“I’m sure I’ll be doing enough socializing at the wedding to make up for it,” I said in an effort to placate her.

Now her voice grew animated. “Speaking of which, there’s someone I’ve just been dying for you to meet—”

“Oh, they’re calling for my flight to board,” I said, interrupting her. “I’ve got to go but I’ll call you as soon as we land.”

Hanging up, I exhaled a breath, anxiety building at the idea of being forced to meet a bunch of “suitors” at the wedding that my mother happened to approve of. The funny thing was, she’d probably be head over heels for Sean, even though his past history with Ronan was a mess.

Speak of the devil, the moment I ended the call my phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Sean: I’ll meet you at the airport and take you for breakfast?

My heart thudded at his suggestion, and I hated how text messages never conveyed the tone in which things were said. Like, was it a casual, can I meet you at the airport? Or an urgent, I will meet you at the airport!

Was he asking because he was desperate to see me as soon as I stepped foot on Irish soil, or was he simply trying to be helpful?

Gah! I hated the uncertainty of this feelings business. Hated it. I suddenly understood why Buddhist monks were celibate. You couldn’t find Zen when you were all muddled up in the head. Sex just complicated everything.

Lucy: Annie and Ronan are meeting us. But thanks for offering. It was very kind.

Directly after I sent the text I regretted everything about it, because reading it back, I sounded cold and detached. I should have tacked a bloody smiley face on the end or something, a few kisses maybe.

Sean didn’t respond, and by the time I was sitting on the plane I had a brand new toothbrush, eye cream, a hair clip, and a packet of chewing gum in my carry-on bag—not a single one of them paid for.

My guilt was the cherry on top. I wished I could go back and return everything, tell the shop workers I was sorry. But no, life didn’t give you second chances like that, and if I went back I’d be arrested. I was a bloody mess.

As soon as we landed in Dublin, I checked my phone to see Sean had left me a new text.

Sean: I don’t want to make things hard for you with your brother.

I frowned at the message, trying to decipher the deeper meaning—if there was a deeper meaning. My concentration, however, was fractured when we stepped through the arrivals gate and were met with a dour-faced Ronan and an unusually quiet Annie.

They each hugged me and Broderick before we walked to the car park, but I sensed something was up. When we were finally buckled into the car, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Okay, spill the beans. What’s going on with you two?”

My brother’s hands fisted the steering wheel and Annie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Ronan met my gaze through the rear-view mirror.

“Your future sister-in-law took it upon herself to invite Sean Cassidy to both my stag party and the wedding,” he said. And my heart stilled.

“You’ve invited every other member of the team, Ronan. Think of how poor Sean would feel being left out,” Annie put in, a pleading tone to her voice.

Ronan snickered. “This is assuming the bloke actually has feelings, which he doesn’t, so it’s a non-issue.”

Frowning slightly, I leaned forward in my seat to give Annie’s shoulder a small squeeze. “If it’s any consolation, I think Annie’s right. You can’t just invite everyone and not him, Ronan.”

He shook his head. “Am I the only one who remembers how much of an arsehole he was last year? That he tried to get me booted from the Union?”

“Sean Cassidy?” Broderick sent me a searching glance and I gave my head a quick shake, my heart thundering with panic lest Broderick say something to my brother about Sean being in New Hampshire. Thankfully, my friend seemed to get the message.

“You should be thanking him,” Annie chimed in. “Look how well everything turned out, and he was the catalyst.”

My brother scowled at his fiancée but it soon turned into a smile. “You have a point there . . .”

Seeing Ronan’s shift in mood, I pressed, “Plus, maybe he’s sorry. Maybe he wants to mend fences. You should give him a chance. I don’t think he’s as bad as everyone makes out.”

Ronan locked eyes with me in the rear-view mirror. “Oh, believe me, he is. You’re too soft-hearted with people, Luce. You’re always giving them the benefit of the doubt, but you don’t know Sean Cassidy as well as I do.”

“What if I do?” I blurted without thinking. Broderick widened his eyes at me all, you’re going to tell him here? Ronan narrowed his gaze.

“What do you mean?” he said slowly, suspiciously, and I wished I could take it back.

I scratched feverishly at my wrist. “Well . . . I sort of do know him. We went out for dinner once.” Technically, it was the truth. The first time I’d had a proper conversation with Sean was when he took me out for dinner at Marco Pierre’s.

Ronan abruptly pulled the car over onto the hard shoulder as Annie put her hand to her chest at the suddenness. “Ronan, what are you doing?”

He completely ignored her as he twisted in his seat, his expression a mixture of anger and disbelief. “You, my sister, Lucy Fitzpatrick, went out for dinner with Sean Cassidy? Is this an April Fool?”

I couldn’t meet his eyes. “It isn’t April.”