Bassist Instinct (The Rocker Series #2) (6 page)

“I’ll need a little more fortification for that, I think,” she said with a smile and Tate leaned over and filled her glass with the delicious wine. She gave him another look that made him smile and want to kiss her.

“Then you’d be the only one, this room is full of egos dying to play for you,” Amelia said with a charming grin that seemed to take the edge off the insult. Connor laughed.

“And Ryan’s not even back down yet,” he said and Amelia gave him the grin again.

“After dinner, then,” Tate said, it wasn’t a question.

“Shall I fetch my pipes?” Alasdair asked teasingly.

“Oh God, Lally, no!” Tess said and he reached over and squeezed her hand.

“Only
you
could get away with that, my dear,” he said fondly to his granddaughter.

“I wouldn’t mind hearing them, Alasdair,” Fiona said.

“I’ll need a wee bit more fortification, too,” he said and they laughed.

“Who’s your favorite rock band, then?” Tate asked. He studied her features.

“Favorite rock band? Probably The Beatles,” she said smiling at him.

“You do know they broke up, aye?” He said and she laughed.

“Oh no!” She brought the back of her hand to her forehead and he grinned at her.

Ryan and Christie came down just as the caterers were setting up. Christie had a raw patch of beard burn on her throat from her husband’s attentions, and they both looked flushed and happy. Connor and Tate rolled their eyes at each other knowing exactly what they had been up to, having seen it a hundred times before. Amelia announced dinner was served and everyone went into the dining room.

The table looked as if Martha Stewart herself set it up. There were several cornucopias set up along the long table, spilling exotic gourds and fruit, tall candles on ruthlessly polished silver candlesticks, small candles floating in shallow bowls of water, and copper and red chrysanthemums everywhere.

They ate a superb dinner, served and cleaned up by the caterers. Tate hadn’t taken his eyes from Fiona the whole meal, and everyone noticed. He had moved the place cards so that he sat next to her and made every effort to touch her, inciting shivers from her again and again. He was encouraged by them and found himself extremely turned on by the obvious effect he had on her. She flushed when their gazes met, and Tate was completely charmed by it, and by her.

“Give us your phone number,” he whispered into her ear. The heat of his breath on her neck nearly undid her, and she blushed crimson at the lust that swept through her. She tried to ignore him, but she couldn’t help it, she was definitely aroused by him and he took up most of her attention. The second time he asked for it she wrote a number out on the tablecloth between them with her finger. He literally bounced in his seat with excitement and Fiona laughed out loud.

“I missed half of that, do it again, love,” Tate said and Fiona just smiled at him. “Don’t tease me, love.” All that got him was another smile.

Tess watched Fiona and Tate interact and hoped she hadn’t made a mistake in setting them up, but Fiona needed to be nudged a little, she needed to feel beautiful, and nobody did that as well as Tate did. Fiona was beautiful, inside and out. Her shiny black hair fell to her mid back and curled slightly around the bottoms of her shoulder blades. She had delicate features; a narrow nose, giant blue eyes, and full lips, which Tate seemed to be completely absorbed by if his intent looks were any indication.

Tess loved the fact that Tate appreciated beauty in every form. Tess had always noticed things about people, and one of the first things she noticed about Tate when she met him was that he loved women and women loved him. He was eager to please, and easily pleased, and right now he was staggering toward rapture if Tess didn’t misunderstand that look. Looking around the table she noticed her grandfather scrutinizing her. She smiled at him and he lifted his rather formidable brow at her. Lally was the hardest person to read, he always had been, but she had the impression that he knew exactly what she was up to, and he approved. She looked at Xav. Xav had always been the easiest person for her to read, but she’d known him all his life. He winked at her.

Connor was rubbing off on them all, she’d never met anyone who winked as much as Connor did. Maybe it was just that he joked around so much, life was pure pleasure for that man, and for her mom, now that he was with her. They were all lucky to have the rock band in their lives.

“How’s Razz?” She asked thinking of the missing band member.

“He’s grand, he’ll be in New York for the…interview thing,” Tate said, suddenly evasive. “Mary’s pregnant again.”

“Cool!”

“Will Mary come to New York?” Genna asked.

“Not bloody likely, she has the girls to mind. She’s not keen on traveling, and for the first time she’s not loving being pregnant, I think that means it’s a boy this time,” Tate said.

