“If I let you go, are you going to play nice?”
“If you don’t let me go, I’m going to kick your hockey playing ass,” she said, struggling to get free of his grip.
“Lisa, are you going to play nice if I let you go?”
“LET ME GO!” she shouted.
He tickled her, and she giggled against her will.
“Arthur Justin Williams! Let me go before I get angry!”
He laughed, which made her angrier.
“Let me gooooo!” she demanded, realizing that she wasn’t going to have an escape. He made her promise to behave herself and not retaliate.
“I promise,” she hissed. As he let her go, she sulked with him. She scrubbed the pen off her head and grumped at him as they headed down to the lobby.
“Dude. You just got here and you’re already in the dog house!” Jeremy said as he caught up to them.
“She’s just pissy ‘cause she couldn’t beat me!” he retorted, tickling her sides.
“I may have promised no retaliation, but I can punish you in other ways if you’re not careful!”
***
Is it really 9 o’clock?
“Thank you all for sufficiently embarrassing me in front of my boyfriend and our friend. I know you’ve got plenty more ammunition to use, but it really is time for us to go!” she announced to the table.
“It’ll keep!” her father called as they got up to leave.
“I have no doubt!” she answered with a wave of her hand.
They headed to The Bank bar, which was bustling as always. They sat and had the craic, listening to a local band playing cover songs until closing, by which time they were all a little more than merry and the guys were well and truly suffering with jetlag.
***
As they climbed into bed, discussing the journey so far, Lisa realized that she didn’t ever want to go to bed with anyone who wasn’t this delicious hockey player lying next to her, ever again.
“I’ve missed you, Pim. I kinda like having you around,” she told him as she cuddled into him sleepily.
“I kinda like being around. Maybe someday we’ll make it permanent.”
Once you get divorced, of course.
Chapter 43
“So,” AJ asked expectantly after she’d had a stretch and a yawn, “do you have an itinerary for the next week? Or are we just going to,” he paused, gasped for dramatic effect and whispered, “WING IT?”
She shoved him and giggled.
“Do you know me at all? Of course I have an itinerary prepared. What do you think this is? A vacation or something?” She laughed. “I was going to bring it to breakfast and see what you guys thought of it.”
***
“Jeremy, reporting for duty, ma’am!” he said as he took a seat at the table. “Mornin’ captain, where are we going today, then?”
Her eyes bulged at the pile of healthy food he’d put on his plate, next to his bowl of cereal. “Skipping the cooked breakfast in favor of the Continental, eh, Jer?”
“What? No. This is just the warm up. I’ve already ordered a ‘full Irish’, whatever the hell that is.”
“Largely carbs,” chimed AJ. “Many different kinds of carbs on a plate with some meat.”
“Sounds delicious,” answered Jeremy through a mouthful of cereal.
Rolling her eyes, Lisa started laying out her proposed travel plan for their visit. “I was thinking we could stay local for at least today. For two reasons. First, jetlag – it will hit again, and it will hit hard. I don’t want to give you boys long car trips to nap through when you’re trying to adjust to living in the correct time-zone. You will stay awake ‘til at least nine o’clock tonight, despite feeling like you may die of exhaustion.”
“Got it. What’s the second reason?”
“My friends will kick my ass if I don’t bring you up to the Ring of Gullion for a walk. It’s so beautiful and one of our bigger tourist attractions here.”
***
They compromised on The Poets Trail, a ‘medium’, six-mile circular trail which followed a public path to a graveyard, through Glendesha Forest, and around the mountains of Croslieve and Sliebrack.
The boys wanted to do one of the longer hikes, but she’d been adamant that was not going to happen.
“If you’re not letting me get away with doing the magnificent ten-mile scenic forest DRIVE,” she read loudly from the leaflet, “nor the one-mile walking trail,” she paused to make her point, “you better believe I’m not doing a ten-mile hike. You guys would have to bury me somewhere along the path. The only option is for us to do the six-mile. SLOWLY. You know, for the brain-damaged among us. He’s got to take it easy.”
