AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She looked perfect. Don’t worry.”
“You’re right, of course. Bellowing like that on the way out, and already nursing. What could be better? And Jude’s just glowing. So, let’s have ourselves a toast to our perfect little miracle.”
He eyed the whiskey bottle. “I’ve already had two, with Brenna and Shawn.”
“And your point would be?” she asked as she got another glass and poured.
“Nothing. Don’t know what I was thinking. To our miracle, then. The newest Gallagher.”
“Slainte.” She brought the glass to her lips, tipped her head back, and swallowed in a way that made him feel obliged to do the same. “I’m going to make the new mother some tea, then tidy up. Will you be at the pub?”
“I’ll wait for you here.”
“That would be lovely.” She turned to put the kettle on, spied the pot staying warm under a cozy. “Shawn’s beat me to this as well as to kisses. Sit down and take a load off,” she suggested as she arranged cups on a tray. “Miracles aside, delivering babies is an exhausting business.”
“You’re telling me.”
He started to sit when she went out, then felt guilty. He should go up, make sure, see if anything else was needed. Besides, he couldn’t sit. He was too full of that brilliant wash of energy.
Then he heard the front door open, and Darcy’s voice cheerfully greeting Mollie O’Toole.
Thank you, Jesus, Trevor thought fervently, and for the first time in his life was thrilled to pass the reins of control into the hands of another. He’d wandered around the kitchen, glanced out the dark window, and was just thinking about making coffee, if he could find it, when Aidan came in, all but dancing.
“There’s the man of the hour.”
This time Trevor was braced, but still didn’t manage to evade the hearty kiss. “That’s three for three,” he muttered. “I’m getting used to it. How’s Jude?”
“She’s glowing. Sitting up in bed, pretty as you please, and drinking tea while Darcy cuddles the baby.”
“Darcy?”
“Kicked me out of the room,” Aidan said as he got yet another glass. “Said I was to come down here and drink like a new father so she could start her auntie’s privilege and spoil the baby.”
“Auntie?” Try as he might, he couldn’t visualize Darcy as auntie.
“Mollie O’Toole’s fussing around, and says she’s staying the night. They’ve already got Ailish dressed up in a little sleeping gown with lace on it. She looks . . .”
He trailed off, just leaned forward and laid his palms on the counter. “Christ. Christ! What this does to a man! My soul’s shaking, I swear to you. I never knew there was more to feel than I’ve already felt. That I could love like this in a heartbeat’s time. There she is, not an hour old, and I’d kill for her. Die for her. When I think I might have missed them if fate hadn’t opened the door for me.”
Trevor said nothing, could say nothing.
“I’ll owe you all of my life for this one night.”
“No.”
“I will. If one day you’re blessed with a child of your own, you’ll know just how much is owed.” Aidan shook himself, turned back. Any more, he thought, and he’d embarrass the man beyond redemption. “The Irish are sentimental sorts. Let’s have a drink here, so I can get my legs back under me.”
Trevor figured that if the toasting kept up at this pace, he would not only lose his legs, he’d fall on his face. But he raised his glass with Aidan to the new mother, and then to the child.
By the time Aidan went back up and Darcy came back down, he felt that he was watching a revolving door through the deep amber haze of Jameson’s. And that seemed perfectly fine.
It only took one look at his face, at the cheerful and decidedly sloppy grin that was as endearing as a boy’s, the tousled hair and the loose body stretched out in the chair, to clue her in.
Since the look of him had her wanting to cuddle him just as she’d cuddled her niece, she walked over and patted his cheek. “Sure and you’re on your way to being piss-faced, aren’t you, darling?”
“I never drink more than two. You lose focus.”
“Of course you do, and that’s a fine and upstanding rule just begging to be broken on such a night.”
“It would’ve been rude not to toast the baby.”
“Unforgivably.”
“Are we toasting the baby again?” There was just enough sweet hope in his tone to make her chuckle.
“I think it’s time we made our way over to the pub, then we’ll see about that. Let’s get you to your feet. You can lean on me.”
