Читать книгу The Bridal Bet - Trish Wylie - Страница 9

End of summer—fifteen years ago

‘FRIENDS don’t kiss.’

‘Ever?’

Molly thought for a moment, her long legs tucked beneath her on the large sofa. It was the last night of the summer holidays and in the morning their two families would part again for another year. To celebrate the last evening they had had a huge barbecue by the lough before returning to Ryan’s family’s summerhouse. While the adults had drunk wine, chatting on the porch, the two kids had sat themselves in front of a video in the family room.

‘Never.’

Ryan studied her profile carefully. ‘What about when they say goodbye or wish each other a happy birthday?’

‘That’s different. Those are friendly kisses.’

‘And the difference would be…?’ She had piqued his interest and he wondered just what the extent of her knowledge could be at her age.

Molly avoided looking directly at him. Instead she kept her gaze focused on the television screen as she watched the source of their debate. They had been watching When Harry met Sally.

Out of the corner of his eye he had seen Molly blush a crimson-red during the café scene when Meg Ryan had demonstrated her talent for faking it. He had impressed himself by not laughing at her reaction. After all, it wasn’t that he was that much more experienced than she was. A few fumblings in the darkness of a cinema or the back seat of a friend’s car on a Saturday evening hardly made for a sex-life to brag about.

‘You know.’ She blushed again.

‘Yes, I do know.’ He smiled teasingly. ‘I’m just curious to see if you do.’

Molly knew she should never have allowed this particular debate to begin. They didn’t talk about stuff like this, and she was so embarrassed she wanted to have the sofa open up and swallow her.

‘Well, let’s just say I know the difference.’

‘So, go on, then.’

‘Fine.’ By the time she spun to face him he’d already realised that he’d sparked her temper. It was her best defence in times of difficulty. And, boy, did she have a temper. ‘You want to ruin our last night by being dumb and teasing me, then that’s just fine. I don’t really know, and you know I don’t really know. I’ve never been kissed by a boy before. Not that way. Satisfied now? But I know there should be a difference.’

Ryan reached out and touched her arm. ‘I wasn’t trying to be mean. I was just wondering what you’d say.’

‘Well, now you know.’ She pulled her arm away from him and leaned back, her mouth pouting slightly. ‘And how am I ever supposed to find out when I look like this? Boys don’t kiss girls who look like me. They kiss pretty girls.’

‘I thought you said boys were stupid?’

A frown creased her forehead. ‘They are. But I guess it would be nice to have one even slightly interested in kissing me.’

Ryan smiled his lop-sided smile as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ‘O’Brien, I’ll make you a deal.’

Turning her head towards him, she raised an eyebrow. ‘What kind of deal?’

‘Well…’ He leaned towards her, his voice low. ‘If you haven’t found out what it’s like to be kissed by the time you’re eighteen, I’ll kiss you.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You?’

‘Yes, me.’

Molly stared. ‘Kiss me?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Kiss you. On your eighteenth birthday.’

She continued staring at him, as if suddenly seeing a side of him she’d never noticed before. Then she laughed and laughed, until tears fell from her eyes.

‘Not in this lifetime.’

‘I heard a rumour today in the newsagent’s.’

Molly didn’t lift her head as her friend and neighbour-to-be perched herself against the counter in front of her. Molly had opened the new gift shop in the forest park with Kate not long after coming home. She used one side of the store to display and sell mounted copies of her work, her one true love. Photography.

They had spent the morning selling various mugs, sticks of rock, key chains and guidebooks to two coachloads of tourists, as well as two of Molly’s more expensive photographs of wildlife on the lough. So it was the first opportunity they’d had to talk since the weekend’s barbecue.

Molly knew only too well what rumour Kate was referring to.

‘Did you, now?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Well, they do say the newsagent’s is the place to get news.’ Still she didn’t look up from the counter.

Kate waved her hand underneath Molly’s nose until she looked at her. ‘You know rightly what rumour I’m talking about, and don’t you dare tell me you don’t.’

