The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

and a schedule, and while I would have figured in some shopping time for mementoes, that would have been at the bottom of the list.”
    “So you just turned the list around, didn’t you?” Darcy offered the waiter another beaming smile when he served their drinks.
    “Everything’s turned around. Wait.” She gripped Brenna’s wrist before she could lift her pint.
    “Jude, my throat’s dry as an eighty-year-old virgin. Have pity.”
    “I just want to say that I’ve never had friends like you.”
    “Sure and there aren’t any the likes of us.” Brenna winked, then rolled her eyes as Jude held her wrist down.
    “No, I mean . . . I’ve never had any really close women friends that I could have ridiculous conversations about sex with, or share pizza with, or who help me pick out black lace underwear.”
    “Oh, God, don’t go misty now, there’s a good girl, Jude.” A little desperate, Brenna turned her hand over topat Jude’s. “I have sympathetic tear ducts, and no control over them.”
    “Sorry.” But it was too late. Her eyes were already filled and shimmering. “I’m just so happy.”
    “There now.” Sniffling herself, Darcy passed out paper napkins. “We’re happy, too. To friendship, then.”
    “Yes, to friendship.” Jude let out an unsteady sigh as glasses clinked. “Slainte.”
     
    She saw some of Dublin after all as they walked off the pizza. Jude finally dug out her camera and delighted herself with shots of the graceful arch of bridges over the grand River Liffey, and the charm of the shady greens, the lush baskets of flowers decking the pubs.
    She watched a street artist paint a sunrise over the sea, then on impulse bought it for Aidan.
    She had Brenna and Darcy pose a dozen times and bribed them with eclairs from a sweet shop to explore just a bit longer.
    Even when they trudged back to the car park, her energy level was high. She thought she could go on endlessly. When they drove away from Dublin the western sky was splashed with the colors of sunset that seemed to last forever in the long spring evening.
    And the moon rose as they approached Ardmore, to sprinkle the fields with light and to spread white swords over the sea.
    Even after she’d dropped her friends at home and helped Darcy cart in her packages, she wasn’t tired. She almost danced into her cottage and, hauling her own bags upstairs, called out cheerfully.
    “I’m back, and I had a wonderful time.”
    She wasn’t planning on having it end. Her toughestdecision, she thought, would be to choose just what to wear under her new silk blouse.
    She was going to extend the evening with a visit to Gallagher’s before closing. To flirt openly and outrageously with Aidan.

FOURTEEN
    H E WAS SWAMPED . There’d been a step-dance exhibition at the school that evening, and it seemed half the village had decided to drop into Gallagher’s afterward to hoist a pint. Several of the young girls had changed back into their dancing shoes to reprise the show for his customers.
    It made for a happy sound, and a full pub.
    He was pulling pints with both hands, holding three conversations at once and manning the till. He wanted to shoot himself for giving Darcy the day off.
    Shawn slipped in and out of the kitchen as time allowed and lent a hand at the bar and with the serving. But he’d get caught up in the dancing and forget to come back as often as not.
    “It’s not a bleeding party,” Aidan reminded him, again, when Shawn strolled back behind the bar.
    “Sure it sounds like one to me. Everyone’s happy enough.” Shawn nodded to the crowd that circled threedancers. “The Duffy girl’s the best of the lot, to my thinking. She’s got a way with her.”
    “Leave off watching them, would you, and get down to the other end of the bar.”
    The abrupt tone only made Shawn smile. “Missing your lady, are you? Can’t blame you for it. She’s a sweetheart.”
    Aidan sighed and passed brimming glasses into eager hands. “I haven’t time to miss anything when I’m up to my ass in beer.”
    “Well, then, that’s a pity, as she just walked in and looking fresh and pretty as a dewdrop despite the hour,” Shawn added when Aidan’s head whipped around.
    He’d tried not to think of her. In fact, he’d made a concerted effort on it, mostly to see if he could manage it. He’d done fairly well, only finding himself distracted by thoughts of her a couple dozen times that day.
    Now here she was, with her hair bound back