Saturday night… Sorcha still couldn’t believe that she was out on a date. It’d been so long that she could barely remember one.
Her mother would die of shock if she told her.
Which was why the only one who knew was Luke. And he wasn’t happy about this at all. He’d been spitting and cursing all day.
But while he continued to complain, he couldn’t say anything bad about Rory.
The man’s part angel. How bad can he be?
She kept coming back to that fact. Her only real question was if Rory knew it.
Sorcha glanced about the unique pirate decor from her seat in a wooden booth. “They really bought into the whole pirate motif, huh?”
“Yes, they have. This was originally a pirate’s den in 1753. You can read the history on the back of the menu.”
Hmm… She flipped it over. Sure enough, it was all there. Interesting.
She turned the menu back over so that she could read it. “What’s good here?”
“Fried chicken is my favorite. But I promise it’s all good. I’ve never had anything that wasn’t delicious.”
Sorcha tried to focus on the paper in her hand, but the ghost to her right was making it really hard to do so. It didn’t help that the ghost weirdly reminded her of Jack Sparrow. A little more clean-shaven, but Johnny Depp had some serious competition here.
Worse, he kept trying to tell her something. He wasn’t speaking. Just gesturing toward the gated cellar stairway. The brick there looked about three hundred years old, as did the old wooden stairs and the green shutters that rested above a creepy red light.
Still, the ghost kept gesturing at it with purpose. It was so annoying that she finally gave up trying to read. “What is that area over there?”
Rory glanced at the stairway where the ghost stood. “It goes to a cellar, and rumors say there used to be tunnels where they’d drag passed out men from here to ships so that they could shanghai sailors.”
Made sense. No wonder the ghost was looking so distressed. He was probably trying to warn patrons not to drink too much and fall victim to being kidnapped.
How she hated her powers.
Which made her wonder something. “Do you have any peculiar habits or abilities?”
Rory glanced up with a frown. “Like what? A third nipple?”
“Or a parent who’s not quite human?”
He laughed out loud. “My mom can be a bear if you wake her up too early. Other than that, no. Why?”
She shrugged. “Just wondering. Personally, I can pick up things with my toes.”
“Okay.”
Awkward silence fell as he looked over the menu, and she continued to wonder if Luke could be wrong about the detective. He seemed so “normal.”
Which took her thoughts back to her partner.
It wasn’t until this moment that Sorcha realized how much she enjoyed Luke’s company. If he were here, he’d be telling her what the poor departed soul wanted. As well as the history of this place.
She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d sat at a table here and hustled souls for his father. Indeed, she could easily picture him dressed as a pirate, drinking from a tankard while he chatted up the desperate sailors.
A part of her wanted to pick up her phone and call him to ask about it. But even she knew how rude that would be while on a date with another man. Not that Rory was bad or boring. He was just so…
Normal.
While she’d craved normal during the years she’d dated the horrible hairy monster known as Bert, Luke had taught her that there was something to be said for those who were offbeat.
