O'Reilly's Bride

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‘Oh, I know, even when they’re bad ones.’

‘Because everything you do is just so right all the time, isn’t it?’ She scowled at him. ‘You’re just perfect, right?’

‘No,’ he smiled a slightly lopsided smile at the comment, ‘that I’m most definitely not and we both know that I’m not.’

Maggie shook her head. ‘No, you’re not. But when you reckon you are and all your relationships are perfect then you can come and criticise mine.’

‘You can’t tell me you’re seriously considering staying with that guy?’ His eyes widened in question.

‘That wouldn’t be any of your business, would it?’ She fumbled inside her bag for her key, her eyes having to look down until she located it. Then she glanced up again, finally rediscovering her spine along the way. ‘I’ll follow my heart, Sean. Maybe you should try doing the same. That way we both stand a chance of finding the right person for ourselves.’

Sean stepped aside as she walked up the steps, fitted her key in the door and disappeared inside.

He stood for a long time staring at the door. Then he turned and looked out into the darkness.

When he’d come outside for a walk around the house it was because he hadn’t been able to sleep, not because he was spying on Maggie. He had needed to think about how he could try and mend their friendship, how he could discover what was bothering her and help fix it. Because he missed her. He really did.

Walking in on her with her ‘boyfriend’ had been completely unintentional. As had the clenching of his fists when the other man had leaned in to kiss her. If it had gone anything beyond that tepid touch of mouths he might even have unintentionally interrupted them. Or unintentionally felt the need to use one of those clenched fists.

Instead he’d ended up having one of the most sensual conversations of his life.

That conversation, too, might have been at least partially unintentional. But once he’d started he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It certainly wouldn’t have done anything to help rebuild their friendship. But what it had done was open him up to an earlier, small idea of his. One that now grew and took on wings.

The idea of following his heart as Maggie had said and taking a chance, in a roundabout way.

After all, she may not be in love with him now. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get her to fall for him, let her see that he could be exactly what she was looking for. That guy who had been right in front of her face all along. He could do that anonymously, without any risk to his pride, because she’d handed him the method. He could try and find out what it was that was bothering her, because she might talk to a stranger in the same way she’d encouraged him to talk in the beginning.

While doing that, he could vet all her other ‘candidates’.

Any interference with those candidates along the way would of course, naturally, be unintentional.

CHAPTER FOUR

HE WAS ‘at’ something.

At the morning meeting of crews in the station Sean smiled brightly at everyone, joked around with the other cameramen and flirted with their editor’s assistant before plonking himself down next to her with a grin and a ‘Hiya’ before the briefing started. That action alone made her nervous, for varying reasons.

She felt her body warm when his knee accidentally brushed against her thigh, was aware of every breath he took. She noticed how any movement in the room, displacing the air around them, would bring the scent of his aftershave to her sensitive nostrils.

So she retaliated with coldness. ‘Sarah’s a bit young for you, don’t you think?’

Sean smiled at her stern profile. ‘She’s legal. What more do I need to worry about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know…the nuclear fallout that might naturally accompany the break-up of some little affair?’ She turned her head to glare at him up close and personal. ‘And in the workplace that probably wouldn’t be the best career decision you’ve ever made, now, would it?’ Sean grinned a wolf-like grin at her. ‘That wouldn’t be a teeny bit of jealousy there, now, would it?’

Maggie snorted gracefully. ‘Dream on.’

He nudged her so suddenly she ended up nudging the guy beside her and had to take a second to apologise. Then she scowled back at him. ‘She’s twenty-three, Sean; leave her be. Let her discover most guys are snakes on her own.’

Sean focused his eyes forward, his voice dropping as the meeting started. ‘Maybe she should date someone with slightly better manners. Someone nice and polite.’ He tilted his head to whisper, ‘Someone who says please before they do anything.’

It took a moment for her to decipher his meaning. When she got it she gaped at him like a goldfish and struggled to find words that her mother wouldn’t slap her for saying. The inner struggle distracted her from mundane little things, like the meeting they were in. To the extent that it took two attempts at her name before her eyes focused on their editor.

‘You with us, Maggie?’

