Beers, Hens, and Irishmen (Warbler's Point Series)

by Meghan Quinn

  She made a silent promise to herself that she was not going to have any make out sessions with him, she was not going to think about him taking her to bed and she was definitely not going to stare at his skin tight jeans and where they perfectly cupped his crotch.

  The pub was winding down at the moment and she didn’t anticipate it picking up, plus Liam closed the kitchen so there was not much need for her so she headed to the back to find Liam. He was hunched over the sink finishing up some wash.

  “Hey Liam, I think I’m going to head out.”

  He didn’t even turn to look at her. “Alright.”

  Fiona cringed from the hurt in his voice. She could tell he was going through a really rough time, if only he would talk to her about it but she knew if she pushed the subject he would just shut her out like everyone else.

  She placed her hand on his shoulder and said, “You know Liam, if you ever need…”

  He interrupted her sharply. “Drop it Fiona.”

  Startled she stepped back and watched her brother scrub the hell out of one of the pots putting all his frustrations into removing a crusted spot.

  “Ok, you have a key to my apartment, right?”

  That’s when he turned around and looked at her. His face looked raged, not just from the fight he had with Finn earlier but from what looked like lack of sleep. His eyelids were lined in red and he had bags under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in months. His posture was completely dejected and it looked like someone just ran over his brand new puppy right in front of him. She so desperately wanted to reach out to her oldest brother.

  “You aren’t going to be there tonight?”

  “No, I told you that. I’m going out tonight.”

  “With who?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Her brothers were always so nosey. No wonder she wasn’t in a serious relationship, the poor guy would never be able to get past her brothers. Then she thought of Murphy, damn him and his Irish heritage. The only reason her brothers liked him so much was because they idolized him, they thought he was the epitome of every Irish man. He was handsome though, No! She was not going to do this. Murphy was out of the picture, all he wanted was sex.

  “It sure as hell is my business when it deals with my little sister when she is going to be out late.”

  She started to walk away because she was not going to get in a fight with Liam when she knew he was only projecting his anger at her. She turned around to address him in the best way she could, given his current state of mind.

  “Liam, I know you are hurting right now but I’m not going to stand here and let you berate me while I know you are just projecting your anger onto me. I will be home later. There is some pie in the fridge, help yourself and I will see you when I get home. If you want you can take the bed and I will sleep on the couch so I don’t wake you if you are asleep.”

  “What time will you be home?”

  “Not sure.” She blew a kiss in his direction. “Love you big brother.”

  He shook his head and turned back around to the stubbornly crusted pot mumbling something about her sleeping on the couch will only happen when pigs fly.

  She ran up to her apartment, quickly ran a comb through her hair, thankfully it still looked full. She used some hairspray to fluff and freshen her hair, added some more mascara and sprayed herself with her perfume. She put on a pair of skinny jeans, a navy blue sweater that had white stripes going across the chest and threw on her brown boots. She looked good but not too dressed up. She added a yellow scarf and grabbed her white wool coat and matching knitted hat that extended itself down her head. She took a quick look in the mirror and was pleased with her transformation. Now all she had to do was to sneak out without her brothers seeing her.

  ***

  Booker was playing on his phone when he finally saw Fiona come outside as she approached his car from the back of the pub. He almost forgot to breathe. She looked so damn adorable in her white wool coat and hat. The jeans she wore hugged her legs like they were made for her and those boots gave him ideas about taking her in his bed…

  He was startled out of his thoughts when she opened the door and smiled at him as she hopped in.

  “Hey, all ready to go. Now where are you taking me?”

  He grabbed her glove covered hand and placed a kiss on it.

  “Hey gorgeous, you will just have to wait and see.”

  He caught himself staring at her because she poked him and said, “Alright, well we aren’t going anywhere unless you put the car in drive.”

  He shook his head. “Sorry, you are just so damn pretty.”

  She made a gagging noise mocking him. “Oh come on Booker, you can do better than that. I actually expect more from you than a cheesy line.”

  “You know you are right.” He said while putting his car in drive and starting toward their destination. “I promise to be more creative next time.”

  “That’s more like it. So how was your day? Did you happen to do anything fun today in good old Warblers Point?”

  He chuckled. “Just relaxed. How was work?”

  “Oh you know, served the town drunks, got hit on by a couple of tourists, some cute ones actually.”

  Booker’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. He knew he had no claim over Fiona at all especially since he was pretty sure she was seeing Murphy Ryan from the ski shop but the fact that there were other guys hitting on her made his blood boil. He didn’t like sharing, it was bad enough he had to compete with a full on Irish man, he didn’t need other men in the mix.

  “They didn’t hurt you did they?” It was the only thing he could think to say that wasn’t going to make him look like a total jealous idiot.

  She laughed. “No they were harmless, plus if anything happened my brothers would have thrown them out themselves. They don’t technically believe in the phrase, ‘The customer is always right.’ And since we are the only really good pub in town, we can afford to throw people out.”

