Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

However hard asI try to focus on the photos and map laid out across the table, I can’t stop glancing at the swinging doors to the kitchen.

Kieran is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

He’s exactly my opposite: constantly smiling, confident and flirtatious, outrageously outgoing. But then when I flirt back, he has these moments of looking all adorably tongue-tied.

Is that a glimpse of the real Kieran? Or is he just not used to people meeting him halfway?

Whatever the case, he’s a pint-sized spitfire and I can’t get enough of it.

Then the doors swing open and my heart rate soars as I watch Kieran gliding over to me with a plate balanced on his fingertips.

Apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

“Mmm,” I groan as Kieran leans in close to me—so close I can almost feel his body heat against my arm. “Just what the doctor ordered. You’re saving my life here.”

For me, that’s downright talkative. I know it’s just the nerves. The more I make small talk, the less likely I am to do something silly.

“Anything to save a life,” Kieran murmurs.

Oh, shit.

Now I’m staring right up at him, and he’s looking back at me. Our gazes are locked, and the already fiery chemistry is roaring into an undeniable blaze.

I don’t know if either of us can look away now.

Warm brown eyes, wavy pink hair—just long enough to tangle my fingers in, I can’t help thinking—and soft lips. He smells like coconut, and it makes me want to eat him up. With a spoon, or just my bare hands and mouth on his bare skin.

He’s so much shorter than me, this is the only way I could be looking up at him.

Well, unless I get on my knees.

My cheeks feel hot all of a sudden. There’s a twitch in my pants that really demands some attention—and for me to cross my legs and scoot into the table right now.

I clear my throat, finally breaking the gaze so I can do exactly that, and the stiff line of my cock presses all the harder against my jeans.

Ow. Come on. Get it together, man.

Something tells me Kieran flirts with a lot of men this way. That, and he told me himself by mentioning Grindr. But does he get this feeling every time? Because I’ve had my fun, but I sure as hell never got this tongue-tied about any cute little thing before now.

“And I’m happy to keep you in pie while you… uh…” Kieran tears his gaze away from me and leans on the table, squinting at the photos and map. “Figure out where to hide a body?”

I can’t stop the smile. Hell, I’m pretty damn close to laughing. It’s so much funnier to hear from such a bubbly little thing. It’s even cuter how he’s trying to sound like he isn’t snooping.

But I’m not dumb. Even as a kid, I knew that Sunrise Island is powered by gossip. And I’m happy to give him some tidbits.

And then some.

“Don’t worry. I keep my skeletons in my closet, where they belong,” I tell him with a wink. I grab a fork from the little container in the middle of the table and set it on the table next to me.

Then, before I can talk myself out of it, I grab another fork and hold it out to Kieran.

He looks at it, then at me.

“If you’re allowed to sit for a minute?”

I hope this isn’t totally weird. It just feels like the right thing to do. It’s cute and flirty, right? And I don’t want to sit here eating pie right in front of him while I tell him my life story. That’s like a supervillain move.

Kieran grins slowly and takes the fork. “I finished all my chores, sir,” he teases me, his voice dripping with innuendo. “I’ll sit anywhere you tell me to.”

Oh, fuck.

My brain grinds to a halt. I don’t even know what to say, but luckily, he spares me. He just giggles, grabs a chair perpendicular to me, and plops his ass down, crossing his knees and folding his hands on his lap.

I take the first bite of pie, mostly so I can stop staring at Kieran.

“No, really, though,” he says, leaning over the table and tilting his head against his shoulder to keep looking at the map. “I’m dying to find out what’s happening. It’s the orchard, right?”

He sneakily digs his fork into the other side of the pie, working his way in from the opposite corner.

“Yep,” I tell him, moaning with satisfaction when the apple pie dissolves on my tongue.

Butter, cinnamon, apple. All the right things.

“Thought so. The gossip app is on fire today.” I blink at him, and Kieran just giggles around his mouthful of pie. He swallows and adds, “WhatsApp.”

“Oh. I was just thinking, there really is an app for everything.”

“Oh, trust me.” Kieran glances at me from below his lashes and smirks to himself like he’s not letting me in on the joke. “There is.”

Well, that makes my imagination run wild. I’m adding it to the list of things to think about when I’m in my sleeping bag tonight.

“Back when I was here before, the gossip was analog.” I chuckle. The pie is rapidly disappearing, and I’m trying to slow down to make sure he gets half of it. “Or Facebook, which is basically analog, isn’t it?”

He glances at me, elbow on the table and chin on his fist. “Hm. Yeah. Gossip moves faster now. We have to make our own fun here. A new face makes everyone’s tongues wag. Especially one like yours.”

