Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
S ara pulled a tissue out of her jeans pocket and quietly dabbed at her eyes. A glance at Oksana caught her doing the same.
Even Rance stood in subdued silence as Lucky and Kieran held their position, hands clasped, emotions bubbling below the surface. Sam parked himself to one side, his attention darting from one to the other.
Then Kieran’s shoulders slowly relaxed and the corners of his mouth tilted ever so slightly. “Fancy a hug?”
Laughter flashed in Lucky’s eyes. “Sure. What the hell.”
They embraced, held on for a second and then stepped away from each other, grinning. Sam pranced around them, tail wagging in approval.
“How about me?” Rance said. “Don’t I get a hug? I’ve been watching out for this guy, keeping him out of trouble while I waited all these years for you to get here.”
“Then I owe you.” Kieran gave Rance an enthusiastic hug.
“Oh, you definitely owe me.” Rance’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “He tested my patience many times, but somebody had to be the adult in the room.”
Sara laughed. “That’s not how I heard it. More like the other way around. Wasn’t Lucky the one constantly saving your ass?”
“Well, now that you mention it, I do recall?—”
“Whether I have or haven’t,” Lucky said. “You came through back in February, and that totally evened the score. Without you, I wouldn’t be with this wonderful woman.” Reaching for Oksana’s hand, he drew her up beside him. “Oksana, meet my brother Kieran.”
She smiled and shook his hand. “What a special day. You two do look a lot alike.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“ Yes, ma’am ? Lucky, he even sounds like you!”
“You can thank Sara for that.” He gave her a quick glance. “She taught me that it was common around here. Where I’m from, it’s not.”
“Sara taught you, did she?” Rance gave her a wink. “Rumor has it there’s more than language lessons going on between you two.”
Her cheeks warmed. “I just happened to be buying a hat when he came into Hannigan’s looking for the same thing.”
“Classic cute meet. He wants your hat and is willing to wrestle you for it. After twenty minutes of rolling around on the floor of Hannigan’s, you fall madly in love and decide to share custody of the hat.”
Kieran chuckled “Well done. I couldn’ta described it better. I’m thinking you have Irish blood, yeah?”
“Sadly, I’m British on both sides.”
Sara latched onto that tidbit. Rance had never mentioned his father. Every other McLintock child knew their father’s name and had a story to go with it. She’d been hesitant to ask about his.
“British, is it?” Kieran shook his head. “That’s a bleedin’ shame. You should dig a little deeper, uncover that Irish ancestor.”
“I’ll do it for you, buddy. In the meantime, who’s up for a libation? This party could use a little grease on the wheels, if you get my drift.” He walked behind the bar, pulled out a large bag of popcorn and filled two bowls. “What’ll it be, ladies and gents?”
“The darkest beer you’ve got,” Kieran moved over to take a stool at the bar and everyone else followed suit.
Kieran and Lucky ended up together in the middle with the women on either side. Sara didn’t think it was an accident. The two men had stayed close to each other ever since Lucky had come through the door.
“Pale ale for me.” Lucky looked at Oksana, who nodded. “Make that two.”
“Three.” Sara hoped somebody was drinking the one she’d left in the living room, but she wasn’t going back after it and risk missing something.
“Let me see what’s here.” Rance opened the mini-fridge behind the bar. “Looks like plenty of ale. Here’s a dark lager that might work for you, Kieran.” He uncapped the bottle and passed it over, along with a coaster.
“It will. Thanks.”
“If I’d known the situation, I would’ve brought some Guinness from town. Certain people kept the details from me until I was in the truck.”
“I couldn’t tell you in front of Clint. It was hard enough convincing him nobody was hurt or dead.”
“And you promised to let Clint know the reason ASAP.” Rance passed out the chilled bottles of ale and more coasters before uncapping one for himself. “ASAP has come and gone.”
“Oh, well. He’ll hear about it eventually.” Lucky gazed at his half-brother. “Making this trip took guts. Here’s to you.” He raised his bottle.
“To Kieran!” everyone called out.
Color rose to his cheeks as he touched his bottle to each of theirs. “And to all of you for taking me in.”
“Except we’re just a few of the many.” Sara helped herself to popcorn from the bowl closest to her and then nudged it toward Kieran. “When will the rest find out?”
“Mom told me on the phone that she’d like to give Kieran and me a chance to talk before she brings in the whole gang. And I’m loaded with questions.”
Kieran swallowed a mouthful of beer. “Let’s hear ’em.”
“For starters, Mom said we have a grandmother back in County Kildare.”
“That we do.” He pulled out his phone. “She hates me taking her picture, but she let me take one when she was dressed up for Easter Sunday.” He gave Sara a quick peek before handing the phone to Lucky.
He chuckled. “Love the hat.”
“She’s convinced the more flowers on her hat, the better God likes it.”
“I’m sure that’s true.” Lucky studied the picture, his expression softening. “She’s blonde?”
“From a bottle. There’s plenty of older pictures at the house of her, her and Grandpa.”
“He’s gone, though?”
“Ten years ago. You woulda liked him.”
Lucky took a ragged breath. “Yeah.”
“She was a beauty like mum. Long black hair, green eyes.”
“She’s still a beauty.” Lucky’s voice was husky. “Have you told her?” He handed back the phone.
“Like I said to Desiree, it’s the middle of the night. They’re seven hours ahead.”
“Sure. Right.” He nodded. “We had to figure that out when Mom and Andy went to Kenya. When were you going to contact her?”
