Page 35 of Beer & Broomsticks

“Give me one hour. I want to make sure my shift is covered.”

After she left, Ruairí looked down at the map she had been consulting. Yes, he felt guilt for his trick, but it would be assuaged by the final outcome. Bridget and him together again—forever this time.

“What have you set that girl up for?”

For a second, Ruairí mistook the chilly voice for Loman until he registered the American accent. He pivoted to face Alexander. “What makes you think this is a setup?”

“You’re an O’Connor. None of you do anything without an agenda.”

“It could be argued you’re an O’Connor, too, couldn’t it?” Ruairí taunted with no real heat behind his words.

The coldness dropped from Alexander’s expression, and he laughed. “I suppose you have a point. Tell me, son, why are you plotting against the lovely Bridget?”

“Not against, to be sure. I’ve a mind to make her remember that she loves me. I was a right eejit many years ago, and it’s taken me this long to work my way back into her good graces.”

Understanding dawned in his uncle’s intelligent eyes, and he nodded. “Ah. If you can convince her to spend time with you, she’ll be reminded how devilishly charming you are.”

With an unrepentant grin and a shrug, Ruairí said, “Something like that, yeah.”

“And when this backfires?”

“Sure, and why should it backfire? I’ve got a foolproof plan, I do!”

Alexander shook his head like Ruairí was the dumbest gobshite on the planet.

“What? What am I missin’?”

“Women don’t care to be lied to, son. I suggest you find another way.”

“But this has to be the way,” he replied with a touch of desperation, then proceeded to explain his plan in detail.

“You actually believe that if you take her to all your old haunts, all those old feelings will come back to her?”

The heavy skepticism in Alexander’s voice set Ruairí’s teeth on edge. He sounded like a proper fool when his uncle phrased it like that. His stubbornness kicked in, and he decided he had nothing to lose if it didn’t work and everything to win if it did.

“She’ll find it the craic, she will,” he insisted.

Alexander’s brows rose, but he remained silent.

“Oh, feck all the way off!”

A moment later, Bridget appeared in the doorway, a sunny expression on her face. “Ready?”

Bridget O’Malley was never bright and sunny.

For a terrifying second, Ruairí thought maybe she had heard their conversation. He thought back to her words the other day in the garden.

“Oh, no. I haven’t begun to pay you back. But I will.”

“You can’t forgive and still take revenge, Bridget O’Malley. Sure, and that’s not the way it works.”

“Oh, but it does Ruairí O’Connor. It most certainly does.”

Looking at her closer, he could see the same wicked smile she’d worn when she said it.

He was fucked.

CHAPTER16

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