by Orla Bailey
He laughs as if the notion is ridiculous and leads me to the passenger seat of the car. “They’ll love you.” He walks back round easing into the driver’s seat and firing up the engine.
He turns, noticing I’m frozen to the spot and haven’t fastened my seatbelt yet so leans across and does it for me. He gazes into my wide opened eyes and gentles his voice. “They’re going to love you,” he repeats. “The same way they love me.”
“That much? That’s quite optimistic.” They must adore beyond life, their beautiful, talented son. “How far do we have to drive to get there?” I want to know how long I’ve got to prepare myself for this momentous event.
“This time of night? About twenty minutes.”
“That long, huh?” Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I suppose it’s because I want them to like me so badly. How can I even contemplate Jack wanting me if his family doesn’t? Is this some sort of test? Jack always speaks of them with such affection; tells me how close they are to him. There’s no way he would want to stay with a woman they don’t approve of. I have a lot riding on this.
“How many brothers and sisters did you say you had?” I know the answer but I’m so nervous I can’t trust I’ve got it right in my brain.
“Two of each. Don’t worry, kitten. They’re really nice guys. I wouldn’t expose you to anything bad. Do you trust me?”
“I trust you, Jack.”
“Thank you, kitten.” His hand drops onto my thigh and I revel in the sure weight of it. The steadiness of his calm manner influences me. I know I can face anything if Jack is on my side.
“Why am I meeting them now, Jack?”
“I want no more mysteries between us. I want you to know all of me. To see the man I really am. Behind all the media hype and the business persona, I’m a son and a brother and an uncle first and foremost, and a friend. I definitely want you to see who I am when I’m with my friends. See me through their eyes. All the people who shaped me. People who don’t think I’m anything extraordinary. Just the Dublin boy they grew up with.”
Friends? He wants to introduce me to his friends? “What if they –”
He chuckles, reading my mind. “– Stop worrying. They’re going to love you too. If I do, they will. They love me and they want what’s best for me.”
Might that be me? I want that so very badly or I don’t know what I’ll do.
Chapter Fifteen
The Mercedes cruises off the suburban road onto a curving block-paved driveway. It sweeps us up to an impressive looking house where lights are burning in all the windows. The sight is so warm and magical it stills my senses for a moment.
“Is everyone still up?” It must be nearly midnight. Any hopes of creeping in and facing them in the morning, fade.
“You didn’t think my family were going to go to bed and miss welcoming us home, did you?” He turns off the engine. “Welcome to my world, kitten.”
“Your best part.” It seems so much bigger than I ever imagined. My heart rattles against my ribcage.
“You’re the best part.” Jack takes my hand in his. “This is the part that shaped me. The part I call home.”
“What a beautiful house. It’s enormous.” I run my eyes back and forth across the square Georgian style frontage and notice someone at one of the windows pulling back the curtain. They’ve heard our arrival.
“There’s a lot of us to squeeze in.”
We climb out and Jack heads to the boot to heave out our bags. I join him.
“Saint Ailbhe House. We’re in Ballsbridge, a few miles south of Dublin city centre.” He turns his head towards the front door as it swings opens.
Amidst the light pouring out into the darkness, nearly a dozen people flood down the front steps onto the drive, calling to Jack in greeting. Sympathetically, he pulls me close in to his side, holding out a hand in front of us to stop the ebullient siblings, who head the posse, in their tracks. His arm snakes round my shoulders and I’m grateful for the firm support. They’re rather daunting.
Anyone would think I’d never been out in public before, I’m so nervous. I tremble a little and not just from the cool night air. I’m thankful to Jack for recognising that fact. Everyone is grinning like a maniac at everyone else, including me. Their good-naturedness seems instantly infectious.
“We’re scaring Jack’s girl,” one of his brothers laughs. He gives a piercing wolf-whistle. “She’s a looker too.”
Jack glares at him. “You’ll be looking at her through a black eye, Con, if you make any more smart Alec remarks like that.”
