The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

time.”
     
    “You’ve been run off your feet,” Aidan said when he closed the door behind the last straggler. “Sit down now, Jude, and I’ll get you a glass of wine.”
    “I wouldn’t mind it.” She had to admit it had been work.Delightful but exhausting. Her arms ached from carting heavy trays. It was no wonder, she decided, that Darcy’s arms were so beautifully toned.
    And her feet, it didn’t bear thinking about how much her feet were throbbing.
    She sank onto a stool, rolled her shoulders.
    In the kitchen Shawn was cleaning up and singing about a wild colonial boy. The air was blue with smoke, and ripe still with the smells of beer and whiskey.
    She found it all very homey.
    “If you decide to give up psychology,” Aidan said as he set a glass in front of her. “I’m hiring.”
    Nothing he said could have pleased her more. “I did all right, didn’t I?”
    “You did brilliantly.” He took her hand, kissed it. “Thanks.”
    “I liked it. I haven’t given that many parties. They make me so nervous. The planning keeps me in a constant state of anxiety. Then the hostessing, making sure everything’s running smoothly. This was like giving a party without all the nerves. And . . .” She jingled the coins in her apron pocket. “I got paid.”
    “Now you can sit and tell me about your day in Dublin while I clean up here.”
    “I’ll tell you about it while I help you clean up.”
    He decided not to risk her good mood by arguing again, but intended to have her do nothing more complex than clearing empties and setting them on the bar. But she was quicker than he’d thought and had her sleeves rolled up while he was still dealing with behind-the-bar work and the till.
    With a pail and a rag she’d gotten from Shawn, she began to mop down the tables.
    He listened to her, the way her voice flowed up and downas she described what she’d seen and what she’d done that day. The words weren’t so important, Aidan thought. It was just so soothing to listen to her.
    She seemed to bring such blessed quiet with her wherever she went.
    He started on the floors, working around and with her. It was amazing, he mused, how smoothly she slid into his rhythm. Or was he sliding into hers? He couldn’t tell. But it seemed so natural, the way she clicked into his place, his world. His life, for that matter.
    He’d never pictured her carting trays or making change. Of course it wasn’t what she was meant for, but she’d done it well. A lark for her, he supposed. She certainly wasn’t fashioned to be wiping up spilled beer every night. But she did so with such practical ease he had an urge to cuddle her.
    When he followed it, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her back against him, she settled right in.
    “This is nice,” she murmured.
    “It is, yes. Though I’m keeping you up late doing dirty work.”
    “I like it. Now that everything’s quiet, and everyone’s gone home to bed, I can think about what Kathy Duffy said to me, or the joke Douglas O’Brian told, and listen to Shawn singing in the kitchen. In Chicago I’d be sleeping by now, after finishing papers and reading a chapter of a good book that received bright literary reviews.”
    She closed her hands over his, relaxed. “This is much better.”
    “And when you go back . . .” He laid his cheek on the top of her head. “Will you find a neighborhood pub and spend an evening or two there instead?”
    The thought of it brought a dark, thick wall shuttering down on her future. “I have lots of time before that’s anissue. I’m enjoying learning to go day by day.”
    “And night by night.” He turned her, glided her into a waltz that followed the tune Shawn was singing.
    “Night by night. I’m a terrible dancer.”
    “But you’re not.” Hesitant was what she was, and not yet sure of herself. “I watched you dance with Shawn, then kiss him in front of God and country.”
    “He said it would make you boil with jealousy.”
    “So it might have if I didn’t know I could beat him senseless if need be.”
    She laughed, loving the way the room revolved as he circled her. “I kissed him because he’s pretty and he asked me. You’re pretty, too. I might kiss you if you asked me.”
    “Since you’re so free with your kisses, let me have one.”
    To tease—and wasn’t it wonderful she’d discovered she could tease a man—she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. Then placed another, just as soft, on his other