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by the you-know-what?” Luke said with a shudder. “No, thank you. She’s not entirely over the fact that Kristen was once Mack’s lover, even though it was years and years ago. I don’t think she’s anywhere near ready to welcome her into the family fold.”
    Laila was impressed that he was sensitive to that. “How about you? Does it bother you that Kristen and Mack had a thing?”
    Luke shrugged. “Everybody has a past, and I know Mack and Susie have something really special going. It’s not an issue.”
    Matthew rolled his eyes. “Delusional,” he muttered under his breath.
    Luke’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”
    “Mack’s feelings aren’t really the problem, are they? You should be worrying about the fact that Kristen still has feelings for him. Isn’t that the reason you set yourself up to provide a distraction in the first place, to keep her away from Mack?”
    For a moment Luke looked taken aback. “Okay, sure,” he said eventually. “But everybody’s moving on now.” His voice didn’t hold much certainty.
    Matthew just shook his head.
    Laila gave Luke’s hand a squeeze. “Be careful, okay? Sometimes it’s very difficult to get over an old flame, even when you know it’s the only thing to do.”
    “Which explains why you and my brother are sitting here having a cozy breakfast together, instead of sitting all alone in your separate rooms?” Luke taunted.
    “Watch it,” Matthew warned.
    Laila, however, laughed. “Out of the mouths of babes,” she murmured. “Yes, Luke, walking away from Matthew has been much harder than I expected.” She gave Matthew a defiant look. “But I will pull it off eventually.”
    There was no mistaking the sudden twinkle in Matthew’s eyes. “I look forward to seeing you try,” he said mildly.
    “You might not want to turn this into a challenge,” she warned him. “I can match you stubborn streak for stubborn streak.”
    Matthew winced. “Good point.”
    Fortunately their breakfast arrived just then, which gave them both time to retreat from positions that might have proved indefensible. While Matthew sulked and she fretted, Luke dug into his food as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Laila scowled at him.
    “He is annoying,” she commented, as if Matthew had just recently mentioned it.
    Matthew glanced at his brother. “Very annoying.”
    Luke merely chuckled. “See, though, I’ve brought the two of you into agreement over one thing. It’s a fine start for the first day of the trip.”
     
     
    Nell stood across from Trinity College in downtown Dublin and stared at the window of the tobacco shop that had once belonged to her grandfather. She knew that once she walked through that door, it would be like going back in time. That was one reason she’d never chanced it on previous trips. Some things were better left in the past. Charles would never have understood about those long-ago summers before they’d married.
    She’d spent so many afternoons in the shop during the summers her parents had sent her here to stay with her grandparents. Surrounded by the rich scents, she’d sip tea and pretend to read books as she listened to her grandfather talk to his regular customers. They said women were gossips, but she learned more about what was going on in the city right there in that room than she ever had by reading a newspaper or a history book.
    Of course, her fear of crossing the shop’s threshold was about more than that.
    “Gram, don’t you want to go inside?” Susie asked, slipping an arm around her waist.
    “I’m not sure I want to know if there have been too many changes,” she admitted. “Dillon O’Malley, who bought it from my grandfather, is surely retired by now. I don’t know how it will feel to find a complete stranger behind the counter.” Nor did she know how she would feel if she happened to be wrong about that and, instead, came face-to-face with Dillon for the first time in all these years.
    “I could at least go