“Haven’t decided the best time. Wanna be there?”
“I do. With Oksana.” He looked over at her. “You want to, right?”
“You know I do, but… I think it’s better if it’s just you and Kieran. Let her get over the shock and surprise. I can be in on another call.”
Lucky glanced at Kieran. “What do you think?”
“She’s right. I think its best if you and I are the only ones this first time.”
“All right.”
“Fancy a game of darts while we figure out a time to call?”
Lucky gave him an assessing glance. “Yes, I believe I do.”
Kieran turned to her. “Wanna play, Sara?”
She smiled. “You’re sweet to ask, but unless Oksana?—”
“Not me. I’ll take Lucky on in a chess game any day, but almost nobody can touch him at darts.”
“Yeah?” Kieran glanced at him, anticipation in his voice. “Pretty good, are you?”
“Decent.”
Rance snorted. “Uh-huh. Like Michael Jordan was a decent basketball player.”
“Should be an interesting game, then.” Kieran picked up his lager and slid off the stool.
Sara watched them saunter toward the dart board, Sam trotting behind them, as they discussed something to do with the type of dartboard. “They have the same walk.”
“They do.” Oksana moved over to Kieran’s stool. “Aren’t you loving this?”
“It’s fabulous. For both of them. What do you think, Rance?”
“Tell you in a sec. I’m adding atmosphere to this shindig.” He fiddled with something behind the bar. “Ah, there we go.” A rollicking tune poured from the Rowdy Roost’s wall-mounted speakers.
Was that an Irish drinking song? Catchy. She tapped her toe against the bar’s foot rail.
Kieran turned around and looked at Rance. “Don’t tell me you had The Rocky Road to Dublin lying around.”
“No, sir. I found an Irish playlist on our streaming service.”
His eyebrows rose. “Savage.”
“You don’t like it?”
“I like it a lot.”
“ Savage equals approval?”
“It does.”
“Okay, then.” He gave Kieran a thumbs up, then quickly slapped his hand down on the bar. “If that was an insult, you never saw it.”
“Not an insult, Yank.” Kieran grinned and returned the gesture before turning away.
“Yank?” Rance muttered. “Are we in a World War II movie?”
“That’s what they label all of us.” Sara grabbed another handful of popcorn. “I led a four-day New York City tour for a bunch of people from Dublin. It was quite an education.”
“That puts you ahead of the rest of us,” Oksana said.
“Not by much. So Rance, what do you think of Kieran? Devious move, by the way, putting on music so he can’t hear us talk about him.”
“You wound me, dear lady.”
“Come on, Rance,” Oksana said. “We know your tricks. Tell us what you think.”
“I’ll cut to the chase. Kieran needs to switch countries.” He gave Sara a meaningful glance before returning his attention to Oksana. “And bring his cute-as-hell granny. I doubt he’d up and leave her there and we’re low on grandmas, anyway.”
“Desiree’s a grandma.” Oksana took a sip of her ale.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t look like one. That Irish lady does. I’ll bet she bakes cookies and lets you lick the spoon.”
“They’re called biscuits over there.” Sara had learned that from the Dublin group, but her mind wasn’t on cookies. Why had Rance immediately suggested that Kieran relocate? And what was with the piercing look he’d given her?
“Biscuits, cookies, whatever. She’s the type who bakes them. It would be like having a second Marybeth, only she’d have an Irish accent and be spouting all those funny Irish sayings.”
Time to put a stop to that daydream. “It won’t be happening. According to Kieran, his sweet-looking granny’s never traveled except on her honeymoon and that wasn’t far from home. There’s virtually no chance she’d leave Ireland.”
“Yeah, well, what does he know?”
“A lot, considering he’s her only close relative.”
“Which means he should have plenty of influence when push comes to shove. Wouldn’t you like it if he decided to live in the good ol’ US of A, Miss Sara?”
“If you’re trying to matchmake, forget it. Too many moving parts.”
“Some more important than others.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Oksana grinned. “Don’t tease her. She just met the guy a few hours ago.”
“That’s what’s impressive. They just met, but if you didn’t know that, you’d think they’d been together for weeks. Maybe months. That’s a situation that should be nurtured.”
Sara gazed at him. “I appreciate the thought, but it’s a non-starter.”
“Are you sure about that? Because after only ten minutes of watching you two I was thinking you’d found the one.” He turned to Oksana. “Am I wrong?”
“I could see it, too.”
“Look, you guys, I’m not quitting my fabulous job to move here. Kieran has built a life in Ireland and his granny, who’s gotta be around eighty, has never set foot outside of the country. I don’t see a happily-ever-after in this scenario.”
Rance threw up his hands. “My mistake. Guess I’m imagining things.”
“No, you’re not. I’m attracted to him.”
“Then what are you gonna do about it?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
“If you want my help, let me know.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s not as complicated as you’re making it, but you will need help. I’m offering.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Oksana nodded. “You should.”
Sara’s attention slid past Oksana to the dart game on the far side of the room and the broad-shouldered man standing there, his muscular arm cocked. Snapping it forward, he hit the exact center of the bullseye.
When Lucky groaned and hung his head, Kieran slung an arm around his shoulders and muttered something that made Lucky grin. The next moment they were laughing and toasting each other.
This Irishman had shown up and turned everyone’s world upside down, including hers. She wanted him, and he’d already admitted he felt the same about her. Rance had offered his help.
Was she a fool to risk it? Or a fool if she let the opportunity pass her by?