Chapter 13 #2
“Her name isn’t Celeste.” Okay, so perhaps Sondra hadn’t wanted to be helpful at all. Really all she wanted was to lighten the mood and if poor Keefe had to be the sacrificial lamb, well, so be it.
Keefe stared at Sondra for a long moment then slowly shook his head as the table erupted in snorts and laughter.
Nan wasn’t going to be left out of this. “Last year your poor mother told me that you brought home a woman who turned out to be a man!”
Simon nearly spit out his wine. Connor threw his head back laughing and everyone else was either snorting as they laughed or utterly speechless.
Keefe glared across the table at his sister who had tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard. “I don’t know what’s so damn funny. Steve was wearing a skirt and had great legs. How was I supposed to know?”
That only made everyone laugh harder. The only thing that made them stop was the laughter woke up the babies who began to cry.
“Now look what you’ve done. You should all be ashamed of yourselves waking up poor, innocent children like that,” said Keefe with righteous indignance.
“Too bad it didn’t work out. You could have shared a razor!” Henry said laughing at his own joke with a thump of his fist on the table.
Sylvia and Nan stood and took the twins to their nursery where they tucked them in safe and sound and the babies fell back to sleep before their heads hit the mattress.
“I suppose none of you ever made a fucking mistake,” Keefe muttered tipping back his bottle of Harp, shaking his head with a grin. “All right, all right. You can all stop it because Sophie’s already found me a girlfriend, haven’t you, sis?”
Sophie, who had her head resting on Liam’s shoulder sat up with a start then a gulp. She should have known he would go there. Damn him. “Yep,” she said with a popping P. Then she finished off the wine in her glass and poured another.
Sylvia and Nan rejoined the dinner just in time.
“Now, that’s a grand idea,” said Henry brightly after slurping an oyster. “That way you won’t be jealous of her like all the others, Soph.”
“Hey! I was never jealous. That’s…” She shook her head and twisted her face. “EW. I just want my brother to have the best and so far, he’s dated women, let’s say, a little on the trashy side.”
“Or who are men,” added Henry on the back of a hearty chuckle.
“Hey!” Keefe protested. “They weren’t all bad.”
“Like hell they weren’t.” Sophie selected two oysters and placed them on her plate.
Everyone around the table turned their eyes to Sophie who shrugged her shoulders and flicked her hand in the air. “What? She came into the pub and she seemed nice.”
“You actually set your brother up on a date?” asked Sondra.
“Don’t start. Besides, I needed to give him someone else to turn his eyes on so he would leave Ginny alone.”
“For the last time there’s nothing going on between me and Ginny!” He wanted to shout that he was madly in love with Ruby, had found the love of his life, and if it wouldn’t scare her away, he would propose marriage to her right now, today— yesterday even!
“So, if it’s not Ginny who’s got you smiling like an eejit then who is it?” Simon asked, now fully invested in the conversation.
“Her name is Ruby and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Yeah, and he’s only gone and fallen in love with her,” said Sophie with one foot in the drunk tank, as she cut into her steak.
Sondra cooed in approval.
Sophie waited for the family to jump on Keefe but nobody did. “Uh, hello? Did any of you hear what I said? He’s in love with Ruby.”
Crickets.
“Come on! Really? Nothing?” She looked around the table at each face. None so much as flinched.
“So what if I am? I thought you liked her.”
“I did until I found out that she lied to me.”
“What are you talking about?” Keefe asked.
“She told me she was here on vacation. You told me the other day she’s here because of her dead father.”
“Oh come on, Soph. You’re not seriously going to hold that against her? Maybe she just didn’t want to go telling her business to a complete stranger.”
Everyone around the table agreed that could certainly be logical.
“What do you even know about her? Other than she looks good naked?”
“Hey! That’s not fair!”
“Fine. She’s got pretty eyes too.” If she wasn’t so flabbergasted, Sophie would realize that Ruby had eyes like Darcie. “You’ve been shacked up together all week. Have you even seen her place? And just who is this dead father?”
“Why are you suddenly so suspicious of her?” asked Nan.
“Because she lied. I can see her not wanting to talk about a dead father but she could have said she was here on family business or something.”
“Sounds to me like you’re splitting hairs, pet,” Sylvia said.
Sophie couldn’t believe that not one face around the table looked surprised or the least bit concerned that Keefe had not just fallen in love overnight but that it was with a liar.
“If she’s so special then why didn’t you bring her tonight?”
“I invited her but she had some work stuff.”
“What does she do that she couldn’t attend a family dinner?”
“Jesus, can Ruby not have a life? She runs a charity and they have a big event coming up. And, as you said, she’s been shacked up with me all week—not working.
“Okay, fine.” Sophie couldn’t really argue with that one tiny miniscule point.
“A charity you say? Fair play to her,” said Shamus throwing his oar in.
Nan winked at him.
“What charity is it?” asked Liam. “I wonder if she knows Gwen?” Made sense seeing as Gwen ran a charity as well.
Keefe thought for a moment but couldn’t remember.
He remembered all sorts of other things about her but not that.
“I don’t remember the name of it but it’s for women who have been abused.
” That earned a collective gold star from everyone in at the table.
