The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

looking back. Yet somehow there seems to be more of me. It’s as if pieces that were hidden or unacknowledged have suddenly tumbled into place.
    I realize the physical and emotional stimuli, the charge of endorphins and . . . oh, the hell with that. This doesn’t need to be analyzed and slotted. It just has to be.
    It’s so outrageously romantic, the way he walks to my cottage at night. Coming through the gloom or the moonlight to knock at my door. He brings me wildflowers or seashells or pretty stones.
    He does things to my body I’ve only read about. Oh, God, reading has definitely taken second place.
    I feel wanton. I have to laugh at myself. Jude Frances Murray has a sex drive. And it shows no signs of abating.
    I’ve never had so much fun in my entire life.
    I had no idea romance could be fun. Why didn’t someone tell me?
    When I look in the mirror, I feel beautiful. Imagine that. I feel beautiful.
    Today I’m picking Darcy up and we’re going to Dublin to shop. I’m going to buy extravagant things for no reason at all.
     
    The Gallagher house was old and lovely and sat on the edge of the village, up a steep little hill and facing the sea. If Jude had asked, she would have been told that Shamus’s son, another Aidan, had built the house there the same year he married.
    The Gallaghers didn’t make their living on the sea, but they enjoyed the look of it.
    Other generations had added bits and pieces to the house over the years, as money and time had allowed. And now that there were many rooms, most of them had a view to the sea.
    The house itself was dark wood and sand-colored stone that seemed to be cobbled together in no particular style. Jude found it intriguing and unique. It was two stories, witha wide front porch that needed a coat of paint and a narrow stone walk worn by traffic. Its windows were in diamond-shaped panes she imagined were the devil to keep clean.
    She thought it was caught somewhere between grand and quaint, with just enough of both. And with the light morning fog just burning off around it, it held a bit of mystery as well.
    She wondered what it had been like for Aidan to grow up there, in the big, rambling house, a stone’s throw from the beach and cozy enough to the village to have swarms of friends.
    The gardens needed work, to Jude’s newly experienced eye, but they had a nice, wild way about them.
    A lean black cat stretched out on the walkway gave Jude a steely stare out of golden eyes as she approached. Hoping he wouldn’t take a swipe at her, she crouched down tentatively to scratch between his ears.
    He rewarded the attention by narrowing those eyes and letting out a purr that rumbled like a freight train.
    “That’s Bub.” Shawn stood in the front doorway and shot Jude a grin. “Short for Beelzebub, as he’s a devil of a cat by nature. Come in and have some tea, Jude, for if you’re expecting Darcy to be ready on time, you don’t know her.”
    “There’s no hurry.”
    “That’s a good thing, as she’ll primp an hour just to run out for a quart of milk. God knows how long she’ll be admiring herself for a trip to Dublin.”
    He stepped back to let Jude in, then tossed a shout over his shoulder toward the stairs. “Jude’s here, Darcy, and she says to get your vain ass moving if you expect a ride to Dublin City.”
    “Oh, but I didn’t,” Jude burst out, flustered, and had Shawn laughing as he drew her firmly inside.
    “She won’t pay any mind. Can I get you some tea, then?”
    “I’m fine, really.” She glanced around, noting that the living room spilling off the little foyer was cluttered and comfortable.
    Home, she thought again. It said home and family. And welcome.
    “Aidan’s down the pub seeing to deliveries.” Shawn took her hand in a friendly manner and tugged her into the living room. He’d been wanting to have some time with her, to take stock of the woman who had his brother so enchanted. “So you’ll have to make do with me.”
    “Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound like a hardship.”
    When he laughed again she realized she’d never have flirted so easily, so harmlessly with a man a few months before. Certainly not one with a face like a wicked angel.
    “My brother hasn’t given me opportunity to have more than a word with you up to now.” Shawn’s eyes twinkled. “Keeping you to himself as he is.”
    “You’re always in the kitchen when I come into the pub.”
    “Where they keep me chained. But we can make up for it