‘Come on, Kate, we both know how active kids’ imaginations can be.’ She tried her best to look sincere as she smiled at Kate, one of her closest friends. As she looked at Kate’s trusting eyes she also remembered the crush she had had on Ryan when they were teenagers. But Kate was a married woman now, and happily heavy with child.

Her friend smiled smugly. ‘I don’t think I mentioned any kids.’

Molly blushed a fiery red, which she was sure wasn’t matching her hair colour well. ‘Kate, I’d really rather not talk about this.’

‘Oh, no, you don’t. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.’ She made herself comfortable leaning on the counter. ‘Tell Auntie Kate all about it, and don’t you dare skip any details.’

As she looked at her friend Molly knew she couldn’t tell her the truth. Kate had never understood the challenges that she and Ryan had aimed at each other over the years. Kate was a happily—no, blissfully married woman, who adored her husband and wanted the rest of the world to be as in love as they were. How could Molly tell her why they were doing this? It would be easier to tell her the version of the truth that she wanted to hear, and then she and Ryan could just ‘split up’, as they’d planned, in three months’ time. Kate would be none the wiser. Simple.

‘What do you want to know?’

Kate hit her on the shoulder. ‘Aw, come on, Molly. Did Ryan kiss you at the barbecue or not?’

That at least wasn’t a lie. ‘Yes, he did.’ She blushed again.

‘And?’

‘And what?’

Kate sighed dramatically. ‘It’s like getting blood out of a stone. What was it like? Why did he kiss you now, after all this time? What’s going on? ’Cos you know I’ve always wondered what it was with you two.’

Molly’s eyes widened. She stared incredulously at her friend. ‘You have? How come you’ve never said so? I mean, you of all people have always known how I felt about Ryan, so what on earth made you think—?’

‘Molly, it’s Ryan Callaghan we’re talking about, here. I could never understand why you can’t see what’s absolutely plain as day to everyone else with a pulse. The man is gorgeous.’

‘Ryan is? Are you nuts? I’ve called him many things in my time, but gorgeous was never one of them.’ She laughed. ‘He’s just Ryan.’

Kate’s eyebrows raised until they disappeared under her fringe. ‘When was the last time you looked at him?’ She grinned widely. ‘Last Saturday night not included, of course.’

‘That’s not fair. I look at him.’

She felt Kate’s eyes follow her as she moved away from the counter to rearrange the prints on the opposite wall, filling in the recent gaps that had appeared.

‘Really? So you’ll know what colour his eyes are, then.’

‘That’s stupid. I know that—they’re dark.’

‘Dark what?’

Molly’s hands stilled as she thought, and then she smiled into thin air as she gained a mental image. ‘Brown—you know—like that melted chocolate in the ad.’

‘My goodness, Miss O’Brien, I had no idea you cared.’

Molly froze as Ryan’s voice sounded close to her ear. She hadn’t heard him enter the shop. She turned to look at him, finding his eyes glittering in a ‘gotcha’ kind of a way.

She stared as he turned to wink at Kate. ‘Hi, Kate, how are ya?’ Then, looking back into Molly’s eyes, he added, ‘Do go on. I could stand a few more compliments.’

‘You rat. How long have you been in here?’ She set her hands on his chest to push him out of her way. Instead he stood his ground, and placed his hands over hers to hold them against him. She could feel the beat of his heart against his shirt, was far too aware of his warmth, and was desperately tempted to kick him in the shins. ‘Get out of my way!’

‘Not ’til you agree to come swimming this evening. It’s grand and warm outside. I thought we could eat over by the shore at Doon.’

She glared straight into his melted chocolate eyes, following their gaze as they swept back to Kate’s grinning face. ‘Don’t you think she should come swimming, Kate, on a lovely night like this will be?’

Kate positively glowed back at him. ‘Oh, definitely, Ryan.’

‘See?’ He looked back at her and immediately found himself looking at her mouth. A memory hit his mind uninvited and he frowned slightly. ‘Kate agrees.’

Molly studied his frown, noticed where he was looking, and without thinking moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. Dear Lord, but this little game was nearly too easy. ‘Okay, you win. I’ll go.’

