Haunting Beauty Read Online Free PDF Page B

possible,” he told her. “And I wasn’t sure when you’d want to return. It seemed easier to book that part later. We don’t intend to keep you there. Unless, of course, that’s what you want.”
    “What I want . . .” she trailed off, overwhelmed. Like a child reaching for a security blanket, she bent down and scooped up the strange dog, holding it close in her protective arms. The creature stared at her with adoration as she stroked its fur, looking somehow like a cornered animal herself, desperate to find a way out. He didn’t understand this response any more than he had her others.
    “Have you a passport?”
    “Yes, but . . .”
    “But what? Is it not what you’ve wished for, Danni? To know who you are and where you come from?”
    Those huge eyes lifted to stare into his, giving him the perfect view into her soul. It was a lovely thing, pure and hopeful and so very vulnerable. He cursed himself, but he didn’t look away. In his pocket, the jewelry box seemed to thrum, demanding he take it out and give it to her now. This was the time, he knew. But it felt too much like a betrayal and he couldn’t do it.
    Swallowing his shame, he simply said, “It’s time for you to come home Dáirinn MacGrath. What’s left of your family needs you.”

Chapter Three
    D ANNI closed the front door behind Sean and then leaned against it, listening for the sound of an engine driving away to signal that he was gone, but it never came. Half expecting that she’d find him still standing on her porch, she cracked the blinds and peeked out. She didn’t see him, but felt the need to open the door and look again. Nothing but the rustling leaves in the trees and the frantic chirping of birds waited outside. Disconcerted by the lingering sense of him, she shut the door again and locked it.
    He’d been real this time. She let out a shaky breath. Very real.
    And even though a part of her had expected him, anticipated and dreaded his appearance with equal measures, she still couldn’t believe it.
    In the flesh he’d been even more compelling than he was in the vision. She’d felt the pull of him, even as warning signals were going off in her head. Even as she questioned the fantastic tale he’d told. There was something that didn’t ring true about Sean Ballagh. A subtext to his message that she hadn’t been able to grasp. The sense that what he hadn’t said could be more important than what he had.
    For a moment the sun dimmed and she thought of the vision, of the cavern where she’d seen her mother arguing with whoever had stood in the shadows. Was her vision from the night they’d disappeared? Is that why it had felt like a memory? And what about the grave, that gaping hole in the sea of green? Her own body crumpled inside it beside the adolescent boy’s? What could it mean?
    Overwhelmed by her own knotted feelings and questions, she went back to the kitchen, shoving the picture, the newspaper clipping, and the tickets back into the envelope. It was nearly nine and she should have left for work already. It was her day to open the antique store she managed with Yvonne Hearne—foster mother, con fidant, friend, and employer all rolled into one.
    Quickly she cleared Sean’s cup and saucer, adding it to the sink with her own. He hadn’t drunk any of his tea. Probably he would have preferred coffee. She’d remember that.
    It was this thought—perhaps more than any other—that stopped her. She’d remember because she would see him again. She was going to Ireland with him. To meet her family . . . a family she had no recollection of.
    How was it she could recall the feeling of flying she’d had as a child when the air would turn and a vision would come, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember her parents, her brother, her life before Arizona? She hadn’t even recognized her own mother at first when she’d seen her in the vision this morning. Danni had been five when she’d been dumped at preschool