“Aren’t you the scientist, then,” Christie said and they laughed.

“Are you all going to New York?” Tess asked.

“I was going to fly back home with the boys. I’ve been away for a long time. I miss my animals,” Genna said.

“I’m going,” Christie said and no one was surprised. Christie and Ryan barely separated for anything.

“I miss you already,” Tess said with a beautiful pout.

“When are you due, Genna?” Fiona asked.

“March,” she said and Fiona saw Connor squeeze her hand.

“Do you know the gender?”

“Yes, my doc says it’s either a girl or an extremely shy boy,” Genna said smiling.

“And since we’re
fairly
certain I’m the father,” Connor said to general laughter. “She’s a girl, there’s no shy gene in me.” He was grinning ear to ear.

“Heaven help you, my dear,” Amelia said to Genna and everyone laughed. “I’m so pleased to see you are enjoying my mother’s pearls, my dear.” She gestured to the long string of pearls around Genna’s throat. Connor choked on his wine, swallowed and coughed a few times very loudly. Genna bit her lip and looked at her husband.

“I love these pearls, Mum,” she said and laid her hand on Connor’s back. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips quickly and then beamed at Amelia.

“As do I,” he said hoarsely. Amelia was immediately suspicious and she narrowed her eyes at them both.

“Amelia, this is truly delicious,” Xav said to the agreement of the table. “Great American cuisine. But let’s discuss Irish cuisine for a moment.” His slow smile made its way around the table and Genna leaned up against Connor to enjoy whatever was coming.

“Are you going to say that’s an oxymoron, lad?” Ryan said giving him a look that said “Tread carefully.”

“No, not at all, but since you mention it…” A roll flew past Xav’s head and was caught by Edgar who glanced at Amelia to gauge whether or not to throw it back at Ryan. Nope, he put it next to his plate and she smiled at him. Only Piper’s mother could frighten the ex-army ranger with nothing in her arsenal but eye contact. Piper took Edgar’s hand for reassurance and he grinned at her and offered her the roll. She shook her head and he sank his teeth into it lustily.

“When we go to Dublin we eat really well,” Xav continued. “Every version of Dublin coddle is delicious, but hey, anything with bacon
and
sausage has got to be good, right?”

“Hear, hear,” Tess said and Xav nodded at her.

“Where are you headed with this?” Ryan asked suspiciously. Xav was clearly setting something up and Ryan knew it. There were already smiles around the table anticipating Xav’s punch line.

“I was heading toward stew, actually, Ryan. No one makes stew as well as the Irish in my estimation,” he said.

“You need to spend more time in Scotland, my lad,” Lally said.

“Haggis, Lally. That’s all anyone needs to say on the subject of food in Scotland,” Xav said and everybody laughed, but no one more than Alasdair.

“We brew a fine cup of tea,” Lally said, almost to himself.

“Irish stew, yessiree. Lamb stew, bean stew, beef stew…” Xav continued.

“Bean stew? Irish bean stew? Are you mad? When we were growing up,” Ryan pointed at Connor who nodded, grinning. “It was cabbage stew, and you’d be lucky to find a bean within a block of it,” Ryan said setting him up nicely.

“Aye, the cabbage was bad enough,” Connor said to more laughter.

Xav raised his index finger professorially to get the attention of the table back to him.

“As it happens, there is a very precise recipe for Irish bean stew, you know? Did you know that there are exactly 239 beans in Irish bean stew, and do you know why?”

He had the attention of the entire table, and Tess, who knew where this was going, hid her mouth behind her hand as she watched Ryan, because really the joke was for Ryan.

“Enlighten us, why don’t you, lad?” He said.

“Because Ryan, just one more bean, one single bean, and the stew would be too farty.” The Americans giggled but the Irish faces were unmoved. This made the Americans laugh even harder, and then Alasdair hooted, which brought the house down.

Even the caterers were laughing.

Amelia, who had her fill of bodily function jokes decades ago, signaled for the coffee and tea to be started, and the caterers wiped the tears from their eyes and escaped. They could hear the laughter from the kitchen. Ryan pretended to stand up and Xav nearly killed himself trying to escape the table.

“Is it stand-up comedy you’re going to do when you grow up, mate? You’ve a way with it,” Tate said.

“No, I want to be a rock star,” he said to more laughter.

“Good luck with that,” Ryan said.