Momentarily distracted by what she’d done with her tongue, Ryan had to take a second to focus on what she’d just said. ‘Okay. Uh, I’ll see you later, then.’

Molly smiled at his expression. ‘Okay.’

‘Right.’

Ryan looked at Molly, and Molly looked right back. Kate coughed and the world rocked back into place.

‘Right, then.’ Ryan grinned, released her hands and swung on his heel to leave the shop. ‘Bye, ladies.’

Kate watched him leave and then turned to Molly, fanning her face with one hand. ‘Is it just me, or did it just get real warm in here?’

Having spent the entire morning dodging questions from the ever curious Kate, Molly decided to escape the shop at lunchtime. She got sandwiches and a carton of juice from the cafeteria and then headed out into the warm June sunshine to sit by the main harbour.

Sunglasses on, she took a moment to soak in the atmosphere before tearing open the sandwiches and looking around. With hourly boat tours from the lough’s main harbour, tourists were milling around in an assortment of holiday clothing. It didn’t take long for her to pick Ryan out of the crowd, with him easily one of the tallest men there.

Gorgeous was never a word she would have associated with Ryan. Brad Pitt, yes. But Ryan Callaghan? Nope. Not that she thought he was troll-like. She frowned behind her sunglasses. So, what was he?

In her capacity as an experienced crowd-watcher she glanced around to see if she could find any good-looking men to compare him with. Purely for scientific purposes, of course. She found a fair-haired American who had flirted with her in the shop earlier and then looked at them both.

The American was quite tall—probably six feet—but slim, as was usually typical of taller men. Ryan, on the other hand, was broad across his shoulders and chest. Not fat. Quite definitely not fat. But broad.

The American’s hair was fair, while Ryan’s hair was a rich dark brown—so dark that when the light hit it it shone. Biting into her sandwich, Molly supposed that was fairly attractive.

The American had an open smiling face, with pale eyes that had teased when he’d flirted with Molly. Ryan’s face could be lots of different things, depending on his mood at the time. But most of all, regardless of his straight, even features and strong chin, he had an honest face. Molly had always liked the fact that she could read just about every emotion from Ryan’s face.

A soft smile touched her mouth as she watched him run across the harbour to give a small girl the stuffed bear she had just dropped. The little girl smiled, then giggled as he spoke to her, and Molly didn’t have to see his face to know what it would be like. He’d always had that gentle look in his eyes when he’d teased her the first year they met. Without trying he had a way of drawing a smile out of a person, no matter how old they were.

That was the one thing she would never deny about Ryan. He was a genuinely nice guy. Molly smiled all the more when she thought about how much he would hate being told so, but he was.

Green eyes followed him until he walked out of her sight, his body moving in long strides that spoke of a silent confidence in his own strength. Then, her gaze falling onto the water, Molly finished her lunch.

Kate was right. She had never really thought about it, but Kate was right. Ryan was a gorgeous man. More than that, he was a nice, caring, gorgeous man. Shame, really. He just wasn’t Molly’s usual type. She’d never even been attracted to someone like him in her entire life. Just as well, she surmised, otherwise she might have got hurt in this latest game of theirs.

Molly’s eighteenth birthday

It wasn’t Ryan who kissed Molly on her eighteenth birthday. By then their worlds had changed and so, in many ways, had they. By her eighteenth birthday the two friends had become three, and then two of the three had become a pair. ‘I can’t believe you kept him secret from me for so long,’ Molly challenged him with one elegantly raised eyebrow. ‘Did you do it to torture me, or were you waiting ’til I had straight teeth?’

‘As if I’d want to inflict you on any of my other friends.’

She surprised him then, by leaning forward and planting a warm kiss on his cheek. ‘I love you, you know.’

Ryan wiggled his eyebrows ridiculously. ‘Yeah, yeah—you and half the female population. I know.’

One elegant fingernail tapped on the end of his nose. ‘Well, I was first, and don’t you forget it.’

He reached out to steady her arms as she swayed towards him, smiling indulgently. ‘And you, my red-haired friend, are a little the worse for birthday juice, aren’t you?’

