The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

that’s not far enough. I’ll have to leave the country entirely. I’ll go to Chicago and stay with your granny until I get on me feet. She’ll take me in, won’t she?”
    She spun back, teeth gritted once again as Jude ladled soup into bowls and chuckled. “Oh, well, now, maybe you find this a laughing matter, Jude Frances, but to me it’s dire business. I’m humiliated in front of everyone who knows me, and all because I’ve an itch for some pretty-faced, soft-brained man.”
    “You’re not humiliated, and I’m sorry to laugh. But your face . . . well.” Choking back another chuckle, Jude set the soup bowls on the table, then patted Brenna’s shoulder. “Sit down, take a deep breath. You don’t have to leave the country.”
    When Brenna stood her ground, Jude took the deep breath herself. “I don’t think it shows, not obviously. But I’m used to watching people, analyzing, and on top of it I think, really, that when you’re in love you’re more tuned to emotions. Something . . . I don’t know, ripples in the air when the two of you are in the same room. After a while I realized it wasn’t the usual affectionate animosity that friends and family sometimes have, but something more, well, elemental.”
    Brenna waved a hand in dismissal. She’d hooked on to only one point. “It doesn’t show?”
    “No, not unless you look really close. Now sit down.”
    “All right, then.” She blew out a breath now as she sat, but she didn’t feel completely relieved. “If Darcy’d noticed, she’d have said something. She wouldn’t be able to resist needling at me about it. So if it’s just you and Shawn that know, I can manage that.”
    “You’ve told him?”
    “It seemed time I did.” Without much interest, Brenna spooned up soup. “I’ve been having these urges, so to speak, for a long time where he’s concerned. Thinking on it just recently, it seemed to me that if we just went to bed together a time or two I’d get it out of my system.”
    Jude set down her own spoon with a clatter. “You asked him to go to bed with you?”
    “I did, and you’d think I’d smashed him in the balls with my wrench. So that’s the end of that.”
    Jude folded her hands, leaned forward. “I’m going to pry.”
    Brenna’s lips twitched. “Oh, you haven’t started that yet?”
    “Not nearly. What exactly did you say to him?”
    “I said, plain enough, that I thought we should have sex. And what’s wrong with that?” she demanded, gesturing with her spoon. “You’d think a man would appreciate clear, honest speaking.”
    “Hmmm” was all Jude could think of. “I take it Shawn didn’t appreciate it.”
    “Hah. I’m like a sister to him, he says. And how I should be ashamed. Ashamed,” she repeated, firing up. “Then he tells me right out he doesn’t want me in that way. So I jumped him.”
    “You . . .” Jude coughed and picked up her spoon again. She needed something to soothe the tickle in her throat. “You jumped him.”
    “Aye. Planted a kiss on him that he won’t forget anytime soon. And the man didn’t exactly fight me off like his life depended on it.” She tore a slice of bread in two, shoved half in her mouth. “After I was done with that, I left him standing there, looking shell-shocked.”
    “I imagine. He kissed you back?”
    “Sure he kissed me back.” She tossed that off with a shrug. “Men are predictable that way. Even if a woman isn’t to their taste, they’re likely to take a sample, aren’t they?”
    “Um, yes, I suppose.” Unsure of her ground, Jude went back to hmmm.
    “Now I’m steering clear of him for a while,” Brenna continued, “as I can’t decide if I’m more angry or embarrassed about the matter.”
    “He’s been very distracted the last few days.”
    “Has he now?”
    “And short-tempered.”
    Brenna found her appetite coming back. “I’m delighted to hear it. I hope he suffers, the donkey’s ass.”
    “If I wanted a man to suffer, I think I’d want to watch him while he did it.” Jude swallowed more soup. “But that’s just me.”
    “I suppose there’s no harm in stopping by the pub after work today.” Brenna sent Jude a quick and wicked grin. “Thanks.”
    “Oh, anytime.”
     
    Brenna went through the rest of her workday whistling, her mood bright and her hands nimble. She supposed it wasn’t very charitable of her to take such pleasure in the idea of another’s unhappiness. But she was human, after all.
    When she