She flushed. ‘Yes, Joe; sorry.’

Joe quirked an eyebrow and handed her a sheet of paper. ‘There have been cuts in the fishing quotas so I want you to head to one of those wee ports on the Co. Down coast and see what the locals have to say.’

She nodded as she speed-read what he’d given her:

Usual background stuff, interviews with the families and local shop owners and then something with one of the crews out on a trawler.

Her eyes widened as she glanced up. ‘On the boat? As in at sea on the boat?’

‘Yes; is that a problem?’

‘No.’ She shook her head and pinned a smile on her face. ‘Not a problem. How long a piece?’

His eyes widened at the question. ‘Well, how about you just bring us as much as you can and we’ll edit it together? You know, it really depends what else comes up in the headlines.’

He moved on to the next crew and Maggie looked back at the sheet of contacts in front of her. This day just got better by the second. She hated boats. Really, truly couldn’t stand them. Ever since she’d gone swimming off one as a child. With a little help from her brother’s hands in the centre of her back, that was. The fear of water had never left her.

She swallowed hard and glanced at Sean as he leaned in to read over her shoulder. That at least distracted her from the thought of spending some of her day on a boat.

‘You OK?’ He looked at her eyes, close to his, one dark brow rising in question.

‘Oh, yeah, just fine and dandy.’ She smiled through clenched white teeth.

‘Great stuff.’ He leaned back, and within a few minutes the meeting broke up and they set off to drive to the east coast.

She had thought the journey would be hell. That after the conversation the night before and his wise-arse comments during the meeting she wouldn’t be able to face him. Or stay trapped with him in a car without ending up arguing with him. But it was like none of the previous things had ever happened. In fact Sean was more like they had both been in the good old days, when they got along a whole pile better.

He told her tales about Don and Rachel gardening the day before, with all their little glances and blushes. He talked about how they really should put low lighting along the path to the house, for safety reasons. He whittered away about her sister Kath’s new husband and what a great guy he was. But never once did he mention Bryan, their conversation after Bryan had left or how much he disagreed with her method of finding a husband. It freaked her out.

Something was going on.

The initial interviews with families of the trawler crews went smoothly, as did the ones with local businessmen who would see their own livelihoods affected if the fishing crews had to quit. Like every other small community built around the fishing industry, this one knew a cut in quotas could in time lead to the end of the village. And the fear came through as each of the people opened up to Maggie’s friendly manner and easy-going questioning.

Then came the thing that Maggie had been dreading for the entire day. It was time to take a trip on the big, wide ocean.

Her stomach churned and she watched the trees on the water’s edge shift as the wind picked up.

‘It’s getting windy.’

Sean glanced up from his camera and followed her gaze. ‘Some. Nothing compared to what these guys go out in half the time, though, I’ll bet.’

Her stomach churned again. And she hadn’t even left the safety of the stone jetty yet.

‘They’re very brave.’

Sean shrugged. ‘It’s what they do. I guess they don’t see it as anything but doing another day’s work.’

A burly man in a bright yellow waterproof coat smiled up at them as they walked to the end of the jetty.

‘You must be the TV people.’

Sean grinned and reached a large hand out to shake the other man’s. ‘Yep, that’s us. You must be Mike.’ ‘Mike McCabe. This here’s The Sally at the end.’

‘I’m Sean O’Reilly, this is Maggie Sullivan.’ Sean’s eyes drifted to Maggie’s pale face, surprised when she didn’t greet Mike with her trademark hundred-watt smile. ‘She’s normally brighter than this.’

Maggie glanced at him and then recovered, smiling as she shook Mike’s hand. ‘Hi, Mike.’

Mike’s ruddy face went even ruddier as she smiled at him. ‘Nice to meet you, Miss Sullivan. We see you on the box all the time.’

Maggie’s smile faded as he released her hand and turned towards the brightly coloured trawler. The scent of fish hit her nostrils, not exactly helping her churning stomach. ‘So this is your boat, then, Mike.’

‘Aye.’ He beamed with pride as he jumped down onto the deck and held out his hand to help her aboard. ‘This is The Sally. My dad’s boat and mine now. It’ll be my boys’ one day if the quotas don’t kill us first.’