‘Me? Why, Callaghan, I’m shocked you could even think such a thing.’ She wrapped her arms around his waist, smiling up at him from his shoulder. ‘But I am having a really great birthday. How ’bout you?’

Dark eyes shone down into green. ‘It’s not my birthday.’

‘I know that. But are you having a great time?’

‘With you? Always.’ Molly frowned at him with an all too familiar pout on her full lips. ‘You’re teasing me.’

‘Would I?’

‘Yes. But you know what?’

‘Go on, O’Brien, amaze me.’ He smiled again. ‘What?’

‘I forgive you.’

Placing one strong arm around her slender waist, he half carried her towards an empty table. ‘Well, I’m relieved about that. Now, why don’t you just have a wee rest at this little table for a while and I’ll find you some nice birthday coffee?’

Slumping down into the offered chair, Molly looked up at him. She frowned for a moment, looked around, and then patted the chair beside her. ‘Sit down. I want to talk to you.’

‘I’ll just get some of that nice birthday coffee first.’

‘No!’ She grabbed hold of his shirtsleeve. ‘No, now.’

Ryan watched as the wheels slowly turned in her head. Then she smiled at him. Looking at him from beneath long darkened eyelashes, she was positively flirtatious, and for some reason he couldn’t stop himself from noticing it. Damn but she’d grown up. And it wasn’t just the removal of her braces that had got her noticed by Kieran, his university roommate. She just seemed to have blossomed overnight.

Almost in slow motion, he sat down beside her. ‘What’s up?’

‘Do you think I’m pretty?’

The question caught him off guard. Especially considering he’d already begun to notice how she looked. For a split second he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.

Molly giggled musically. ‘Why, Callaghan, I do believe for the first time ever I’ve managed to make you speechless. Happy Birthday me.’

He tried to stand up. ‘I’ll just get that coffee. I’d really like a cup, wouldn’t you?’

She placed her hand on his thigh and pushed him back into the chair. Another dangerous smile. ‘Don’t avoid the subject at hand.’

Ryan was too busy trying to ignore ‘the subject at hand’. The burning sensation on his thigh where her hand rested. Hadn’t anyone told her what happened to twenty-one-year old males whenever good-looking females touched them that close to…?

He carefully removed the hand, placing it into the safety of her own lap. ‘Why would I avoid it? Of course you’re pretty, Moll. That brace thing being off really helps.’

‘Is it just the brace?’ She leaned in close to him, her voice low. ‘Is it just the brace, or have I changed at all—you know, anywhere else?’

If that rabbit didn’t move soon it was going to get squooshed. A blink, then another, and then Ryan’s brain started to work. ‘Uh, what exactly are you fishing for?’

‘Have you noticed anything different about me?’ Her face was dangerously close to his. ‘I mean, since you last saw me?’

Ryan swallowed hard to moisten his dry throat. Wow, but she smelled good—all soapy and slightly perfumey. Like flowers. Hello, Ryan! Get a grip here. Hormone alert.

‘In what way, exactly?’

‘You tell me.’

Molly stood up in front of him and turned full circle before holding her arms out at her sides. ‘How do I look to you?’

Ryan did as he was bid and looked at her. He took a real good, long look at her. She was sensational. Really. He’d never thought of himself as a sexist kind of guy who ogled women’s legs, but—wow. In a split second he decided he was a legs man. Not that he hadn’t known that Molly had legs. Hell, he’d seen them in shorts or swimsuits every summer for the past four years. But not like this. Not encased in the sheerest of black stockings with her feet in the silliest strappy high heels he had ever seen. Not displayed to the world from beneath the teeniest of miniskirts. Had she actually paid money for that scrap of material?

‘Well?’

‘Huh?’

‘Well? What do you see?’

He waved away her protests with one arm. ‘I’m still looking.’

She had the smallest waist he thought he’d ever seen. Was she too skinny? Was that it? Did she have some kind of dumb obsession with her weight? No. His eyes travelled upwards. No, her weight was just fine. She had breasts now—small, full breasts that peeked out at him from the deep vee of her tight top. Maybe he was a breasts man after all. Then he looked back down at her legs. Nope. Still a legs man.

