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I don’t dwell on it, really I don’t, but it’s one thing to be told you’ve got a great talent and quite another to be denied the chance to use it because you won’t follow a silly rule or two

Maeve’s expression turns crafty "Go and meet this O’Neill, and when you come back you can tell us all about it on Wren Day"

I haven’t been invited to a fairy holiday gathering for four years now It’s not that Iand the food, but it would be nice to dance withbeneath our bare feet

She pushes the paper back across the desk "Meet him, find out what he wants, and politely decline it And by all things sacred, no et to baggage claim"

I don’t have much choice here, so I pocket the infor zing "You can’t look like a boy in front of a Great House"

Just for that, I plan to wear the s I ohen I meet this John O’Neill

Three days later I’m back in A payphones in Logan Airport and reach a voicee and hurry outside into the blustery cold wind

"If you’re looking for the girl who sang on Flight 112, call "

I figure he ht need so a few notes and hang up

The crew van has already left withoutI’ll have to take the bus to the hotel I’ve been awake for about eighteen hours To kill tile fashion faux pas aroundties, soiled jackets, and cheap brown shoes Honestly, sos O’Neill sounds convinced, if a little cautious, as he says, "Thank you for callingthrough"

"I’m in Marblehead This time of day, it’s about forty minutes away Will you wait for me?"

"I can’t meet you now," I tell him Certainly not in my Air Killarney uniform, and not when I’m so dead tired that my eyeballs feel swollen "How about four o’clock? There’s a pub in Revere called The Broken Mug Near City Hall Meet me there"

"Hoill I know you?"

"I’ll be the only one with a silver comb in my hair," I say

Seven hours later, after a shamefully small amount of sleep, I put on black slacks and a reasonably feminine dark red blouse This is the only blouse I own Actually, Monnie owns it, but she let me borrow it All personal vows aside, it’s probably best to blend in when I nize, so I conjure a si and curly I don’t have a coat but the cab ride is mercifully short and the pub is warlory, if it ever had a glory to begin with, but the ale is good and the patrons mind their own business

John O’Neill arrives at four o’clock sharp, wearing new black jeans, a blue sweater froe black leather coat He’s even more handsome than I remember In the brief moment it takes for him to scan the pub and spy me, I can pretend that he’s here for me, Colleen, and not soht over the ocean

I like men for more than just their clothes, after all

As pro a silver co card of all banshees He approaches reed," I say "Sit down"

He slides off his coat before he sits Nice square shoulders, long arh to both fire a weapon and cradle a baby He smells like woodsmoke

"What do I call you?" John asks

I want to tell hiue But sos are best unsaid "It doesn’t ain"

He’s staring at la, or that I haven’t so? We were over the middle of the ocean and he was here, at Mass General Heart attack"