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LET’S STEAL AWAY

Lizzie

JUNE 17, 2000

“A RE YOU GOING BACK TO SCHOOL BEFORE THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS ?” Hugh asked on Saturday evening, as we sat in the tall grass in the meadow on my parents’ property. “I suppose there isn’t much point,” he added in a thoughtful tone when I shook my head. “Not when there’s two weeks left of term.”

“How is school going for you?” I managed to ask him, forcing myself to come back to the real world and be with him. “When is your sixth-class graduation?”

“School is as underwhelming as always,” he replied with a coy smile. “And I graduate the Thursday after next.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.” A slow smile crept across his face. “It’s still surreal.”

“Do you know if you’re getting it yet?” I asked, feeling a flicker of excitement inside of me. “The student of the year award?”

“Yeah, Liz,” he replied, scrubbing his face to hide his smile. “I’m getting it.”

“I knew you would,” I replied, feeling proud. “I’m so proud of you.”

He was quick to interject, “Enough about me,” giving me his full attention. “Talk to me, Liz.”

“About what?”

“About you.” He reached up and stroked my chin. “I want to hear about you.”

I don’t .

“Uh, what about rugby?” I blurted out. “How’s that going for you?”

“Really?” Smirking, Hugh arched a disbelieving brow. “You want to talk about rugby?”

“I want to talk about anything that isn’t me,” I admitted, exhaling shakily. “I want you to distract me, Hugh. Please.”

His brown eyes burned holes in mine for a long beat, and I thought he was going to go deep, but then he shook his head and cleared his throat.

“Rugby.” He tilted his head to one side, clearly thinking about the subject. “It’s been a lot better since the Dub joined the team. I think we have a real shot at snagging some silverware next season.”

“Do you want the silverware?” I asked, focusing all my attention on our conversation. “Is it important to you?”

“I couldn’t give less of a fuck if I tried,” he admitted with a chuckle. “But it’s good craic and I have an excellent kicking game, which keeps me out of the ruck—and the hospital.” Grinning, he added, “You know I don’t care about that kind of thing, Liz.”

Yeah, I did.

Hugh had the physique of a natural-born athlete, and he was a gifted rugby player, but his heart belonged to the water, not the rugby pitch. “And swimming?”

“I came third at nationals last weekend.”

“You did?” Swallowing deeply, I reached for his hand and squeezed. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” He smiled. “Which I still don’t understand how, considering I’d been out of the pool for so long.” Hugh smiled again, but this time his cheeks flushed an adorable pink color. Because he was proud. Because swimming was his passion. “But it’s really not a big deal.”

“Yeah, it is,” I replied, shivering when he turned his hand over and entwined our fingers. “I’m really proud of you.”

“I got my acceptance letter for Tommen College in September,” he offered then, tracing my thumb with his. “The entrance examination results came in the post, too.”

“And?”

He blushed. “My results were the highest in all three participating schools in town. Mam got a handwritten letter about it and everything.”

“I knew you would.” I smiled and it was the first genuine one since, well, before. “Because you’re a genius, Hugh Andrew Biggs.”

“I don’t know about that,” he replied, looking a little uncertain. “Johnny is a fair bit of a genius himself.”

“The Dub?”

“Yeah. Aside from you, I’ve never encountered anyone with a brain like mine,” he said with a nod. “Maybe the transition to secondary school won’t come as easily to me as…”

“Everything else?” I filled in for him.

“Yeah.” Nodding, he blew out a shaky breath. “Everyone always harps on about the extreme contrast between primary and secondary-level education.” He shrugged again, looking uneasy. “It could be difficult.”

“Not for you,” I promised, attention shifting to our joined hands. Hugh’s hand was so much larger than mine now, with tanned skin and prominent, masculine veins. Jesus, he had beautiful hands. “First, you’ll take Tommen College by storm, and then Trinity College, and then the whole world.”

“I hope so, Liz.”

“I know so, Hugh.” I sighed heavily. “And then, when you’re a world-renowned heart surgeon, you can come back home and fix mine.”

Pain flashed in his eyes. “Liz.”

“It was a joke,” I mumbled weakly.

“I will fix your heart,” he said gruffly, pulling me onto his lap. “But I won’t need to come back home to do it.”

“You won’t?”

“No,” he replied, nuzzling my neck. “Because I won’t be leaving you behind in the first place.”

Shivering, I folded into his arms. “You’re going to take me with you?”

“First to Trinity,” he confirmed, tightening his arms around me. “And then around the world.”

“What about school?” I teased, burrowing into his chest. “I know there’s only four months between us, but I’m two classes below you.”

“You can skip fourth year,” he filled in quickly—too quickly. “That way you’ll turn eighteen the summer I leave for university and can legally come with me.”

“And if my parents say no?”

“Then we’ll get married, and they won’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Just like that?” I laughed.

“Yep.” He snapped his finger for emphasis. “Just like that.”

“So we get married when I turn eighteen and you steal me away to Dublin,” I mused, playing along now. “What happens then, huh? When you’re at university. Where do I finish secondary school?”

“Easy,” Hugh filled in breezily when I rested my head on his shoulder. “You’ll attend Royce College, whose head of enrollment, by the way, will be so impressed by your impressive transcript, they will practically snap your hand off to enroll you.”

“Hmm.” Releasing a sigh of contentment, I gripped his forearms, forcing him to tighten his hold on me. “You sound like you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“That’s because I have.”

“Since when?”

“Since the day you told me you would say yes if I asked you to marry me,” he replied without a hint of hesitation. “So you better keep that heart beating, ya hear?” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Because I need you, Lizzie Young. More than you realize.”

“I will,” I whispered. “I promise.”