Page 9 of Devil's Luck

“Ah hem,” Remi coughs, bursting the bubble around us, because for two seconds I forgot we aren’t the only people in the room and this isn’t our house. “If you two can keep it in your pants for a couple more hours, lunch is almost ready.”

“And Liam just called. Nana is on her way home, so all private body parts must remain inside their appropriate clothing item.”

“Good fuckin’ grief, T. Since when do you talk like you live in a nunnery?” Fergus pretends to slug his brother in the arm as we all laugh. Even little Máire lets out a little giggle even though she has no clue what’s so funny.

Getting to my feet, I head to the kitchen to help Remi set the table. The reason we came over today was to eat lunch as a family, because I’ve been informed by everyone in this room that’s what I am now, for the first time since Fergus and I became a couple.

“Where’s my little cubbie?” Nana Máire’s voice calls out looking for her namesake just after the front door dings that it’s opening. Liam, her driver slash personal security, steps in behind her to drop off her tote bag before disappearing back out the door.

“She’s right here, Nana,” Remi answers back in a sing-song voice. “I just put her in her highchair.”

Fergus and Tadhg’s nana, Máire, is just shy of eighty-seven years old, but you’d never know it by her attitude. If it wasn’t for her snow white curly hair and glasses, she’d try and fool you into thinking she’s in her sixties. She is an active one too for her age. She likes to swim, bowl, and I’ve even heard she’s a vicious pool shark. Today she was over at a friend’s house for a weekly Sunday morning book club, and tonight she has night bridge club at another friend’s place, so lunch today was the only time she could squeeze us in. I think that woman’s calendar is busier than her grandsons combined.

“There she is,” Máire makes a beeline for the baby, smothering her cheeks with kisses, then surprises the heck out of me and hugging me from behind. “Hello to you too, Nola. It’s good to see you, a pheata.”

“Hi, Nana.” When she lets me go just a little, I spin around and hug her back. “I missed you too.”

As we all find our spots at the table, she zeroes in on me again. “Has my grandson been behaving himself? You know you can tell me if he’s been out of line and I’ll wack him a good one for you if you’d like.”

That sends everyone around the dining table, except Fergus, into a roar of laughter. I’m laughing so hard, I’ve got tears rolling down my cheeks and a crimp in my side within seconds.

“Hey,” Fergus calls out, arms crossed as he sits back and glares at his Nana, “that’s not nice.”

“She knows you too well, hun,” I say as I pat his leg beneath the table before pulling my hand back and grabbing the bowl of salad in front of me to put some on my plate. “I’m sorry I laughed at you.”

“You could make it up to me by putting your hand back in my lap a few inches to the right from where you just had it.” He takes the salad bowl as I pass it to him, then kisses me on the cheek and whispers in my ear. “I’ll get you back for that when we get home.”

I know my cheeks get red, but I ignore his innuendo the best I can as Nana hands me the plate of pork chops from my left.

“I guess that answers my question,” she adds, almost making me drop the plate in Fergus’s lap. “Where did I go wrong with you two.”

The room goes quiet, everyone I’m sure thinking the same thing I am—that she is actually ashamed of her grandsons. But the quiet lasts for only two seconds before she starts cracking up. “Gotcha!” she says through her laughs.

You can feel the relief flood across the room as the four of us let out a breath at the same time.

“I can’t believe I actually got you guys on that one,” Nana’s chuckles keep going as the rest of the food passes around untileveryone has a full plate. “but seriously Nola. Is my Fergie behaving himself now that you’re living together?”

“Kinda,” I say before taking a sip of sweet tea. That earns me an elbow nudge after I set down my glass. “He still hasn’t let me go into the office for even a few hours like I keep asking every day.”

“Fergus Finnegan O’Carroll, what is the matter with you?” She tosses a dinner roll across the table and is smacks him square on the forehead.

“But Nana—”

“No but Nana nothing, boy,” she scolds him with a wagging finger. “I get that this relationship is a new thing for you, but you need to let Nola go to her office is that’s what she wants. Let her spread her wings a little. You can’t keep her locked up in that house all day.”

“I don’t,” he tries to defend himself, but knows he can’t win so even his attempt is only half-hearted. “I took her out to dinner just last night. And I took her to my office on Wednesday.”

“That’s not enough, son, and you know it. Do better.” With that, Nana tucks her napkin on her lap and digs into her mashed potatoes.

The emotional rollercoaster that this family lives would be a doozy for anyone who is looking in from the outside, but I’ve gotten used to the craziness over the last two years since Remi moved to town and I started spending time around everyonewhen we hung out. Being in this circle isn’t for the faint of heart, and that’s before you even get into what the two men at this table do for a living.

I may not know everything that they do, and I probably never will even though I’m with Fergus now, but I know enough.

I know that Tadhg is the family’s head assassin. After Remi was attacked for being spotted with Tadhg right after the MMM signing two years ago, he had no choice but to tell her enough to understand that while his life and job is dangerous, he himself would never be to her.

Fergus is the same way with me. We have yet to sit down and talk about what he all does, as much as he can tell me anyway, but I know the conversation is coming soon.

I know the O’Carroll name is involved with a legitimate construction company, although I have zero doubts that a few things done behind the scenes are a little bit on the gray side of legal.

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