"He's not a Hollywood actor," Luke said, slipping a napkin and a glass of water in front of Collin. "He's a pub owner."
"Restaurants," John said.
"I could take some fancy pub owner any dey," Collin said. He slapped his hand over his fist, indicating that he'd like to hit someone.
"Ye two need to leave the girl alone," Ellen said. "She's all excited to see her man."
"He's probably American," Collin said, rolling his eyes and causing everyone sitting around to laugh.
"He is American," Ellen said protectively. "And ye two better mind yer own business, because she's in love. She said she's gonna marry him." Ellen smiled at me and nodded as if it was the least she could do to make that little announcement on my behalf.
I just stared at her with my heart pounding, trying to remember what I had said and how much trouble she was about to get me into.
"She's gonna marry him, eh?" Collin asked with wide eyes.
My heart continued to pound in those seconds when everyone was waiting for my response. Every second felt like an eternity. "He is an American," I said, trying to maintain my composure in the midst of all the nerves and chaos happening in my thoughts.
"Yes, but do ya love him?" Collin asked, hanging his coat on the back of his barstool.
"I do," I said, heart pounding, "even though it's none of your business."
My voice was trembling for two reasons: one because I would never in real life tell a stranger it was none of their business, and two because it was his business. It was very much his business.
"Then why isn't the fool here wi ya right now?" he asked, still staring at me as he continued the Irish charade.
"Because he has to work," I said.
He scoffed. "If ye were mine, I would never leave ya in this pub to talk to the likes of me and this bunch."
"Oh, yeah?" I asked. "What would you do?"
"I'd drag ya off and marry ya," he said.
My heart raced even faster as a result of him saying those words. What's more was that he stared at me as if he was completely serious. I wanted to throw myself into his arms, shout yes, yes, yes, and call that our official proposal. It was with great difficulty that I refrained from doing so.
Collin and I sat there for nearly an hour, talking to the people at the pub while he ate. We mostly kept at the act, although there was nothing I could do to stop myself from flirting with him a little bit since he was so irresistible.
Just before I left, Ellen asked if I would go with her to the restroom. I agreed, and she followed me in there, making an intense expression as if she wanted to talk about some matters that were life or death.
"Well, ye've got to consider him, at least," she said in a pleading tone.
I cocked my head to the side, having no idea what she was talking about. "Collin!" she whispered, gesturing into the pub. "I know yer here to meet yer boyfriend and everythin, but Sarah dear, sometimes ye have to trow caution to da wind, sweetheart. Sometimes, you have to recognize a connection when ye have one."
I had to work hard to contain a nervous giggle at the sight of her intense expression. She had been watching me interact with Collin, and really thought we had a chance. It was the sweetest thing ever, and even though I wanted to tell her the truth, I wouldn't for Collin's sake since I didn't want him to get caught using a fake accent.
"You mean me and him?" I asked, pointing toward the bar.
"Yes!" she insisted in a whisper. "He's such a nice young man, and he likes ya. Don't tell me ya don't see it."
"He did offer to walk me back to my hotel," I said.
She smiled and nodded like she thought that would be a great idea. "Ya should do it," she said. "Give him a chance lass. Ya only live once."
"Yo-lo," I said with a little grin.
Ellen furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head at me curiously, which made me smile.
"Yo-lo," I repeated. "You-only-live-once."
"Ah, yes!" she said triumphantly when she understood. "Yo-lo, Sarah, yo-lo, dear."
Chapter 15
Ellen and I came out of the ladies room together and found our place at the bar, which had grown more and more crowded as the afternoon passed.
"I need to get back to my hotel," I said as soon as we arrived at our seats. I still had to settle my tab, so I sat on the edge of my barstool.
"I guess I'll walk ya," Collin said, motioning for Luke to bring the check. "I'll take mine, too," he called to the barkeeper.
I started to dig in my purse, but Collin put his hand out to stop me. I glanced at him, and he gave me a narrow-eyed smile that broke character a little bit, telling me I was crazy if I thought I was paying. I smiled back at him as Luke slid our tickets onto the bar.
"I'll get the lady's," Collin said sliding the tickets and his credit card back toward Luke.
"Yo-lo," Ellen said, although it was disguised in a cough.
This struck me as so funny and cute that I widened my eyes at Collin and gave him a pleading expression, saying I had to get out of there before I blew our cover. Knowing we had to wait on Luke to bring the ticket, he answered with an easy, patient smile that had my insides feeling warm and melty.
"Yep, Sarah was sayin' she might need help gettin' back to her hotel," Ellen said.
"Ellen," John said, scolding his wife for overstepping her bounds.
She made an injured expression. "Wha? She already said she wouldn't mind the company."
"I wouldn't," I said with a shy shrug.
"See?" Ellen said. "She said she wouldn’t mind."
"Are we off, then?" Collin asked, with a nod at me as he stood.
"Sure," I said. We said goodbye to John, Ellen, Luke, and the others sitting around us at the bar, and headed for the door. Collin opened the door, and I walked past him. I was so anxious to see him that it was almost impossible to refrain from latching onto him.
