Keelin flinched, as much out of surprise as anything else. She liked dogs, normally.
‘Down, Ben!’ Garrett’s voice sounded firmly and the dog obeyed immediately, moving around his master’s legs to sit at his side before looking upwards with an expression of apologetic adoration.
Keelin glanced down at her trousers. ‘Oh, terrific.’ She raised both arms from her sides and let them drop. ‘That’s just great.’
‘They’re a little over-friendly at times.’
Ignoring the rueful tone to his voice she smiled sarcastically. ‘Seems to be a glut of that here, doesn’t there?’
His eyes studied the paw-prints, then dropped lower. ‘Are those supposed to be wellingtons?’
Keelin looked down too. ‘They are wellingtons.’
She should know; she’d bought them especially for her trip, after all. Not much call for wellingtons in the middle of Dublin.
When he continued to study them she raised her eyes and studied the top of his head. Lord, he even had gorgeous hair: thick, sleek, deep chocolate brown, the kind of hair that begged to have fingers thread through it.
What were they talking about again? Oh, yes. ‘What’s wrong with them?’
‘They have flowers on them.’
Keelin nodded and spoke slowly. ‘Y-e-s, I’m a girl.’
His head rose, toffee eyes sparkling again as his voice dropped to a more intimate tone. ‘Yeah, I got that.’
Her cheeks warmed.
‘It’s just that wellingtons normally come in green or black.’
‘Or navy?’ She batted her eyelashes.
Garrett nodded slowly. ‘Sometimes in navy.’
There was a brief silence. While Keelin stared into his eyes and momentarily forgot how to think. She could feel her pulse beating erratically, could hear her heart thudding against the wall of her chest. Aw, c’mon! She was getting turned on by a conversation about wellington boots now? How sad did that make her?
‘You really need to get off this island more, you know that, right?’
‘Explore the world of possibilities available to wellington wearers worldwide?’
‘Exactly. Broaden your horizons some.’
He stepped a little closer, lowering his head to grumble. ‘You see, I would, but I’m a boy. We happen to like green, black or navy. It’s much more practical.’
Keelin swallowed convulsively.
‘So—’he smiled a slow, sensual smile ‘—you ready to walk a little more? Now that we know where we stand on the wellingtons issue?’
‘You’re not going to let me walk on my own, are you?’ She somehow knew that instinctively.
Garrett shook his head. ‘Nope.’
Damnable chivalry! Whose idea was that in the modern era? Women like Keelin really weren’t used to being treated this way!
Allowing herself just a second more of up-close study, she then forced herself to look away, sighing dramatically. ‘Well, lead on, then, if you must. But if we get near anything that remotely resembles a shallow grave, I warn you—I’ve taken classes in self-defence.’
There was another low, rumbled chuckle of laughter beside her as they fell into step along the narrow laneway. ‘You’ve been in the city too long.’
‘What makes you so sure I’m from the city?’
‘It’s written all over you. You look—’ his face turned to study her profile ‘—expensive.’
Keelin tilted her head his way as she walked. ‘Now, Garrett, did you just go calling me high maintenance?’
His mouth quirked yet again. ‘Are you telling me you’re not?’
If only he knew. ‘If you knew me better you’d know I’m one of the least high-maintenance women on the planet. But, please, feel free to jump to conclusions.’
‘That’s why you’re enjoying being on the island so much already, I take it?’
No, that wasn’t why she wasn’t enjoying the island.
She focused her gaze forwards, following the gentle sweep of the narrow stone-wall-lined laneway she was walking along, to where it had branched out in two different directions. It could almost have been metaphor, but then every path taken had a set of choices, right? She sighed, and a confession rolled off her reluctant tongue.
‘It’s not the island’s fault. I just get a little tense when I’m nervous.’
‘And I’m making you nervous, am I?’
She glanced his way again with a small, mischievous smile. ‘Now who’s full of themself?’
He smiled a glorious, full, dimpled smile in return and Keelin found herself laughing.
Garrett leaned his head a little closer. ‘That’s better. See, now you look less high maintenance.’
She was still smiling in amusement as his focus went back to his dogs, his upper lip flattening briefly against straight white teeth as he whistled them back into closer proximity.
‘Do you flirt with every woman who gets lost on this island, then?’
When he glanced at her, his warm eyes were so intense she almost caught her breath. ‘Maybe you just bring that out in me.’
Keelin rolled her eyes, which was rewarded with another low chuckle of laughter.
Both looking up the laneway, they fell into an almost companionable silence for a while before his voice sounded again. ‘So why are you nervous?’
Ah, now there was a question. ‘Let’s just say I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing here.’
‘You know someone at Inishmore?’
‘No. Not yet.’
They walked another couple of steps. ‘Is someone expecting you?’
‘I’d think it’s safe to say no one is, no.’
Out of her peripheral vision she saw him nod, as if he was confirming something he already knew. ‘So, are you the bearer of bad news, then?’
Even though she knew he was just seeking a logical explanation for her nervousness, Keelin faltered. Tilting her head back slightly, she looked up at the rapidly clearing blue skies above her, her voice low. ‘Sort of.’
Garrett leaned forwards and looked down at her upturned face. And he smiled an encouraging
