*
“But I do want to,” he said honestly. “I want to share everything with you, Mary.” One hand came off the steering wheel and curled around hers. “It’s not something that comes easily to me, though.”
Aidan kept his private life just that – private. It was something he learned and perfected at a very young age. Because of their wealth and power, his family had always been under the microscope. To avoid any hint of scandal, and to keep an edge in the business world, it was imperative to keep anything that might be used against them well-concealed. That was especially true of personal information – the tabloids lived for that kind of stuff.
But Mary was different. She was his croie. And for there to be any kind of a future for them, he had to start treating her as such. As if she could sense his thoughts, Mary gave his hand a gentle, encouraging squeeze.
“Rebecca is two years older than me,” he began. “She left home right after her eighteenth birthday, and I didn’t see or hear from her again until two years ago. Since then, we’ve been doing a lot of catching up.”
“Why did she leave?”
Aidan gave a slight smile. “She and my father didn’t quite see eye to eye on her future. Dad thought she should play the part of the wealthy heiress. You know, take a suitable husband and an active role in the family business. Rebecca disagreed. She wanted to go away to college – to a state university, no less – and travel a bit before she settled down. It didn’t go over very well, I’m afraid. Dad gave her an ultimatum. None of us ever expected she’d walk away with nothing but the clothes on her back, though.”
“I like her already,” Mary commented.
Aidan laughed. “Yes, you two are very much alike, actually. She tends to shun the spotlight, and spends more time taking care of others than she does herself. You even share the same weakness for adopting monster dogs. Her dog, Angus, was scheduled to be put down before she rescued him. I think he’s bigger than you are.” Mary chuckled at that.
“For more than ten years she travelled with organizations like the International Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services, providing aid to third-world nations and impoverished areas around the world. We didn’t even know if she was alive...”
Aidan’s voice trailed off for a moment as he remembered how hard it had been, then cleared his throat and continued. “Then, out of the blue, she showed up in Pine Ridge during the flood a couple of years ago. She’s been here ever since.”
“What prompted the big change?”
“What else?” Aidan grinned, glancing at Mary as he laced his fingers through hers. “She found her croie. A Callaghan, no less.” He shook his head and laughed. “Can’t get away from the bastards no matter what I do, it seems.”
“Rebecca and her husband, Kane, live up in the mountains, and have a beautiful little girl, Aislinn. They come down every couple of weeks to visit with the rest of the family. I thought it would be a good opportunity for you to meet her.”
Aidan felt Mary’s hand tense in his. “I don’t want to take away from their family time.”
He laughed, his eyes filled with amusement. “Are you kidding? Trust me, Mary. This will be the highlight of their day.”
*
Refusing to say any more on the subject, Aidan requested that Mary trust him. She recognized that Aidan was showing faith by sharing parts of his life with her, and wanted to show some in kind, so she let the subject drop. It didn’t make her any less nervous, though.
Before long, Aidan turned off the main road and into a gated community. All worries about meeting Aidan’s sister and the infamous Callaghan clan faded into the background when she spotted the townhomes built along terraces right into the mountain. She blinked several times, never having seen anything like it. If she’d had any doubt about Aidan’s financial plentitude, they vanished quickly.
It was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, except she was seeing it with her own eyes instead of through a television screen. From the moment they walked through the door, Mary had the strangest urge not to touch anything.
It was so... perfect. Just inside the door, the ceiling rose up the full three stories. The outside walls of the upper portions boasted solid panels of darkly tinted glass; a gleaming chandelier in sculptured brass hung down above their heads, bathing everything in a soft glow. Beneath her feet, neutral-shaded marble tiles glittered with fine veins of what look like real gold.