The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

take, to taste. It was her he wanted. Her he reached for. She was the one who made his heart thunder.
    It was, she realized, the truest power in the world.
    The door opened, slammed. Jude kept her mouth fused to his. She didn’t care if every man, woman, and child in the village trooped in.
    “Jesus Mary and holy Joseph,” Brenna complained. “Can’t the pair of you think of something else to do? Everytime a body turns around, you two are locked at the lip.”
    “She’s just jealous,” Jude said, nuzzling at Aidan’s neck.
    “I’ve better things to be jealous of than some softheaded woman kissing a Gallagher.”
    “She must be mad at Shawn again.” Aidan buried his face in Jude’s hair. He wasn’t sure he was breathing. He knew he didn’t want to move for another ten years or so.
    “Men are all boneheads, and your worthless brother’s bonier than most.”
    “Oh, leave off complaining about Shawn,” Darcy ordered as she breezed in. “What happened in here? The place is full of feathers. Jude, let go of that man, you have to get dressed, don’t you? And so do I. Aidan, get out there and help Shawn with the kegs. You can’t be expecting him to deal with all that himself.”
    Aidan merely turned his head to lay his cheek on Jude’s hair. The look on his face gave his sister such a jolt, she stared a full ten seconds, then began to shove Brenna toward the kitchen. “We’ll just put these dishes in the kitchen and fetch a broom.”
    “Stop pushing. Bloody hell, I’ve had it to the ears with Gallaghers for the day.”
    “Quiet, quiet. I have to think.” Flustered, Darcy dropped the dishes she carried onto the counter and paced. “He’s in love with her.”
    “Who?”
    “Aidan, with Jude.”
    “Well for pity sake, Darcy, so you already thought. Isn’t that why we’re fussing here for a ceili ?”
    “But he’s really in love with her. Didn’t you see his face? I think I should sit down.” She did so abruptly, then blew out a breath. “I didn’t realize, not really. It was all more of a kind of game. But just now, when he was holdingher. I never thought to see him look like that, Brenna. A man looks like that over a woman, she could hurt him, slice right into the heart.”
    “Jude wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
    “She wouldn’t mean to.” Darcy’s stomach was fluttering with worry. Aidan was her rock, and she’d never thought to see him defenseless. “I’m sure she cares for him, too, and she’s all caught up in the romance of it.”
    “Then what would the problem be? It’s just as we said.”
    “No, it’s nothing of what we said.” Hadn’t she avoided the desperation of love long enough to recognize it when it bashed her own brother on top of the head? “Brenna, she’s got that fancy education with initials after her name, and a life in Chicago. Her family is there, and her work, and her fine home. Aidan’s life is here.” Genuine distress poured out of her heart and into her eyes. “Don’t you see? How can he go, and why would she stay? What was I thinking, putting them together like this?”
    “You didn’t put them together. They were together.” Because what Darcy was saying was beginning to trouble her as well, Brenna got out the broom. She thought better when her hands were busy. “Whatever happens happens. We’ve done nothing more than push her into giving a party.”
    “On the solstice,” Darcy reminded her. “Midsummer’s Eve. We’re tempting the fates, and if it blows wrong, we’re to blame.”
    “If we’ve tempted the fates, then it’s up to the fates. There’s nothing else to be done,” Brenna announced and began to sweep.
     
    Jude decided on the blue dress, another Dublin acquisition she’d never have bought if Darcy hadn’t badgered her. Theminute she slipped it on, she blessed Darcy and her own lack of will.
    It was a long sweep of a dress, very simple, without a frill or a flounce as it dropped square at the bodice from thin straps and fell with just the most subtle of flares to the ankles. The color, a silvery blue, echoed the hue of midsummer moonlight. She wore small pearl drops at her ears. More moon symbols, she thought.
    She very much wanted to take the rest of Mollie’s advice and dance with Aidan under the glow of the full moon.
    But on this, the longest day of the year, just as evening drifted in, the sky remained light and lovely. Color shimmered outside the cottage window, blues and greens achingly vivid. The air seemed