Page 42 of Hot Irish Halloween

Jack made the calls via speakerphone while Penny entertained herself by watching the scenery, grinning while Charlie cursed him out. They’d each brought an extra change of clothes, so instead of continuing on to Dublin, Jack changed the GPS destination for Athboy in County Meath, which would take them less than an hour.

“This is the place?” Jack asked when they finally pulled up in front of the hotel Penny had booked. It was on a main town artery sandwiched between a thrift shop and a bakery. Festivalgoers were all over the sidewalks.

“Yeah. It’s cute, isn’t it?” she said with a grin and bounced out of the car to stretch.

“It’s very cute.”

The exterior was gray and the interior was tan with a lot of brown wood. His mother had cleaned in a hotel just like this one when he was growing up, along with waitressing and receptionist gigs. And like that hotel, this one was run by a friendly older woman wearing a name tag that said “Elizabeth,” who recognized him the minute they approached the front desk.

“Well, if it isn’t our famous fighter, Mister Jack Valentine!” she gushed, putting her hands to her cheeks in a way that made Jack grin. “Are you here for the festival?”

“We are,” he answered, indicating Penny. “It’ll be under Penelope Mayfield.”

The woman’s eyes widened even further as she slid behind the computer and started typing.

“We do need to shorten the booking for just one night, unfortunately. We’ve got a pup to get home to,” Penny informed her with a grin.

Jack hadn’t known how good it would feel to hear the word “we” coming from Penny with regard to the two of them.Theyhad a pup. What else wouldtheyhave together? Would they have a home? A family?

He wanted that badly. Penny wearing his ring, permanently. Her body swollen and ripe with his baby. Penny holding that baby in her arms, smiling at him, loving him. He had to snap himself out of the fantasy to concentrate on the good of the here and now.

“Oh, a puppy! The little love. Alright. Here are your key cards. Breakfast starts at six in the morning, and the bar closes at half past midnight. Everything in between is up to you. There are three bands playing tonight in our bar. Enjoy the festival!”

“Thank you,” Jack said before he collected their bags and rolled them to the elevator bank. Under his breath, he murmured, “Déjà vu.”

“Déjà vu about what?” Penny asked, pushing the button.

“It’s the second time this weekend someone’s told us to enjoy a festival. Starting to wonder if there’ll be a naked high priest waiting for us in the room.”

When they saw the bed, they stopped and stared. It was tiny, even for Penny alone.

“All this ass was not going to fit on this bed,” she noted, staring at it with her hands on her ample hips. “How are the two of us supposed to fit, Hulk?”

Jack wrapped his arms around her, then slid his hands down to said ass to give it a big two-handed squeeze.

“Mm, Hulk loves this sexy ass. Hulk want to smash.”

Penny squeaked when he bit at her neck playfully, then moaned when he pressed his burgeoning hard-on against her.

“Don’t you break this bed. I’m not paying for a replacement,” she warned him.

His response was to toss their bags near the closet, pull down her track pants and her panties and fuck her hard on that tiny bed. Somehow, they managed not to break it.

It was nearly sundown when they reached the grounds of Trim Castle the next town over. Penny was armed with a camera slung over her shoulder and an all-access pass she’d snagged. Jack was surprisingly excited.

“Bran brought me and Mam here the first year they were dating,” he told Penny as they walked onto the festival grounds. She snapped pictures as they went. “I’d been a mean little arsehole to him when he first came around. You know, boys overprotective of their mothers, thinking every man is a piece of shite up to no good. But when we got back to Dublin, I told Dierdre, ‘Mam, you should marry him.’”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Penny said, pausing from taking her shots. “What did he do to win you over?”

“Snaquitos,” Jack said. “He bought me every sweet or greasy thing I wanted. That whole weekend was pure gas.”

“Bran knew what was up. That’s cool you’ve been here before. I came too, years ago.”

Penny’s smile grew softer. The space between Jack’s shoulders tensed slightly, but if she was headed down memory lane, he’d let her wander. She’d given herself to him last night; no old memory with Brendan could change that. She shivered and squeezed his hand as they stopped to look up at the towering heights of Trim Castle, lit up against a starred night sky with colorful floodlights.

“Too bad we missed the lighting of the bonfire last night,” she remarked. “But, as crazy as things went down, I’m gonna have to say the one at the FitzGerald’s was way more memorable than anything I would have seen here.”

“Last night…” Jack started, then paused for a second. “That celebration and this one feel totally different. But they’resupposed to mean the same thing. Putting away old things. Making way for the new.” He wasn’t going to push her, knew he shouldn’t rush her into a solid commitment, but he needed to make his own intentions clear. “I hope we’re making way for something new together, Penny. I’m not doing the ‘just friends’ thing with you.”