The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

it’s early days yet. Let’s keep that adventure for another time.”
    He gathered her a little closer. “Why wait? You’re the fatalist.”
    “Clever. But we’ll wait because I’ve a mind to. I’ve a very strong mind.” She tapped his lips with her finger once, then drew back.
    “Me, too.” Deliberately, he lifted her hand to his lips again, brushed them over her palm, then her knuckles.
    “I like that. I might just come back for more, another time. And as things are, I believe I’ll leave the dishes to you after all. Now, will you walk me out like a proper gentleman?”
    “Tell me,” he said as they started out of the kitchen, “how many men have you wrapped around your finger to date?”
    “Oh, I’ve lost count. But none of them seemed to mind it.” She glanced back as the phone began to ring. “Do you need to answer?”
    “The machine’ll get it.”
    “Answering machines and faxes. I wonder what Old Maude would think.” She stepped outside and off the stoop to where the flowers were dancing in the breeze. “You look suited to this place,” she said after a moment’s study of him. “And I imagine you look just as suited to some lofty boardroom.”
    He reached down to snap off a spray of verbena and handed it to her. “Come back.”
    “Oh, I imagine I’ll wander your way again.” She tucked the flower into her hair as she turned to the
garden gate.
    He saw then why he hadn’t heard her drive up. She’d ridden a bike. “Darcy, if you’ll wait a minute, I’ll drive you back down.”
    “No need. Good day to you, Trevor Magee.”
    She straddled the bike and steered down the narrow drive and into the bumps and ditches the locals claimed was a road. And managed, Trevor noted, to look outrageously sexy doing it.
     
     
    Since he stopped by the site after going into the village, it was after noon when he walked to the Gallagher house. His knock was answered by the barking of a dog, a throaty, excitable sound that made him take a cautious step in reverse. He was an urbanite and had a healthy respect for anything capable of making that kind of noise.
    The barking stopped seconds before the door opened, but the dog itself sat beside Jude, madly thumping its tail. Trevor had seen the dog a time or two, but at a distance. He hadn’t realized the thing was quite so large.
    “Hello, Trevor. How nice. Come in.”
    “Ah . . .” He glanced meaningfully at the dog, and Jude laughed.
    “Finn’s harmless. I promise. He just likes to make a racket so I’ll think he’s protecting me. Say good day to Mr. Magee,” Jude ordered, and Finn obediently lifted a huge paw.
    “I’d like to stay on his good side.” Hoping the dog would let him keep all his fingers, Trevor shook, hand to paw.
    “I can put him out back if he worries you.”
    “No, no, it’s fine.” He hoped. “I’m sorry to interrupt your day. I was hoping you had a minute.”
    “I’ve several minutes. Come in and sit down. Can I get you some tea? Have you had lunch? Shawn sent down a lovely casserole.”
    “No, nothing, thanks, I’m fine. Don’t go to any trouble.”
    “It’s not a bit of trouble,” she began, but she pressed one hand to the small of her back and the other to her belly as she stepped back.
    “You sit down.” Trevor took her arm and steered her textStyle2">to the living room. “I’ll confess, large dogs and pregnant women unnerve me.”
    It wasn’t true. Large dogs might have unnerved him, but pregnant women melted him. But the statement got her to a chair.
    “I promise neither of us will bite.” But she sat, gratefully. “I swore I was going to stay calm and graceful through this experience. I’m pretty calm yet, but I said good-bye to grace at the six-month point.”
    “You look like you’re handling it well. Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?”
    “No, we want to be surprised.” She laid a hand on Finn’s head when he came to sit by her chair. Trevor noted she didn’t have to reach far. “I took a walk last evening and looked at your site. You’re making progress.”
    “Steady. This time next year you’ll be able to walk down and take in a show.”
    “I’m looking forward to it, very much. It must be satisfying to turn your visions into reality.”
    “Isn’t that what you’re doing? With your books, with your baby?”
    “I like you. Are you comfortable enough to tell me what’s on your mind?”
    He waited a beat. “I forgot you’re a psychologist.”
    “I