Tears Of The Moon

CHAPTER Nine

"Magee's man Finkle's here." Darcy hissed it as she scurried into the kitchen.

Shawn glanced up from the trio of bookmaker's sandwiches he was making. "Is he now?"

"Big as life." Out of habit, she checked her face and hair in the little mirror she'd hung beside the door. "Aidan's pulling him a pint of lager and chatting him up at the bar, though the Finkle looks to be all business."

Knowing his sister's skills, Shawn gestured with his knife. "Give me him in a hundred words or less."

Darcy narrowed her eyes, tapped a finger to her lips. "Middle fifties and balding. Sensitive about it, as he does a comb-over. A prosperous belly that tells me he likes his food. Married, but not above casting an eye. An indoor man. A company man used to taking orders and giving them on down the line. Frugal, as Mary Kate tells me he bargained fierce on the room rate even though it's on his expense account. Urban through and through and a bit of a dandy. I could pluck my eyebrows in the shine off his shoes."

"Well done." Shawn's eyes glittered with anticipation. "You won't have any trouble charming him, will you?"

With the smuggest of smiles, Darcy examined her nails. "Shooting fish in a barrel."

"I'm not talking about leading him into temptation, Darcy, just making him stumble around the far edges of it."

"Give me some credit. I said he was married. I'm not a homewrecker."

"Sorry. It was the look in your eye. It's a terror you are to mankind."

She took a tube out of her tip pocket and freshened her lipstick, with her eye on Shawn's in the mirror. "Mankind loves terrors like me."

"I can't argue with you there, as I've seen too many of the fallen. I'll help you serve the sandwiches here, so the Finkle can get a look at the harmless brother."

In harmony with him, Darcy helped Shawn load the tray. "He's impatient, I'd say, to get a look at things, eye the land, talk his deal."

"He's in Ireland now," Shawn said easily. "Rushing isn't the Gallagher way."

He put the orders together and got some bowls of crisps for the bar. "I wasn't daydreaming," he said to Darcy's back, lifting his voice slightly as they passed through the kitchen door into the pub. "I was thinking."

Following his lead, Darcy sighed. "You can't put orders together in good time if your head's in the clouds. Try staying on the ground with the rest of us now and again."

Adopting a sulky expression, Shawn began to set bowls out on the bar.

"Shawn, come meet Mr. Finkle from New York City." Shawn let his face clear and moved down the bar in Aidan's direction, leaned on it to offer a friendly smile at the man with thinning hair and vaguely irritated black eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Finkle. We've cousins in New York City, and friends as well. They say it's a fast and busy place, with something doing every minute of every day. Aidan, you've been to New York City. Is that how you remember it as well?"

Because he had to swallow a chuckle, Aidan merely nodded. Shawn had thickened his accent, just enough to add atmosphere and a touch of country bumpkin.

"Aidan's one for traveling. Sure, and it runs in the family, it does. But as for me, I'm one for staying where he's planted."

"Yes, well," Finkle began, obviously prepared to dismiss Shawn and get back to important matters.

"So, have you come on holiday to Ardmore, Mr. Finkle? Sure, and it's a fine spot for it. Quiet now, so you're lucky," Shawn went on. "By end of May, they'll come swarming to the beaches since we've such fine ones, and then they pack into the pub so I can barely keep up with the orders. A body can get a bit of a rest in the winter at least."

"I'm here on business." Finkle spoke precisely, and the hard edge to his consonants Shawn recognized as native New Yorker. "For Magee Enterprise."

At Shawn's convincingly blank look, Aidan shook his head. "Shawn, I told you about the possibility of doing a deal with Mr. Magee. His theater?"

"Well, now, I never thought you were serious." Shawn scratched his head. "A cinema in Ardmore?"

"Not a movie theater," Finkle said with obvious impatience. "One for live entertainment."

"I think it's a wonderful idea." Darcy sidled up to the bar, beamed approval at Finkle. "Just brilliant. You must come to the pub tonight, Mr. Finkle, so you can have a sample of the kind of local talent we could offer your theater."

"What about the man from London?" Shawn sent baffled looks to Darcy, then Aidan. "The restaurant man?"

"We'll talk about that later." Aidan gave Shawn a small and very obvious nudge. "That's not important."

Finkle's shoulders straightened, his eyebrows lowered. "Are you speaking with another investor, Mr. Gallagher?"

