“Go on, lass.” Dee banged her hand on the weathered counter, making me jump.
The server made a face. “She thinks you’re too old for me,” she complained.
I blinked.Say what?
“I said you’re rich enough to be as old as you like.”
I cleared my throat. If there was a Candid Camera somewhere, I wanted them to let me knownow. “Ah, I’m flattered, but Dee is right, I am too old for?—”
“Get going, Saoirse,” Dee snapped.
The server flipped her auburn braid and marched away.
“You keep your pants zipped up around that one,” she warned.
Okay, that was taking it too far. “She’s a child, and that warning is insulting.” I couldn’t keep the anger or hurt out of my voice.
Dee immediately (and surprisingly) became sheepish. “You’re right. That wasn’t fair. You want another beer? On the house.”
This woman was a bunch of contradictions, now, wasn’t she?
I accepted her apology. “I’d like that.”
I had to admit that I was enjoying myself.
People came by and chatted with me, and no oneexcept for the server, who I think was yanking my chain, cared about who I was and what I did. They accepted that I was a stranded tourist and told me that Paddy would do a fine job with the car, even though it was his first Porsche.
Nikolai was going to murder me.
The bread pudding was excellent, as I’d been told it would be, as the stew had been. I was happy as a clam. When Dee served me an Irish coffee with two homemade cookies, I knew I’d gotten lucky to end up here with good food, great company, and a sense of home that was comforting for even a stranger like me.
I felt someone touch my thigh. I looked down to see a toddler, a girl who waved a chubby hand at me.
“Hi there.” I grinned at the kid.
She gave me a thousand-watt smile that all but blinded me.
“Don’t let that smile fool you,” the man sitting next to me said, raising a pint of Guinness. “That one’s a tyrant when she wants to be.” He leaned closer. “Gets it from her mother.”
“Biscuit.” Thelittle tyrantpointed at my plate. “You got two. You gimme one.”
Okay, so young children around the world are told about stranger danger and not to approach people in bars and ask for cookies. I looked around for the person who was her parent and saw a woman who was nursing a baby, a shawl over the baby’s head.
Themother, I presumed, looked at her toddler. “Now, Fiadh, you already had one biscuit. You can’t have another.”
“He has two,” the toddler protested.
Dee picked up little Fiadh. “You stealin’ biscuits, love?” She nuzzled the little girl’s neck, making her giggle.
“Eamon, take care of your daughter,” the mother yelled.
I looked around to see who Eamon was and realized it was the man who’d called Fiadh a little tyrant.
“I’m drinkin’ me Guinness, love, and you know well enough that when I am, I need me peace."
“I’ll give you peace once this one’s done nursing, you wanker,” the mother threatened.
Eamon didn’t seem affected. The toddler wiggled, making demanding sounds.
