The Bridal Bet

Snatching her arm away from him, she marched to the darker end of the walkway. Once there she turned to face him so quickly that he almost crashed into her. ‘You’ve had some absolute whoppers of ideas in your time, but this one definitely gets the award.’

He folded his arms across his broad chest and waited.

‘I mean, you and me—a couple? Who’s gonna believe that?’

He sighed. ‘Molly—’

‘And to suggest that we’d ever be able to fool anyone—I mean, there are days we have difficulty just getting on well enough to still like each other as friends!’ She started pacing in front of him.

He sighed again. ‘If you’d just—’

‘We’d have to be able to look at each other without sniggering every two minutes. And as for the kissing thing—’ She stopped pacing long enough to waggle a finger at him. ‘You do realise if we were actually dating we’d be expected to kiss and—well, other stuff like that….’

There was a deadly silence as they stared at each other in shock. Ryan swallowed hard. ‘I know that—’

She recommenced the pacing. ‘It’s the most ridiculous suggestion you’ve ever made, Callaghan, and you should know that, for crying out loud!’

‘O’Brien—’

She stopped again and looked up into his eyes. ‘I mean, honestly, what makes you think for one second we could fool anyone?’

Ryan frowned at her. ‘Methinks the girl protests too much.’

‘And just what does that mean?’

‘Maybe you’re too frightened to kiss me.’

Her eyes widened, fire glinting in their depths. ‘Me? Frightened, of you? What in hell is there for me to be frightened of?’

He stepped closer, his body almost touching hers. Towering over her smaller frame until any dim light was almost obscured, he leaned down towards her. ‘Maybe you might just like kissing me.’

‘You wanna bet?’

‘Well, actually, yes, I do.’ His gaze was steady. ‘I thought we’d established that fact.’

Her mouth gaped. ‘I don’t believe this. As if I’d like kissing you, of all people! Like as in enjoy? Like as in, participate—’

He did the only reasonable thing he could think of to shut her up. He hauled her body to his and kissed her.

At first Molly couldn’t believe what he was doing. This was Ryan Callaghan. The Ryan she had known for half her life. The Ryan who, along with her soulmate Kieran, had managed to alternately torture, humour and protect her most of the way through her late teens. They’d been the three musketeers back then—almost invincible. She had thought she knew Ryan better than anyone else on the planet. It should have felt like kissing a brother. Somehow it didn’t.

It felt—well, it felt nowhere near as awful as it could have been. In fact, it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. In fact…

This just couldn’t be right.

Ryan couldn’t believe he was doing what he was doing. He was actually kissing Molly! Hello—earth calling Ryan. What was he doing? Then he forgot for a moment as he felt her mouth soften against his. Good Lord, he was kissing Molly. And, hell, but it felt good. Too good. He moved his mouth over hers, felt her small sigh against his lips. She was so warm, and sweet-tasting, and soft, and—

‘Oops, sorry Mr Callaghan.’ There was a childish giggle. ‘We didn’t see you there.’

They pulled away from each other, both staring at the two Collins children who had materialised by their side. Ryan found his voice first. Well, he assumed it was his voice. The sound certainly seemed to come out of his mouth, so it pretty much had to be his. ‘That’s okay, kids. Don’t worry about it.’

The children looked backwards and forwards at the two adults, giggling again. The fair-haired girl waved at Molly before turning back into the darkness with her brother.

‘See.’ Her voice was the loudest of stage whispers. ‘Mammy said they were goin’ together. Let’s go tell her she’s right.’

Her brother’s voice got louder as they moved further away. ‘I’m telling her first!’

The echo of running footsteps bounced across the still water of the lough. ‘No, you’re not! I am!’

Ryan stared into the darkness as if he could still see them while Molly stared at his broad back. ‘Callaghan—’

‘Well, I guess that takes care of the kissing bit. They seemed fairly convinced.’ He turned to look at her. ‘Don’t you think?’

‘Oh, you—you’ll just do anything to prove a point, won’t you?’ The burst of laughter sounded false, even to her own ears. For the first time in a very long time she felt awkward in his company. Unable to look him in the eye. ‘But surely you can see this is a really dumb-ass idea?’

With only a moment’s hesitation he reached down to frame her face with his large hands, forcing her to look at him. ‘Protest noted. But, hey, come on, O’Brien.’ He smiled a lop-sided smile at her, the one women always seemed to find endearing. ‘It’ll be hilarious. And we’ve already started the jungle telegraph talking. Since when have you ever chickened out of one of our bets?’ He raised a dark eyebrow. ‘Unless you’re prepared to admit I’m right about Scallon.’

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, suddenly afraid that he might try to convince her some more, Molly moved back, out of his hold. She had never turned down one of Ryan’s bets. Never allowed him the upper hand in their long relationship. And she wasn’t about to start now.

She liked Nick Scallon, for crying out loud. He was the most attractive man she’d met in a good while. And she could think of nothing more rewarding than proving Ryan wrong about him. So if that meant she’d have to play charades for a few weeks then she could manage that. Really, she could. Piece of cake. And Ryan’s forfeit would be hell…

Raising her chin to look at him, she smiled calmly. ‘Okay, Callaghan, you’re on. Let’s just hope—’ she moved close to him to brush an imaginary speck of dirt from his shirt ‘—you can take the heat.’

Ryan stared at her, his throat suddenly dry. What had he started? From past history he just knew that his payback would be a nightmare. Molly would make sure of that.

He grinned. Bring it on.

CHAPTER TWO

End of summer—fifteen years ago

‘FRIENDS don’t kiss.’

‘Ever?’

Molly thought for a moment, her long legs tucked beneath her on the large sofa. It was the last night of the summer holidays and in the morning their two families would part again for another year. To celebrate the last evening they had had a huge barbecue by the lough before returning to Ryan’s family’s summerhouse. While the adults had drunk wine, chatting on the porch, the two kids had sat themselves in front of a video in the family room.

‘Never.’

Ryan studied her profile carefully. ‘What about when they say goodbye or wish each other a happy birthday?’

‘That’s different. Those are friendly kisses.’

‘And the difference would be…?’ She had piqued his interest and he wondered just what the extent of her knowledge could be at her age.

Molly avoided looking directly at him. Instead she kept her gaze focused on the television screen as she watched the source of their debate. They had been watching When Harry met Sally.

Out of the corner of his eye he had seen Molly blush a crimson-red during the café scene when Meg Ryan had demonstrated her talent for faking it. He had impressed himself by not laughing at her reaction. After all, it wasn’t that he was that much more experienced than she was. A few fumblings in the darkness of a cinema or the back seat of a friend’s car on a Saturday evening hardly made for a sex-life to brag about.