Wild Irish Envy (Copperline #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

explained, instantly regretting it when her expression fell and tears filled her eyes.
    “Fuck off,” she murmur, turning towards the window. “If you’re just sitting here to be a dick, you can leave.”
    I shook my head. “Actually, I can’t. I gave away my seat.”
    “Fine, I’ll just ignore you then.” Reaching down to her earbuds, she placed them in her ears and propped her head up on the pillow again, looking out the window. Doing her best to pretend I didn’t exist. I couldn’t just leave it like that.
    “Fliss,” I said, tapping her on the shoulder. “Fliss, hey…”
    She yanked the earbuds out of her ears and glared back at me. “What, Denny? I’m really not feeling up to this right now.”
    “I can tell. Have you got anything to take for your fever?”
    She took a long moment and just watched me in speculation, like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had been a long time since I was anything but curt and cold to her, and her shields were up. Finally, she pressed her lips together and she just sorta deflated, releasing the anger she’d been using to appear strong. “I took some Tylenol, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. One minute I’m freezing, and the next I’m roasting.”
    I pushed the button for the flight attendant, asking her for something to drink, then dug through my bag for a bottle of ibuprofen.
    “Take some of this, too,” I said as the flight attendant came back with a glass of water. She had brought another cup with ice, as well as a wet washcloth.
    “It may help,” the attendant offered. “Press this to your forehead when you’re hot, and you can cool it with the ice in between. I wish I had something else to offer you.”
    “Thank you,” Fliss smiled weakly, “I appreciate it.”
    The woman smiled back. “Don’t hesitate to call if you need something else,” she urged.
    Fliss nodded as the attendant headed back up the aisle, then swallowed down the tablets and pressed the cool washcloth to her forehead. She gave an audible moan as she swept it down her face and then stroked it along her neck.
    “Of all the times to get sick,” she murmured in a slightly dazed voice.
    “We’ll land soon. Hopefully you can get some rest then.”
    “I still have another flight after this,” she said as she glanced up at me. “I’m doing a thesis abroad term in Irish studies to finish up my master’s.”
    My stomach lurched, both with a feeling of dread and a sense of excitement. “Irish studies?”
    “Yeah,” she said, pressing the cloth up under her hair. “My thesis is about the timing of the discovery of copper in Butte and the potato famine. How those two things led to the high Irish population in that part of Montana.”
    “Where are ya off to, then, to do your Irish studies?” I asked somewhat hesitantly.
    “Trinity College. Dublin.”
    Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph… Dublin. She was going to feckin’ Dublin.
    I was utterly gobsmacked.
    “Ya don’t say…” I trailed off in disbelief.
    The thought that we were both going to Dublin at the same time was simply too much of a coincidence. It sort of had to be fate. Or karma for all those untoward thoughts I’d had of her in the past. It seemed to be my penance for lusting after my friend’s girl, for being a complete fuckhead to Fliss over the years, for not being a good Catholic boy and going to ask forgiveness for my sins. For all the bad shite I’d ever done in my entire feckin’ life.
    “Yeah, I just hope this illness is short-lived, or I’m going to be a wreck. I’ve been fighting it off for a week and thought I was doing well, but as soon as we left Butte, it got a gazillion times worse. Like it was waiting for me to stop moving to set in.”
    “Well, ya’ve got a long trip to rest up. And I can help get ya through Newark,” I offered.
    She looked over at me. “I don’t want to mess things up for you. It’ll be okay.”
    “You won’t mess things up,” I said with a wry twist to