Page 63

“Too busy, probably,” she said softly.

He looked at her. Those words had been spoken heavily, too, though he didn’t have a guess as to what she’d meant by them.

“Did you enjoy your walk round the castle?” he asked, deciding to shrug off her comment.

“Yeah, I did. Loved it.”

She walked two steps ahead of him still, and Finn let out a sigh. Time to rip off the Band-Aid.

“Are you tryin’ to avoid me?” he asked, stopping in his tracks and watching her from behind.

She leaned over another crumbled wall, then straightened. “What? No. I’m just trying to find Trifle.” She averted her eyes again and kept moving forward.

“Really? Because it feels like you are avoidin’ me.”

“Nope,” she said flippantly. “Hey, if you’re done searching for Trifle, you could probably go back out to Renee. Or, you know, get some more ice cream. Whichever you’d prefer.”

Finn narrowed his eyes, slowly putting two-and-two together. The ice cream. Had she seen him speaking with Fiadh? Was that why she was upset, because she was jealous?

Deciding to pursue this new development, he caught up to her again. “Ah, I’d rather help out in here.” She didn’t respond. “Did you manage to get a wee poke yourself?”

She looked at him in confusion.

“Ice cream,” he clarified. “Poke.”

“Oh. No, I didn’t. I mean, I wanted to. But the line was taking a really long time.” She glanced at him sidelong. “The lady seemed distracted or something.”

His smile returned. “I’m no doubt the reason for that. Fiadh likes a bant.”

“Apparently. But it’s no big deal. I’d rather help Renee out than eat ice cream anyway.” She took a few steps forward, then paused, and to his surprise, she whirled around and confronted him head-on.

“You know what?” she began. “I’m sorry if this is too American for you, but I just have to say, I wasn’t coming on to you yesterday when I got your number. I was just trying to get you those photos—for your mom, by the way—so if that’s the reason you’ve been super off with me today, you can let it go because I know you’re obviously interested in this Feeyuh…Fiauh…That ice cream girl more than me, which is completely fine. I just wanted to clear the air between us by letting you know that I wasn’t making a pass at you.”

She paused, taking a deep breath and allowing Finn to recover from the firehose that was her explanation.

“Anyway,” she said, “I’m gonna go look for Trifle now. You can do whatever you want.”

She turned around, then, and walked away without a glance back.

He watched the confident steps she took away from him, unable to help but admire her. He’d never met a girl who was so comfortable in her own skin before, let alone someone who could be so straightforward. He wished he could be the same with her, but how could he explain his family’s financial woes to a practical stranger?

He knew he needed to keep away from her, but then, his level of attraction to her continued to grow whether he was around her or not—so where did that leave him?

Whatever he did, he knew staying away from her for the next week and a half was simply not an option. He had to be near her, to speak with her. And he had to explain.

So, like a little dog desperate for attention, he trailed after her. “Don’t I get the chance to say somethin’ now, too?” he asked.

Maisie shrugged, her eyes fixed on the stone flooring they walked across. “I guess.”

“I just wanted to say thank you for your honesty,” he began. “But I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed.”

Maisie paused, swinging around to look at him. “What exactly are you disappointed about?”

“That you weren’t tryin’ to come on to me.”

She stared, and he forced himself to not feel unnerved under her gaze.

“Why?” she asked, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.