him and he watched the girl scamper along the path, climbing up and over the rocks. She looked like a fairy, her long, golden hair draped over her back and crowned by a wreath of wildflowers. But she didn’t have wings, at least none that he could see. She was dressed in an old gown made of a sheer fabric so light it floated around her.
Cursing to himself, Kellan followed his brothers. What was he thinking? He knew fairies weren’t real. Maybe his little brothers believed, but Kellan was far too pragmatic to put any faith in Irish myths and legends. “Leave me to it,” he said, hurrying past Riley. “I can climb faster than you.”
Kellan scrambled up the path, but each time he looked for her, she was putting more distance between them. If she really were a fairy, she’d just fly away. No, this was a girl, a girl he’d never seen before. Kellan knew all the girls living around Ballykirk and not one of them was half as beautiful as this one.
Breathless, he reached the top of the cliff only to find her halfway across the meadow. She turned once and laughed, then took her crown of wildflowers and threw it into the air.
“Wait!” Kellan called. “Don’t go. I want to talk to you.”
She spun around and stood, staring at him, waiting as he ran toward her. When he reached her, Kellan stopped, his heart pounding, gasping for breath. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, features so perfect that they couldn’t belong to anything human.
“Open the box,” she said, the musical tone of her voice ringing in the still summer air. “I put it there for you.”
Kellan heard his brothers behind him, calling his name. “Who are you?”
With a laugh, she came closer and dropped a kiss on his lips. “I’m a dream,” she said. “Close your eyes and I’ll disappear.”
Kellan glanced back to see his brothers quickly approaching, but when he turned to the girl again, she had already run from him. This time, Kellan decided not to follow.
“You’re letting her get away,” Danny called. “Go after her, Kellan.”
“She’s not a fairy,” Kellan said when Danny and Riley reached him. He touched his lips, still warm from her kiss. “She’s just a girl. A silly old girl.”
They watched her retreat together, then Kellan grabbed the tin from beneath Riley’s arm. “Let’s see what’s inside.”
“I thought Danny said it might be cursed.”
“Do you believe everything he says?” Kellan asked. “Riley, sometimes you’re as thick as a post.”
He tugged off the top and peered inside. The tin was filled with a variety of items—a seashell, a few pretty stones, a necklace made of flowers, braided string.
“Aw, it’s nothing but junk,” Riley said.
Danny swore. “I was hoping it might at least be worth a few quid.”
“I think we should bury it again,” Kellan said. If they did, she might come back for it. He could hide in the rocks and watch for her. Catching a fairy was powerful luck, wasn’t it?
“I’m not climbing back down.” Danny started off toward home. “I’m hungry. And Ma will have lunch for us soon.”
Riley followed him, a dejected look on his face. “I thought it would be treasure. I thought we’d be rich.”
Kellan sighed softly, then plopped down onto the grass. Crossing his legs in front of him, he reopened the tin and carefully picked through the contents. There were jeweled buttons and a penny whistle, a scrap of lace and three pieces of butterscotch candy. Why the girl had decided to bury it in the sand, he didn’t know. But he couldn’t help but be intrigued.
Who was she? Would she return to the cove or was she really a visitor from another world? For the first time in his life, Kellan felt an odd attraction, a strange fascination with a girl.
Would he ever understand the opposite sex? The girls in school were annoying. Though they were constantly following him about, whispering and giggling, they were all uninteresting to his eyes. And his two older sisters, Shanna and Claire, were a complete mystery and a royal pain in his arse. But this … this lovely creature was magical. He closed his eyes and lay in the grass, letting his imagination wander, back to the kiss she’d given him.
He’d never kissed a girl. He was nearly fifteen years old and though most of his friends had enjoyed the experience at least once or twice, Kellan had never taken advantage of his opportunities, until now.
He grinned. If he ever saw the fairy girl again, he’d do it even better. He’d grab her and kiss her, right on the lips, and see what she had to say about that. Now that he knew exactly what he wanted in a girl, what he’d been looking for, everything made sense.
She had to be … extraordinary. He’d settle for nothing less. Someday soon, maybe she’d come back to the cove, looking for her tin of treasures. He’d find a proper place to hide it until then.
1
THE WEATHER WAS unusually warm for late November. Kellan Quinn stared out at the sea from his spot above Smuggler’s Cove. He walked over to the rocky edge of the cliff to look down at the narrow strip of beach where he and his brothers used to play. He hadn’t been down the path in years, not since before he left for university.
But the little beach, sheltered from the wind, would be a perfect place to think, to find some solitude and clear his head. Life in Ballykirk had turned into a whirl of activity since his younger brothers had both found mates, and though he was happy for them, lately he’d felt like the odd man out.
Riley would be getting married in just over a month and though he and Nan had planned a simple New Year’s Eve ceremony at the village church and a reception at the pub, it promised to be the biggest social event Ballykirk had seen in quite some time. Both Danny and Kellan would be standing up with Riley, which didn’t sound like much. However, Kellan had learned that serving as a groomsman meant that you were at the beck and call of the groom until he left for his honeymoon.
Kellan still couldn’t get over how quickly things had changed for the Quinn brothers. Riley and Danny had both fallen for American girls in the space of a few months. Of course, everyone assumed Kellan would be next and to that end, they’d started to put interested single girls in his path. But he knew better.
When it came to romance, Kellan Quinn was a realist. The chances of finding lasting love were slim at best. Though he’d turned thirty last year, he really hadn’t ever come close to marriage, or enjoyed a long-term relationship. Perhaps it was because he’d never found a woman who could hold his attention. A woman who was more interesting than his career.
His reputation as an architect was growing with every project he completed and he was usually at the top of the list for any major historical renovation in Ireland. Though it wasn’t really cutting-edge architecture, Kellan enjoyed doing his part to preserve pieces of Ireland’s past.
Sixteen-hour days didn’t leave much time for a social life, but he did manage to date occasionally when he stayed at his flat in Dublin. There were women who were happy to have him warm their bed, no strings, no expectations. But the relationships lacked an emotional component, existing purely for