Well, everyone except Sophie. “I promise, you will all meet her soon.”
“You could bring her to the twins christening if you wanted,” suggested Darcie. “She would be welcome, wouldn’t she Connor?” she nudged Connor in the side.
“Yes, of course. The more the merrier,” he said brightly.
“Thank you, Darcie. That’s very kind of you. I’ll invite her since you’ve mentioned it.”
Sophie couldn’t take another second of it. “What the hell is it with this family? You’re as bad as Connor and Simon!”
Connor and Simon both cried, “Hey now!”
She lifted her glass, paused, then added, “And Dad. And Uncle Henry.”
Henry, who was about to take a bite of steak barked, “Hey now is right!”
Then she took a long drink. “Jesus, Keefe! You do realize it’s not a requirement to fall in love instantly, right? You can, oh I don’t know, maybe take a couple of months. Or at the very least—find out why she lied to me.”
Keefe understood that his sister was genuinely concerned for him and not just being a brat but she was also being entirely unreasonable. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
“Like what?”
“Come on, don’t you see?” he spread his arms out with a fork in one hand a knife in the other. “You introduced us. I asked you—my best friend. The one person who knows me better than I know myself—to find me someone, and you chose Ruby. It’s fa?—”
“Don’t you even start that fate crap with me!” she snapped. He’d buttered her up for a moment there but she wasn’t ready to let this go just yet.
“That isn’t what you said to Connor when he said he would marry Darcie.”
“Connor isn’t my brother.”
“I know but when you know, you know. You know?” His lovesick grin couldn’t be contained.
Sophie couldn’t form her feelings into words. At least not into words that used more than one syllable. He was out of his mind! She shook her head. “You’re just ho?—”
“Don’t you dare say that I’m just horny Soph! I love her!” he shouted. Now he was getting angry.
“How could you? You’ve only just met!” Sophie shouted back.
The family knew enough to stay quiet.
“I don’t know! But I do! And she loves me too!”
“She said that?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact she did!”
Sophie facepalmed. This fight was going nowhere. “What is it with the boneheaded men in this family? And don’t you dare start with that fate talk of yours, Connor—I’m in no mood.” She said it without even looking at him, though Connor’s mouth was already open, ready to argue.
Connor raised his hands in the air, apologizing for even considering interfering.
Pfft! Maybe Connor wouldn’t interfere but Sylvia was more than happy to. “Sophie, don’t you want your brother to be happy?”
“Of course, I do. What sort of question is that?”
“Then maybe you should see where this goes and maybe, you know, chill out a bit.”
“Did you just tell me to chill out ?” Of all people, it was her adorably chubby—yet somehow still terrifying—aunt who said it. That alone was enough to break Sophie’s tension. She cracked a smile and finally relaxed.
Keefe lowered his voice. “Soph, please? Give her a chance? For me? It would be nice to have my big sister’s blessing.”
Shit. He just had to play the big sister card. The big jerk. “All right, all right. You win,” she grumbled.
The room went quiet for a minute while everyone ate some of their delicious meal. Then Sylvia began on a little trip down memory lane.
“I remember the first time I met Henry. He was so handsome and kind.” Sylvia softly smiled as she recalled the night. “You remember, Nan?” she said touching the side of her head to Nan’s shoulder beside her.
“Of course, I do. You were out with someone else and I was on a date with Jon—my parents wouldn’t let me go unless one of my brothers came along.”
“I drew the short straw,” said Henry fondly.
Nan jerked her thumb toward her brother. “He had a face on him like a slapped arse, he did—until he saw Sylvia. Later that night, he says to me, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry.’”
“I proposed a week later,” said Henry nodding his head and pulling his wife close to him for a gruff little cuddle that made her giggle.
It had been a long time since they had recalled these beautiful memories.
“You were on a date with somebody else?” Sophie asked.
Sylvia nodded recalling the night. “A local band was playing at the pub, I couldn’t even tell you what they were playing. Anyway, there was Henry, standing in the corner, watching me. I swear I felt his stare before I even noticed him.”
“But once she finally looked at me, I walked straight up and asked if she would dance with me,” he said looking softly into his wife’s eyes.
“All I saw was Henry. He took my hand, led me to the dance floor, and I’ve never looked back.
” Sylvia smiled up at her husband. “We were married three months later. My parents told us to wait—but there was no stopping us.” After she pressed a tender kiss to Henry’s cheek, she turned her face to Sophie. “You love your brother, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do.” Sophie looked at her brother across the table. She would do anything for him. “What sort of question is that?”
“Then you’ll support him. Watch out for him like you always have—but if he’s truly in love with Ruby, fighting it won’t stop him. It’ll just drive a wedge between you.”
Sophie spoke to Keefe now but softly and with deep emotion. “What if you’re wrong? What if she’s like the others? Or worse? I don’t want you to go through what I did with my first marriage.”
Keefe understood where she was coming from and answered softly, “You introduced us. Did you think she was like the others?”
“No,” she admitted both to them and herself. “No, I didn’t.”
“Then there’s your answer.” Aunt Sylvia had spoken and now the matter was closed. “Now, can we not enjoy this fine dinner now? I’m starving and these oysters look fabulous.”