PROLOGUE I
Nathan sat beside his grandfather, Rory Malone, on the crude front porch of the shack he lived in. Nathan was only ten, but he knew exactly why Grandpop didn't live with him and his parents. Because Nathan's father, Grant, was ashamed of him.
"He's too f**king Irish," Grant would rage for hours after visiting with his father. "He uses that brogue like it's something to be proud of."
And God. forbid that Nathan should let a hint of that brogue free, though he practiced it as often as he could away from his father.
Nathan's father didn't like being Irish. He didn't like people knowing he was Irish. If he could ship Grandpop off somewhere, then Nathan sometimes thought that his father would do it. But Grant Malone couldn't make Rory Malone do anything. The old man was as wise as the mountains and the cliffs around them, and just as stubborn.
"Nathan, my boy, look at that sunset." Rory pointed out the majestic colors that washed over the mountains. "Almost as pretty as Ireland, she is. Almost." And Nathan heard a whisper of homesickness in his grandpop's voice.
"Why don't you go back?" Nathan asked. "Dad says you have enough money to live anywhere."
He looked at his grandfather's weathered face. The bright blue eyes, just like Nathan's, brighter than Nathan's father's and without the hints of green his father's had.
Grandpop smiled. A strange, sad little smile.
"Because my Erin is here." He pointed to the small graveyard.
There. Nathan's grandma, Erin Malone, was buried. On one side of her were buried the two sons they lost in Vietnam, his uncles, Riordan and Rory Jr.. and the daughter that had died of a fever, Nathan's aunt Edan.
"Grandma wouldn't want you to leave?" Nathan frowned. His grandma was dead, what would she care?
"Oh, now my Erin, she'd smile down on me no matter where I walked." Grandpop smiled that little smile again. "But I'd be separated from her, and I'd feel that separation in my soul, you see?"
Nathan shook his head.
Grandpop sighed. "You have the Irish eyes, boy. One of these days, you'll see from eyes, not your own, feel with a heart outside your chest. Wild Irish eyes. Nathan. When you love, love well and love true, and take care, lad, because those Irish eyes are windows into not just your own soul, but the soul of the one you love." Grandpop looked out at his Erin's grave. "And when you lose that heart, you can't leave the places where your memories are the best. And if I left her, I'd not be buried beside her."
Grandpop stared back at him then, and Nathan felt his chest grow tight at the thought of ever burying his grandpop in the hard, bleak soil.
"Wild Irish eyes," his grandpop murmured then. "My father gave me the same warning I give you now, boy. Don't lose the one you love. You lose a part of your soul when you do. The legacy of those eyes will ensure it."
Nathan frowned. That didn't make much sense, but maybe he'd ask his uncle Jordan about it later. Uncle Jordan still remembered his mother. He had been five when she died, just before Nathan's birth. But Uncle Jordan was in Houston right now on summer break with Nathan's older uncle Doran and his family.
"So my eyes are bad?" Nathan finally asked.
"Not bad." His grandpop sighed. "Not bad at all, boy. You'll see one of these days. One of these days, you'll see. Wild Irish eyes see what they shouldn't see, but even more." His grandfather stared down at him sadly. "The one who holds your soul, who holds your heart." He thumped Nathan's chest. "They see through you as well."
"Dad doesn't have Irish eyes then?" Grant's eyes had flecks of green. He always frowned. He always growled.
Worry flickered over Grandpop's face. "Your dad is a good man." He repeated what he always said.
"Is he, Grandpop?" Nathan thought about the baby sleeping in the house. The tiny baby that Grandpop said was his brother. The baby Grant Malone denied. "Little Rory should have a dad too."
Grandpop touched his head gently and said softly, "Nothing is as we think, boy. There are always layers, and layers, shades of gray and shades of black or white. You gotta find why, not see what."
"Because he doesn't love us," Nathan whispered, accepting it as only a child can.
And Grandpop hook his head. "Layers, son. Remember that. There's always what you don't know and what you don't see. And love doesn't always do what we think it should. Just remember that, and you'll do fine."
And he grew. He looked for layers, he looked for shades of gray. Nathan Malone matured, became a SEAL, and the layers drifted from his mind. But they were there. Always shifting, always moving. Until the day he saw hell. And from the ashes of hell, he learned there were layers he never knew existed.
* * *
PROLOGUE II
Sixteen years later
Nathan Malone sat at his desk in the office of the garage/ service center he owned and watched the young woman talking to one of his mechanics.
She didn't look happy. She looked frustrated. Sun-streaked blond hair fell to her shoulders, a beautiful swath of waves that glistened in the sunlight. Nicely rounded, not too slender. She had a butt to die for beneath the black skirt she was wearing, and br**sts that rose temptingly beneath a maroon blouse.
Slender heels completed the outfit. He wondered if those were hose or stockings she was wearing. She looked like a stocking woman.
Finally, she threw her hands up, looked around, and her gaze caught his. Her nostrils flared in determination and she moved quickly past the protesting mechanic to the door of his office.
He watched as the most amazing vision stalked across the floor and planted her hands on his desk, glaring at him.
"Look, all I need is a wrench," she said forcefully. "Just loan me one. Sell me one. I don't care. But if I have to go much farther in my car, I'm going to find myself hitchhiking. Do I look like I want to be hitchhiking today?" She spread her arms out from her body as she straightened, her pretty gray eyes cloudy, distressed, her pink lips tight as the mechanic moved in behind her.
"No, ma'am, you don't." Nathan shook his head, his gaze moving over her appreciatively before he looked around her at the mechanic. "Is there a reason why we're not looking at her car?" he asked the other man.
Sammy's eyes narrowed. "Garage bays are full, boss, I told her that."