“Oh dear,” his mother said, setting her teacup on the table. “Well then the ball is in her court, isn’t it?”

Aiden was afraid that his mother was correct again. How could he be so stupid? If he knew Antonia like he thought he did, she was already on her way to the airport in an effort to solidify her future.

“I might have an idea,” his niece said in a small voice.

He lifted his head. Soircha wore an impish smile on her face. “You do?”

Chapter Thirty-Two

When Antonia woke up the next morning, she didn’t feel like writing. The words didn’t come to her as swiftly as she was used to. She wandered the cottage thinking about Aiden instead. She hadn’t purchased her plane ticket the previous night. She held off on it, convinced that she could still salvage her trip. The original plan did not include Aiden. Antonia was here for an entirely different purpose and Aiden’s interruption was a minor distraction.

As she stood at the kitchen sink, she stared into the meadow past her clothesline and realized that wasn’t true. Aiden wasn’t a minor distraction. He’d showed up like a freight train and she enjoyed his presence. The thought made her tear up. She sniffed and raked the back of her arm over her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry over a man who couldn’t be bothered to be strong enough to tell her how he felt.

Antonia drew a deep breath and moved away from the kitchen sink. She tried to remember the details of her night with Aiden; it was a blur of tears and raised voices. The things she’d shouted at him replayed in her mind. She couldn’t believe how she spoke to him and chalked it up to her newfound confidence. Once she was able to cuss out Derek, everyone else seemed easy. But she hurled insults at a man who only wanted to talk to her, to hold and kiss her. The things she said were honest, but she shouted them in embarrassment. Antonia had been close to telling Aiden how she really felt about him when she felt him retreat.

When he’d told her to take the job in Chicago, she was reminded of Derek who always assumed he knew what was best for her. But perhaps some of that was her fault. She was as aimless as Aiden and constantly called upon friends and family to direct her life. She called Octavia for advice on her love life, Eddie for advice on her career, and her mother popped up every once in a while to offer unsolicited advice. The only voice in her head that belonged to her was the one she created for her character, Augusta. Oddly enough, she found herself asking “What would Augusta do?” far less while in Ireland.

With Aiden, she felt liberated.

Maybe it was vacation freedom, maybe it was him. While he preached confidence, without practicing it, much of what he said rubbed off on her. Until she met him, she had been faking it to make it. Antonia knew for certain there was something she couldn’t fake with Aiden. The raw passion she felt for him was quite real. Being around him, in his arms, in his bed, were the best physical experiences she’d had in her life. Being with Aiden was like living in hyperbole. He was “the most” in every way she could think of.