Everyone howls with laughter at Jack’s fake threat, including Con. To my surprise, they’re not intimidated by their big brother for a second.
“Make that two black eyes.” An athletic, blonde woman with a distinct Australian accent grabs Con round the neck in a forearm lock.
Con laughs. “And you’ll still be the apple of both of them, Darla, light of my life.” He flips her round bending her backwards over his arm and kissing her, whilst adopting a guilty expression for the highly amused crowd.
“Meet my brother Con and his wife Darla,” Jack explains. “They’ve flown in from Sydney.”
Releasing Darla, Con dives in and drops a swift kiss directly onto my lips. I stare at everyone in shock as Jack and Darla heave him, laughing, off me.
Darla hugs me warmly and whispers in my ear. “Don’t mind Con. He’s the joker of the pack.”
“Both vets,” someone explains. “They only know how to treat people like animals.”
A friendly row breaks out.
Jack’s parents push through the throng of younger adults to get to us. Jack’s eyes move to his mother’s immediately and I sense the unbreakable bond between them. For some reason it makes me want to cry.
“Can’t you do something about your son, mother?” Jack asks her.
She rolls her eyes to the heavens and sighs with resignation. “And which one of the heathens would that be, this time?”
Jack gets a ribbing and is thumped on the back for his thwarted attempt to bring parental discipline to bear on his younger brother. I’m buffeted about in the onslaught with Jack doing his level best to hold back the hordes.
“Will all you raving lunatics grant me some peace,” Jack’s mother calls above the noise. “You’re home at last, Jack. I was gettin’ worried about you.”
“Hello mother. I said we’d be arriving late.”
Jack releases me as the family clear a path between them and he crosses and bends to kiss his mother tenderly on the cheek. They hug warmly and at length before she steps back to look at him. As she smiles affectionately her hand reaches up to touch his cheek. I see the love for her first born shining from her eyes. Will she see how much I love him too?
“You’re so late, you’re practically early,” Jack’s father jokes, joining his wife. “I’ll be needin’ all hands milkin’ the cows soon.” Father and son shake hands enthusiastically.
Jack turns back to me. He reaches out and draws me over to his parents. “There aren’t any cows here,” he explains to me, laughing at my confusion. “Just in case you were wondering.”
“There might be a few first thing in the morning before coffee hits the spot,” one of his sisters cracks.
The whole family laugh and I smile around at them all shyly. They seem so happy together.
“You’re terrifyin’ the girl,” his mother says. “Come here.” She grabs me as if she’s known me all her life and pulls me into a warm bear hug. “Welcome home, darlin’ girl. Welcome.”
Suddenly I really want to cry remembering the mother I hardly ever knew. The mother who fitted parenting around her extended spells of humanitarian medical work around the world. The parents who were killed in a terrorist atrocity when I was only nine.
“Now you’re terrifyin’ the girl, Fionnoula. Will you ever let her breathe our good Dublin air.” Jack’s father scolds his wife mildly. “Give us my turn, then.”
<
br /> I’m passed between them like a parcel as Jack’s mother releases me and Jack’s father burls me into his arms. He’s well-built and strong as an ox and I think he could crush every bone in my body if he had a mind to. Grinning with amusement, Jack rescues me from the pair of them and they stand together, arms locked round each other, as we do, looking from me to their son and back again.
“She doesn’t say much, does she?”
I turn in embarrassment to the young man speaking who must clearly be Jack’s youngest brother. They share the same dark hair and vivid blue eyes as all the Keogh men do. I’ve never seen so many good looking guys in one place before.
“Are you surprised, Diarmuid? We haven’t given the girl a chance to get a word in edgeways.” I imagine that to be one of Jack’s sisters speaking.
“Well said, Aoife. Stand back, you lot, and I’ll introduce you, one at a time before she thinks we’re all savages.”
“Not on the pavement, Jack.” Jack’s mother throws her hands up in horror. “What will the neighbours think?”
