“Do ye really think a week is a long time?”
Eoghanan waited patiently, appreciating how Cooper always took time before answering a question. He thought about things deeply. At such a young age, the boy had already mastered a talent far too few people possessed.
Finally, he spoke. “Well, are we talkin’ about love here?”
Eoghanan smiled, nodding silently.
“Then yeah, a week is real long. Let me think…when Bebop tells me something I don’t understand, he tells me a story to help me get it. You wanna hear a story, E-o?”
“Aye, tell me yer story.”
“I don’t know if you know this, but next to Mom, Dad, and Bebop, I love dinosaurs more than anything else in the world. I mean,” he spread his arms wide. “I love them soooo much, and it didn’t take me a week to figure that out. I knew the first time I saw a dinosaur, in a book my Bebop got for me, that I loved them. Not everybody loves dinosaurs. Grandfather doesn’t, but that’s okay. ’Cause I was meant to love dinosaurs. What I mean is, if you are meant to love each other, you and my Mom, then a week is a long time.”
Eoghanan shook his head in disbelief. “How old are ye again, Cooper?”
Cooper tapped the side of his head. “I know, I’m kinda weird. I think my brain is older than my body.”
He laughed. “I doona doubt it. Ye are verra special lad. I have never met a child like ye before.”
“Does that mean you’re gonna tell her?”
Eoghanan stood, jerking his head toward the castle’s main entrance. “Aye, I think that I shall. Let’s go and join the others. Do ye mind staying with yer father a while, so that I may talk to yer mother alone?”
“Yeah, sure. Maybe Dad will play hide-and-seek.”
“Aye, perhaps he will. I think it may take some time to explain the magic to her. Even then, I doona know if she will believe me.”
Cooper took off down the stairs, hollering at him over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about that E-o. I’ll help you with that part. If she doesn’t believe you, I think I know something that will work.”
Eoghanan couldn’t explain it, but as Cooper ran out the front door of the castle, a sense of unease settled over him.
Chapter 18
Much to all of our delight, we arrived at McMillan Castle near noon without a tourist to be found. It was literally as if it had been vacated just for us. The only person on the property, as far as I could tell, was a lackadaisical ticket operator who seemed much too interested in her magazine to worry about what areas we did and did not enter. We had free run of the place.
It made for excellent picture taking. While Jerry, Morna, and Jeffrey visited by the pond out front, Eoghanan occupied Coop with a castle-sized game of hide and seek. It was a magnificent edifice, and I was glad to get some work done, but I was even more pleased when Cooper came running out headed straight toward his dad.
Eoghanan made his way out more slowly, lingering near the entryway of the castle. Something within my gut started to hum each time I saw him. I barely knew him, but I kept trying to think of reasons to call Mr. Perdie to ask if I could extend my trip by a week or two. I still had a week left here, but I was beginning to believe that no amount of time would ever feel like enough. It was completely irrational thinking; I didn’t know his last name, about his family, what he did for a living, but I knew that after knowing him, even if I left, I would think about him every day for the rest of my life.
Still, that wasn’t enough. There was a mystery about him that I couldn’t figure out and, until I did, I wouldn’t allow myself to trust my feelings for him. I knew myself well enough to know, despite my lack of experience in recent years, that I had a tendency to fall for bad guys—the kind of guys who purposely leave important details about themselves out of the conversation; the kind of guys who are attractive more for their mystery than their substance.
I could tell by Eoghanan’s eyes—Cooper and Bebop were right about people’s eyes—that he couldn’t be lumped into the same “bad guy” group as so many others. Regardless, he still remained more of a mystery than I was comfortable with.
His injury, although partially explained, still made very little sense. Who in the heck got into sword fights nowadays? And what could he possibly have done to provoke it? Not to mention his odd speech and his obvious fascination with the car.