Beers, Hens, and Irishmen (Warbler's Point Series) (33 page)

             
Fiona took Blaire over to Murphy’s shop, even though Booker tried to convince her to get gear somewhere else. Fiona set Blaire up with some winter gear and skis, courtesy of Booker. Fiona still was in the dark when it came to what Booker’s occupation was. All she knew was that he had an immense amount of money and a lot of connections. Whenever she tried to breach the subject he always changed the conversation or straight up told her he didn’t want to talk about it, telling her not to worry. Well she was worrying. She started to get nervous that he was possibly involved in some kind of underground drug dealing. She brought the topic up to Blaire yesterday and she just laughed at her. Not very re-assuring.

             
Fiona scanned the room again and saw her parents at the end of the table holding hands and engaging in their own conversation, she was impressed with them the most when it came to her relationship with Booker. They had welcomed him into the family more than Murphy, which shocked the hell out of her since Murphy was the perfect Irishman to court their daughter. The only thing her ma was nervous about was Booker’s name. She just kept asking, “What kind of name is Booker? Why would a parent do that to their child? He needs a good Irish name like…Seamus.” Fiona just shrugged her shoulders and changed the subject. If that was the only qualm her ma had with her boyfriend than she was extremely happy.

             
She noticed Bradon was in the back arguing with his date, she wondered if the family drama was about to start. There was never a dull moment at an O’Leary family holiday. Somehow the boys always ended up brawling and Fiona was left making ice packs in the kitchen with her ma for her idiotic brothers. She wondered why her brothers still looked normal after all the punches they had endured from each other. She was surprised none of them had a crooked nose or an eyeball out of its socket. It must be those strong Irish bones they inherited.

             
There was a loud slap that echoed across the pub followed by Bradon’s little prissy girl storming off. Fiona surprisingly wasn’t shocked. Bradon got slapped at least once on a weekly basis. He could be such a pig. He shrugged off the slap and sat next to Fiona and Tipper. Tipper wasn’t talking much, she was enjoying the sour cream apple pie Mary Margaret was famous for.

             
“Stuffing your face again I see.” Bradon said while nodding toward Tipper.

             
Tipper looked up at him with a mouth full of pie, she chewed it quickly and swallowed. “I see that hooker over there finally realized you are cheap and was only going to pay for a partial blow job when you wanted the full, ball cupping included.”

             
“You would know how painful that kind of loss of money is since you used to hook the streets all the time.” Bradon countered.

             
Ugh, “Here we go” Fiona thought. Bradon and Tipper were like water and oil, they didn’t mix well together and no one even tried to get them to like each other. She should have seen this coming, whenever they were in the same room they always ended up fighting.

             
“Have you gotten checked for STD’s this week? Lord knows you probably contracted about five different types just looking at that hooker.”

             
Bradon leaned forward and snagged the crust of her pie, making Tipper gasp. “I can’t believe out of everyone, you are jealous that I was here with a hot chick. I thought you got over that crush you had for me years ago.”

             
Tipper guffawed. “In your dreams man-whore. First off, never in my life have I ever had a crush on you. Secondly, I would never be jealous of a girl being with you because frankly I don’t prefer pencil dicks.”

             
Fiona chuckled after that comment, Bradon fumed. “You want me to whip it out right now.”

             
“Spare us your embarrassment.” Tipper said while waving him off.

             
Bradon went over to Tipper and stood right in front of her, setting her off her game slightly, Fiona could see it in her eyes. Bradon grabbed her hand and pushed it against his crotch. Tipper ripped her hand away from him as if he just stuck her hand in a bucket full of acid.

             
“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” She asked.

             
“Showing you what a real man is actually like since you’ve never been with one.” Tipper was about to say something when he cut her off. “That twig and berries, Neal, doesn’t count. We all saw him in the locker room, he wasn’t packing anything special. Just admit it, you have never been with a man because no one good enough want’s to touch you with a ten foot pole.”

             
Ouch, Bradon went a little far that time. Bradon and Tipper never got along and always fought whenever they were around each other, but Bradon was being a little crueler than usual. Maybe the idea that he actually wasn’t going to get any tonight since his date walked out on him was finally starting to settle and he was taking it out on Tipper.

             
“Is that right?” Tipper asked as she tossed her napkin on her plate and stood up next to Bradon, only centimeters separating them. “That’s not what you were thinking at Halloween. According to everyone at the party, I was your bang of choice. And if no man would ever touch me with a ten foot pole, according to your equation, that would make you…a boy.” She flicked his crotch with her fingers causing him to bend over slightly in pain. She turned to Fiona’s parents and said, “Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary, thank you so much for having me over, it’s been lovely.”

             
“Lassie, tis’ always a  divine pleasure when ye around.”

             
“Thank you.” She turned to Bradon studying him as he caught his breath from being whacked in his most private of areas. “Don’t mess with me O’Leary.” With that she gave Fiona a hug good bye and left. Fiona wondered if Tipper and Bradon would ever get along.

             
Frankly the thought slipped her mind as her sexy blonde hunk walked toward her. He leaned down and planted a long and very intimate kiss on her mouth causing her toes to curl.

             
When he pulled away he said, “Hey gorgeous. I feel like I haven’t seen you all night.”