I glance around but don’t see how the neighbours can think anything or see it for that matter. The grounds are extensive and separated from neighbouring properties by well-established trees and bushes as well as distance. I peer wondering if, perhaps, they might be hiding in the bushes. This whole experience is so surreal nothing would surprise me.
“They’ll think the Keogh rabble are on the loose and enlistin’ again.”
“And they’d be right. Come away inside, you eejits. Stop makin’ a holy show of yourselves in front of the company. You can see she’s a lady.” Fionnoula swings her ample hips around and steams back towards the house.
Jack’s brothers and sisters grab our bags without being asked, calling each other “eejits” repeatedly and laughing hysterically before Jack winks at me, smiling, as he takes my hand in his. He’s so happy to be home, so relaxed, and I’m thrilled, if a little intimidated, to be here with him. The good nature of his family is endearing and infectious, if somewhat overpowering, and I haven’t stopped smiling for a full two minutes. My cheeks ache. We follow his parents up the steps and through the front door.
He leans in close to whisper. “See? They don’t think I’m some hot shot businessman. I’m just one of the family.”
“Hot shot?” I tease, getting in the spirit. “Who told you, you were a hot shot then?”
He digs me gently in the ribs with his elbow until I laugh.
Everyone stands together in the parlour as I’m introduced one by one to Jack’s two sisters and their husbands and his brothers and their girlfriends. They’re so warmly welcoming it’s hard to remain nervous of them at all.
“Aoife’s a designer. She works from home these days because she’s raising a baby at the moment.”
“The only grandchild this lot have given me. What was the point of me having five o’ the devils, I ask meself if I’m only gettin’ one grandchild out of the whole bunch?”
“Aye, it was different in my day,” Jack’s father says, winking at his children. “A duty.”
Every male present, including Jack to my horror, pretends to grab and carry his own reluctant woman out the door to head upstairs and do their duty. I gather it’s a family joke so I join in with the other squealing women fighting to preserve my honour. Jack plants a kiss on my temple as we quickly give up the rowdy pantomime.
“The little tyke’s upstairs sleeping,” Aoife explains, hushing us all.
“Alleluia to that,” the man with the American accent, who I presume is her husband, adds.
“Steve’s a New York swindler.”
“That’s what these rogues like to call us lawyers,” Steve explains, shaking my hand enthusiastically. “I wonder why?”
Everyone laughs again. They’re such a happy bunch of people.
“You’ve travelled over from the States?” I ask.
“Family get together,” Jack tells me, interrupting his brother-in-law.
Australia, America. I wonder how often they manage such a reunion. Yet it seems like they’re as comfortable in each other’s company as if they’ve never been apart. There are no strangers here, with the exception of me.
“Next there’s…,” Jack turns to the others looking confused, twirling his forefinger distractedly in the air. “What’s her name again? That one I can never remember.”
Jack gets a thumping from his youngest sister who I take it is extremely fond of the big brother that gets away with teasing her that way. “Eimear.” She introduces herself. “And this is my husband, Aiden.”
“Nurse, engineer, Dubai.” Jack says pointing to each in turn. “I’m cutting this short. It’s late. We’re tired.”
“God have mercy, Jack,” his mother states. “Livin’ in London hasn’t done any favours for your manners.”
“Take pity, mother. I’ve just flown all the way from Singapore. I’m exhausted. Tabitha’s been working herself into a lather half the night too.”
I look at him in undisguised incredulity. He pretends to ignore me. The only reason I was up half of last night was ether rowing with him on Skype accusing him of having an affair, or having phone sex. I can’t believe he would even hint at any of that in front of his own mother.
Fionnoula looks from me to Jack. She efficiently points out the final members of the assembly.
“Last of my brood and definitely the least of them all, is Diarmuid.” She tosses him a fond glance to off-set her verbal snub. I presume her feigned insult is merely a mother’s special affection for the baby of the family, her last born child.
