Liam took a sip, then handed the bottle to Ellie. She tipped it up, but the champagne bubbled in her mouth. She wrinkled her nose as she swallowed, then coughed softly. Liam used the opportunity to pull her into his arms. “I should never have brought you here,” he said, pressing his mouth against her neck.

“Why is that?”

“Because I prefer to kiss you whenever I feel like kissing you.”

“Then you’d better get kissing,” Ellie teased, “because if we stay out here too long, we’ll be missed.”

Liam pulled back and looked down into her pretty face. There were times when he felt he could see into the corners of her soul. And then, other times, he wondered if he was just fooling himself. But as he captured her mouth with his, tasting the sweet champagne, all of his doubts seemed to dissolve. For now, Ellie was simply the woman who made his blood run hot and his heart pound hard.

For now, that was enough.

“NOW YOU’RE A TRUE Bostonian,” Liam said, tugging on the brim of Ellie’s brand new Boston Red Sox cap. “You’ve been to Fenway and seen someone hit a home run over the big Green Monster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of our players.”

She stared out the front window of his car as they waited for the light to change. “I’ve never been much of a baseball fan. In New York, you have to choose sides-Mets or Yankees. I never knew enough about baseball, so I stayed neutral and didn’t get involved.”

“I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid,” Liam said, turning the car onto Charlestown Avenue. “I remember the first time I went to Fenway, I must have been about seven or eight. I walked in and it was so green. We’d come from Southie on the T and it was the middle of a heat wave. Our neighborhood was dry and dusty and everything was faded by the sun. And then we walked into Fenway and it was like an oasis-although I didn’t know what an oasis was back then.”

“Did you go to a lot of games as a kid?” Ellie asked.

“No. We didn’t have the money for tickets. But Conor had a couple of buddies who sold popcorn at the park, and if the crowd was thin, they’d let us in before the seventh inning stretch. We never got to see a complete game, but we’d hang around outside afterward and get the players to sign our baseball cards.”

“Sounds like fun,” Ellie said.

“It was. We didn’t have much, but we always had fun.” He chuckled softly. “When I first saw Fenway, I thought it was Ireland.”

“What?”

“I’d always heard my older brothers and father talking about how green Ireland was. They were all born there. And Fenway was the greenest thing I’d ever seen, so I thought it was Ireland. I wasn’t ever good with geography, at least not in second grade.”

Ellie nodded. “When I was a kid, I used to think that my teachers lived at the school. That they all slept together in a little room somewhere and talked about books and chalk and school paste all day and all night. I figured that’s why I never saw them around town. They weren’t allowed out.”

Liam turned his car onto Ellie’s street and scanned the length of it for a place to park. He found a spot right in front, and when he shut the car off, he waited for her to ask him in. Since their encounter in the bathroom, they’d both been a bit hesitant about where to go next. Though Liam didn’t regret what they’d done, he had to admit that the event had brought a change in his feelings toward her.

With other women such an intimacy had always signaled the start of a very passionate but brief affair. With Ellie he was afraid to repeat what they’d shared, afraid that he’d have just a finite number of nights with her before it was all over. He’d have to use them sparingly.

Liam hadn’t given a thought to the future. Until he knew who’d embezzled the money from Ellie’s bank, then he couldn’t completely believe that she hadn’t. And allowing himself to get wrapped up in her life right now was not a smart move.

“Do you want to come in?” Ellie asked.

He’d refused after he’d taken her to the baptism brunch, but it would be difficult to say no again without her wondering why. “Sure. For a little while. I gave the film to one of the sports guys before we left Fenway, so I just have to go down to the Globe before seven to look at the proofs.”

“I’ll make us some hot chocolate and we can warm up.”

They strolled up to her building, then climbed the stairs to the third floor. But when she reached her front door, Ellie stopped short. The door was ajar. She reached out and pushed it open, but Liam slipped around her side and stepped in first.

“What happened here?” Ellie murmured, peering over his shoulder.

It was apparent to Liam that the apartment had been torn apart from top to bottom, completely ransacked. He held his arm out to keep her behind him. “Just wait,” he murmured. “Stay right here.”

“You think he’s still here?” Ellie asked with a gasp.