They laughed and started up the hill.
Of course it starts with a hill.
I’m so bloody unfit. Why did I have to tell them that there were walking trails? Couldn’t I have told them there were bears in the forest and we had to do the drive?
I hate exercise. I should have paid more attention to rule number two on my “be a badass” list. He’s going to kill me with his stamina, isn’t he? I can see it in the local paper now:
“Newry girl dies in bed with hockey player. Cause of death was ruled as being severely unfit and eating too many chips.”
What a boring headline. Don’t give up the day job, Lis.
“Newry Girl Completely Pucked!”
Better, but non-hockey fans wouldn’t get the pun.
At various points throughout the “Don’t worry, it’ll be a slow and easy walk,” which, in reality was more like the boys dragging her unhappy and unfit ass around the six-mile trail, she complained. They laughed at her and promised her chips when they’d finished.
I don’t think the chips are worth it anymore.
I hate exercise.
Despite the beautiful surroundings, Lisa was happy when it was eventually over. While she knew her energetic and athletic visitors enjoyed exercise and would think the climb was worth the reward of such a breathtaking view at the top, she had been overly optimistic about her own fitness levels and was more than ready to be done.
“I thought Americans were against ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment?” she grumped.
“Canadian,” called Jeremy from ten feet ahead, “We’re fine with it,” he joked, “though we probably apologize about it.”
The boys decided they’d have to come back again in the morning. They’d agreed that they at least needed to do some form of daily exercise to contend with the plates of carbohydrates they’d been putting away since their plane touched down.
Maybe it’s not so bad Jeremy came. If he wasn’t here, AJ would drag ME out to exercise at Satan o’clock, and that sure as hell isn’t going to happen.
“I’m hungry.”
Jeremy.
He’s always hungry.
“Let’s go grab lunch.”
She took her visitors to McCooey’s, a café in her hometown. When they’d finished with the food and the banter with the one and only McCooey herself, they kept the afternoon low-key, went bowling with her brother and watched a movie before collapsing into bed. The boys barely made it to nine o’clock before conking out, but slept well and were up bright and early the next morning and ready for adventure.
Day three was spent up in Belfast City. They grabbed themselves tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and off they went, beginning at the Titanic museum as it was overcast and raining.
“Didn’t it sink?” questioned Jeremy. “Don’t you want to show us the best of what Northern Ireland has to offer rather than some sinking ship?”
“She was fine when she left here,” was all Lisa would reply. It was the standard Northern Irish response to digs about the sunken passenger liner.
“Wasn’t she on fire when she left here?” Jeremy asked.
“That’s not a commonly known fact. You read about it on Google before you came to wind me up, didn’t you?” Lisa glared at him.
“Lil bit,” he answered laughing.
From there, they visited the HMS Caroline and took some pictures with Samson and Goliath, the bright yellow twin shipping gantry cranes in the Harland and Wolff ship yard.
“The cranes are inherently Northern Ireland,” she beamed, proudly. “If I ever fly in to Belfast City airport, seeing the cranes out the window means I’m home.”
Having predicted they would be exhausted after a full day roaming around the “Big Smoke” and planning to head further north for the following day or two, the three of them stayed with a friend of Lisa’s in Belfast to avoid extra driving.
Over the coming days, they saw quite a lot of Northern Ireland. They took a black taxi mural tour of Belfast and saw the still-active peace walls. The boys couldn’t quite believe that gates in interface areas were still locked at night, separating the Catholic areas from the Protestant ones.
They drove up the North Coast, stopping at in the old capital of Ireland, Carrickfergus, to check out the castle and had lunch overlooking the marina. They drove further north still and visited the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge and the Giant’s Causeway, stopping also in Ballintoy harbor for Jeremy to snap a selfie at another of the Game of Thrones sites.
She’d done more walking since they’d arrived in Ireland than she’d probably done for over a year.
