Between Here and the Horizon(14)
“No, you weren’t. You were a jerk.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. Oh, shit. Where the hell did that come from? Too late to clap my hand over my mouth and shut myself up. Impossible to claw the words back into my mouth where they belonged. What was wrong with me? Ronan’s eyebrows lifted slowly, his eyes burning a hole in the side of my face. I couldn’t look at him. Not directly, anyway. I could only manage a pained sideways glance. He looked a little stunned.
“Wow. No one has been that frank with me since Magda died,” he said.
“I’m sorry. That was out of line. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, no, please. I was a jerk. I behaved in a very jerky manner. For that I apologize. I’m not in the habit of being nice to people anymore. I should probably have had someone else interview you.” His voice was rich and smooth, like warm coffee. The accent I’d had such a hard time placing on him when we first met made a little more sense now, here on the island, where it seemed nearly all of the occupants were of Irish descent. It was barely there, but a couple of words he said were faintly tinted with a little brogue. Listening to Ronan speak was an unexpected pleasure that made my toes curl inside my shoes.
“I doubt you would have allowed someone else to make an important decision like that for you,” I said. “You don’t strike me as the sort of person who would entrust the care of his children with just anyone.”
He looked at me for a long time. And then: “You’re right. I wouldn’t. So here I am, apologizing, and here you are, so far from home. A stranger in a strange land.” He turned and looked out of the window beside him, eyes fixed on something in the distance. “I suppose that leads me to the most important rule I’d like you to adhere to. You don’t know anyone here on the island. It would be tempting, I suppose, to try and make friends. Guy friends. Maybe someone special to spend time with. Romantically,” he added on the end, as if his point wasn’t being made quite clearly enough. I was hearing him loud and clear, though, and I was already squirming in my seat.
“Ronan, believe me. I’m not planning on shimmying down a drainpipe to go and hit first base with a local. I’m here to look after the children. That’s it. I have no interest whatsoever in meeting people, male or otherwise.”
He gave me a tight-lipped, awkward smile. “I’m sure that’s true. But like I said. Best to just get these things out in the open and then we can move on. I don’t want any guys brought into the house at any point, okay? I definitely don’t want you to have guests in your room. I don’t ever want there to be a situation where Connor or Amie might find a man they don’t know wandering around in his underwear, okay?”
My cheeks were crimson; they had to be. A mixture of outrage and embarrassment fired through me, fizzling just under the surface of my skin. I felt like I was burning up all over. “I’m not that easy,” I snapped. “I wouldn’t just invite a guy back to my room to hook up, if that’s what you’re implying.”
Ronan shook his head, now looking down into his own lap. “I’m not implying anything. I’m just stating what the rules are. I’m sorry if you find that offensive, Ophelia, but my children are very important to me.”
“I know. Of course they are. But—”
“The only other thing I ask of you is that you don’t ever let them down onto the beach by themselves. Somehow swimming lessons seemed unnecessary in New York. Stupid, I know. I plan on dealing with the matter, getting them enrolled in classes as soon as possible, but for now if they’re outside, don’t let either one of them out of your sight. Agreed?”
I wanted to defend myself further—it was insane that he thought I was going to be throwing myself at random men, left, right and center—but I could see backtracking and arguing with him over this wasn’t going to serve any greater good. “Yes. I’ll be very vigilant of them, you have my word.”
“Good. Now, the library on the top floor is at your disposal. There’s a home movie theatre in the basement that you can use to watch movies with the kids. You can use that for your own personal use in the evenings as well, once the children have gone to bed, but you should always keep your ear out for them. Amie’s usually pretty good at going to bed and staying there, but Connor’s a night owl. He’ll be up and wandering around in the middle of the night if he can get away with it.”
“Yes. Not a problem. I can handle that.” My mind was still reeling from the prospect of an entire library upstairs along with a movie theatre downstairs to register much of the other house features that Ronan then explained to me. I did get something about a guest quarters. A lap lane swimming pool, also downstairs, that the children were allowed to play in while supervised, since it was only four feet deep.
“The only area of the house that is off limits to you is my study,” Ronan said. “I have a lot of sensitive documents in there. I could literally go to prison if unauthorized people caught sight of them. It’s really important that Connor and Amie never go in my study, Ophelia. Never. Under any circumstances. Promise me right now that you’ll never let them inside.”
An intensity had overtaken Ronan, a fierceness shining in his eyes as he spoke about his office. His tone was sharp, harder than I thought it probably needed to be. So sad that the guy was so desperate to lock himself away in his study away from his children all the time. I knew lots of parents that were like that back in California, though. There were an awful lot of investment bankers and people working in the financial quarter back in Manhattan Beach, and a lot of them had very little time for their sons and daughters. In Ronan’s case, the loss of his wife must have had a lot to do with his reluctance to spend quality time with his kids. I hadn’t seen a picture of Magda, but it would be strange if her children didn’t carry some piece of her in the way they looked, the way their voices sounded, or the things they said. It had to be hard for him to even look at them sometimes, even now.