“He’s always been funny,” Tess said. “Otherwise we’d have ditched him long ago.” She smiled at her brother.

“Rick would do that, too,” Piper said. “That man was funny. Mostly because he was very quietly observing, and then he’d come up with a gem when no one expected it.” She looked at her sister, wondering if she had stepped over the line bringing up Genna’s dead husband, but she was smiling. Genna leaned back up against Connor and he put his hand on her thigh and gently squeezed.

For Fiona’s sake Genna elaborated. “Rick was my first husband, he was Tess’s and Xav’s father, he died a few years ago,” she said. “Xavier has his delightful sense of humor, although I’m not sure I remember Rick ever making fart jokes at the table.” Genna’s eyebrow went up at her son. Fiona loved how Genna said the name Xavier in the French pronunciation.

“You laughed as hard as anybody else, Mom,” Xav said with a playful grin. “And so did the nutmeg, I could see her bouncing around in there.” Genna put her hand on her abdomen and nodded.

“She’s still laughing,” she said. Alex came over and put his hand on Genna’s belly. She took it and placed it right on the spot where little feet were drumming out a tattoo. His eyes went wide and his mouth made a small delighted O. Tess came over to her, too.

“She wasn’t kicking yet when I left home,” she put her hand on Genna’s belly and laughed. “This is so cool.”

“She was just fluttering, now she’s got a soccer ball or something in there with her,” Genna said chuckling.

“Football,” Connor, Tate, and Ryan said at the same time.

“She’s strong already,” Alex said and looked at Tate. “Razz could learn a thing or two from her.” Tate laughed.

“Razz plays drums,” Tate explained to Fiona who smiled and he just about herniated himself keeping from kissing those lips of hers. Instead his hand went to her back and he ran his fingers through her glossy hair and heard her breathing change and saw her eyes darken. He knew the same thing was happening to him, and he was having the time of his life making her feel the thrill.

“You never told us how you found Paris, darling,” Amelia said to Genna.

“It was right where they left it, Amelia,” Xav said with a straight face. There were a few chuckles and an amused glare from his grandmother.

“It was lovely,” Genna said looking at Connor adoringly. He smiled at her and took over.

“We had a grand time, we ate like kings, got all our Christmas shopping done,” he said and Genna interrupted.

“Everyone’s getting a little statue of the Eiffel Tower that we got for one Euro each outside the Louvre,” Connor smiled at her.

“Yes!” Xav and Alex said at the same time reaching across the table to touch knuckles.

“What did you do while you were there? You seem remarkably unwilling to talk about it.” Amelia persisted.

“Well, we walked a lot, the weather was very fine. Everyone exclaims about Paris in the spring, but I much prefer the fall, there were no tourists. I did the business I had to take care of there, the board of governor’s dinner, and the book release, we went to the Louvre and the d’Orsay, we walked the Champs Elysees, and…”

“Amelia, if you must know, we only left the hotel room twice,” Connor leaned over and kissed his wife as she blushed crimson.

“Lalalala,” Xav shouted while covering his ears.

“That’s kind of an exaggeration…” Genna said.

“Let’s have the pie,” Amelia changed the subject, and the caterers cleared the table and brought in the pies, coffee and tea. Genna spent that morning making the cranapple pies that were a family favorite.

“On the last day of classes before the break I caught Tess daydreaming and she said she was thinking of pie. Now I completely understand,” Fiona said and smiled at Tess.

“I know, right? I spend a lot of time thinking about Mom’s pie,” Tess said. “And her burritos, and her enchiladas and standing rib roast.” Tess was going into rapture, it was clear she was tired of making her own food.

“Don’t forget her cheesy egg breakfast,” Xav added and Tess smiled, she loved the cheesy egg thing.

“She makes great brownies, too,” Alex said grinning.

“I’m overwhelmed, kids,” Genna said with a pretty blush. “Are you getting tired of ramen, Tess? She asked and Tess laughed.

“Yup,” she said. “I’m pretty much a vegetarian until I go home or I come here for dinner.”

“Well, then I hope you’re eating plenty of bean stew,” Genna said and they laughed. “For the protein, of course.”

“Mom,” Xav sounded appalled. “At the table?” Genna laughed.

“Geneva, your pies
are
simply divine,” Amelia said, desperate to change the subject once again. Fiona made the cognitive leap, and realized just who Genna was.