Page 34 of Naughty Irish Liar

Just the way I preferred it.

If I were to put my life up against any of theirs, even the shithead Cal, they’d soon see how different mine had been.

I’d been hot-wiring cars when I was eleven and selling bootleg booze out of the back of them. A MacNamara had done what they needed to do to earn money no matter how illegal it was. And for a long time I’d thrived on it. Until I hadn’t. Until the want of something better, something real clawed at my skin.

Even now when I walked by an expensive car my fingers twitched to see if I could break the lock. Some habits would stay with me whether I utilized them or not.

“Yeah, told Sena I’d only be a few hours. I’m gonna stop at that ice cream place she likes first. You?”

“I’ve got a deadline to ignore,” Ash chuckled winding a scarf around his neck, then he pulled on black gloves. The pair slapped hands. I followed suit with Noah who took off before us.

“Have a good night, bud.” I told Ash heading towards the stairs that would take me to the back door and out onto the street.

“Hey.” He called out quietly.

I turned. “Yeah?”

“This girl,” he started. My eyes narrowed, and he smiled, unfazed.

I suppose for a guy his size nothing would bother him, he’d just steam roll until it was dust. “You like her?”

About to tell him to go fuck off I found myself saying. “Who the fuck knows. Maybe. Yeah.” Understatement of the year.

The thing about being a liar was, the lies came easily and sometimes even I believed them.

I liked her.

That was never in question.

I was angry that I liked her.

Go fucking figured.

I was angry she’d lied to me all those years ago and then walking into my bar making me want her all over again.

“That’s what I thought.” He said, with a smile. “I’m a writer, man. I pick up on shit that others don’t. You might’ve sounded pissed, but you were hanging onto your phone like you could lick her through it.”

I snorted. Maybe he wasn’t wrong.

I still tasted her.

She tasted like cream and citrus.

“Take it from someone who’s older…wiser… less of a jackass, I hope.”

“How old are you anyway?”

He grinned. “I’ll be thirty-five on Paddy’s day.”

“Yeah? You should stop in at one of the pubs, we’re apparently having a thing.”

“Maybe I will. But listen. This girl. Don’t do what I did and lose someone you could care about because of ego.”

“It’s not like—”

“Save it, kid. Writers know emotions. If she was here you’d be down on the floor doing whatever Gray is doing right now with his wife and cereal.”

We shared a laugh and parted ways up top.

---