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“Is this the person you were talking about, Maureen? You said you wouldn’t set me up with someone.” Kayla sounded a bit disappointed with Maureen.
“No, dear, that’s not who I was talking about. It’s not like that at all.” Maureen looked a little panicked, and Duncan didn’t appreciate that Kayla made her feel uncomfortable and decided to nip this in the bud.
“Hold on now, Maureen wouldn’t lie to you. Besides, we’re going out on a date tomorrow, so who cares?” he said sternly.
“Oooh, you two are going on a date tomorrow?” Caitlin singsonged and smirked at Kayla, who seemed irritated by Duncan’s words as she ignored Caitlin and shot daggers at him.
Maureen placed her hand on Kayla’s arm. “I wanted you to meet my oldest friend, and he happens to be Duncan’s grandfather. I wasn’t setting you kids up, dear. Come, let’s enjoy my birthday.”
Kayla started to apologize. “I’m sorry, Maureen. I—”
Maureen was clearly having none of that. “No need to apologize, dear. I would like for you to meet Sean Mills Sr.”
“Step away from the birthday girl, ye boyo,” Pops said, shuffling toward them and grabbing Maureen for a big hug as he congratulated her.
Kayla looked up from Maureen, and the moment she set her eyes on Duncan’s grandfather, he tried imagining what she must have seen in his green eyes, because she was smiling the brightest smile he’d seen thus far on her. It was almost as if she recognized something in his grandfather.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mills.” Kayla reached out her hand for Duncan’s grandfather to shake.
“Call me Pops.” He shook her hand in his signature strong handshake. He was seventy-eight years old, but Pops still had strong hands, and his handshakes were always so painful that Duncan had hated them when he was a kid.
He tried to skip shaking his hand once when he was thirteen years old, but Pops wasn’t having that and said, “Come here, ye nutter. No need runnin’ away like a scared little boy.”
His grandfather was born to Irish immigrants, and although Pops was born in the States, he spoke with a strong Irish accent, and he often used some foreign words. Duncan and his brothers were called boyo, as in “little lad,” and if he wasn’t calling him boyo, Duncan knew he was disappointed in him.
With Pops being a widower, he could be found sitting in his chair at the table closest to the bar almost every day. He had the same Mills posture as Duncan once, but now Pops’s back was slightly hunched, and his strong muscles were gone. Instead, he’d developed a big paunch and fat cheeks, and all of his black hair had turned gray.
Sean Jr., Duncan’s dad and the current owner of Lucky, was the jovial one, if you didn’t dare to discuss changes for the pub, that is. Pops was grumpier and acted as if he’d lost his filter when he’d retired from the pub. He swore like an old sailor and often butted in where his nose didn’t belong, offering advice to those who clearly didn’t need it.
That brought Duncan’s thoughts back to this evening as he intentionally sat at the opposite side of the bar, farthest away from Pops’s table where he was entertaining Maureen, Caitlin, and Kayla. Kayla listened to the playful bickering between Maureen and Pops, and she was smiling when she looked over her glass straight into Duncan’s eyes. Shit, he had to be more careful. He instantly turned his head. He didn’t want her to know he had been staring at her for the past hour.
“Shit, bro, just go to her already.” Brennan was never one to sugarcoat his words. “This is getting pathetic, man.”
Duncan glared at his brother, who was rinsing some beer glasses Tori had brought over. Tori worked part time at the pub and was often in for a good time. She tried pursuing Brennan, but he never took the bait, unlike Duncan, who once did when she was new to the job several months ago.
The brunette was model-like; she was thin, had legs that went on forever, and had a pretty face. She had big doe eyes and pouty lips she often used in putting on her charm to gain more tips from the customers. She was not his type, but their one-night stand had been fun. They both knew he wasn’t the one she really wanted, and he wasn’t hurt one bit when she stated it would only be a onetime thing. Duncan was in for some fun, and it was no skin off his back if she wanted to leave it at that.
“Who are you guys talking about?” Tori eyed the room, and Duncan knew the moment her eyes fell on Kayla. Her narrowed gaze flashed to Brennan, checking if he was eyeing her. Seeing he was busy drying the glasses, she seemed relieved and shot another look at Kayla.
“She family of Maureen?” Tori asked, but Duncan didn’t have a clue, so he just shrugged. Kayla came here when he least expected it, and after she was introduced to Pops, they went to sit down at the table she was still sitting at.
There was no reason for him to join them; it would be too obvious, and he had noticed how Kayla reacted when she thought Maureen set her up with him. He figured that Kayla had a story to tell, because he never met anyone this closed-off about their past, or with a higher wall surrounding them, for that matter.
She looked stunning in her business outfit yesterday, but tonight? He was practically salivating over her heart-shaped ass, tiny waist, and big tits in a tight white shirt that just screamed across the room for him to come over and squeeze them. What he wouldn’t do for them to be alone right now.
He would get her in front of him on top of the bar, strip her out of her jeans, put her legs over his shoulders, and feast on her. He would have her panting and screaming his name and—
Duncan felt a strong hand on his shoulder, and when he turned on his stool, he met Pops’s dark eyes. “Duncan, no man has ever won over a girl with daydreamin’. Get off yer lazy butt and join our table.” Leave it to Pops to invite someone over to his table by insulting them.
“I can’t, Pops. She wasn’t too keen on seeing me here as it was.” Duncan tried to discourage Pops, hoping he wouldn’t let the whole pub know what he thought of his grandson.
“Ye met her already?” Pops asked, and Duncan nodded at him. “Are ye a Mills man?” Pops was about to lose his patience, and Duncan knew he wouldn’t drop the subject. “Now, are ye?” Pops slapped the back of his head and looked him in the eye, daring him not to answer the question.
“Yes, Pops, you know I am.” Duncan sighed.
“Never took ye for a coward, Duncan. Yous met earlier, yer smitten with her”—he held up his big hand when Duncan tried to interrupt him—“and yet here ye are, sulkin’ at the bar and lookin’ at her like a lost puppy. No. A Mills man takes action, ye hear?”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the reason why Duncan loved his grandfather so much. He was right. Where did Duncan leave his balls? He had to take control of the situation, and his feelings even. He couldn’t ignore her presence any longer, so he slipped off his barstool and strode toward Kayla, leaving his brother and Pops behind as Pops stated, “Told ye he’s smitten.”
