As the initial greetings died down and people returned to their seats or to dance, I took Daisy’s face between my palms and stared intently into her eyes. “Last year was the best year of my life, because I met you, and the worse year of my life because I had to leave you for all those months.”
“Same,” she mumbled, her eyes studied my face before they settled on my mouth. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip and she whet her lips in return We smiled at the same time and I placed my mouth to hers.
“So… this place is yours?” I asked, calling her out for not telling me she owned the bar before.
“You asked for a year, when we were in New York,” she countered, avoiding directly answering me.
“I did, but that was before I knew it was more complicated than I knew,” I mumbled.
Daisy removed her hands from around my neck and ran them up both of my arms. I felt like a comforting gesture. Her gorgeous eyes stared intently before she replied.
“Poppy finishes business school in the summer. I’ll have a working partner then. Six months should be enough time to bring her up to speed with the day to day running of the place.”
I grinned, because without words, she’d hinted that our love stood a chance as long as our time apart didn’t get in our way.
“Hold on,” she said, instantly pulling out of my embrace and pulling her cell phone from her bra.
“What? Do you see any pockets in this dress?” she remarked with a smirk as she answered a call, smiled at me, and put the cell phone to her ear. A frown crept over her face, and her smile faded fast.
“I’ll be right down,” she snapped. “Fuck, the Garda are at the front door.” Daisy groaned in frustration. “Garda as in the police?” I asked, clarifying that’s what she meant. Nodding she dropped her arms from me, spun on her heel and headed downstairs without a word. I followed her into the closed downstairs bar, but hung back when she opened the door.
“Good evening, are you the licensee of these premises.”
“I am officer. Happy New Year. We’re holding a closed door, licenced event.”
“The problem isn’t inside, Ms. O’Donnell, it’s out here in the street.”
“I don't understand, Sergeant,” Daisy replied, confused.
“Apparently, according to the crowd out here, it’s all over social media, that there are two members of a US rock band attending your event.”
When Daisy glanced at me with a guilty look on her face, I knew the instant she did, she would never lie to the police.
“That's correct, they’re here, but again I don't understand why you had to be called— wait, crowd?” she muttered, the reality of our situation sinking in.
“Some of the residents told us there was a small group of people hanging about, outside your pub, but by the time my officers got here to disperse them, a crowd had grown to around a few hundred people. Some of them are so eager for a glimpse, they’ve brought sleeping bags and are prepared to spend the night in the hopes of meeting them.”
“Fuck.” I muttered and Daisy’s eyes immediately darted to mine.
“This is one of our busiest nights of the year, Ms. O’Donnell. The last thing I need is a bunch of crazy music fans clogging up my streets.”
“I just need a minute to take this all in,” my girl replied, still clearly dazed by the sudden turn of events.
“Then I need you to think faster. Perhaps since you haven’t denied this, you could ask them to figure out a way to appease their fans?”
“Shit Daisy, I’m sorry I’ve brought this on you.”
Stepping into view at the door, but still out of sight of everyone else, I spoke to the massive policeman practically blocking the outside door.
“Sorry, officer. We’re at a private celebration. I’ll get Paddy, and if it’s okay, we’ll let them in two at a time, do a meet and greet, sign an autograph, take a selfie, on the condition they post it tomorrow and say that we have already gone. We’ve got two licensed doormen, my two nephews and a couple of Daisy’s staff here. We’ll work something out and make sure they all go home.”
Daisy closed the door, leaving the Garda outside, grabbed hold of Terry, her father, my nephews and brought them, with Paddy, back to the bar. When she opened the door again, the police had people queuing around the block. The line was disciplined and the fans stood patiently waiting to meet us in the narrow street.
Paddy and I drew up chairs behind the bar, using the bar counter as a barrier for us and a means of escape to the back if there was an issue, since we had no security of our own with us.
Daisy handed us a handful of promotional pens from a mug and told the security on the door to let no more than four fans in at a time.
Nick and Ryan went out on the street and spoke among the queue as Paddy and I spent the following two hours signing and smiling until we’d worked our way to the last diehard fans, who were cold as ice, by the time they’d gotten to meet us.
“So much for a private New Year’s Eve, in a backstreet pub,” he commented as he passed me the last mobile phone case to sign.
As Terry closed the door when the last of the fans had left, Paddy turned to me and looked almost sober as he chuckled, slapped his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. “I don’t know how you got away with that, but not one of them picked up on the fact that Daisy is your girlfriend.”
