Well fuck. My vision blurred and I very nearly turned on my heel and walked my ass out the door. Maeve would’ve forgiven me.
I blinked and a vision in green took shape on the other side of the bar. Bree.
She stood behind the bar in a dress the exact shade of green as my shirt.
The bright, vibrant kind that made her hair look like it was on fire.
The fabric hugged her curves, curves I’d memorized the other night, and fell into a slant that ended at her knees on one side and mid-calf on the other.
My mouth went dry.
Someone called her name and she lifted her head.
I couldn’t move if the whole place went up in flames. The look in her eyes gutted me.
They matched the dress, but that wasn’t what anchored my feet onto the floor.
Her head swung toward me, and she caught me staring. A light smile curved her lips, and she cocked her head to the side. “Finn, thank god you’re here. Declan won’t tell me where Nana hid her favorite whiskey.”
“Is that so?” I shot a glare at Declan, who grinned smugly and poured another round of shots for a group at the end of the bar.
Weaving between clusters of people already deep in their cups and their memories, I made my way behind the bar.
Bree stayed put, not moving away when I reached over her head and pulled down an empty bottle.
Maybe I hadn’t fucked everything up after all. No regret shadowed her expression.
If anything, she looked happy to see me.
“How you holding up, love?” I swung the empty bottle back and forth.
Bree eyed it, a confused expression puckering her lips. “Better than I expected.” A sheen of tears glimmered in her eyes, but she gave that one-shouldered shrug I loved. “Everyone’s been really kind. Finn, why is the bottle empty?”
“Because she wanted to be buried with it, and she said not to waste the whiskey.” I turned it upside down on the bar, a tradition Maeve had started years ago. “We drank it.”
“Why didn’t Declan just tell me that?” Bree huffed and shot Declan a murderous look.
He laughed and turned away.
“Maeve made him promise not to give it to you.” I shrugged when she glared at me. “I didn’t ask questions, I just said yes, ma’am when she told me to make sure you had it when you needed it.”
“Well, I’m not exactly going to pull out a funnel and drop her ashes into a whiskey bottle.” Bree huffed and rolled her eyes. “Though she’d have thought that was hilarious.”
“Aye, she would’ve.” I accepted a Guinness from Declan without looking away from Bree. “You look beautiful, by the way. That color suits you.”
Her cheeks flushed pink beneath the freckles dusting her skin. “It was Nana’s favorite.”
I clinked my glass against the edge of the bar. “She’d approve. Of the decorations too. Woman loved a party.”
“That she did.” Bree accepted a cup of Bailey’s coffee from Declan and lifted it to her lips.
More people poured into the pub. Half the town had shown up, and the noise level rose with every extra body that squeezed through the door.
Voices competed with the fiddle music someone had started in the jukebox.
I should leave Bree and make a trip around the room and helped Declan manage the crowd.
I’d rather not.