Then he looked up at her face. The freckles had faded down over the years. From somewhere she had got this creamy complexion. Full moist lips that drew into a wide smile over perfectly straight white teeth. Thank you, Mr Orthodontist. Wide green eyes above an elegantly upturned nose…

A hand waved in front of his face. ‘Well—can you see it?’

His voice was sharp. ‘Damn it, O’Brien, see what?’ He’d seen plenty, and it irritated him that he’d noticed as much as he had. ‘You look just fine to me.’

‘Fine? I look just fine?’ She looked annoyed. ‘Well, thanks a bunch, big man.’

‘Oh, hell.’ Ryan ran long fingers through his short hair. ‘What am I supposed to notice?’

With a sigh he could hear above the newly started music, she moved forwards. Placing one slender hand on either side of his face, her eyes smiled into his. ‘Don’t you see it, Ryan? I’m in love. For the first time in my life I’m in love. And it’s with your friend. Thanks to you, I’m going to find out exactly what it’s like to be with that someone who really matters.’

Ryan’s gut twisted. How could he have known? How could he have seen that his two friends would end up this wrapped in each other? He’d met Kieran his first term at university in Dublin and had instantly liked the guy. With his golden good looks and extrovert nature he was popular on campus. And so much more outgoing than Ryan himself. He had an ease about him that people instantly took to.

Captain of the rugby team, top of his class in business studies, rich family in Galway. The guy had everything. All the criteria that overly protective brother figures would look for in a boyfriend for someone they really cared about. So why did he suddenly wish they’d never met?

Much as she hated to admit it, Ryan had been right. Yet again. This time about the evening being perfect for swimming at Doon Shore. Situated on the side of the lough furthest from the main tourist amenities, it tended to be a place that only the locals and a few cruise boat tourists ever knew about. Which also meant that on a sunny summer evening it was normally filled with townsfolk. Most of whom seemed to be smiling more than usual when they greeted them.

Lying on their stomachs, side by side on a large rug, they watched as people watched them. Molly pushed her sunglasses onto her head and turned to look at Ryan, beside her. His eyes had closed, long lashes dark against his tanned skin. ‘I had never realised we were so all-fired interesting, had you?’

He didn’t open his eyes, but with his head turned towards her as it was he didn’t have to raise his voice above a conspirator’s whisper. ‘We’ve always been interesting. We just didn’t notice it so much before.’

‘Doesn’t it bother you now that you know?’

‘You’ve been away. I’ve had this kind of attention and speculation aimed at me ever since I came back here. That’s what comes of being single in a small town. You can’t so much as say hello to a pretty female without the gossips starting. They’ve got nothing else to do.’

The wheels turned slowly in her head.

Ryan smiled a slow, sleepy smile, still with his eyes closed. ‘Okay, I can hear those wheels a-turnin’. What?’

She hated the way he could do that. What was he? Psychic?

‘Haven’t you dated anyone since I’ve been away?’

‘Why?’ The smile transformed to a grin. ‘Jealous?’

‘Ha, ha.’ She nudged him with her elbow. ‘No, I mean, well, you can’t not have dated anyone since you moved up here. So I guess what I mean is—I’m not cramping your style, am I? Living with you, I mean?’

He opened his eyes and squinted up at her, curious as to what her face might tell him. But she turned away before he could see anything, studying the crowd who lined the shore.

‘Moll, if you’re asking me whether or not your living in my house is affecting my sex-life, then I think we’re about to hit uncharted territory here.’

‘Well, we’ve always been up-front with each other, and half the population already seems to believe I am your sex-life. So I was just curious.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I wondered, that’s all.’

Ryan turned onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow to study her closer. He was rewarded for his moment’s patience when she turned to look at him. There was concern in her eyes, and he realised she was genuinely worried about ‘cramping his style’. Without thinking about it he reached out to her, brushing a long lock of damp auburn hair away from her cheek. ‘Even if I was seeing someone, which we both know I’m not—unless, of course, you count you—I wouldn’t be able to make love to them in the house while you were there.’