Liam slowly walked through the apartment, checking each room and flipping on lights, finding them all in the same condition as the others. When he was satisfied that they were alone, he carefully evaluated the scene. He wasn’t really sure what to look for. Sean was the P.I. and Conor was the cop. He was completely out of his element here.

He walked back out into the living room to find Ellie sitting on the edge of the sofa, still in shock. “Is anything missing?”

“How am I supposed to tell?” Ellie asked with a defeated shrug.

“Well, let’s just start to pick everything up and put it in its place and maybe you’ll notice if something is missing.” He sighed. “I guess we shouldn’t touch anything until the police take a look first.”

“No,” she said, jumping to her feet. “I don’t want to pick this up. I don’t want to hang around until the police arrive. I don’t want to stay here. This is the second time someone has come into this apartment and I don’t feel safe here anymore. We have to leave.”

“I can’t understand how they got in without setting off the security alarm.”

Ellie gnawed her bottom lip as she glanced furtively over at the keypad he’d so patiently explained to her.

“You didn’t set the alarm?”

“I was in a hurry and you were waiting. We were late for the game.”

Liam closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Well, at least you weren’t here.”

“And I’m not going be here tonight, either. I’ll find a hotel-with big locks on the door and a burly security guard in the lobby.”

“No,” Liam said. “I’ll take you somewhere safe. You can come home with me.”

Ellie blinked, clearly surprised by his offer. “I couldn’t do that.”

Liam glanced around the apartment again, a thought creeping into his mind. Sean had a key. Had he done this to Ellie’s apartment? Liam couldn’t believe his brother would be so obvious-unless he meant to scare Ellie on purpose. Now he was glad they hadn’t called the police.

“You can,” Liam said. He pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to her forehead.

Ellie sank against his body and he held her gently, stroking her back. “Maybe I’m just not meant to live in Boston. Maybe I should go somewhere else. I was reading this book the other day that said-”

Before she could continue Liam brought his mouth down on hers, stopping her words in her throat. The kiss was soft and reassuring and Ellie opened beneath his gentle assault. She smoothed her hands over his face as he kissed her, exploring with her fingertips, her touch heating his blood.

He pulled back and smiled down at her. “We can talk about books later,” he said. “Why don’t you go grab what you need and we’ll go over to my place? Tomorrow we’ll come back and clean up.”

Ellie nodded. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being here. For watching out for me.”

Liam waited while she packed, walking through her apartment and picking up where he could. When he found the phone beneath a pillow from the sofa, he put the receiver back into the cradle. He was tempted to call Sean but he’d leave that for later.

Ellie reappeared a few minutes later with a small duffel bag. “He went through my dresser,” she said. “But he didn’t touch my jewelry.” She paused, then shook her head. “No, it couldn’t be him.”

“Who?”

“I’m just being paranoid.”

“Who?” Liam demanded, slipping the strap of her bag from her shoulder. He reset the alarm, then closed the door behind them and locked the dead bolt. They walked down the stairs to the street and Ellie stopped. “Ronald,” she finally said.

Liam wasn’t sure how he ought to react. Either Ellie was genuinely confused by all that had happened or she was very deftly throwing suspicion onto her partner in crime. “Ronald Pettibone?”

“I just don’t know…” she said, shaking her head.

“Why would you think it could be him?”

“He broke up with me. And he was pretty clear that he didn’t want to remain friends. That’s why I left the bank. And then, out of the blue, he shows up here. He claimed to have friends here, but we spent a long weekend in Boston about a month before we broke up and he didn’t mention any friends then. Do you think he’s stalking me?”

“I don’t know,” Liam said. “But I’ll find out.”

Liam glanced up and down the street before they got into his car, noticing a black sedan with tinted windows parked down the block. Now he was feeling a little paranoid.

As they drove through the city, he kept his eyes on the rearview mirror, swinging around the block every now and then to make sure he wasn’t being followed. When he was satisfied that the black sedan wasn’t tailing them, he headed toward Southie.

He hoped that Sean would be gone when he got home, but when he stepped inside his flat, he found both Sean and Brian sitting on the sofa, eating pizza and watching a game show. They both registered surprise at seeing Ellie again, but for completely different reasons.