             
“I know. You’ve been ignoring me the whole time we’ve been here.” She chased her comment with a pout of her lips.

             
He sat down next to her and pulled her on his lap. “Believe me, I haven’t been ignoring you. You have been on my mind all night, especially in that low cut shirt.”

             
Fiona looked down at her shirt that she thought was a respectable cowl neck but was shocked to see the neckline slipped down throughout the night and now gave everyone at dinner a delightful display of her cleavage. She quickly fixed her shirt as she felt her face turn red.

             
“Damn you are so cute.” She knew he was thinking that because he could see her red blush taking claim on her cheeks.

             
She patted her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Ugh, I hate my damn cheeks.”

             
He pulled her hands away. “I love them.” He kissed her lightly on the lips as he massaged her thigh with his big hand. Her whole body turned into molten lava, she needed to get everyone out of the pub…now.

             
She stood up and announced she was tired and unless everyone wanted to clean up the mess by themselves they better hurry up and help clean and then leave. She was pretty sure her family got the point she was trying to make because half an hour later she was saying good bye to everyone. Finn and Blaire were going to Blaire’s cabin tonight so they were heading out as well.

             
Once Fiona locked up, she turned and found Booker holding out his hand for her. She grabbed it as he pulled her into his chest.

             
“Are you ready for some cuddle time?” He asked while kissing the top of her head.

             
“Actually, I had other plans.”

             
Booker pulled away and looked her in the eyes. “What kind of things?”

             
Fiona ran her finger up his chest and said, “I think you know what kind of things.” She started to lead him up the stairs to her apartment. They were still holding hands but he was trailing behind her.

             
“Maybe you can just tell me, so I’m not confused.”

             
She stopped on one step above his and came face to face with him since she was so much shorter than him. “How about I throw on something a little more revealing than this top and we have some fun.”

             
He brushed his hand over her cheek. “Babe, I only want to do this if you are fully ready.”

             
This was it, she was just going to confess her feelings for him. She was almost positive he felt the same way as she did but she still couldn’t be sure. That was why she thought her stomach was going to pound through her chest and fall down the stairs like a bloody slinky.

             
She looked him in the eyes and said, “I know I’m fully ready. These last couple of weeks have really been amazing and I think we have more of a connection than I have ever had with someone else. I’m ready to take our relationship farther…” She paused, she couldn’t quite get the words out.

             
She was looking down and twiddling with her fingers when he lifted her chin so her eyes met his beautiful blue ones. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and whispered, “I love you, Fiona.”

             
She felt like her eyes popped out of her head with those four little words. She could sense he felt the same way but once he actually confessed his feelings, she couldn’t believe it. She just stared at him in shock.

             
He shuffled in place and said, “Uh, please say something. I’m sorry if…” She stopped him by placing her fingers on his mouth.

             
“I love you too, Booker.” She watched his composure completely deflate like he was holding his breath the entire time they had been dating. She had an over-whelming sense of happiness wash over her as Booker’s movie-star grin spread across his face and swept her up in his arms.

             
“I can’t tell you how great it is to hear you say those words to me.”

             
She kissed him and said, “Me too.”

                                                                                    ***

              Finn was opening his car door for Blaire when Murphy approached him from the alley, slightly startling Finn. Murphy didn’t look good, his hair was a mess, his clothes were rumpled and he looked like he didn’t get an ounce of sleep in weeks, indicated by the dark circles under his eyes.

             
Finn shut his car door and wrapped his arm around Blaire’s waist, hoping the conversation with Murphy wasn’t going to be too long since he wanted to get Blaire back to her place, in bed and naked.

             
Finn stuck his hand out and shook Murphy’s hand. “Hey Murphy, Happy Thanksgiving.”

             
“Happy Thanksgiving, Finn me boy.” Finn watched Murphy eye Blaire up and down, soaking in every last inch of her gorgeous body making Finn’s fist start to itch. “Who’s this little lassie?”

             
“This is Blaire, I believe you met at the ski shop the other day.”

             
Murphy took Blaire’s hand and planted a kiss on the back of her it, causing Finn to squirm in his shoes. If Murphy went any further he was going to have to pummel his ass for touching his woman.

             
“Aye, that’s right. Ya were the wee blonde we set up with gear. How did it turn out?”

             
Blaire was all of a sudden extremely shy in Murphy’s presence, causing Finn to question if Blaire was shy because she was attracted to Murphy or if she was uncomfortable from Murphy’s blatant perusal of her body. Who was he kidding of course she was attracted to Murphy. There wasn’t a woman on earth who didn’t find Murphy drop-your-panties attractive.

             
She looked up from under her lashes and said, “Uh, we will find out tomorrow.”

             
Murphy looked at Finn. “She’s a pretty thing, how the hell did ya end up snagging her?”

             
Finn’s blood was already boiling, he didn’t need to justify his reasoning of being with Blaire to the hunky Irishman especially since he didn’t know how he actually snagged Blaire. He was just in the right place at the right time, that was the only reasoning he could come up with.

             
Finn changed the subject. “What’s up Murph, why are you here right now?”

             
A smile spread across Murphy’s face. “I actually was concerned about ye sister, since she’s dating that Sheila and all.”