“And yet you drifted around the world for years.”
“A piece of me was missing, and I couldn’t come home until I could be complete again.”
Luna was a mystery to him now, despite the memories of the past. So much had happened to her in their time apart. He was sorry to have missed it.
“Always the poet and storyteller, talking in riddles and song.” She smiled, a humorous look in her eyes. “Only Enchanted Cove could you call home.”
“That and Ireland.” Rocking back on his heels, he watched Luna as she studied the same landscape he’d just done. “I’d belying if I said I didn’t miss you. Seeing you again is definitely fate.”
“So what happened? I have to know.”
“Why did I leave and never come back?”
“Yes.” She looked like some mythical goddess of war, her eyes flashing red, her lips parted slightly as she stared at Ronan.
“How could I compete with a missing sister and the mission you were on to find her? I didn’t want to compete. I wanted your love, but there was never any room for that.”
The pain in her eyes brought Ronan back to that day right before he left.
A flash of upset stormed her eyes, Luna was clearly upset and she blinked back at the threat of tears. “What would you have thought I’d do, just abandon finding my sister for love? She was my sister, for goodness sake. If it was your family, you would have done the same thing!”
“Absolutely, but I would never forget the people or the person closest to me that loved me the most. When I failed and nothing was discovered, I would have sunk myself into her arms and let her help me. I wouldn’t have closed myself off from her and kept her out of my heart.”
“I didn’t do that!” Luna turned away.
“Yes, you did. So many times I tried to soothe your aching heart. I tried to help by going out on the water and looking for her. I tried everything, from talking to people everywhere to enlisting the help of sea captains everyone knew would be able to find her.”
The faint whisper of her sobbing was heard; it was just as it had always been. “I tried.”
“No, you didn’t. You shut me out and never let me back in. Do you think I didn’t hear you crying late at night in the bathroom?”
She turned, and Ronan saw the pain but could do nothing for it. So many times before, he’d tried, suffering with his ownanguish over the loss on all counts. “I’m sorry if I hurt you with whatever it was I did, but I was hurting. I needed support from a man who loved me, not a man who needed to be coddled.”
Her words stung when she walked away. Ronan watched the foggy shoreline, waves crashing against the sand for a long time, wondering where he’d gone wrong.
He couldn’t bring himself to go back inside. There was much work to be done, but they both needed some air. As he walked the short distance back to the motel, as he’d done so many times in his life, he tried to find his center.
“What’s got you all depressed and out of sorts, Ronan?” James stood behind the counter, a jelly donut with an overabundance of powdered sugar in his hand.
“I wouldn’t say I’m depressed.”
“It's a woman, right? They always get us going and make us feel lousy. That wife of mine is determined to turn me back into a donut just like this…” He held out the small piece of donut left to Olive.
Gingerly, she took it, nibbling it with what was left of her teeth. Ronan smiled, thankful at least she was enjoying their return to the States. “They try our patience, but at least she loves you. Even if it’s a sick and twisted love that makes her want to give you an early heart attack.”
James rolled his eyes. “You know what I should do? Join Shaun’s club. I could use some exercise and walking back and forth to the house will not be enough. While I’m at it, I should find something for my wife to do, too. Apparently cleaning the rooms isn’t enough work for her. Leaves her too much time to plot how long it’s going to take to give me a stroke from high cholesterol.”
Ronan smiled. What more could he do? He appreciated James and his wife, but the inner workings of their marriage were not his business. “Why don’t you just throw it in the trash?Smile, take the donut or whatever and walk away. Then when she’s not around, get rid of it.”
It seemed simple enough to him. Ronan shifted Olive to his other arm, mindful of his tiredness and how late it was for her.
“She’d find it. Believe me when I say she’d find it all. Although with you staying here, I could dump it in your trash. She’ll just think you're throwing things away and be none the wiser.”
He wasn’t about to get caught in the middle of some marital drama, so he turned on his heel and walked away, whistling. “Well, whatever you do, she loves you.”
Ronan spent a restless night of sleep, only to be woken at the crack of dawn by Shaun bursting through the door. “You ever heard of knocking, Shaun. What are you doing in my room so early.”
He rolled off the bed, and Olive grunted slightly because her slumber was being disturbed.
