He laughed, and I found myself staring at him in awe. He had a nice laugh too. Layla and Michael embraced me next, and then I introduced everyone to, well, everyone. Violet continually sent out jealous vibes toward Eva and me, but once she sat down and got to know her, she settled, and before long, the entire table continued to erupt in laughter.
“I heard from our mutual friend Captain O’Malley that his sailors are afraid of you,” one of the sailors said to me.
“Oh,” I said, putting my Guinness down with a clank. It was warm and just right. “True. Agwe thinks I’m some sort of nymph. The men all believed him.” World traveled fast on the sea, it seemed.
“Aye, he would!” another sailor said. “Agwe is the most superstitious of the bunch of us. The Captain trusts him.”
“Are you all sailors?” I asked, wiping the foam from my upper lip and stifling a belch.
“Aye,” yet another answered. “All Legion men.”
I had no idea what a Legion man was, but I figured they must have been stout fellows, seeing as none of them ran in fear of me yet. I spoke this out loud, Guinness starting to run through my bloodstream, and there was a general air of agreement, seeing as a bunch of them requested to tap their glass against mine.
“Is Captain here now?” I looked around for him.
The group of sailors laughed so hard that it seemed one guy might tumble off his stool. “He got wind of your presence,” one man explained. “High tailed it out of here before his crew found out.”
“My husband will be glad to hear it.” I found myself clanking more glasses in toast to this sentiment.
“She’s a saucy wee thing,” one of the sailors said. “Wanna dance with me, love?”
“Aeden,” Gabriel and Michael warned at the same time.
Guido put down his beer, cracking his neck back and forth.
Aeden held up his hands. “Can’t fault a fella for tryin’!” Then he faded into the crowd, finding some other “girlie” to dance with.
At this point, a few of the soccer players from the bus turned up, looking for Collette, Rosaria, and Abree. It seemed like the six of them were prepared to dance the night away. Carmen, Chiara, Violet, Valentina, and I were having so much fun chatting with our group that it hadn’t dawned on any of us to move yet.
I had never heard such a roar as when Gabriel took the stage. He was magnetic and pulled everyone in the pub to his light.
Though I hadn’t danced, I perspired as though I had. My fingers drummed against the table in anxious anticipation—almost like waiting for a first kiss. If my feet started to tap, it was time to go full restraint.
I was a sucker for the Irish fiddle.
The amount of beer I consumed wasn’t helping matters either. Guido, who was still keeping a wary eye out for any trouble, was still Guido, but his eyes found a red-haired Irish girl in the dance mix, and it seemed like every time he looked at her, one of the Legion men handed me a beer.
I got the feeling Guido thought I nursed the same one.
Perhaps I was drinking too much, but I felt much too good to cut myself off. I had fallen in love with the atmosphere, the craic, the friendliness of it all. And after an unaccountable amount of time went by, Violet pulled me over to the corner to play a few games of darts and then pool. Michael and Guido stood around, Layla watching from a stool, as I beat most of the men in the pub.
Long story short—Maggie Beautiful was a sly pool shark. She taught me a few things. So did my husband.
Gabriel finished his set, but the music still flowed on. I sighed as I took my seat again, eyeing the dancers with envy.
“Do you want to dance, Scarlett?” Eva said, smiling into her own glass.
I was too forgone to lie. “Yes,” I sighed.
My twinkle toes itched to try out that dance floor, to be free of the boots and exercise my knowledge of Irish dancing where it counted. In Ireland. I knew the trouble it could stir, though, and as much as I wanted it, I couldn’t do that to Brando.
“Ah, let me see,” Gabriel said. He asked Eva for the phone. A few minutes later, he was on with my husband, discussing the pros and cons of me dancing. “Here it is,” Gabriel said, eyeing me as someone does when they are talking to someone else aboutyou. “She has cut every fella in this pub down to size. She has beaten them in pool and darts. And she has run most of the sailors back to the sea. She cleared this place out.”
Was that Brando laughing?
“Aye, I’ll do that. You have me word.” Gabriel hung up the phone and spread his hands wide, a glowing smile on his handsome face. “You are free, wee dancer. Might as well get it out of your system.”
Eva pulled me up, and with awhoop!I charged the dance floor, ready to move. Not long after, my boots were discarded to the side, my tweed blazer too, and I moved in exact time to the music.