I REALLY hate exercise.
When they got back to Newry, she took them to the cathedral for a visit. They went up to the Flagstaff for the breathtaking views, down to Carlingford and Omeath for a walk around other sea-side towns and, on their last night, they spent some time on Cranfield Beach and watched the sun set over the water. Lisa loved being able to share her childhood stomping ground with the boys and was already dreading their departure.
Chapter 44
“How’d it happen?” Jeremy asked as he threw the last of his things into his suitcase for the third time. No matter how much he sat on it, wiggled things about, folded, or refolded, the amount of stuff he owned couldn’t physically fit into the amount of space he had to work with. But, of course, he was convinced he could squash it all in. He’d done a lot of shopping on their trip to Carlow.
“How’d what happen? How did someone manage to explode their suitcase while staying at a B&B in Carlow?” Lisa queried. “I honestly have no idea. It’s not like Carlow is the shopping capital of Ireland. What did you even buy?”
“How did three weeks go by so quickly?” he grumbled. “I’m not ready to leave. And bread, chips, cookies and chocolate…basically food. And my case hasn’t exploded…yet.”
They’d extended their trip by a week, because she and AJ had had the very same conversation a week previously.
***
They left Lisa crying at the airport. She couldn’t help it. She wanted them to stay, or for her to go with them. But, hating the Atlantic more than ever, she realized that she and AJ hadn’t actually discussed the next time they’d see each other. By the time she got the “I’m home,” phone call, she was feeling quite low and upset. She missed him already, and he hadn’t even been gone a day. And, aside from his birthday, or Christmas… wait a minute she thought, frantically as she reached for her phone, his birthday!
“Jer?” she said excitedly as her call connected. “I need you to help me plan AJ’s birthday!”
“Lisa, you do realize it’s months away, right? You have plenty of time!” came his muffled reply. Glancing at the clock she realized she’d woken him, and, as her laptop buzzed to life, she answered impatiently.
“Yes, but this plan will take a lot of time to get organized!”
“Ok, ok, I’m up. What do you need?” he asked yawning.
“Top secret?”
“Sure.”
“Jeremy! I’m serious. Top secret from everyone, even Chelsea, ok?”
“Ok, ok. Sheesh. I said ok!”
She laughed. Now she had the foundations of a plan. She just had to start the ball rolling and wait for December to arrive.
Chapter 45
As Lisa flew back to Alabama, she was secretly very impressed with herself. Jeremy had arranged for a “get together” for AJ’s birthday. The team, his sister, Britt, Roberto, Jared, Lindsay, Stephanie, the players’ girlfriends, even Chelsea had been persuaded to go down – because Lisa couldn’t be there, Chelsea had to be there in her place.
When AJ found out there was a “fuss” being made, he enquired what the heck was going on.
“Dude, your girlfriend said, ‘Jeremy, I can’t be there to give my boy a great birthday. Make it special for him.’ And I ain’t sleeping with you, she’d kill me dead if I took you to a strip club, so you have to make do with the guys, burgers, beer and the band – ‘cause I know you like alliteration.”
“Fine,” he sighed irritably.
Jeremy raised his eyebrow. “Dude! Rude. I know you miss her, but come on, the gang’s almost all gonna be here. At least pretend not to hate every minute?”
“Sorry, man. I do appreciate the effort.”
Jeremy had left AJ’s house unlocked, and, as Lisa got ready, she listened to his playlist on his computer. AJ was planning on jamming with the band at his party. She guessed the songs he’d planned on singing from the number of times he’d listened to them.
He’s certainly thorough.
The band had, at one time, sung a version of Warren G’s Regulate, which, for some obscure reason, Lisa loved. It should have been so wrong, but instead it was oh-so-right. She was glad to see it had made the setlist.
***
As the band set up on the stage. Jeremy snuck in the cake and her bag of boxes.
