The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

her feet. “Always thinking you know what’s best and how it all should be done.”
    His teeth flashed. “Brenna, darling, if I wasn’t a man we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
    She blew out a breath, settled her cap more firmly on her head. “Well, you’re right about that, aren’t you?”
    “You told me you had an itch, well, I’ll scratch it for you, in my own time and my own way. That’s fair.”
    She looked at him, nodded. “Frustrating, but fair.”
    “And wherever we stand now or after, we walk away friends at the end of it. As much as I want you, I won’t touch you if we don’t take a vow here to walk away friends.”
    How could she help but care for him, Brenna wondered, when he was the kind of man who would think of that? And would mean it. “Friends now, during, and after.” She offered her hand on it. “I’ll promise that to you.”
    “And I to you.” He took her hand, held it. Then, just to see her reaction, brought it to his lips to nuzzle.
    Her mouth fell open, delighting him into a rolling laugh.
    “Mary Brenna, I believe you’re in for a few surprises along the way.”
    “Maybe.” She tugged her hand free, put it behind her back, where it continued to tingle. “But I’m not without a few tricks of my own.”
    “I’ll count on that.” Plucking the key from his pocket, he turned toward the door. “Why don’t you come down tonight and I’ll fix you supper, and I can show you some . . . surprises in the storeroom.”
    “In the storeroom?” Before she could laugh, a thought took root. “Just how many women, might I ask, have you surprised in the storeroom?”
    “ Mauverneen. ” He winked at her before he strolled out. “I’m not a man who counts.”
     
     
     

 
NINE
     
     
     
    “M AGEE’S MAN F INKLE’S here.” Darcy hissed it as she scurried into the kitchen.
    Shawn glanced up from the trio of bookmaker’s sandwiches he was making. “Is he now?”
    “Big as life.” Out of habit, she checked her face and hair in the little mirror she’d hung beside the door. “ Aidan’s pulling him a pint of lager and chatting him up at the bar, though the Finkle looks to be all business.”
    Knowing his sister’s skills, Shawn gestured with his knife. “Give me him in a hundred words or less.”
    Darcy narrowed her eyes, tapped a finger to her lips. “Middle fifties and balding. Sensitive about it, as he does a comb-over. A prosperous belly that tells me he likes his food. Married, but not above casting an eye. An indoor man. A company man used to taking orders and giving them on down the line. Frugal, as Mary Kate tells me he bargained fierce on the room rate even though it’s on his expense account. Urban through and through and a bit of a dandy. I could pluck my eyebrows in the shine off his shoes.”
    “Well done.” Shawn’s eyes glittered with anticipation. “You won’t have any trouble charming him, will you?”
    With the smuggest of smiles, Darcy examined her nails. “Shooting fish in a barrel.”
    “I’m not talking about leading him into temptation, Darcy, just making him stumble around the far edges of it.”
    “Give me some credit. I said he was married. I’m not a homewrecker.”
    “Sorry. It was the look in your eye. It’s a terror you are to mankind.”
    She took a tube out of her tip pocket and freshened her lipstick, with her eye on Shawn’s in the mirror. “Mankind loves terrors like me.”
    “I can’t argue with you there, as I’ve seen too many of the fallen. I’ll help you serve the sandwiches here, so the Finkle can get a look at the harmless brother.”
    In harmony with him, Darcy helped Shawn load the tray. “He’s impatient, I’d say, to get a look at things, eye the land, talk his deal.”
    “He’s in Ireland now,” Shawn said easily. “Rushing isn’t the Gallagher way.”
    He put the orders together and got some bowls of crisps for the bar. “I wasn’t daydreaming,” he said to Darcy’s back, lifting his voice slightly as they passed through the kitchen door into the pub. “I was thinking.”
    Following his lead, Darcy sighed. “You can’t put orders together in good time if your head’s in the clouds. Try staying on the ground with the rest of us now and again.”
    Adopting a sulky expression, Shawn began to set bowls out on the bar.
    “Shawn, come meet Mr. Finkle from New York City.” Shawn let his face clear and moved down the bar in Aidan’s direction, leaned on it to offer a friendly