Daisy glanced nervously toward me as I wandered out from behind the bar, leaving Paddy pouring himself a well-earned drink. Beckoning her toward me, I pulled her close to my chest. I’d wanted to reassure her because she looked shaken by how familiar our fans acted with us.
“Baby, I think we had a close call tonight. I think Paddy is right. We need to talk about how we are going to manage this, because I know I can’t hide who I am anymore, and the last thing I want is for this to fuck up your life.”
“As much as it scares me, I know we’re on borrowed time after that. I think I’d rather we at least had a little control over how we do this.” Daisy’s comment surprised me, but when she glanced up at me, I could see she trusted my judgement.
Loosening my grip, I took her head in my hands and looked longingly into her serious gaze. My heart ached a little, knowing the anonymity I’d enjoyed as we’d gotten to know one another was quickly coming to a close. I didn’t feel ready for that to happen, and I knew if I wasn’t and I had some idea of what news of us could bring, I had to do whatever I could to cushion the attention Daisy being with me could bring.
My priorities in the coming months had to be to try to shield her from the scrutiny our relationship would bring, protect her from those that would do her some harm and give her the confidence to live with sharing her life with someone famous.
The family trip to Dublin hadn’t been drama free, what with the antics of my sister and my nephews, and especially when Paddy and I were caught by our fans, hanging out at Daisy’s bar. My bandmate had regarded me as one lucky star that despite them discovering us, our fans still hadn’t made the connection between their local landlady and me. At least that had given us some breathing space while I worked out how to manage going public before our fans connected the dots as to why Paddy and I had spent New Year’s Eve in a tiny Irish pub.
As my girl and I faced the new year, the pressures on our relationship were real, due to my fame, the distance between us and the limited time we’d had to spend together. However, knowing the clock was ticking on our band’s music contract and Poppy’s graduation. Those factors brought fresh hope that someday Daisy and I could possibly make solid plans for our future. Until then, all we could do was find every precious spare moment of time to keep our love alive, until we could finally be together.
If you’re enjoying Jamie and Daisy’s story, you’ll be excited to know Lucky Valentine, LuvLuck Novellas series, book 3 is coming soon…
Lucky Valentine
He’s a famous rock star she’s a pub landlady—with an ocean between them, living in two different worlds and challenging time zones,
keeping them apart, could a love story like theirs ever truly work?
Almost a year after they had first met, Daisy had been invited to Paris for Valentine’s day, to see her boyfriend and his famous band’s gig. Seeing Jamie in concert wasn’t anything new to her, except for her vantage point in the sweaty crush of the mosh pit.
However, this time she had the enviable position of watching her favorite rock star perform mere feet away from her when she took her place in the wings.
Acknowledgments
Author: KL Shandwick
Publicist: KL Shandwick
Cover Design: Image Deposit Cover KLS
Editor: Caroline Stainburn Editing
Beta readers: Nikki Costello, Wendy Hodges, TL Wainwright
Proof reading, Lisa Ashley Perkins, Sue Noyes
About the Author
Writing came relatively later in life for K.L. Shandwick after a challenge by a friend led to The Everything Trilogy and now she loves creating new storylines.
Her characters have flaws and she hopes this helps the connection between them and her readers. K.L. enjoys the journeys the stories take her on during the creation process and each has his or her own voice. She also doesn't use prepared outlines for her stories preferring the characters to take their own direction as the story progresses. These days K.L. lives in the Yorkshire countryside and writes full-time.
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Also by K.L. Shandwick
The Everything Trilogy
Enough Isn’t Everything
Everything She Needs
Everything I Want
Love With Every Beat
just Jack
Everything Is Yours
Last Score Series
Gibson’s Legacy
Trusting Gibson
Gibson’s Melody
Piper: A Last Score Spin off
Ready for Flynn Series
Ready For Flynn, Part 1
Ready For Flynn, Part 2
Ready For Flynn, Part 3
Flying Under the Radar
Unchained Attraction Series
Dare You, Part one, Billie and Sawyer
Dare Me: Sawyer and Billie
Resist You James and Tricia, Resist Duet
Resist Me
Other novels
Missing Beats
Exhale and Move On
Free to Breathe
Another Life
SOULED
Luvluck Novellas
Lucky Break
Lucky Chance
Lucky Star Page 10