"Wait for it…" he said through clinched teeth as I walked past him with a hungry expression on my face.
I made sure we were past the pub windows when I finally let myself grab him.
"Oh, my gosh, I can't believe we did that just now," I said. "I can't believe that just happened. I'm so nervous, it feels like I robbed a bank or something."
I brought his hand to my heart as we continued to walk down the sidewalk. He reached out, wrapping his other arm around me and pulling me into a giant bear hug, and I glanced behind me to make sure John and Ellen weren't spying on us.
"Why's that make you so nervous?" he asked, laughing at me like he thought my anxiousness was cute.
"Because. What if they would have caught you talking like that? Weren't you nervous?"
"Not as nervous as ye were," he said, lapsing back into the accent for a second.
"How are you so confident?" I said, feeling genuinely amazed. "I would never have the guts to do that."
He shrugged. "I mean, if some American came into my restaurant speaking with a slightly-off American accent, I wouldn’t say anything," he said reasonably. "I wouldn't think anything of it. Would you?"
I thought about what he was saying, and knew he was probably right. "You sounded just like them," I said. "I guess I was just afraid you'd get caught."
He laughed, squeezing me. "Even if I did get caught, none of them would care. They'd probably get a kick out of it."
I sighed again. "That was seriously the funniest thing I've ever done," I said, still feeling out-of-it with adrenaline as we began to walk. I glanced over my shoulder again. "I feel kinda bad, though. Ellen drug me to the bathroom saying I had to give you a chance. She was so sweet. She told me I only live once."
Collin slowed down and glanced behind us. "Did she really?" he asked.
I nodded.
"What'd she say?"
"She said she liked you and thought I should give you a chance."
"That's so nice," he said, sincerely.
"I know."
"You wanna go back and tell them the truth?" he asked, coming to a stop again.
People on the sidewalk (or footpath as they call it over there) stepped around us as we stood, deciding what to do.
"Really?" I asked.
He nodded. "I don't want you to feel bad about lying to them," he said. "I was just messing around. I don't care if they know."
"Really?" I asked again. I hadn't thought of it as lying, but now that he mentioned it, maybe I would feel better if we went back to tell them—not so much because I felt bad about lying to them, since I really didn't think of it that way. It was more about me being proud of Collin and wanting them to know he was my man. I liked the people I met at the pub, and I wanted them to know Collin and I went together.
"Are you sure?" I asked, leveling him with a sincere stare.
He shrugged easily. "If you want them to know, we'll tell them. I'm not worried about it." He smiled as he tugged me in the direction of the pub so that we could go back.
"I'm nervous," I said.
"Don’t be," he said. "I'll handle it."
"What do you mean, you'll handle it?"
"I mean there's nothing for you to worry about because I have it under control."
"You do? What are you gonna do? Collin, what are we doing?" I whispered as he opened the door to the pub and he pulled me inside.
"Shhh," he said. He pulled me through the pub to the corner of the bar were Ellen and John were still sitting.
He held my hand and looked in control the entire time we walked. Our little corner of the room looked at us with great curiosity when they caught sight of us holding hands.
"It seems I'm actually the American she was waiting on," Collin said in his regular accent, smiling and making eye contact with them in that winning way he had.
"You're kiddin' me!" John said.
"I knew it!" Luke said, slapping his hand on the bar. "I told ye he was fekin' the accent."
"I didn't know it," Ellen said with an utterly stunned look on her face. "I had no idea. Were ye the American the whole time?"
Collin tried to hide his amusement at her question as he nodded at her, and she just continued to shake her head at him like she was completely bewildered.
"Were ye the American she's waitin' on, then?"
Collin nodded.
"Are ye both really called Collin?" she asked, still not fully getting it.
Collin smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm really only one Collin. I'm the American she was waiting on. I was him the whole time. We were pretending not to know each other.
Ellen smiled when understanding finally sank in, and then she shoved at Collin's shoulder playfully, knocking him back and causing us all to laugh.
"I told her to cheat on ye with ye!" she said.
"He thought that was sweet," I said, giggling.
"Now I'm not so sure," Collin said with a confused face that had everyone cracking up again.
"I knew it," Luke said. "He winked at me the second he sat down, and I knew somethin' was goin' on."
"Did ye know he was her American?" Ellen asked.
"Nay," Luke said. "But I knew he was playin' somehow."
"Well, I, for one am amazed," Ellen said.
"Me too," John said. He motioned to his own mouth. "I just thought ye had a little speech problem."
We were all laughing at that when Ellen said, "I knew ye two were meant to be somethin'. I knew it from the time ye sat down. Sarah's smile was lovely from the start, but it changed when this one came in." Again, she poked at Collin, who smiled at her. "She's bonnie," Ellen added. "Not just her face, but on the inside, too."
"Aye," John agreed. "She's bonnie, indeed." He turned on his stool, trying to get a better look at Collin now that he knew who he was. "I think I know you now, come to think of it, from the cooking show."
"What cooking show?" Ellen asked.
"The one where they get voted off every week."
