“What a perfectly lovely subject to discuss at the dinner table.” Jen threw them both a cutting look, “And after Daniel’s gone to all this trouble for us too.”
“Oh, don’t mind me, Jen love, I’m used to it. Besides, that’s nothing compared to some of the things I’ve heard the boys talking about during a meal.”
“What I’d like to know,” Marie put in teasingly, “is what Shay was still doing on that yacht in the middle of the night, anyway. Conall neglected to explain that bit.”
Shay just eyed her archly.
“I’m sure he thought you could add two and two together well enough all by yourself, Sweetie.” Conall had skipped over that a little, as it happened. He’d also neglected to mention that all four of the students had been elsewhere at the time. “Let’s just say I overindulged in the wine and needed a little nap after such a stimulating evening, shall we?”
Liam chuckled. “I’ll buy that, as at least part of the story, anyway. Besides,” he told Marie smugly, “You missed something there. Conall said he went to the pub that night, right? So he’d have left at closing time, if not before. When have you ever known him to sleep in that late after such an early night?”
“Maybe I was tired.” Conall narrowed his eyes at them both. “I think I like it better when you two are so busy sickeningly mooning over each other that you don’t have time to notice what the rest of us may or may not be doing. I don’t like this unhealthy interest you seem to be taking in other people’s sex lives lately. Surely you’re not that bored with each other already?”
“Hmm, there’s a theory. Let’s see, shall we?”
“Oh, come on! Not at the table!” Mair protested as Liam leaned over to give his girlfriend a theatrically enthusiastic kiss.
“Nope, still not bored.” Liam grinned, straightening up again and returning his attention to his food whilst Marie just eyed them all smugly. Still, at least they both dropped the nosy teasing after that.
The rest of the meal passed very pleasantly and was devoured with unflagging enthusiasm. When the Keanes mentioned their plans for a little diving break in the islands in May or June, Liam signed up for it enthusiastically, but none of the girls seemed interested.
“You can make it a boys’ break and do all that energetic running around without us,” Jen told them. Mair and Marie seemed equally uninterested.
“If I wanted that good a chance of a chilly, wet holiday, I might as well just go home for a few days,” Mair complained. “Maybe we girls should book ourselves something a little more tempting. What do you think, ladies?”
After that, two entirely separate conversations continued all through the main course in a cheerful babble of anticipatory excitement.
“We’ll see to the clearing up, Da,” Conall offered when dessert had also been demolished. “You’ve done more than your share already.” He’d noticed that his father had limited himself to a modest serving of wine and figured that meant he was planning to go out. Again!
“Thanks, son.” Daniel checked his watch. “I should get moving anyway, or we’ll miss the start of the film.”
“Cinema tonight, is it?” Shay asked, interestedly. “Let me know if it’s any good.”
“Sure I will,” Daniel promised him. “Goodnight, kids, don’t wait up.”
Liam grinned as the sound of Daniel’s car starting up reached them a few minutes later.
“Lord! I doubt that man knows what a dry spell even is! Who’s the lucky lady tonight?”
Conall just shrugged. “Who’s keeping track? Come on, shift yourself.”
His cousin was already at the double sink, tap running. Shay preferred to wash, rinse and stack the old fashioned way, which he insisted was quicker, cleaner and more hygienic than fitting a dishwasher. Neither his uncle nor his cousin had any argument with that. None of them had ever used one and didn’t see any reason to change now.
Back in the living room, glasses refreshed and coffees to hand, Liam and Marie started up an animated discussion with Shay on the subject of underwater explorations, pestering him for a detailed breakdown of the equipment the yacht had been carrying and how much all of that would cost to put together. They were the only two of the gang who’d been truly bitten by the archaeology bug, despite the fact that all of them had spent so much of their early childhood summers at one dig or another.
Leaving them to it, the other three settled down to play a few competitive rounds of gin rummy, with drinking penalties for the losers at the end of each hand. After a while, Shay wandered over to watch, leaving Liam and Marie still talking animatedly on the window seat. He behaved himself and refrained from commenting or making disgusted little noises every time someone threw away the wrong card. Even if he’d wanted to play, they wouldn’t have let him. That memory of his gave him far too much of an edge when it came to card games.
Mair declared she’d had enough after that and got up to move over to where Shay was leaning over the couch, quietly watching them all. The next time Conall looked around, both Mair and his cousin had discreetly disappeared, as everyone