"It's not a serious matter. Not at all. Why don't I show you the land we'll be discussing? Sure, you'll want a look at it, won't you? You're not after buying a pig in a poke. Shawn, you man the bar here, there's a lad." Hastily, Aidan flipped up the pass-through. "We'll have a walk about the place, Mr. Finkle, and see what's what."

"Please do come back, won't you?" Darcy called out and had the satisfaction of seeing Finkle flush a little as he glanced back her way. "I'd love to sing for you."

She waited until they were safely out and away. "The man from London," she said, snickering. "That was inspired."

"Just came to me. And I'll wager a pound to a pence that the minute he gets back to a phone he's ringing Magee in New York to tell him we're playing two lines."

"It could backfire, you know, Shawn, and have this Magee looking elsewhere."

"Or it could pay off." He reached over to tug her hair, surprised at how much fun he'd had playing the game. "Life's a gamble, isn't it?"

He looked up as Brenna and her father came in for their lunch hour. "And that's half the fun of living. A good day to you, Mr. O'Toole," he said when Mick strolled to the bar. "Mary Brenna. And what can we do for you?"

"I've a thirst, Shawn." Mick sent Darcy a wink.

"We can help you there." Knowing his man's preferences, Shawn slid a pint glass under the tap and began the process of building a Guinness. "And for you, Brenna?"

"I'm more interested in that soup I see on your menu." She nodded toward the daily board. "But there's no hurry."

"None at all," Mick confirmed as he slid onto a stool. "We're all but finished at your brother's house this morning. My Brenna here will tidy it up by day's end, then we'll be back to renovating rooms at the hotel. Sure, and I'll miss coming in here for your cooking, Shawn. Not that the hotel doesn't serve a good meal, but no one has your touch."

"Will you have some soup today, and a sandwich as well, Mr. O'Toole?" Darcy slipped behind the bar to pour the tea she assumed Brenna wanted. "A man works as hard as you, he needs his fuel."

"Well, I will at that, Darcy darling. You'll make some fortunate man the best of wives one day, as you'll know how to tend to him."

With a quick and wicked laugh, Darcy slid the tea across to Brenna. "I'm looking for one who'll tend to me-and lavishly. Speaking of it, has Daniel rung you up, Brenna?"

"Daniel?" She caught Shawn's raised brow and fought not to squirm. "He did, yes."

"That's fine, that. Matthew said he would. That's a fine-looking and well-set-up young man has his eye on your daughter, Mr. O'Toole."

"And why shouldn't he? She's a pretty thing."

"All right, Dad."

"Well, you are, and what's wrong with saying so?" The slap on the shoulder he gave her was one most men would have given a son. "A man'd be fortunate indeed to snap up a lass like my Brenna, as she's fair of face and a good worker too. A bit of a temper, maybe, but that only adds the spice. A man doesn't go looking for a bland sort of woman, does he, Shawn?"

Shawn laid the next level of Guinness in the glass. "That would depend on the man."

"Well, a smart one doesn't, for he'd be bored brainless within a year. Not that I'm in a rush to see my Brenna here off and married. My chicks are leaving the nest quick enough now, with Maureen already wed and Patty looking to be a bride in a few months." He sighed. "I don't know what I'll do without my Brenna when the time comes."

"You won't have to do without me, time or not. We're partners. I'll just go back and get the soup, since you're shorthanded here."

It was as good an excuse as any to get out of the spotlight and away from uncomfortable topics. She was behind the bar and through the kitchen door as quickly as she could manage without letting on she was in a hurry. When the door was behind her, she rolled her eyes heavenward and blew out a breath.

Her father was getting powerfully sentimental lately, and while she found it touching most times, this wasn't one of them. She got down bowls and tried not to wince when she heard the door open again. She didn't have to turn to know it was Shawn.

"I can get this. You're busy."

"And Darcy can man the bar as well as me-or anyone. Besides, your father wants a sandwich. You don't build as well with bread and meat as you do with wood and nails."

Because he wanted to, and because he knew it would fluster her, he came up behind, took her hips in his hands and bent down to nip at the back of her neck.

Heat flashed straight down to her toes. "What are you about? You're to be working."

"You're work enough." He turned her, then slid his hands up her sides.

"I've only time to get a bite to eat. I have to get back to the house and finish up."

"I'll feed you soon enough." With his hands hooked under her arms, he boosted her onto the counter. "You feed me first. I've an appetite for you."

