“Paid for it?”
“Yeah. Kelli charged him a quarter when we were in fifth grade.”
Patrick chuckled. Kelli Peterson had been Padraig’s best friend since elementary school, the girl a familiar face at Tris and Lane’s home and even here at the pub. “Is that right?”
“Yeah. She charged a couple other guys too.”
“Quite the enterprising young lady. Am I to assume you didn’t pay for the same?”
“Pop Pop,” Colm said with a cocky grin. “First of all, it was Kelli. Gross.”
Patrick had always found it interesting how very different Colm was from his brother. While Kelli and Padraig were truly the best of friends, Colm seemed to view the same girl with genuine disdain. He’d always wondered if those feelings were based on personality differences or if Colm felt jealousy toward Kelli, unhappy about sharing his twin brother.
“And secondly,” Colm continued. “The ladies should be paying me to kiss them.”
Patrick hid his mouth behind his hand. It wouldn’t help Tris and Lane’s cause if he laughed, though he was thoroughly amused by Colm’s cockiness. The boy wasn’t lacking when it came to confidence. “So no long-term girlfriends for you?”
“Nope. I’m free as a bird and plan to stay that way.” Colm leaned back, slouching slightly in the booth, assuming a look that couldn’t be called anything other than pure teenage male confidence. If Colm was walking right now, he’d be swaggering. Patrick was familiar with the look because he’d seen the exact same thing in Colm’s father, Tris, when he was young.
Glancing toward the bar, Patrick wondered if Tris realized how close this apple had fallen to the tree. Lane had suggested more than a few times that Colm and Tris butted heads as often as they did because they were birds of a feather.
“Free as a bird, eh?” Patrick repeated. “Well, then your name certainly fits you.”
Colm rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’m a freaking dove. You know how lame that is, right?”
Patrick had gotten into the habit of telling his young grandchildren the meanings of their names, sharing stories of past namesakes who’d gone on to do incredible things. Colm had been incredibly unimpressed by the meaning of his name, and even less enthusiastic by the story of the namesake, St. Columba, whose monks created The Book of Kells.
“The dove represents peace, Colm. That’s a wonderful thing.”
Colm, who’d been in the process of pulling a notebook out of his backpack, paused. “Lochlan gets Viking. Finn gets warrior, and I get peace. Lame,” he repeated.
Patrick chuckled, aware that in this instance, he didn’t have a leg to stand on. “Your mother found the name in a baby book. Be grateful she went for Colm rather than her first choice.”
Colm frowned. “What was her first choice?”
“Peter. She thought Padraig and Peter sounded cute together. Your father put his foot down.”
Colm appeared surprised. “I never knew that. What does Peter mean?”
“Stone.”
“I’ll take the dove.”
Patrick nodded. “Wise choice.” They fell silent for a few minutes as Colm opened his notebook, then reached back into his backpack for a textbook. While Patrick knew Padraig didn’t have much homework, he was certain the same wasn’t true for Colm, who was taking all honors classes, unlike his twin, who viewed high school as something he simply had to tolerate for four years.
“What are you working on?”
Colm wrinkled his nose. “Romeo and Juliet. Dumbest play in history.”
“You’re starting to hurt my soul, lad. That’s a very romantic story.”
“Romantic? Um. Did you read all the way to the end? Spoiler alert, Pop Pop. They both die.”
Patrick grinned. “Maybe so, but I’ve always liked the true love aspect.”
Colm was too polite to roll his eyes at Patrick, though his expression said that was exactly what he wanted to do. “They fell in love in a hot minute. That’s not real life.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong, my boy. That’s exactly how it happened for me and Sunday. She was singing at the bar, and I knew—all the way to my bones—that she was the one for me.”
Colm studied his face intently, then shook his head slowly. “I don’t think that’s when you fell in love. It doesn’t work that way.”
Patrick smiled and considered that. Whenever he told the story of the night he first met Sunday, he always proclaimed it was love at first sight. But when he really thought about it, it was an entire series of moments that came to mind, all of them building on each other.
“Well now. Perhaps you might be right about that.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Now that I think about it, I fell for her more slowly than I first thought. There was an instant attraction, of course, but the love grew as we got to know each other better, as we shared our hopes and dreams for the future and realized we were both walking in the same direction. You know, love has a way of sneaking up on a person, showing up at the most unexpected times. One look, one word, one random moment in time and then…it’s just…click. The light flips on and even the darkest of hearts is filled with bright, radiant light.”
“Just click?” Colm didn’t seem convinced, but he was definitely listening.
And interested.
“Just click. And when it happens, it’s magic.”
Colm was quiet for a moment, and then his all-too-familiar lopsided grin emerged. “This is exactly what I’m talking about, Pop Pop. This is where Paddy gets all his ideas about love.”
Patrick shrugged. “Guilty as charged, I suppose.”
“Bad influence,” Colm muttered, but Patrick saw the slightest flicker of something in his grandson’s face, and he recognized it instantly.
Colm wanted the click.
Chapter One
Colm tossed back the rest of his Guinness, then glanced down toward the end of the bar at Pat’s Pub. It was only Wednesday and he’d already had a bear of a week. As a lawyer who specialized in family law, he’d seen more than
