‘I’m conserving my energy, Aisling, in order to keep up with the young ones.’
‘Fair play to you, Mr Moran.’
‘Call me Cathal, for goodness sake, Aisling.’
‘Sorry.’
‘You’re too polite for your own good, so you are.’ He grinned to soften his words before vanishing behind his paper once more. She took her cue to leave him to it and with a final tickle behind Tabitha’s ear ventured off to the kitchen to find Quinn.
He was sitting at the big family-sized pine table about to stuff a piece of the biscuit brownie in his gob. Spread out in front of him were the books from the bistro and he looked up with a sheepish grin when he saw Aisling in the doorway.
‘Caught me.’
‘I’m betting it’s not your first piece either.’ Her eyes flitted to where the tray was on top of the oven. The slab of the chocolate treat was missing quite a few pieces.
‘No comment. Can I tempt you?’ He gestured toward the oven and she frowned as her mouth watered at the thought of it. Quinn did not make her efforts to lose a few pounds before the fourteenth of February, easy.
She focussed on her dress and the need to be able to slide that zipper up and down with ease. ‘No, thanks. I won’t.
Quinn shovelled the brownie down as though frightened it might be taken off him. He wouldn’t it put it past her, she’d been kind of crazy lately in the build-up to this bloody wedding of theirs. He’d seen her checking out his middle the other day and did not want to find himself being ordered to do a crash course of the Weight Watchers. He pushed his chair back and patted his knee. She went and sat down slipping her arms around his neck.
‘I wanted to see you before tonight.’
‘Why do you look so worried?’
‘I don’t, do I?’
‘Yeah, you do and you know you don’t need to be. We’re going for a meal and a few drinks that’s it. There won’t be any strippers or that sort of carry on, you know that, not with Hugh having organised it. Ivo and Rowan were all for it but I put my foot down. It’s my stag night and that isn’t my bag. Besides, Dad would be mortified if anyone waggled any naked bits under his nose.’
The two middle brothers went up a notch in the eejit stakes. They were elevated from mere eejits to super eejits. Hugh however was allocated a halo.
‘I’m not worried, I trust you. I feel edgy, I suppose.’ Aisling paused, unsure how far she should go. Quinn had told her often enough that she had nothing to worry about where he was concerned, he loved her. She knew all this in the logical part of her brain but still there was this feeling she couldn’t shake that somehow things would go wrong. She decided not to put her fears into words. She didn’t want to put a dampener on his evening. She wanted him to enjoy himself tonight and not be worrying about his overly sensitive wife-to-be.
‘Do you know what I think your problem is,’ he said, nuzzling her neck.
‘Don’t do that, your mammy might walk in.’
He paused in his nuzzling. ‘You’re hungry, Ash. Have a piece of that brownie, it’ll sort you out so it will.’ He was teasing her.
‘Ah, ignore me and my moaning, I’m grand and I do not, read my lips, do not need the brownie.’
He looked sceptical but didn’t push matters. ‘And what about you, what’s Leila got planned for you? Is it the Chippendales you’ll be going to see or have those Riverdance fellows ventured into the murky waters of Irish dancing with nothing but a bow tie on to keep them warm?’
Aisling screwed her face up. ‘God Almighty, Quinn. That would give me nightmares so it would. All those high kicks, it doesn’t bear thinking about.’
He laughed.
‘So far as I know, Leila’s organised a few drinks at O’Mara’s with party games then we’ve a limousine picking us up to take us for a meal and onto a few pubs.’
‘Does the unsuspecting Dublin public know your mammy and Bronagh are being let loose on the town?’
Aisling elbowed him playfully, her mood lifting. It was one of the things she loved most about him, his ability to make her laugh. She kissed him full on the lips, suddenly uncaring if his mammy were to walk in on them. ‘I love you very much, Quinn Moran.’
‘And I love you, Aisling O’Mara.’
Chapter 16
Maureen could hear the phone ringing as she turned the key in her lock and she pushed the door open before stampeding over to answer it. She could murder a cup of tea but it would have to wait, she thought as Pooh managed to get caught up around her legs in his haste to get to the laundry. He was desperate to see what was on offer in his food bowl. Cursing, she let go of his leash and righted herself before she hit the deck. Thoroughly flustered, she grasped hold of the receiver and answered it with a breathy, ‘Hello.’
‘Hello there, yourself, Maureen. How’re you doing on this wet and wild afternoon?’
She smiled upon hearing the voice at the other end and forgot all about her coveted cup of tea and the high drama she’d had trying to get to the phone. She relieved herself of her rain jacket carrying it through to the laundry to hang up. ‘I’m very well, Donal. Thank you for asking.’ She was frozen to the bone after braving the elements on Howth Harbour but his cheery voice warmed her as much as the central heating would do. He brought out her generous side which was lucky for Pooh because she held the phone to her ear while scooping a load of dried