There were five boxes, all the same size, and numbered one to five. He carried them, hidden as best he could, to the table AJ had been sitting at and placed them in a row. Ignoring AJ’s look of confused amusement from the stage, he indicated they should start, and so they did. Towards the end of the song, she came out of her hiding spot and walked over to the table. She stood and waited for him to notice.
She didn’t need to wait long.
“Holy crap, it’s Lisa!”
Chelsea.
Worse still, drunk Chelsea. As she turned to look in the direction of the exclamation, she saw that everyone was gobsmacked. Mission accomplished.
Spinning back around to face AJ Lisa realized that the band had stopped playing and she was suddenly incredibly self-conscious. She was wearing a skirt; she didn’t do skirts. Just like you didn’t do dresses before the ball. And the new boots she was wearing felt weird too. Right now, pretty much everyone in the room was staring at her, shocked.
“Um. Surprise?” she laughed a little.
“You’re here.” AJ said, half to himself, half probably an unintentional out-loud reaction.
“No shit, Sherlock!”
She couldn’t tell who said it, but it made her smile.
“Happy birthday?” she tried again.
“Uh. Thanks?” he said, putting his guitar down and jumping down from the stage. He picked her up and spun her around. I love when you do that.
“How did you? What did you? Uhm. Huh?
She giggled.
“Surprised?”
He nodded.
“Good, that’s only the first one!”
“The first one?” he managed. “What’s the other one?”
“Well, I have a few,” she started. “You might want to get a drink,” she told him grinning.
“Ok.” He kissed her. “You look good,” he said, smiling.
“You ready to go, Irish?” Jeremy asked.
“Go? Go where? She just got here!” AJ protested, slipping his arms around her. “Where does she have to go?”
Producing a microphone, Jeremy handed it to her, and she said, “Up there,” pointing to the stage.
“What? You? Why? I’m so confused.”
“Get a drink and sit down,” she told him smiling, “and don’t worry. I’m not leaving. Also? Don’t touch your presents until I say so, ok?”
“You got me presents, too?”
“Yeah, the boxes.”
“They’re from you?” His confusion seemed to only be growing, not abating, which made her laugh. She nodded.
“One surprise at a time,” she told him with a wink as she made her way to the stage.
Now it was time. She was dreading this bit. Singing to him in the hospital in front of his friends and family was one thing, but now she was an emotional wreck. That was allowed to be piss-poor and pitchy. But this was in public. With his band. In front of his people, his friends, family and a bunch of strangers. It was, after all, a bar and she wasn’t a performer. Usually, she hated singing in front of people. This was an exception and she had to do it. So, standing on the stage she cleared her throat and started,
“Hey everyone. So, at least this bunch of people over here know who I am. And, if you don’t, well, my name is Lisa, and I know you’re expecting to hear AJ and the guys, but I have something I’d like to sing for AJ because it’s his birthday and I flew the whole way from Ireland to sing this one song to him on his special day – would that be ok?”
The room clapped and cheered.
Shit.
Ok, calm down. Some of them are for sure drunk already. Just ignore them. Focus on AJ, she told herself. No one else is here. Well they are here, but they don’t matter. It’s for him, for his birthday, so suck it up and sing already!
Giving a nod to Brad, who had agreed to play with her, the music started up and she sang. It was a song he had sent to her at the very beginning of their relationship. When they barely knew each other. The song immediately reminded her of them.
I hope he likes it, she started to panic.
Her eyes met his, and she held his gaze. He probably knew how terrified she was. So, he smiled encouragingly, and returning his smile, she didn’t alter her stare. It’s only AJ.
Keep your eyes on him, she told herself focusing as she began to sing Riot.
When she had finished, she half shrugged as people clapped, and he grabbed her in a HUGE hug as she tried to get off stage.
“Thank you,” he whispered through her hair.
“Any time,” she told him, blushing.
“Again?” he asked, hopefully.
Intimate Strangers (The Lisa Millar Series Book 1) Page 23