She started to protest, though her heart wouldn't have been in it, but then his mouth was nibbling on hers. "Someone could come in," she managed, but her hands were already in his hair.

"And why would that bother you? Just put your mind to this for a minute." He framed her face, tilted his head. And took her under.

He'd promised to drive her crazy, and she was forced to admit he was a man of his word. For days he'd kept her on a shaky sexual edge that was both frustrating and wonderful. It was never more than a kiss, long and slow and deep or fast and hard and hot. The bare, teasing brush of hand or fingertips. The quiet look that could send her pulse scrambling without a word spoken.

An appetite for her, he'd said. It must have been true, as he was sampling and savoring and consuming her in lazy, lingering bites. When she began to tremble he only made a sound of satisfied approval.

"Shawn." The man made her light in the head and wild in the belly. "I can't go on like this much longer."

"I can." He was dreaming in her. "I could go on like this for years."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

He chuckled, then drew back, pleased by the clouds of desire in her eyes. "What did you say to this Daniel?"

"Daniel who?"

His grin flashed, and her mind cleared. Swearing, she gave him a shove and jumped off the counter. "Damn you, Shawn, that's what this was about. Just softening me up and fogging up my brain so I'd boost your ego a notch."

"That was just a side benefit." He got out the makings for a sandwich. "But the fact is, Brenna, I've an interest in knowing if you're going out with the Dubliner again just now."

"I ought to, just to slap at you." She jammed her hands in her pockets. "That's what Darcy would do."

"Ah, but you're not Darcy, are you, darling?"

"No, I'm not, and I haven't the talent or the energy to juggle men like apples. I told the Dubliner I was seeing someone."

Shawn glanced over, met her eyes. "Thanks for that."

"What I'd like to know is when I'm going to be sleeping with someone."

He added the spiced mustard he knew Mick O'Toole favored, and kept his brows lifted. "In all the years I've known you, never did I realize you had such an obsession with sex."

"I wouldn't be obsessed with sex if I was having sex."

"Well, now, how can you be sure of that, as you've never had it with me?"

She wanted to pull her hair, decided to laugh instead. "Christ Jesus, Shawn, you're enough to drive a woman to drink."

"Go out and have Darcy pull you a pint on me," he began, then his head came up again as he heard the sound of voices through the back door. "No, wait. Follow along here."

"Follow what?"

"Ladle the soup." He gave a wag of his hand toward the bowls. "And just follow along."

The back door opened, and Aidan stepped back to let Finkle go through. "The kitchen's Shawn's territory, as you can see. We've added this and that as he's felt a need for it. Oh, hello, Brenna. This is our friend and occasional employee, Brenna O'Toole. Brenna, Mr. Finkle from New York."

"Pleased to meet you." Clueless, Brenna put on a company smile and ladled the soup.

"Mr. Finkle's here about adding a restaurant to the pub," Shawn began.

"A theater," Aidan said in a tone so sharp that Brenna nearly bobbled the bowl in surprise. "The theater, Shawn. You're confused again."

"Oh, aye, the theater. Sure and I can't keep business dealings straight in my mind for five minutes at a run."

"But you make a lovely soup." Brenna gave him an encouraging look, one she might have sent to a slightly slow twelve-year-old. And hoped that was what he'd had in mind. "Would you care for a bowl of it now, Mr. Finkle, or have you eaten already?"

"No, I haven't." The kitchen smelled like someone's devoted grandmother's kitchen, and it had his mouth watering. "It's very aromatic."

"And tastes better, I can promise you. What kind of theater are you thinking of?"

"A small, tasteful entertainment arena. My employer wants something traditional."

"People like to eat and lift a glass or two before or after the theater, don't they?" Shawn dressed the sandwich with a bit of parsley and radish.

"As a rule." Finkle scanned the room, the shining pots, the scrubbed counters, the tidy workstation. The stove was enormous and looked older than Zeus, but it appeared to be in good working order.

It might do, he thought. He would make a note of it in his report.

"Well, then, they couldn't do better than Gallagher's for that," Brenna assured him. "Would you like to sit here in the kitchen, sir, or would you prefer a table?"

"A table, if you don't mind," he told Brenna. The better to observe the business flow.

"I'll get you settled." Smoothly Aidan gestured toward the door. "You just tell our Darcy what you'd enjoy for your lunch. On the house, of course."

Aidan shot one triumphant look over his shoulder as he led Finkle out.

