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“It’s a nice day. Definitely check out the area.

” He reached into his pocket, and her eyes tracked the movement.

He withdrew a cell phone and a set of keys.

“Here, take this. Key to the front door and my personal cell. Just call the ‘office’ contact if you get lost; it’ll send you right to my business phone.

” He flashed her a small smile. “While you might not use a phone while on your walks in Ireland, here I think you’d be better served with a GPS.

” He quickly had her set up her thumbprint on the phone.

“Thanks,” she replied, blushing.

“You bet. How are you feeling? Tired?”

She shrugged. “Not particularly.”

He raised his eyebrow at her. “One more question for you before you head out.” He canted his head. “Do you know how many universities there are in London?”

She shook her head, confused.

“Forty.”

She blinked. “Forty?”

He shrugged. “Yep. Just thought you should know.”

He walked out of the kitchen, leaving her bemused. As the office door shut behind him, her mouth dropped open.

He searched for me. Her thoughts whirled, her heart kicked up its rhythm, and she sat down, hard, on the closest chair.

He did feel the pull between them, then. But why wouldn’t he want to pursue something with her? She wasn’t so clueless as to know when a man was uninterested in her. They had chemistry. She knew they did. Colin O’Rourke definitely had interest in her.

She kissed a few men in her time, sure. But never had any of them looked at her the way Colin did that night.

She hated and loved that their kiss replayed itself so frequently in her brain; she still felt a thrill when she remembered the look on his face in the split second before his lips touched hers.

No one had ever looked at her with such intensity and raw desire before.

When their mouths joined, she could swear that time itself stopped.

There existed only the two of them in the universe, made for exactly that moment.

Logically, she understood why the kiss haunted her dreams, both day and night.

It was a new experience, a fantastic one, and she longed to repeat it.

But she also realized she didn’t know anything about love.

Once upon a time, she thought she did, but her relationship with Andrew, and the subsequent fallout, had been such a disaster that she knew she wouldn’t recognize real love if it tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a business card.

Colin, however, knew all about love—it was his business, after all, and a successful one at that. If he was backing away from their mutual interest, maybe he had a good reason.

She just wished she had more experience so she could understand it.

Maybe it was jet lag, or maybe she was more curious than she should be, but she needed to know why. And he did say that they would be honest with each other…

Before she lost her nerve, she headed to the office and knocked quickly on the door. She didn’t wait for an answer and opened it.

“How exactly do you know that there are forty…oh my God, what happened in here?”

He glanced up from behind a stack of papers that looked as though they would fall over if he breathed the wrong way. A laptop sat atop a large desk, the surface of which was covered with various papers, folders, pens, pencils, coffee cups, and sticky notes.

Lots and lots of sticky notes.

The floor also had piles of papers everywhere she looked. The only things in the room that weren’t overwhelmingly messy were the two chairs in front of the desk, and the man sitting behind it, who was looking at her with a sheepish expression.

“Turns out, I am terrible at filing. But I’ll get to it eventually.”

Ellie blinked. This room, so very different from the rest of the house, was a disaster. Terrible at filing? Did he even know the meaning of the word?

“Is this your company’s headquarters?” she finally asked, her eyes everywhere at once .

He laughed. “No, believe it or not. Most of this stuff is personal. Taxes and other boring stuff.”

“How many years’ worth?” she replied, a touch of amazement in her voice.

“A lifetime.”

“Ever thought about joining the twenty-first century and going digital?”

He sat up straighter. “I plan to eventually hire someone to come in and organize all this for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Famous last words. I can see the advert now: Organizer wanted. Must love sticky notes, filing, and deep cleaning. Rubber gloves required.”

“It’s not as bad as that.”

She raised an eyebrow and pointed to a plate on top of a filing cabinet. “That looks rather...unclean.”

He peered at it. “I’ll give you that one. Chinese food from a couple weeks ago.”

“Ew, Colin!”

“My housekeeper doesn’t come in here,” he admitted.

“No,” she replied in mock seriousness. “I’d have never guessed.”

“Are you offering to file for me? If so, have at it.”

Ellie didn’t mind clutter. She definitely wasn’t the most organized person in the world at home, but in her bookshop, she had everything in its place. No one should have to work in these conditions.

And it smelled a little. Time to make her escape.

“While that does sound scintillating, I would prefer a walk right now. Happy working.”

“Happy wandering.”

It took her until she left the house to realize she never got an answer, much less asked her question.

Later that afternoon, Colin sat back in his chair in his downtown office, mentally and physically drained.

Celtic Connections didn’t need the investors stateside anymore, but he certainly needed them if international expansion was going to happen.

And his current investors were not pleased with him.

He knew he hadn’t fully convinced them to stay the course with the UK and Ireland mess, but for now they were somewhat content to let him try his hand at Emsworth’s challenge.

Emma was on the call and detailed how they planned to use the publicity to their benefit, and Colin again went over the numbers.

It was enough. For now.

He only had to meet with some employees before he could head home for the day. The afternoon meeting had gone way over, and he noticed it was well past six o’clock. By the time he finished with Mike and Candice, it would be after seven.

His phone rang. “O’Rourke.”

“Welcome back, Colin. I thought you might need some food, as I’m going to just go ahead and assume you weren’t able to stop and pick anything up before heading into the office.” His mother’s voice held no censure, and he smiled into the phone.

“Thanks, Mom. Be warned, though…there’s someone over there.”

“Oh?”

The word held so much hope in it, Colin cringed. “She’s a—”

“She?”

“Mom, please. It’s not what you think.” He gave a brief explanation of Ellie’s situation.

Evelyn O’Rourke was silent for a moment. “Well. The poor woman. If you want me to stay away, I will. But I can drop some food off and check in on her, see if she needs anything? ”

Colin glanced again at the clock. “That’s not a bad plan. Will you stay until I get home?”

“Of course!” she exclaimed, delighted.

He laughed. “Well then, by all means bring some food over, Mom. Ellie is a quiet one, but she’ll enjoy your company. Who wouldn’t?”

“You’re a sweetheart.”

“I know. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Does your Ellie drink wine?”

Not my Ellie was on the tip of his tongue, but he merely replied, “She does.”

“Perfect. We’ll see you when you get home. Good bye, dear.”

They hung up, and Colin lifted the phone to call Ellie to let her know about her upcoming visitor. But Mike knocked on the door, poked his head in, and said, “You look like I feel. Can we fire a client?”

Colin grinned. “Firing clients seems like poor business practice. Come on in, shut the door. Tell me how it went in LA.”

Mike obliged, then sprawled in the chair facing Colin. “Candice went home, just so you know. This guy is a piece of work. He demanded a mixer.”

Colin snorted. “As in, one of those awkward parties held on college campuses?”

Mike nodded wearily. “He said he saw it on TV. Wants his choice of ladies.”

“We’ve given him plenty of choices. Unfortunately, they all seem too good for him, though his opinion is opposite.” Colin frowned. “What’s his new game plan?”

Pulling out his phone, Mike quickly forwarded an email to Colin. “There, you can read it yourself, but he’s thinking LA women aren’t for him. He wants someone from the East Coast.”

“Why? ”

“Why not?” Mike asked sardonically, opening his hands wide, then shook his head in defeat. “I asked him the same thing, and those were his words, not mine.”

“Fine. Throw him a party. Ten women—but reinforce that this is not an episode of The Bachelor .” Colin rolled his shoulders. “Ugh. I haven’t done one of these parties in years.”

“And may we never have to do one again,” Mike added, with feeling.