The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

body to sleep with all that yammering going on!” Jude jolted as Brenna’s voice erupted from the bedroom. “Kiss her, for sweet Christ’s sake, Aidan, and stop talking her ear off.”
    “Well, now, I was working my way along to it.”
    “No!” The squeal was so foolish, Jude immediately wished to be buried alive. The best she could do was dash to the bedroom and snatch up a sweater. Before she’d pushed her way through the piles for trousers, Aidan had come in behind her.
    “Mother of God, what secret female ritual results in this?”
    “Jesus, Aidan, put a cork in it, will you? Me head’s falling off me shoulders.”
    He crouched down beside the tangle of red hair. “You know wine gives you a bad head, lass, if you overindulge.”
    “There wasn’t any beer,” Brenna muttered.
    “Then what’s a body to do, after all? I brought along the Gallagher Fix.”
    “Did you?” She rolled, turning her white face and bleary eyes up to him and grasping at his hand. “Truly? God bless you, Aidan. The man’s a saint, Jude. A saint, I tell you. There should be a monument to him in the square of Ardmore.”
    “When you get yourself on your feet, crawl down to the kitchen. I brought a jug along just in case.” He gave Brenna a light kiss on the forehead. “Now where’s my sister?”
    “She’s in my office, the second bedroom,” Jude toldhim with what she hoped was cool dignity as she clutched the clothes to her breast.
    “Is there much breakable in there?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    Aidan straightened. “Just pay no mind to the screams and crashes. I’ll do my best to keep the property damage to a minimum.”
    “What does he mean by that?” Jude hissed the question at Brenna the moment he was out of the room, even as she rushed to drag on the slacks.
    “Oh.” Brenna yawned hugely. “Just that Darcy doesn’t wake cheerful.”
    At the first scream, Brenna clutched her head and moaned. Shocked, Jude yanked the sweater over her head and rushed toward the sound of the thumps and curses.
    “Get your hands off me, you blackhearted baboon. I’ll kick your ass from here to Tuesday.”
    “It’s your ass that’ll be kicked if you don’t get it out of bed and to work, my girl.”
    If the words and the vicious tone in which they were delivered had shocked her, it was nothing to the visual impact. Jude burst into the room in time to see Aidan, his face grim and set, drag Darcy, dressed in nothing but her bra and panties, from the bed to the floor.
    “Why, you brute! Stop that this minute!” Driven to protect her new friend, Jude leaped forward. The order and the movement managed to distract Aidan just long enough for Darcy to ball her fist, bare her teeth, and deliver a short-armed punch straight to his crotch.
    Jude wasn’t sure the sound he made was human. Torn between yet another layer of shock and a wave of pure female amusement that she wasn’t the least bit proud of, she watched Aidan crumple to his knees and Darcy fall on him like a she-wolf.
    “Ouch. Jesus! Bloody hell!” He did what he could to defend himself as his sister thumped, yanked, and bit exactly as he’d taught her, and still wheezing from that first blow, he finally managed to pin her.
    “One of these days, Darcy Alice Mary Gallagher, I’m going to forget you’re a female and plant one on you.”
    “Go ahead, you great bully.” She thrust out her chin, blew her hair out of her eyes. “Plant one now.”
    “I’d likely break my hand on that face of yours. However pretty it is, it’s stretched over a skull made of rock.”
    Then they were grinning at each other, and he was rubbing his hand over her face with what surely was as much affection as exasperation. Jude just kept staring as they got to their feet.
    “Put some clothes on, you shameless hussy, and get in to work.”
    Darcy pushed at her hair and didn’t seem in the least bothered by the recent tumble. “Jude, can I borrow the blue cashmere jumper?”
    “Um, yes, of course.”
    “Oh, you’re a sweetheart, you are.” She danced by, giving Jude a peck on the cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll tidy up what I can before I go.”
    “Oh, well, that’s all right. I’ll make coffee.”
    “That would be lovely. Tea even better if you have it.”
    “Coffee?” Aidan said when Darcy had sauntered out the door. “I think you owe me a cup at least.”
    “Owe you?”
    He stepped toward Jude. “That’s the second time you’ve distracted me in battle and caused me