She gave herself a minute to accustom herself to the movement of the deck beneath her feet. Then the boat rocked as Sean landed beside her with a huge thud of equally huge feet on wood. He glanced at her, his hand cupping her elbow. ‘You OK?’

‘Oh, I’m great.’ She moved into the centre of the boat as the engines started and Mike’s crew cast off from the jetty. ‘Let’s just get this done.’

They went out a lot further than she’d thought they would. And if it had been a tad windy by the water’s edge, in the shelter of the harbour, out in the main channel was to her the equivalent of a hurricane.

They started the interview once The Sally had thrown out her nets and Sean had got plenty of footage of the crew at work. Maggie managed to get through it. Just. But by the end she had to run to the railing to throw up.

Sean appeared by her side with a bottle of water and rubbed her back. ‘You should have said you weren’t feeling well.’

She turned from the railing and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ‘I’m not sick.’

‘No, course not; you were just considerately feeding the starving fish of the world your breakfast.’ He grinned.

A similar grin appeared at the lip of the water bottle. ‘You’re a funny guy. But I’m not sick, really.’

‘I see.’ He leaned back against the railing and folded his arms across his chest, his dark hair catching in the wind. ‘Well, since you’ve never mentioned having a problem with boats, then that leaves only one option.’

‘Oh, really?’ She quirked an eyebrow at him. ‘Well, since you’re so all damned knowing and seeing, what, pray tell, would that be?’

His eyes sparkled at her as she continued to smile. This was more like normality for them. This easy banter and comfortable proximity. This was the kind of thing he missed.

With a deep breath he winked at her. ‘Since I’m the only guy you’ve slept with these last few months, you must be pregnant. Guess we’ll just have to go get married.’

Maggie’s smile disappeared, her breath caught in her lungs and her heart twisted agonisingly in her chest. Already emotional about her complete panic being on a boat, miles from shore, she found it too much of an effort to hold back the shimmer that appeared in her eyes. She swiftly turned her face from his.

But he’d seen it. ‘Hey.’ He leapt away from the railing, his arm encircling her shoulders. ‘What’s up?’

Her eyes glancing out at the choppy waves, she shook her head. ‘I’m fine. It’s just this boat.’

‘You sure?’ His voice was soft, persuasive. ‘You can tell me, you know.’

She nodded and gripped the railing again. ‘I just really hate boats, that’s all.’ She glanced at him through watery eyes. ‘I can’t swim.’

‘You can’t swim?’

‘No.’ She smiled. ‘Colin pushed me off a boat when I was six and I almost drowned. I’m scared rigid of the water.’

His eyes widened at the new information. ‘You should have said.’ He hauled her into his arms and tucked her head beneath his chin. ‘We could have shot this on the dock.’

‘Not unless it was boat-shaped, we couldn’t.’ She sniffed against his broad chest, forcing herself to open up about one thing when she couldn’t about another. ‘Joe wanted it done on a boat. And you know I always get the story I’m sent to get.’

‘Even when you don’t want to get it, huh?’

She risked lifting her head to look up at him. ‘Because that’s what people like you and me do.’

Something crossed his eyes, then he lifted a hand to tuck her head back into place. ‘Sometimes it’s just not a big enough deal to cause yourself pain over.’

‘And sometimes you just have to get on with it so that it’s more real for other people.’

It was ridiculous to mentally compare what they were doing now to what Sean had done for years. But sometimes, when things were difficult for her, Maggie would find herself thinking of what he might have seen and it made her braver, out of a sense of shame if nothing else. How could she be such a chicken about a simple thing like a boat when he’d risked his life dozens of times?

Sean still hadn’t really talked much about his years working in battle zones. Travelling from one hell to another. Every time they got close to broaching the subject he would get that look in his eyes, would shut the world out while he remembered. It was that vulnerability that drew her to him time after time. She would feel a tug from her heart, demanding that she offer him comfort of some kind. It pulled her closer to him as their friendship grew, it held her to him. That very vulnerability becoming her vulnerability. What little he talked about only drew her further in.