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“They’re not for walking, you idiot. I’m having them.” Darcy breezed through the door of the shop.
“I’ll never get my tea,” Brenna complained. “I’ll die of starvation and dehydration and the pair of you won’t even notice as I’ll be buried under a mountain of shopping sacks, in which, I’ll add, is not a single thing of my own.”
“We’ll have tea as soon as I try on the shoes. Here, Jude, these are for you.”
“I don’t need any more shoes.” But she was weak and collapsed in a chair and found herself studying the pretty bronze-toned pumps. “They’re lovely, but then I’d need a bag to go with them.”
“A bag. Jesus.” Brenna rolled her eyes back in her head and slid out of the chair in a heap.
She bought the shoes and a bag, then a wonderful jacket from the shop just down the street. Then there was a silly straw hat that she simply had to have for gardening. Because they were so overloaded, they took a vote and with Brenna the only nay hauled their purchases back to the car to lock them in the trunk before hunting up a place for a meal.
“Thank Mary and all the saints.” Brenna sprawled in a booth in a tiny Italian restaurant that smelled gloriously of garlic. “I’m faint with hunger. I’ll have a pint of Harp,” she ordered the second the waiter shuffled over, “and a pizza with everything on it but your kitchen sink.”
“No, you won’t.” Darcy flipped out her napkin and shot the waiter a smile that had him tumbling directly into love. “We’ll get a pizza and we each pick two of the toppings. I’ll have a Harps as well, but just a glass.”
“Well, then, I want mushrooms and sausage for my picks.”
“Fine.” Darcy nodded across the booth at Brenna. “And I’ll have black olives and green peppers. Jude?”
“Ah, mineral water and . . .” She caught Brenna’s eye, kept her face sober as her friend desperately mouthed pepperoni and capers. “Pepperoni and capers,” she ordered dutifully.
She sighed, sat back and took inventory. Her feet hurt miserably, she couldn’t remember half of what she’d just bought, she had a vague headache from lack of food and presence of constant conversation, and she was joyously happy about all of it.
“It’s the first day I’ve spent in Dublin,” Jude began. “I haven’t been to one museum or gallery, or taken a single picture. I didn’t walk St. Stephen’s Green or go to Trinity College to see the library or the Book of Kells. It’s shameful.”
“Why? Dublin’s not going anywhere.” Darcy pulled herself away from her flirtation with the waiter. “You can come back and do all that whenever you like.”
“I suppose I can. It’s just that normally, that’s what I would have done. And I’d have planned it all out, pored over the guidebooks and made up an itinerary and a schedule, and while I would have figured in some shopping time for mementoes, that would have been at the bottom of the list.”
“So you just turned the list around, didn’t you?” Darcy offered the waiter another beaming smile when he served their drinks.
“Everything’s turned around. Wait.” She gripped Brenna’s wrist before she could lift her pint.
“Jude, my throat’s dry as an eighty-year-old virgin. Have pity.”
“I just want to say that I’ve never had friends like you.”
“Sure and there aren’t any the likes of us.” Brenna winked, then rolled her eyes as Jude held her wrist down.
“No, I mean . . . I’ve never had any really close women friends that I could have ridiculous conversations about sex with, or share pizza with, or who help me pick out black lace underwear.”
“Oh, God, don’t go misty now, there’s a good girl, Jude.” A little desperate, Brenna turned her hand over to pat Jude’s. “I have sympathetic tear ducts, and no control over them.”
“Sorry.” But it was too late. Her eyes were already filled and shimmering. “I’m just so happy.”
“There now.” Sniffling herself, Darcy passed out paper napkins. “We’re happy, too. To friendship, then.”
“Yes, to friendship.” Jude let out an unsteady sigh as glasses clinked. “Slainte.”
She saw some of Dublin after all as they walked off the pizza. Jude finally dug out her camera and delighted herself with shots of the graceful arch of bridges over the grand River Liffey, and the charm of the shady greens, the lush baskets of flowers decking the pubs.
She watched a street artist paint a sunrise over the sea, then on impulse bought it for Aidan.
She had Brenna and Darcy pose a dozen times and bribed them with eclairs from a sweet shop to explore just a bit longer.
Even when they trudged back to the car park, her energy level was high. She thought she could go on endlessly. When they drove away from Dublin the western sky was splashed with the colors of sunset that seemed to last forever in the long spring evening.
And the moon rose as they approached Ardmore, to sprinkle the fields with light and to spread white swords over the sea.