Ellen shrugged indicating she had no idea what her husband was talking about. "He loves to cook," she said. "He watches those cooking shows all the time, tryin' to learn tips and tricks. I don't like to cook, myself, but I don't mind cleaning up." She paused and stared at Collin for a few seconds before looking at us as a couple. "I just can't believe it," she said. "I feel like I should ask ye both for yer autograph or somethin'."
"I'd like to cover their tab," Collin said, handing Luke a few bills before we stepped to the side to let someone else sit at our old place at the bar.
Luke nodded graciously as he took the money. John and Ellen protested at first, but ultimately, they conceded to let Collin buy their lunch and thanked him profusely for doing so. I felt proud of the way Collin spoke to people and won them over. He was right; they didn't care at all that he'd been using a fake accent—if anything, they were impressed by it. People were always all-smiles when they looked at him, which made being the one on his arm that much more enjoyable.
Collin and I spent the next two hours walking around and going into shops before deciding to head back to our hotel. The sun had already set, and we were both tired, so we agreed to get some dinner in the room.
"That was the best day ever," I said as we walked down the hallway that led to our rooms. His was next to mine, and we came to it first.
"I told you Ireland's all about the characters."
"It's so cool," I said. "I can't believe how friendly everyone is."
"They're nice to you because you're the most beautiful thing they've ever seen," Collin said, coming to a stop in front of his door. He took me into his arms, and I went willingly, resting my arm on his chest and letting my hand absentmindedly toy with the button on his jacket collar.
"I am not," I said, feeling shy about his statement.
"Yes you are," he said, staring at me. "And I've seen a lot of beautiful things, so I know. You're the best one."
I giggled and reached up to touch his face, but I didn't even get to make contact because he turned to open his door.
"Let's order some dinner," he said, pulling me inside. His room was just like mine, and I went through the living room and into the bedroom where I flopped onto the bed just like I did the instant I entered every hotel room.
Collin took off his jacket and kicked off his shoes before running into the bedroom to pounce onto the bed beside me. I bounced and then landed in a fit of giggles as I reached out to grab his face while he hovered over me. His face felt big in my grasp, and I loved the warmth of it under my fingertips.
"You're scruffy," I said, touching his short beard, which I loved. He leaned toward me, and gently rubbed his cheek on mine.
"I missed you," I said.
"Marry me," he whispered.
"Are you suddenly inspired?" I asked, knowing we were on a bed. I tried to control the rise and fall of my chest so that it wouldn't be obvious that I was nervous.
"I really just want to marry you," he said. "Not that I'm uninspired, because, really, you're an inspiring woman, Sarah. But it's not that. I'd marry you tomorrow and still wait a year if you asked me to."
"You would?" I asked.
He nodded.
"If I married you tomorrow, I wouldn't want to wait a year," I said, breathlessly.
"I know," he said.
"Well, if you know that, then it's not really a gesture, is it?"
He smiled. "Marry me, Sarah. I mean it. I love you."
I stared at him, searching the depths of his eyes in an effort to see if he was serious.
"I love you, too," I said.
We had said it on the phone, but never in person, and there was some sort of magic about looking at him when I said the words. I ran my fingertips along his eyebrow and then down the side of his eye, circling onto his cheekbone.
"Yes," I whispered with a completely serious look on my face. "I wish there were a word that meant something more than yes—some kind of resounding yes."
"You could just say, 'it's a resounding yes'," he said, being serious.
"Yeah, but I wish there was one word that meant the same thing."
&n
bsp; "How about heck yeah?"
I shrugged. "Not really my style. And that's still two words."
"How about you just kiss me?" he asked. "That's a resounding yes without saying a word at all."
"Then…" I stretched up to place a quick but fervent kiss right on his lips like I had sealed some kind of deal.
He smiled. "Good," he said. "I have one more week in London when I leave here."
I nodded, since I was already familiar with his plans.
"I was planning on going home after that, maybe it would be fun to get married in Ireland. We should do it here."
"You mean when you're done in London?" I asked, pulling back a little to gauge how serious he was.
He nodded.
"In a week?"
He nodded again. "Let's call our families and fly them out here," he said with a shrug. "It's only six hours from New York. They'll drop what they're doing and fly over for a day or two."
"Are you for real?" I asked, sitting up on my shoulder and leaning over him.
"Think about it," he said. "I don't see any reason to wait."
"I really love you," I said, staring into his eyes.
He smiled. "I know," he said. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"I'm gonna marry you," I said.
He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. "In about ten days," he said, causing my stomach to tie into a thousand knots.
"Are you serious?" I asked.
"If you want to."
"I do," I whispered.
"Okay."
"Okay, so we're doing it?" I asked.
"Not till we're married," he said, pretending to misunderstand me.
"I thought you said we were gonna wait a year even after that," I said, teasing him.
"I did. I would. I could do a year standing on my head."
"I'm gonna marry you, Collin. Soon. And we're not waiting for anything after that."
"Uh-huh," he moaned, pulling me in and nestling his head comfortably into the crook of my neck.
"This is the best day ever," I whispered.
JFK to Dublin (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective Book 1) Page 10