King had been a sheep farmer when Jefferson, scouting a location for one of the movies King Studios made, met her for the first time. Since she still ran her farm and Jefferson worked from the manor house, Dina assumed that marrying one of the wealthiest men in the world hadn’t changed Maura Donohue King much.
“Lovely?” Dina repeated, glancing back to where Connor, Jefferson and six children—Maura and Jefferson had three of their own and another on the way—raced madly around the yard alongside a galloping black-and-gray Irish wolfhound named King. Dina had thought his name to be an odd choice, but Maura had explained that she’d gotten the wolfhound when she and Jefferson were on the outs and that she had named the dog after him because, she said, like Jefferson, the dog was a “son of a bitch.”
The sheer size of the dog had intimidated Dina at first. She’d never seen such a big animal. But as Maura promised, a wolfhound was the original gentle giant. In no time at all, the triplets were crawling across the big dog, pulling his ears and stepping on his huge feet, and King never made a sound. Rather, he acted like a nanny, herding the kids back into the center of things when they wandered too far on their own.
“Yeah,” Dina said, smiling at Connor’s hoot of laughter as Jefferson’s oldest son, Jensen, sneaked up behind his father and gave him a swat. “I guess they are lovely. So’s your home, by the way,” she added, turning her face to look out across the pewter-colored waters of Lough Mask, spread out beneath gray skies.
Trees bent in the ever-present wind and tiny whitecaps formed on the lake’s surface. Narrow roads lined with gorse bushes boasting tiny yellow flowers spilled through green fields dotted with rock walls like thread loosed from a spool. The farmhouse itself was big and old and behind it rose the Partry Mountains, looking like a purple smudge on the horizon.
“Thank you,” Maura said, giving her house a quick glance over her shoulder. “I like it, too, just as it is, but Jefferson is forever adding this or changing that, until I’m never sure what I’ll find when I come in from the fields.”
“But you don’t really mind.”
“Not a’tall, but don’t tell him I said that.” She winked and smiled. “The man is too sure of himself already.”
Dina laughed. “I think that’s a King thing.”
“Perhaps,” Maura said, leaning on the fence that surrounded the front yard. “Since all of his brothers are exactly the same and the few cousins I’ve met as well. Still, I wouldn’t change him for the world. I find I like a man who angers me as often as he attracts me.”
“In that, Connor and Jefferson are alike,” Dina mused, thinking of the many arguments she and Connor had had in the short time they’d known each other. And yes, like Maura, Dina was attracted even when she was furious with the man.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you and you at him.” Maura smiled and tapped her fingers against the top rail on the fence.
Dina didn’t even comment on that—what could she say? That it wasn’t true? Hardly.
“And the children are sweet.”
“They are. But so are yours,” Dina said, turning to look at the kids as they raced around the yard in the sharp, cold wind.
Maura chuckled. “Wild heathens they are, and treasures, each and every one of them. Jensen was the first—he’s four now—and then Julie came along a year or so later and then James.”
Dina watched the kids playing and laughing and felt her heart turn over at the sight. How would it be, she wondered, to actually be a part of that group? Oh, she belonged, through the triplets. She was their aunt as well as their guardian and that would never end. But Maura, Jefferson and their children and Connor and the triplets were family, and that connection continued to elude Dina. It was simply ridiculous to wish to be more deeply involved with Connor when at the same time she was trying desperately to stay out of his bed just to protect her own heart.
Even more ridiculous to admit that up until she’d met Connor, she had instinctively avoided anything remotely resembling a real relationship. Memories of her mother’s tumultuous life were too clear in Dina’s mind to allow for anything else. And yet, somehow Connor had slipped past her defenses.
“And with three children, you’re pregnant again,” Dina said with a glance toward Maura’s rounded belly.
“My Jefferson is mad for children, wants as many as we can handle.” Maura ran one hand over her belly as if soothing the restive child within. “And as I agree and find I love being a mother more every day, I’m thrilled to be having another. Even if it does mean Jefferson is adding another wing onto the house, crazy man that he is.”
Dina laughed but felt a tug of envy for the relationship Maura and Jefferson shared. He ran his movie studio from right here with the occasional trip to the States. Maura remained her own person and operated her sheep farm just as she always had, and yet the two of them together were a team that was only enhanced by the kids they shared. Who wouldn’t be envious?
Dina’s gaze locked on Connor, pretend wrestling with Jefferson and the kids. Squeals of laughter from the children were swept up by the cold Irish wind and carried away like dreams. She smiled to herself and if that smile was a little wistful, who could blame her?
“King men are difficult even at the best of times,” Maura told her suddenly, as if deciding to skip the polite niceties and just get to the meat of the matter. “But I can tell you from personal experience that they’re worth the trouble.”
“It’s not like that with us, Maura,” Dina said quickly.
Maura laughed. “Ah, yes. I remember fighting it myself. Jefferson was forever tossing his money about, waving it in my face. Did you know that he actually bought me a lorry without even speaking to me about it?” Shaking her head as she remembered, she continued. “Red it was, and as shiny as a promise, and though I shouted and raged at him for buying the bloody thing, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I still drive it now and it’s as lovely as ever it was.”
Dina laughed and shook her head. “He bought you a truck.”
“Aye. Because he said I needed it whether I wanted to admit it or not. And he was right, though I was loath to admit to it. My old beast was on its last wheels, so to speak. But that’s who the Kings are, you see. They make a decision they feel is right and good luck to you trying to convince them otherwise.”
“I don’t like being managed,” Dina said.
“And who does? But that’s not saying you can’t do some managing of your own, is it?”
Dina smiled at the other woman. “You know, I think you and I are going to be great friends.”
“I feel it already,” Maura said with a matching grin. “And, as Jefferson has decided that we must all fly to California next month to take the heathens to Disneyland before this one is born, I’ll be seeing you again soon. You can tell me all about how the managing of Connor King is coming along.”
Next month. Dina didn’t even know if she’d still be at Connor’s house in a month.
“Maybe we could all go to the amusement park together. That would be lovely.” Maura turned her face into the wind. “I’ll call my sister, Cara, and make sure she’s available for it as well. As busy as she is, she does love to see the children when