“I can stand up.” Vaguely insulted, he pushed back from the table. The minute he was upright, the room took one slow, rather lovely spin. “Whoa.” He put a hand out. “I’m all right. Just finding my balance.”
“Well, let me know when you’ve located it.” She glanced toward the bottle, winced at the level. She hadn’t realized how much they’d gotten into the poor man between them. “We’ve abused you sorely, and after all your heroics, too.” Gently, she slipped an arm around his waist. “We’ll go over and get you a meal. I bet you’d like something hot in your belly.”
“You. I’ve already got you there, and in my head. Every damn place. Aidan kissed me, so it’s your turn.”
“We’ll get to that, by and by.” With her arm around his waist and his tucked companionably around her shoulders, they staggered down the hall.
“Let’s go see the baby. I’m crazy about babies.” He tried to steer toward the steps as they passed, but she kept him heading for the door.
“Are you, now?” Well, what a revelation. “We will go see her, in the morning. Ailish is sleeping now, like an angel, and God knows, Jude needs some rest.” She managed to open the door, lead him out.
The fresh air swept over him like a wave, made him sway. “Man, what a night.”
“I warn you, if you pass out, I’m letting you drop where you fall.” But even as she threatened, she tightened her grip.
r />
“I’m not going to pass out. I feel great.” The stars were out. Thousands of them sparkling, winking, gleaming against a sky of black glass. There might never have been a storm.
“Listen, you can hear the music from the pub.” He stopped, bringing her closer to his side. “What’s that song? I know that one.” He concentrated, until it swam clear in his mind. Then to Darcy’s surprise and delight, he began to sing.
Standing in the sea breeze and starlight, she joined him on the chorus, adding harmony.
Her eyes they shined like diamonds.
I thought her the queen of the land,
And her hair hung over her shoulders
Tied up with a black velvet band.
He grinned down at her, shifting until he could get both arms around her. “It always makes me think of you.”
“Under the present circumstances, I’ll take that as a compliment. I didn’t know you could sing, Trevor Magee, and in such a fine, strong voice. What other surprises have you in store for me?”
“We’ll get to that, by and by.”
So she laughed, wiggled free enough to get him walking again. “I’ll count on it.”
TWENTY
MOST OF IT was a blur. Faces, voices, movement. He lost track of how many pints had been pushed into his hands, how many times his back had been slapped. He remembered being kissed, repeatedly.
Many had shed tears. He was mortally afraid one of them had been himself.
There’d been singing—he was pretty sure he’d done a solo. Dancing—he vaguely remembered rounding the floor with his chief electrician, a burly man with a tattoo. At one point, he thought, he’d made a speech.
Sometime during the chaos, Darcy had pulled him into the kitchen, poured some soup into him. Or stuck his head in the bowl, he wasn’t quite sure which.
But he recalled trying to wrestle her to the floor, which wouldn’t have been such a bad idea if Shawn hadn’t been in the room at the time. And if he hadn’t lost the bout to a woman he outweighed by a good fifty pounds.
Jesus Christ. He’d been stinking drunk.
It wasn’t that he’d never been drunk before. He’d gone to college, for God’s sake. He knew how to get drunk and party if he wanted to. The thing was, this one had snuck up on him, and he didn’t enjoy being quite so hazy on the details of his behavior.
There was, however, one little item that came through clear. Waterford-crystal clear.
Darcy guiding him up to bed, him stumbling, and yes, still singing, an embarrassingly schmaltzy rendition of “Rose of Tralee.” During which he stopped long enough to inform Darcy that his mother’s aunt’s cousin’s daughter had been the Chicago Rose in 1980-something.
Once he was prone, he made a suggestion that was so uncharacteristically lewd, he imagined another woman would have kicked him back down the stairs. But Darcy had only laughed and remarked that men in his condition weren’t nearly as good at it as they thought they were, and he should go on to sleep.
He’d obliged her, and saved himself what would have been certain humiliation, by passing out.
But he was awake now, in the full dark, with approximately half the sand of Ardmore Bay in his mouth and the full cast of Riverdance step-toeing inside his
