said, thinking things through, as though he wasn’t even in the room.

Who was Avery?

“Does it say anything in there about another guy? Besides your father, that is?”

“No, not this part. In another entry, she mentions a guy named Ken, but honestly, she doesn’t talk about him a whole lot. She only says ‘him’ or ‘the first one’ and ‘the second one,’ almost like she was talking in code, worried someone would read her journal. Probably her dad. My grandfather,” Quinn added. “Isn’t the most compassionate guy, apparently.”

Lilly stared at him, fingertips to her lips. “I’ve heard that about him.”

“You know him?” Quinn asked.

“Not personally, no. I mean, I’ve seen him around town at barbecues and church, but I’ve never had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Phillips.”

“My mother’s family stopped speaking to her,” Quinn said. “An abysmal thing to do, if you ask me.”

“Maybe there was a reason they did that,” Lilly muttered, lifting one shoulder in knowing indifference.

Did she really just…?

“What good reason could there be, Lil?” Quinn was surprised she would defend his grandfather—all the Phillipses—that way. “What good reason would make a town, your sisters, your parents stop talking to you? It’s not like she murdered anyone, for feck’s sake. Ah, be gone with it. I thought you’d be more understanding.” He didn’t know why, but Quinn felt desperately irked right now. What business did Lilly have saying maybe there was good reason for his mam’s family to stop communicating with her? Like she knew anything. “Anyway, I need to get dressed and ready for the day.” He went back to looking for his shoes and fishing out a pair of socks from his open suitcase.

Lilly brought her hands to her reddened face. “Oh, Quinn, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what on Earth came over me. I’m just…” She sank into the armchair by the window and sighed desperately. “Stressed.”

Watching her, he dropped his guard slowly. Maybe she was feeling negative after-effects after being with him last night. Maybe she had learned about his mam through the proverbial grapevine and needed to hear the other side of the story. Either way, she really hadn’t meant to be offensive or hurtful.

“You know,” Quinn said, sinking onto the edge of the bed, “I only came to Forestville, because I wanted to see where my mam grew up, where she roller skated, the bridge where she dangled her feet, the people who helped shape her life. I didn’t expect to get judged for it, at least not by anyone who wasn’t my own family. But it seems like that’s what’s happening and I have no idea why. My brothers and I knew her like no one else, and yet we didn’t know her at all. I feel tremendous guilt for that, Lil. Knowing my first love, the queen of my heart, is gone, and I can’t ask her questions anymore. I just get these pieces left behind that I have to put together myself.” Quinn plucked his shoes from beside the bed and started putting them on, sock, sock, then shoe, shoe.

Lilly’s gentle hand fell on his shoulder, and his brain suddenly recognized the scent of her skin, and his body came alive the moment she touched him. Memories from last night swarmed into his brain—her naked belly, the one little beauty spot above her navel, her eyes as she was climaxing, the way she arched her back, and her fluttering lashes. “Quinn, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I only meant that there are two sides to every story.”

“Three, actually. Two sides and the truth,” Quinn clarified. “Did you ask your mam about her? Is that why you seem different today? Because listen, I want you to know, as much as I love my mam, as wonderful a person as I know she is and will never be convinced otherwise, and as much as I want to get to know more about my mam by being here, I’m not her. I’m my own person.”

“And I get that. I do, because I’m my own person too, Quinn.” She crouched and stared into his eyes. Her fingers curled around his. “And I didn’t approach my mother, but she said…” She paused, choosing her words carefully.

“Said what?”

She sighed. “She said your mother hurt a lot of people when she left.” Releasing his hand, she lifted her fingers and grazed his chin, played with the stubble there, as she tried on a smile for the first time since coming into his room. “But it doesn’t matter, because I like you. Tons. What I should have said first was that I really had a great time last night. Thank you for the flowers.”

“They were your flowers,” he said, even though part of him wanted to ask her more questions about what her mam had said about his mam. But it was a subject that obviously troubled Lilly and besides, he already knew his mother’s family had felt betrayed by her leaving.

“Yes, but no one has ever given me any before.”

“No one has given you flowers?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could such an amazing, gorgeous, smart woman never have received flowers before? What was wrong with American men? Did they not have eyeballs?

“No. I’ve only had one serious boyfriend before, and he wasn’t too charming,” she said with a caustic scoff. “But you—God, I know we said it would only be one night, but…”

“But?” He helped her to a standing position, forearms resting on each other, staring into each other’s pained eyes.

“But I really want to spend more time with you. Even if it’s just for a short while. Can you handle that?” A small dimple in her lower cheek appeared when she was uncertain, he noticed. He wanted desperately to kiss it.

Tapping the dimpled spot, he smiled. “I think so. Want to have fun as long as we can? Is that the idea?” Actually, that sounded good to him. After last night, he knew that one time seeing her naked wasn’t going to be enough.

“Yes.” She sighed and leaned into him, pressing her full breasts against his chest. Her arms snaked around his torso. She was warm and smelled like vanilla. “Do you have anywhere to go? Am I distracting you from leaving?”

Her soft breath warmed his chin, and he lowered his face to bite her bottom lip softly. “No, am I distracting you from getting back to work?”

“No. Is your brother going to come back any moment now?”

“I don’t know. But guess what? I don’t care.”

“I don’t care either.” They fell onto the bed and melted into a hot, sweet long kiss. Her delicate hands explored his hard body and she nudged his shoes off with her feet. “I’ve always wanted to see how comfortable these beds were,” she said, leaning against his pillow and pulling Quinn down on top of her.

He was already excited from just kissing. This was what she did to him. He wanted her, but he had to be careful. Don’t fall in love, he thought, even as he kissed her intoxicating lips and pale neck, removing her apron and shirt to reveal soft white skin, aching breasts yearning against his hands, and her pounding heart. Don’t do it, he mentally repeated for good measure, even as part of him acknowledged it might already be too late.