The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

particularly attractive way.”
    Since it was the last thing he’d expected to hear, Shawn merely stared until Darcy cursed under her breath.
    “I’m only telling you because she never said it outright to me in just those words. But she thinks of her body as a practical thing, and not as female as it could be. She doesn’t think men find her particularly attractive—female-like. And that’s why the sex is just sex in her thinking. She doesn’t believe a man might look at her in a romantic or tender sort of way.”
    She paused a moment, tried not to wonder if Brenna would forgive her if her friend knew she’d said such things. “A woman likes to be told . . . well, if you’ve any brain in your head, you should know what a woman likes to be told. And it’s not a matter of just grabbing hold of what’s different from yours, but telling . Now, close your mouth because you look half-witted.”
    She let the door swing shut behind her.

 
FOURTEEN
     
     
     
    “A ND YOU’LL REMEMBER Dennis Magee who went off to America—well, neither of us remembers it precisely, as it’s been fifty years if it’s a day and we weren’t yet born, or barely so in my own case, at the time he left Old Parish. But you’ll remember hearing of it and how he made his fortune with land and building and such over in New York City.”
    Kathy Duffy sat cozily in the O’Tooles’ kitchen, sipping tea and nibbling on iced cakes—though if truth be known the batter could have used just a splash more vanilla—while she shared news and gossip.
    As she was used to having ten words to say for anyone else’s one, she didn’t notice her friend’s distraction, but kept chattering away with the hottest bulletin in Old Parish.
    “Always a clever one, was Dennis. So everyone who knew him said. And he married Deborah Casey, who was a cousin of my mother’s and was reputed to have a good head on her shoulders as well. Off they went, across the foam with their firstborn still in short pants. They did well for themselves in America, built up a fine business. You know Old Maude was betrothed to the John Magee who was lost in the war, and he was brother to Dennis. In all these years,” Kathy went on as she licked a bit of icing from her finger, “it seems Dennis never did look back to Ireland, or the place where he was born. But he had himself a son, and the son a son. And that one, he’s looking right enough.”
    She waited a beat, and Mollie roused herself to raise her eyebrows. “Is he?”
    “He is, yes. And he’s got his sights set on Ardmore. Planning to build a theater here.”
    “Oh, yes.” Mollie stirred the tea she’d yet to taste. “I heard Brenna talking about it.” Distracted she was, but not so deeply that she didn’t notice Kathy’s crestfallen expression. “I don’t have the details of it,” she said, to smooth her friend’s feathers.
    “Well, then.” Delighted, Kathy edged forward. “There’s a deal being done between the Magees in New York City and the Gallaghers. The word ’round is they’ll be building the theater onto the pub. A kind of music hall if I’m hearing correctly. Imagine that, Mollie, a music hall right in Ardmore, and with the Gallaghers having their fingers in it.”
    “If it’s to be, I’d be happier knowing one of our own had some say in the matter. Do you know if Dennis Magee, the younger, will be coming back to Ardmore?”
    “I don’t see how the matter can be done otherwise.” Kathy sat back, patted her hair. Her niece had given her a home perm the week before, and she was well pleased with it. Each curl was like a soldier tucked up in his bedroll.
    “Dennis and I had a bit of a flirt when we were both young and foolish and he came to visit one summer back some years.” Kathy’s eyes went dreamy as she looked back. “On his grand tour, was he, and wanted to see the place where his parents had been born and reared and where he himself spent the first years of his life. He was a fine-looking man, Dennis Magee, as I recall him.”
    “The way I remember things, you had a bit of a flirt with every fine-looking man before you plucked the one you were after.”
    Kathy’s eyes went bright with humor. “What’s the point of being young and foolish if you do otherwise?”
    Because it was one of the things worrying her, Mollie managed a wan smile and let her old friend settle back into chattering.
    Mollie was certain that her oldest daughter was having a great deal more than a