"What's this about a theater? And why were you acting as though you'd misplaced a few brain cells since you woke up this morning?"

"Well, I'll tell you. Go on and get your father his lunch, then come back and have your soup here, and I'll give you the full story."

When he had, Brenna sat back, gnawing her bottom lip as she did when thinking hard business. "I know this Magee."

"Do you?"

"Well, not personal like, but I know of him. Them, actually. Father and son, they are, but the son is more in the way of doing the running of things now."

"A family business," Shawn mused. "Well, that's something I can appreciate."

"A well-established one at that. He builds beautiful things, does Magee. Mostly theaters and arenas and such. He's very big in America, and in England too, I'm thinking. My mother's cousin's nephew Brian Cagney went to work for one of his construction teams in New York. He wrote me a year or two ago and said if I were to come over, I'd have a job in a wink, as Magee doesn't look at how a carpenter's skin is stretched when he hires on."

"Are you thinking of going to New York?" It was such a shock, even the possibility of it, that he had to work to keep his tone level and casual.

"No." Her mind already elsewhere, Brenna answered absently. "I work with Dad, and we work here. But Brian writes me now and again. He says Magee treats his people well, pays top of the scale, and has been known to swing a hammer himself when the mood strikes. But doesn't suffer fools, and if you fuck up, you're out and gone. I'll write to Brian, see what he knows of this or can find out."

Then her eyes sharpened, latched on to Shawn's. "Is he bringing in his own crews or hiring local for this?"

"I wouldn't know about it."

"Well, he should hire local. That's how it should be. You want to build in Ireland, then you use Irish hands. You build in Ardmore, you hire from the village and Old Parish. Dad and I could use a piece of this."

"Where are you going?" Shawn demanded when she got up.

"To talk to Mr. Finkle."

"Wait, wait. God, woman, you never let a fly land on your nose, do you? Now's not the time."

"Why isn't it if I want to get in on the ground floor of it?"

"Let Aidan set the deal first." He caught her hand. "It's still in delicate stages. Once we have it as we want it, then you can move on into who should have the building of it."

She hated to wait, hated that she saw the sense of what Shawn was saying. "I need to know the minute the deal's done, then."

"That I can promise."

"I'll show you how it should be." She pulled a pencil out of her pocket and would have sketched right on the wall if he hadn't grabbed her and shoved a pad of paper under her nose. "This is your north wall. You open that up, an oversized doorway." She drew quickly, all lines and angles. "And you put a breezeway sort of thing here, for people to move from the pub to the theater and back again. You keep it as much the same as the pub as you can, the same wood, the same flooring, so you have a-what is it-a symmetry that leads to the lobby part. Better if the breezeway fans out, spreads as it goes so that the lobby becomes part of the pub, as on the other way, the pub would become part of the lobby."

She nodded, glanced up. And narrowed her eyes. "And what might you be grinning at?"

"It's just such an education watching you work."

"If I have my way, you'll be watching me work for months down the line, and Dad can slip into the pub daily for his lunch and pint. I've got to get on."

"Can you take an hour later?" He caught her hand before she could turn to go.

"I suppose I could. It shouldn't take longer than that for me to get your clothes off and finish with you."

"I had something else in mind. As for the other, I don't want timetables and deadlines." He brought her hand to his lips, rubbed them over her knuckles. "Have a walk with me on the beach."

It was so like him, she thought. An hour on a winter's beach with the sea and the wind. "Come and fetch me at Jude's. If you manage the time, so will I."

"Then come on and kiss me good-bye."

Willing to oblige, she rose to her toes, leaned in, and had just touched her lips to his when the door swung open.

"The Finkle believes he can fit in a bit of that soup and some-" Darcy stopped short, gaping at the sight of her dearest friend kissing her brother. "Well, for the sake of Jesus, what's all this?"

"It was just what it appeared to be before you interrupted. You haven't finished," Shawn said to Brenna, and started to pull her back from the full foot she'd jumped in retreat.

"Yes, I have. I've work to do." Considering it the best line of escape, she dashed out the back door.

"Soup, you say?" Casually, Shawn pivoted to the stove.

"Shawn, you were kissing Brenna."

"So I was, though I had hardly gotten a taste before you came barging in and scared her off."

"What are you thinking of, kissing Brenna?"

He glanced back, his face bland. "I was sure our mother explained such matters to you, but if you're needing a refresher course on the subject, I'll do what I can to educate you."