I think that’s a compliment. The way he’s glancing at me with a coy little smile, I’m pretty sure it is.

“You should hear what they say about me,” Kieran pretends to gasp. “And it’s all completely… true.”

“I bet.” I raise my eyebrow. “What are you going to tell them about me, then?”

I should probably be careful. Maybe he’s the gossip king these days, and I don’t want to be the talk of the whole island…

“Oh, I don’t create the gossip,” Kieran promises me, his eyes sparkling. “In fact, I’m very good at sneaking out quietly before dawn.”

“Mmhmm.” I don’t believe him a bit, but there it is on my face—another grin, before I even know that I’m smiling. “You finish the ice cream.”

“You sure?” He looks up at me with a grin. “This is my favourite kind of tip. Well… my second-favourite,” he smirks. “If you get my meaning.”

It’s hard to miss all his innuendo. “I think I do,” I tell him. “I’m just glad it’s not the third-best.”

“I’m also very happy about the third-best,” Kieran doesn’t miss a beat in telling me. “So is my landlord.”

I don’t know what it is about Kieran. I usually find it annoying when people are this cheerful and bright. But there’s something about it that just shines from the very depths of his soul.

I don’t think this is just an act he puts on to pick up guys. It really is who he is. Which means when he goes all shy and tongue-tied, I’m glimpsing something else entirely.

“So, you’re not a property developer?” Kieran asks, looking at the photos instead of me.

My jaw drops.

The smile disappears as I stare at the side of Kieran’s head.

“What? No. Do people think that?”

I stare at the map and my great-grandfather’s spindly handwriting, my shoulders slowly rising. It’s all I can do to keep my voice from constricting as much as my stomach just did.

Kieran stops and looks at me, then puts a hand on my arm. “Hey. What’s wrong, lover?”

Wait… lover? He doesn’t even look like he’s trying to flirt. Must be an Irish thing.

“It’s nothing,” I tell him, clearing my throat as I shake my head, looking away across the bar.

We both know it’s not true. Even the warmth and pressure of his hand on my arm doesn’t shake me out of it.

“Doesn’t look like nothing. Don’t hold it in.”

I grumble under my breath, rubbing at my forehead. “Do you have all day?”

Kieran pulls his hand away from me, but the disappointment that rises in me is tempered by the way he turns his chair a little to face me directly.

“Yeah. I do, actually.” He smiles at me, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.

I feel stupid—weak, even—for getting so emotional about one little comment. But it’s so much more than that.

“It’s just… I’m not some fucking developer. I’m from here.” Then my scowl melts away as I sigh. “Well… my family is. I guess I’m not.”

Kieran tilts his head curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I’m here to save the orchard, not tear it down.” I clear my throat, but the thickness in my voice doesn’t budge. “It’s my family legacy.”

Kieran’s eyes slowly widen. “Ohhh. Wait. You’re a Russell?”

“Yeah.” I blink at him. “Gage Russell. How’d you know?”

Kieran holds up a finger and scrambles to the bar so fast that for a moment, I think I missed a ringing phone. But he’s standing on top of a crate, grabbing something from the liquor shelves behind the bar.

Even from across the room, I recognize it the shape.

“No way. Oh, wow.” I sit dead upright, my jaw dropping as he brings it back to me.

It’s an original Sunrise Cider bottle, from the very first year my great-grandparents were in business.

The last time I saw one of these was in Grandma’s treasures cabinet.

“I’ve dusted this thing so many times,” Kieran giggles. He sets it on the table carefully, like a priceless antique, and then he turns it around with a little scraping sound. “And on the back…”

I squint at it and then I stare at the signature, made in a neat little paintbrush mark. Exactly like the map.

Hank Russell.

“My great-grandfather.” I pick up the bottle, hardly able to breathe.

The way my family talks, it’s like Sunrise Cider was a failure from the very start. They seem to think everyone’s forgotten it, if they even knew it in the first place.

But this is proof that I was right: something here is important enough to draw me back to where my family began.

“It must be hard to feel like nobody here knows you,” Kieran says, and I clear my throat again as I look back at him. “Like you’re a stranger in your own hometown.”

I open my mouth to brush him off, and then I stop and close it again.

Actually, he’s not wrong.

Kieran’s watching me with such patience and understanding, even though we’re complete strangers.

And I don’t think it’s just because he wants to get into my pants. This is just the kind of person he is… and that’s all I need to know about him.

I don’t talk about my feelings a lot with people. I’ve sure as hell never spilled my guts to a complete stranger.

And I’ve never told anyone what I’m about to tell him, because honestly, who else could possibly understand?

But Kieran makes me think he could be the answer to that question… and a whole hell of a lot more.

The only way to find out for sure is to give it a shot.