They watched him walk back inside the apartment, then Liam turned to Ellie. “Don’t worry about him. He’s a little shy.”
“You mean, not all the Quinns are as charming as you?”
“Sean has his own special way with women. He ignores them and they can’t seem to resist the challenge.” Liam slipped his arm around Ellie’s shoulders. “Are you ready to go? I think I’ve snapped enough photos to fill a few albums. No one can say I shirked my family responsibilities.”
“We don’t have to go. The food looks good. And Olivia was going to show me the gifts she got for the baby.” She held up her champagne flute. “And I’m going to have another mimosa.”
“I’ll get you one,” Liam said, dropping a quick kiss on her lips. He was tempted to linger, but knew that they’d already generated enough curiosity without adding more fodder for speculation to the mix. He left Ellie in the kitchen when she offered to help Olivia slice more baked ham for sandwiches. The champagne was on ice in the dining room and he found Sean staring at the cake, a perplexed expression on his face.
“What is this?” he asked.
“A cake.”
“I know it’s a cake.”
“It’s a baby buggy.”
“I thought it was a clam with wheels.”
“Don’t let Olivia hear that. Conor said she spent two days making that.” Liam glanced over at his brother, considering what he was going to say to him next. He’d thought about his options over and over again over the past few days, trying to decide how to handle the situation. “There is one more thing I should tell you,” Liam murmured. “Ronald Pettibone is in town.”
Sean’s head snapped around, his attention focused.
“He’s been in Boston for about a week,” Liam continued. “That was him outside the coffee shop-the guy I mentioned who was arguing with her.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me. He looks different from the photo. He’s not wearing his glasses anymore and he’s changed his hair. It’s lighter. And he has a tan, too. He’s staying at the Bostonian, Room 215. Pretty ritzy digs for a guy who is out of work, don’t you think?”
“How did you find all this out?”
“He left a message on her machine while I was at her apartment.”
“Was she there?”
“Of course she was,” Liam said. “We were…together.”
Sean sent him a suspicious look. “How did she react?”
“It was a little hard to see, since she had her back to me. But I encouraged her to call him back and she said she would. Until then, I think you should keep an eye on the guy. And find out if he rented a black sedan a few days ago.”
“You think
“He’s her ex-lover. Maybe he’s obsessed,” Liam replied. “Just keep an eye on him.” He paused, wondering about his next move. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “Here.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s the keys to Ellie’s apartment. I put in a new security system for her in case Pettibone came calling again. The code is 3-5-5-4. Make sure you get it right or you’ll set off the alarm.”
“All right,” Sean said. “Three-five-five-four.”
“I’ve got tickets to the Sox home opener on Tuesday. I’m supposed to photograph the mayor doing some pregame presentation and then he’s going to throw out the first pitch. None of their sports guys want to do it, so they hired me. I’m taking Ellie. She should be safe in a stadium full of thirty-six thousand people.”
“Good. That should give me plenty of time.”
Liam’s jaw went tight. “Just don’t make a mess, all right? I don’t want her to be all upset again.”
Sean nodded.
Satisfied that the matter had been taken out of his hands, Liam sighed. “I’m going to go talk to Ma. Why don’t you come with me?”
“Nah, not today.”
“Why not today? It’s as good a time as any. Sean, you can’t carry this grudge any longer. Da has forgiven her. So has Keely-and they had a whole lot more to be pissed about than you and me.”
“She walked out on us, Li. You were just a baby and I was three years old. She says she had to get away and she did. But why didn’t she come back?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“Because I don’t want to hear her answer.”
Liam shrugged. “Suit yourself.” With that he grabbed a bottle of champagne and decided to find Ellie. Right now he needed to hear her voice, to remember what they’d shared together in her bathroom and how good it felt to touch her. He didn’t need to worry about whether he was lusting after a criminal or whether her boyfriend was out to cause her harm.
He caught Ellie’s gaze from across the room and motioned her to meet him near the front door. She sent him a coy smile and then a tiny frown, but Liam wasn’t about to give up. He slipped out of the apartment, leaned up against the wall and waited for her. A few seconds later she poked her head out the door. He reached over and grabbed her, pulling her out into the hall, the door slamming behind her.
“Come on,” he murmured, heading for the stairs. They walked down two flights until they reached the street. Liam shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around Ellie’s shoulders as they stepped outside. After they sat down on the front stoop, he popped the cork on the champagne bottle. “I didn’t bring glasses,” he said. “We’ll have to drink from the bottle.”
Liam took a sip, then handed the bottle to Ellie. She tipped it up, but the champagne bubbled in her mouth. She wrinkled her nose as she swallowed, then coughed softly. Liam used the opportunity to pull her into his arms. “I should never have brought you here,” he said, pressing his mouth against her neck.
“Why is that?”
“Because I prefer to kiss you whenever I feel like kissing you.”
“Then you’d better get kissing,” Ellie teased, “because if we stay out here too long, we’ll be missed.”
Liam pulled back and looked down into her pretty face. There were times when he felt he could see into the corners of her soul. And then, other times, he wondered if he was just fooling himself. But as he captured her mouth with his, tasting the sweet champagne, all of his doubts seemed to dissolve. For now, Ellie was simply the woman who made his blood run hot and his heart pound hard.
For now, that was enough.
“NOW YOU’RE A TRUE Bostonian,” Liam said, tugging on the brim of Ellie’s brand new Boston Red Sox cap. “You’ve been to Fenway and seen someone hit a home run over the big Green Monster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of our players.”
She stared out the front window of his car as they waited for the light to change. “I’ve never been much of a baseball fan. In New York, you have to choose sides-Mets or Yankees. I never knew enough about baseball, so I stayed neutral and didn’t get involved.”
“I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid,” Liam said, turning the car onto Charlestown Avenue. “I remember the first time I went to Fenway, I must have been about seven or eight. I walked in and it was so green. We’d come from Southie on the T and it was the middle of a heat wave. Our neighborhood was dry and dusty and everything was faded by the sun. And then we walked into Fenway and it was like an oasis-although I didn’t know what an oasis was back then.”
“Did you go to a lot of games as a kid?” Ellie asked.
“No. We didn’t have the money for tickets. But Conor had a couple of buddies who sold popcorn at the park, and if the crowd was thin, they’d let us in before the seventh inning stretch. We never got to see a complete game, but we’d hang around outside afterward and get the players to sign our baseball cards.”
“Sounds like fun,” Ellie said.
“It was. We didn’t have much, but we always had fun.” He chuckled softly. “When I first saw Fenway, I thought