“I love you more than all the rest of them, too, mother,” he teases back, smirking. He turns to explain to me. “She can’t stand the fact she’s still got one of us living under her roof and will have to wait to get the old man to herself once more. Shame on you mother.”
Jack’s father puffs up his chest proudly. “There’s still life in the owld dog yet.”
The entire younger generation makes disgusted noises which only makes him glow with manly pride. I can’t help laughing. They’re treating me exactly like one of their own. No airs or graces. I’m seeing the real face of Jack’s family and I love it. I like them a lot.
“And you’ve already met my father, Liam,” Jack says.
“Watch that one,” Liam tells me, indicating Jack. “The eldest is always a chip off the owld block.”
More disgusted noises follow Liam’s remark as my skin flushes scarlet.
Sensitive to my embarrassment, Fionnoula quickly brings the focus back to Diarmuid. “One day the saints’ll smile on me and let Diarmuid get his own home. For now he’s at university here. Hopefully he’ll graduate…” She rolls her eyes at him. “In the end.”
Diarmuid pulls his girlfriend towards me. “This is Niamh. She’s studies at Dublin University with me.”
“He’s studying her, more like.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Niamh, Diarmuid.”
I’m feeling dazed by all these introductions and the family dynamics, something I’m definitely not used to. Jack notices instantly.
“I’m going to show Tabitha up to her bedroom.”
We get a few humiliating wolf-whistles. Enough to make me blush again in front of Jack’s parents as if I’ve something to hide. Or soon will have.
“Have you –”
“We’ve eaten, mother.”
I twist back to face them as Jack draws me towards the door. “Goodnight. I’m really thrilled to meet all Jack’s family.”
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, she thinks we’re all of them.”
“I say if she’s still as thrilled to have met us by the end of the weekend, I vote she’s in.”
“Don’t be more of an eejit than you have to be, Diarmuid.”
“No, mother. Sorry, Tabitha.”
We leave to the sound of the word, eejit, being repeatedly tossed back and forth between them again.
Jack pauses at the top of the stairs to give me a wry smile. “Y
ou’ll get used to them.”
I smile back. “I got used to you, didn’t I?”
He walks me down a long corridor to a door and opens it. “This is your bedroom.”
“My bedroom? Where’s yours?” I whisper.
“Mine?” He gives me a knowing look. “Now why would you be needin’ to know that, Miss Caid?”
“I thought we’d be sharing a room.” My voice drops lower than before. I get the impression there are few secrets in a house like this.
“In my mother’s house?” He sounds horrified. “She’d slaughter me.”
“You’re thirty-three,” I point out. “Head of a global enterprise.”
“And still unmarried.” He laughs. “Traditional Irish values.”
I can’t help grinning. “It’s sweet.” I’m highly amused by the notion.
“It’s frustrating. Especially when I’ve been kept apart from you too long already.” He leans in and kisses me, grinding his body into mine, revealing just how frustrated that is. “But don’t worry,” he whispers, provocatively. “I’ll always know where to find you.”
“Where is everyone else sleeping? There are loads of us.”
“Ten bedrooms. You do the maths.”
“Jack, I didn’t bring presents for your family.”
“Yes you did.” He smiles, conspiratorially. “They were in the boot of the car.”
I relax. Jack never leaves anything to chance and he’d never let me feel uncomfortable around his family. “Would you mind if we give the bouquet to your mother too?”
“That’s a lovely thought, kitten. I’ll tell her they’re from both of us.” He kisses me and slips away downstairs.
I turn to find my suitcase already on the bed. How it got there, I can’t imagine, they all seemed to be surrounding us all of the time. Family teamwork, I suppose.
Exhaustion hits me. It’s as much nervous as physical. It’s not every day you meet the prevailing influence that is Jack Keogh’s family and I understand a little better how he came to be such a force of nature. I strip off, glad I showered on the plane, shimmy into a satin nightgown and snuggle down in the big comfortable bed to wait for him to sneak back to me.