"Don't smart your mouth off at me." But she was too baffled to work up the kind of temper that entertained them both. "She's the next thing to a sister to me, and I won't have you teasing her that way."

He ladled soup into a thick, generous bowl. "Maybe you should have a word with her before you flay into me."

"Don't think I won't." She snatched up the bowl. "I know how you are with women, Shawn Gallagher."

He inclined his head. "Do you now?"

"That I do." She said it in her darkest, most forbidding tone, added a toss of her head, and stalked out.

The minute she'd served Finkle his bowl and fussed over him enough to bring a rise of color to his cheeks, Darcy informed Aidan she was taking a fifteen-minute break. And was out the door before he could tell her different.

In her hurry she forgot to take off her apron or grab her jacket, so her tip money jingled cheerfully in her pocket as she raced down to her family home.

As a result, she was out of breath and pink of cheek when she dashed through the door. She headed straight upstairs to the door of the nursery, where Brenna was rolling varnish onto the freshly sanded floor.

"I want to know what's going on."

"Well, I'm putting on this first coat of sealer. It takes a day or two to dry good and hard. Then I'll put on another, and that will be that."

"With you and Shawn. Damn it, Brenna, you can't go around letting him kiss you that way. People'll get the wrong impression."

Brenna kept rolling. She hadn't worked up the nerve to look at her Mend. "Actually, I imagine they'd get the right one. I should've told you, Darcy, I just didn't know how."

Darcy braced herself with a hand on the doorjamb as the blood drained out of her face. "There's-there's something to tell me?"

"Well, not so much, really. But not for lack of trying on my part." Time to face the music, Brenna told herself, and she turned around. "I want to sleep with him. That's all."

"You want to-" Because her throat had snapped shut, Darcy broke off and rubbed a hand over it. "You want to sleep with Shawn? Well, why?"

"The usual reasons."

Darcy started to speak, then raised a hand to hold Brenna off while she gathered her own thoughts. "All right, I'm thinking. You've been in somewhat of a sexual drought just recently, so I can see you'd- No, no, I'm not quite seeing. It's Shawn we're speaking of here. Shawn who's been a thorn in both our sides since we were babies."

"Sure and it's an oddity, I admit. But the thing here is, Darcy, I've had a bit of a- of a yen for him for- well, forever. I just thought it was time to act on it or I'd always have one, and where would that get me?"

"I'm sitting down." She did so, right in the doorway. "You acted on it."

"I did, and he was as surprised as you are by the idea, at least initially. And he wasn't very flattering about it, either. But he's in the way of interested now. It's just that I've discovered this is yet one more thing you can't rush Shawn over. And it's fair to killing me."

Meticulously, she coated her roller with varnish and spread it thin and smooth. "I'm sorry you're upset about it. I'd hoped that we could just get it done, so to speak, with no one the wiser."

"Don't you have any feelings for him, then?"

"Of course I do." Brenna's head came up again. "Of course I do, Darcy. We're all like family. This is just- it's just different."

"It's different, that's the truth." Struggling to adjust, Darcy sighed out a breath. "I was going to protect you from him-knowing that he has a way with women that can make them softheaded over him, and him barely noticing half the time. But now that I've heard what you've said, Brenna, I have to turn that coin over."

Genuinely surprised, Brenna set her roller on the end of the pan. "You think he needs protecting from me? Darcy, I'm not exactly your femme fatale sort of woman." She spread her arms, knowing very well how she looked in her grubby work clothes and battered boots. "I think Shawn's safe from the likes of me."

"Then you don't understand him, not in his heart. There's romance in him, the kind of dreaminess that builds castles in the air. He has a delicacy of feeling. He'd cut off his arm before he'd cause hurt to another. Cut them both off because he caused a moment's pain to someone he cared for. And he cares for you. It's not so far a step from caring for to loving. What will you do if he falls in love with you?"

"He won't." She nearly took a step back, from the question and the idea. "Of course he won't."

"Don't hurt him." Darcy got to her feet. "Please don't hurt him."

"I-" But as Darcy had already turned away, Brenna had to hurry after her. "Darcy, you mustn't worry so." Brenna gripped the banister when Darcy turned, halfway down the stairs. "We both know what we're about, I promise you. We've already taken a vow to stay friends through it."

"Make sure it's a vow you don't break. You both mean a great deal to me." She worked up a smile because her friend seemed to need it. "Sleeping with Shawn," Darcy said with her usual bite. "What is the world coming to?"