Molly noted the quiet affection in his voice and smiled down at him. He really was just such a nice guy. Still, she couldn’t resist teasing him. ‘What’s wrong? You make too much noise?’

His eyes widened in surprise at the jibe. Recognising the teasing light in her eyes, he knew he had no choice but to reply in kind. ‘Baby…’ he blew onto his fingernails before polishing them on his T-shirt ‘…it wouldn’t be me making the noise.’

Molly erupted into convulsive laughter. ‘You complete great arrogant lump!’

They laughed together for a moment before watching the crowd again in companionable silence. Ryan thought about the conversation. ‘So if you met someone, and the situation was reversed, would I cramp your style?’

‘Make love with someone while you were in the same house?’ She blushed a fiery red and laughed again. ‘No way, José.’

‘You make too much noise, right?’ The question did things to his imagination that it had absolutely no right doing.

She hid her face in the blanket while he watched her shoulders shake with laughter. Her voice was muffled when she eventually spoke, forcing him to lean towards her to hear her words. ‘I don’t think I could concentrate on what I was doing if I thought you could hear anything.’

Jealousy, like a bad cramp, gripped his chest hard, shocking him with its intensity. Thinking of Molly in that way had always been off limits. Now their conversation had opened a doorway he hadn’t intended looking through, and he didn’t much care for his reaction.

Clearing his throat, he sprang to his feet and peeled off his T-shirt. ‘Just as well Molly, ’cos whoever he was I think I’d probably be forced to deck him.’ He frowned as he looked towards the water. ‘I’m going for another swim. See you in a while.’

Molly’s head shot upwards at his sharp announcement. But she only focused her vision in time to see him walk briskly to the end of the nearest pier before diving smoothly into the cool water. Where had that outburst come from? She knew he could be protective, but even so…

Their relationship was changing. She sighed as she realised the simple fact of it. It hadn’t been the same since she’d come home. She’d begun to realise that when she had noticed Ryan staring at her so often of late. It was as if he’d never really looked at her before, or as if he’d noticed something that he hadn’t seen before. She wondered what it was?

And these last few days they had walked onto very new ground; she supposed it was only natural they’d need time to adjust. Time to find and test the new boundaries. But they cared about each other in ways in which she, certainly, had never cared about anyone else. Ryan was her most special of friends, and no matter what adjustments they made she knew they wouldn’t—couldn’t—affect that attachment. They just couldn’t.

‘Someone as lovely as you shouldn’t frown like that.’

Turning onto her back, she looked up into Nick Scallon’s smiling face. Dressed in a pristine white T-shirt and khaki shorts, he resembled a model from the pages of a summer catalogue.

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’ She smiled. ‘It’s nice to see you again. How are you?’

‘I’m just grand.’ His blue eyes moved down over her body and her long legs before returning to her face. ‘You should wear a swimsuit all the time, Molly. Wow.’

She sat upright, unconsciously drawing her knees up as she glanced towards the lough.

‘He’s still in the water.’

‘Who is?’ She blinked at him.

Nick smiled. ‘Your friend the Park Ranger.’

She glanced back towards the water. ‘Oh, you mean Ryan. Yeah, he likes the water. We had swim races here every summer as kids.’

He crouched beside her, taking a deep breath. ‘There’s a lot of history between you two.’

She looked at his face, surprised to find him so close. ‘We’ve known each other a long time. Yeah, we’re close.’

A quick glance over his head caused her to smile at the look of disapproval on Mrs Collins’ face. ‘In fact I think you’ll find your sitting here is setting quite a few tongues wagging.’

He didn’t look too worried. ‘Your Ryan is well liked in this community. How can I possibly compete with that?’

‘From what I hear, a guy like you doesn’t let a little matter of competition get in his way.’ The words were out before she could stop them. But the minute she spoke Nick’s chin dropped, and Molly regretted the innuendo.

‘I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I’ve always considered a person innocent until proven guilty. I guess I shouldn’t treat you any differently.’

‘Molly—’ He reached out, touching her arm with one long finger, then running the palm of his hand towards her shoulder as he held her gaze with his. ‘I—’

‘I believe you’re occupying my space!’