I already know that, of course. I was with him the day he bought it.

“When are you going to buy yourself something like this?” she asks, surprising me.

“Well, if you’d asked me that a few months ago, I would have said that I’m content above the pub.”

“And now?”

I shrug a shoulder, not sure I want to give voice to the thoughts recently filling my head. Suddenly, I think I might want more than just the pub.

“You can tell me,” she insists and reaches over to pat my hand. “I’m a vault.”

“Oh, that doesn’t concern me.”

“What does concern you, Keegan?”

“I suppose it’s normal for a person to have a change in plans at some point in his life. I have always been absorbed in the pub, and I liked it that way.”

Her lips twitch. “Do go on.”

“It’s nosy you are, Anastasia O’Callaghan.”

She laughs and then nods her head. “True enough. Only because I love you and I want to know how you are. Izzy seems like a special girl.”

“She’s that,” I agree without elaborating.

“You don’t have to make decisions about the future today. But it’s telling that you’ve had a passing thought or two about what you want in the future. There’s nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to wanting a home with a sweet woman.”

“If I ask her to be mine,”—I have to pause to swallow hard—“I can’t expect her to be content with living above the pub.”

“I think she’d probably be happy there for a while,” Stasia says slowly. “But if you have children, the apartment is small.”

“My parents raised five children in it until Maggie was close to five years old.”

“I didn’t say it was impossible,” she clarifies. “Just that it’s small.”

“This isn’t the conversation I planned to have when I came here.” And I need to put an end to it because I haven’t even had time to wrap my head around all of these ideas for myself. I’m speaking about it out of turn.

She laughs and points to the barn about a hundred yards away, where my brother fires his glass. “He’s in there.”

“Is he surly today, then?”

“Isn’t he always?”

“Good point. I’ll go find him.”

“Good luck.”

“I’ll need it. Kane’s a horse’s arse when he gets interrupted.”

“I meant with Izzy,” Stasia says.

I wave and walk out to the barn. It’s no use knocking, he won’t hear me, so I open the door and slip inside then close it behind me. Kane’s across the room, dipping hot glass into water to cool it down. He’s drenched in sweat, but he looks satisfied in the morning’s work so far.