Even after she’d dropped her friends at home and helped Darcy cart in her packages, she wasn’t tired. She almost danced into her cottage and, hauling her own bags upstairs, called out cheerfully.
“I’m back, and I had a wonderful time.”
She wasn’t planning on having it end. Her toughest decision, she thought, would be to choose just what to wear under her new silk blouse.
She was going to extend the evening with a visit to Gallagher’s before closing. To flirt openly and outrageously with Aidan.
FOURTEEN
HE WAS SWAMPED. There’d been a step-dance exhibition at the school that evening, and it seemed half the village had decided to drop into Gallagher’s afterward to hoist a pint. Several of the young girls had changed back into their dancing shoes to reprise the show for his customers.
It made for a happy sound, and a full pub.
He was pulling pints with both hands, holding three conversations at once and manning the till. He wanted to shoot himself for giving Darcy the day off.
Shawn slipped in and out of the kitchen as time allowed and lent a hand at the bar and with the serving. But he’d get caught up in the dancing and forget to come back as often as not.
“It’s not a bleeding party,” Aidan reminded him, again, when Shawn strolled back behind the bar.
“Sure it sounds like one to me. Everyone’s happy enough.” Shawn nodded to the crowd that circled three dancers. “The Duffy girl’s the best of the lot, to my thinking. She’s got a way with her.”
“Leave off watching them, would you, and g
et down to the other end of the bar.”
The abrupt tone only made Shawn smile. “Missing your lady, are you? Can’t blame you for it. She’s a sweetheart.”
Aidan sighed and passed brimming glasses into eager hands. “I haven’t time to miss anything when I’m up to my ass in beer.”
“Well, then, that’s a pity, as she just walked in and looking fresh and pretty as a dewdrop despite the hour,” Shawn added when Aidan’s head whipped around.
He’d tried not to think of her. In fact, he’d made a concerted effort on it, mostly to see if he could manage it. He’d done fairly well, only finding himself distracted by thoughts of her a couple dozen times that day.
Now here she was, with her hair bound back and her smile all for him. By the time she’d squeezed her way to the bar, her smile was a laugh, and he’d forgotten about the Guinness he was building.
“What’s going on?” She had to lift her voice to a near shout and lean in close, so close that he caught her scent, the mystery of it that lingered on her skin.
“A bit of a party, it seems. I’ll get you some wine when I’ve got a free hand.” He’d rather have used that free hand, both hands, to snatch her up, haul her over the bar, and gather her in.
You’re well and truly hooked, Gallagher, he thought, and decided he rather enjoyed the sensation.
“Did you have a fine time in Dublin, then?”
“Yes, a wonderful time. I bought everything that wasn’t nailed down. And if I started to resist, Darcy talked me into it.”
“She’s good at spending money,” Aidan began, then caught himself. “Darcy? She’s back. Oh, thank the Lord. Another pair of hands might get us through the rest of the night without a riot.”
“You can have mine.”
“Hmm?”
“I can take orders.” The idea took root in her head and bloomed. “And serve.”
“Darling, I can’t ask you to do that.” He shifted as someone elbowed to the bar to order pints and glasses and fizzy water.
“You’re not asking. And I’d like it. If I bungle it, everyone will just think the Yank’s a bit slow, then you can call Darcy.”
“Have you ever waitressed before?” He gave her an indulgent smile that instantly put her back up.
“How hard can it be?” she snapped back and to prove her point, turned and muscled her way toward one of the little tables to get started.
“Didn’t take a pad or a tray.” Aidan looked at his customer for sympathy as he filled the order. “And if I was to call Darcy now, that one would have my head for breakfast.”
“Women,” he was told, “are dangerous creatures at the best of times.”
“True enough, true enough, but that one is normally of a calm nature. That’s five pounds eight. And,” he continued as he took the money and made change, “it’s the ones with the calm natures who can cut your throat the quickest when riled.”
“You’re a wise man, Aidan.”
“Aye.” Aidan took a breath in a moment’s lull. “Wise enough not to call Darcy and have two females bashing at me.”
Still, he figured it wouldn’t take Jude more than a quarter hour to realize she was over her head. She was a practical woman, after all. And later he could smooth her feathers by saying it was a rare night in the pub in any case, and how thoughtful it had been of her to offer to help, and so on and so forth until he got her naked and in bed.
Pleased with the image, Aidan served the next cheerfully. And he had a smile waiting for Jude as she wove her way back to the bar. “I’ll get you that wine now,” he began.