  Booker eased up a bit realizing that in fact if any man got fresh on Fiona, her brothers would be right there to pummel the guy’s ass who tried to take advantage of her. He would not want to face those three guys together. Bradon he thought he could take, but Liam and Finn were at least twenty pounds heavier than him and where they were lacking in fat they made up with muscle.

  “Are there any other bars in town?” He didn’t remember seeing any.

  “Well there are some in restaurants around town and then there’s Glitter.”

  “Glitter?”

  “Yes it’s the local gay bar around here. I love our pub to death but I would take a night at Glitter over O’Leary’s any night and if you try to quote me on that I will deny ever saying it.” She lit up his car with a sparkling smile.

  He laughed. “Why is Glitter better?”

  “Seriously? You’re talking about a glitter-ized establishment that sells liquor and has a disco ball and a dance floor with lights that shoot out of the floor. I have had many a drunk nights dancing there having the time of my life.” She swatted his shoulder. “Hey, a Sheila like you would fit in perfectly!”

  “Ha, ha” he mocked. “Am I ever going to live that down? It’s not like a martini is all that bad, James Bond drinks them.” He stated while pulling into their destination.

  “I don’t think so…Hey, why are we at my parents bed and breakfast?” She turned in her seat so fast and stilled the steering wheel with her hand the only reaction he could think of was to abruptly stop the car.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Why are we here Booker? If you think that I’m going to sleep with you…”

  He placed his hand over her mouth. “Before you say something you are going to immediately regret, don’t say a word and trust me. I’m not about to take advantage of you at your parents bed and breakfast.”

  “I can’t be seen here with you.”

  She was really good at not hiding her feelings, feelings that every time s
he expressed herself cut his heart in half. He hated that she didn’t want to be seen with him and he knew the one reason why, Murphy. Should he even continue on with the date? Or should he just give up because it was a hopeless cause.

  He looked down at the steering wheel and removed her hand. “You know what, I’ll just drive you back, you clearly don’t want to be out with me.” He was putting the car in reverse when her hand stopped his over the gear shift. He felt a bolt of electricity fly up his arm as he looked into her eyes, her hopeful eyes.

  “Please don’t.”

  “I don’t know what you want Fiona. I want to hang out with you, get to know you better but clearly you don’t. You are too ashamed to be seen with me.”

  He went to reverse when her hand turned his head to look at her. Her hand was so soft on his jaw that was lined with stubble he almost made the mistake of lifting her on his lap and taking from her what he so desperately needed.

  “I’m not ashamed Booker, not at all. It’s just…my family is always in my business and for once I just want to do things on my own…you know? Without pesky older brothers sticking their noses where they don’t belong.”

  Booker could relate of people always being in his business, that was how the press was and people who wanted him just because of his fame. It was like the media was his family, constantly nagging him for updates on his sex life and trying to catch him in incomparable positions.

  He shook his head in agreement and proceeded forward. “I promise you your family won’t see you. I have one of the private cabins in the back and mine is one of the most secluded ones so there is no chance your family will see us unless they are snooping around in the dark.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them.”

  He smiled at her. “Just trust me you are going to have a great night.”

  ***

  Liam sat on Fiona’s couch stewing over the events of one of the crappiest days of his life. He never thought he would find himself shacking up on his baby sister’s couch while his wife spread lies about him and his ex-girlfriend around town. He barely had even seen Sophie since she moved back so why Neala had the notion that he was cheating on her with Sophie was beyond him. He tried calling Neala quite a few times throughout the day but she wouldn’t answer her phone. He went back to their house only to find the locks changed and some suitcases with his clothes in them with a note saying he should start looking for another place to live, which didn’t make sense to him since she was the one who wanted to get out Warblers Point. He genuinely started to consider the idea that his soon to be ex-wife had gone completely bat-shit crazy.

  He took a sip of whiskey from his glass. The hard liquor usually sent a burning feeling down his throat to the pit of his stomach but tonight he couldn’t feel anything. He was completely numb. After the manager and some workers at the general store broke him and Finn up he went straight to the pub. He knew he was out of line attacking Finn when he was most likely just trying to help Sophie but he was always jealous of the connection Finn and Sophie had.

  When he was dating Sophie, Finn was the one she went to when they were having problems or if she needed advice. Liam hated that and he always thought Finn was one of the reasons why him and Sophie never made it, Liam always thought Finn was getting in the way. Seeing Finn and Sophie together again in the general store just brought back all those empty feelings. He knew he shouldn’t have reacted the way he did, especially since it looked bad on his part but he couldn’t help himself. He was too damn jealous.

  Topping off his glass with more whiskey he thought about what the hell he was going to do with his life. His crazy psycho wife wouldn’t talk to him, lord knew she was going to take his daughter away and possibly the pub. Life as he knew it was falling apart for him.

  He stared at his phone wishing it to ring so he could talk to Neala, at least for a couple of minutes so he could understand where she was coming from. He wanted nothing more than to solve the problems they were having. He knew things between them were tense, but he didn’t think they were so tense that they needed to get a divorce or that his wife needed to lose her mind and start dreaming up reasons why he was such an asshole.

  Now that he thought about it, he was an asshole. Poor Sophie. The last thing she needed in a small town where she was trying to establish herself was for people to think she was the town harlot. This was his entire fault. When Sophie came back to town, he should have never have said anything to her. He should have just ignored her but he couldn’t. They had so much history how could he just let her move back to their hometown and not reach out to her? Even if they were just friends.

  He stared at his phone and took the last swig of his drink. He picked it up and dialed Sophie’s number. He should at least see how she was doing after everything that happened this morning. He got a brief description from the store manager of what went down and how Sophie did get hurt in the process. The thought of Sophie being hurt, being dragged into this mess, made his fist want to go through a wall.

  He listened to her phone ring while he begged for her to pick up. He needed to talk to her, desperately.

  “Hello?” she asked in a hoarse voice. Liam looked at the time, it was eleven at night. Damn it. Of course she was asleep.

  “Hey Soph, its Liam. I’m sorry I called so late.”

  She didn’t answer him at first he thought she might have hung up. “Uh Soph, are you there?”

  He heard her clear her throat. “Yea, I’m here. Liam I don’t think it’s a good idea that you are calling me right now.”

  Panic zipped through his chest. Did she have someone there with her right now? Not that he had any right to be mad or jealous especially since he was married and trying to find out what was happening between him and his wife but all that didn’t stop him from wanting to march over to her place and rip whatever man she had in her bed out and beat him until he was out of her house.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know you were with someone.”

  “I’m not.” Liam felt the tension slowly release from his body from learning that Sophie was by herself. “It’s just with what happened today, I don’t think you should give Neala any more ammo, not that she has any.”

  “I don’t care about that right now. I just want to make sure you’re ok. I want to know what happened today.”

  “I would rather not re-visit today’s events.”

  “Please Soph, I need to know. Neala changed the locks on me today and kicked me out. She is having divorce lawyers talk about our assets right now. I need to know what she said to you.”

  Liam spent the next twenty minutes listening to Sophie tell him about how Neala attacked her in the dairy aisle, how Neala pushed her repeatedly into a shelf and then how Sophie had to go to the urgent care in town to get stitches from where a metal shelf cut her forehead. Liam’s stomach was tied up in knots as he listened to her. Sophie was one of the sweetest, kindest girls he had ever met. She would never do anything to hurt anybody and the fact that she was pushed around by Neala, hurt by her for no reason, made him physically ill.

  “Damn it Sophie. I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry. You shouldn’t be a part of this. I don’t even know how it got to this point. We didn’t do anything.”

  “I don’t know either Liam but us talking right now sure as hell isn’t going to help our case.”

  “I don’t think anything can save this situation right now. I just want to know where she got the idea that we’ve been having an affair.”

  There was silence on the phone and then she spoke up. “Don’t be so naïve Liam.”

  Naïve? He wasn’t being naïve. “What do you mean?”

  “Come on Liam, anytime we have been around each other since I’ve been back there has been an unspoken tension between us, to an outsider it might seem like something sexual might be going on but we both knows it has to deal with the fact that I left for college and never returned. We never talked about how things ended between us, we never got closure. I can see how Neala might misin
terpret that tension.”

  Liam remembered the day that Sophie told him she was leaving and that it was best they didn’t see each other anymore. It was as if she reached into his chest, ripped out his heart and used it as her own punching bag. He didn’t hear from her after she left. The only reason he knew what was happening in her life was because she stayed in contact with Finn. Finn was the one who broke the news about her getting married which was also one of the crappiest days of his life. He got black out drunk that night.

  He brought his focus back to the present and thought about the encounters he had with Sophie while she was back in town. It was tense between the two of them, she was right. They had unsolved business, unsolved business that led to the demise of his marriage.

  ***

  Fiona was happy to see that her parents gave Booker the most secluded cabin at the bed and breakfast. He was right, no one was going to see them at all unless they actually came up to his place.

  She got out of the car and was headed to the front door when he stopped her by pulling her hand in a different direction.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Can’t a guy just surprise a girl without an interrogation?”

  She chuckled. “Sorry, lead me away.”

  Booker gave her another one of those melt your panties off smiles and led her to the back of the cabin. It was extremely dark so she found herself gathering up closer to Booker, being someone who was always afraid of the dark, she didn’t want to feel like she was alone. That was the excuse she told herself as she strapped herself to Booker’s muscular arm. She was surprised to find that his arm was so strong and surrounded by a nice amount of muscle that she knew would do wonders in the bedroom…

  Her thoughts were stripped away when they turned the corner of the cabin. Sitting behind it were two chairs, what seemed like a projector, a little space heater and camping light. There was a thermos and some kind of tin sitting on a table next to the projector, and what seemed like a computer. Fiona was extremely confused as to what he had planned.