by Orla Bailey
Over the meal, stories are swapped about everybody’s past. Jack’s brothers delight in treating me to a few well-chosen embarrassing tales about the young Jack Keogh. I offer up one or two of my own excruciatingly youthful mishaps in support, to balance things out. When he squeezes my thigh under the table to thank me, I know he appreciates the gesture I’m making.
“So, what do you think of the family? Too much to handle?” He talks quietly to me while the others are caught up in individual conversations.
“I love them.”
He gives me a told you so kind of look. “They love you too.”
“It’s different for me. You come from this huge, close family whereas there was only Harry and me. We’ve been raised so differently.”
“What do you think about that difference?”
“I think I want to raise my own family just like your mother has you.”
He cups my skull, pulls me close and kisses me deeply. It takes a few whistles and cat-calls from around the table before he lets me go.
“Jack that’s hardly appropriate behaviour for the dinner table,” Fionnoula scolds as the couples all laugh. Your girl’ll think she’s marrying some wild Irish savage.”
I laugh at her description.
Con grabs Darla so fast she squeals. As Steve gets Aoife in his arms, so a laughing Aiden moves in on Eimear and Niamh and Diarmuid close the short gap between them. Everyone kisses like crazy at the dinner table to Fionnoula’s unheeded protests. Liam smirks, leaves the head of the table and strides up to his wife at the other end. He plants a smooch right on her lips until she flushes with pleasure.
“You can ask a man so much, Fi, and no more,” Liam announces.
My eyes fly to Jack’s gleaming Arctic blues. Now I know where he gets his saying from. He shrugs and leans towards me again.
“Wild Irish savage? Well perhaps I am. Think you can handle it?”
His kiss drives me crazy.
* * *
Two large waiting taxis head us off, after dinner, to a popular bar in the city centre. Jack keeps me close and protects me from the buffeting but we can scarcely move for the throng already gathered inside.
Everyone seems to know everyone else and they greet Jack like an old friend. He’s treated and acts just like one of the boys. He takes great pains to make sure I feel comfortable and they make me feel so much a part of them all, I quickly give up on feeling wary. He knows most of them from growing up or being at university here in the city. Jack rescues me from the more ebullient ones that want to kiss and hug me in congratulations on our engagement but without a cross word being spoken. It’s all friendly banter.
I listen to Jack speaking Irish Gaelic with one or two. When I hear the name Helen spoken as they rib Jack, my guard is immediately up. Are they talking about an old flame of his? It seems my propensity to jealousy still resides barely beneath the surface. I also hear mention of the name of his boat – cailín álainn.
I turn to Eimear while Jack is busy. “Do you know what they’re saying?”
She laughs. “I don’t think they know what they’re saying half the time. I understand a bit of it.”
“I heard the name of Jack’s boat.”
She looks impressed. “You are as smart as he says you are.”
“He talks about me?”
“All the time.”
I feel my stomach give a happy little flip. “What is he saying about the boat?” I look sheepish. “And Helen?” It’s not really fair to put his sister on the spot, I know, but how else am I to learn about him?
She knows immediately what I’m doing. Her loyalties lie with her brother, naturally, and she taps him on the arm. “Jack. Tabitha wants to know what your friends are saying about Helen and cailín álainn.”
I’m mortified to be rumbled so easily, but I suppose I deserve it.
He sits on a stool beside me and leans in. “My friends are teasing me about finally getting to meet the Helen who launched a single ship.”
“Helen of Troy? The face that launched a thousand ships? Is that what you’re talking about?”
He looks at me like he knows what I’ve been thinking. “You were the reason I bought cailín álainn. I named my beautiful girl after you.”
Not a former girlfriend then, at all. I’m such an idiot. “You bought her when we parted.” I no longer think about it as the time he abandoned me either.
“Something to take my mind off losing you. Yet to remember you. To honour you.” He claws a hand through his hair re-living those bitter-sweet memories.
I hug him. “Thank you, Jack. That’s the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me. Apart from the marry me thing.”
He laughs. “Naturally, the marry me thing comes first.”
That’s why he never took Amanda out on his boat. Ever. cailín álainn was about me.
“She stopped me wanting to get wasted all the time.”
I don’t want us to be sad about the past anymore so I offer him a grin. “So they think I measure up to Helen of Troy, do they?”
“They tell me I’m that lucky. You’re a beauty, even if you did only launch one ship.”
“It’s a better ship than any thousand put together.”
“You’re biased.”
“Totally.” We kiss.
Diarmuid and Con bring down a round of drinks as we listen to the Irish folk music being played. Diarmuid dumps a pint glass of velvety black Guinness on the table in front of me. Its creamy head froths over the rim of the glass and snakes down the side.
“You have to drink at least one, to be accepted as part of this family.”
Jack sits back and folds his arms, grinning. He doesn’t intend helping me out here.
I pick it up and take a tentative sip. It’s thick and bitter and, I imagine, a totally acquired taste. One I haven’t got yet. I screw up my face as everyone round me laughs gleefully.
“Now you know the pleasure, you have to take the pain. Drink it down,” Diarmuid orders. “All of it.”
I recognise the student mentality and it feels a long time since I indulged in social drinking games. However… One thing I know. I can drink with the best of them.
“And what do I get if I do?” I throw out the challenge.
Everyone looks to Jack. He thinks for a second. “A dance from any man present you want, who’s still standing.”
The cheer goes up as I laugh at him. I arch my eyebrow to query if he’s sure. I don’t want this to turn into a bloodbath.
He nods his agreement and as he’s still smiling, I shrug and raise the glass to my lips.
The chant starts as I shut my eyes and swallow. “Down, down, down…” People thump on the table in rhythm.
It’s torture. I’m full of dinner and I’ve already drunk a gin and two glasses of wine tonight but slowly it slides down my throat. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk anything so strangely metallic tasting in my life.
I pause at the halfway mark to catch my breath.
“Givin’ up are we?” Jack asks. “Thank God, for that.”
I glare at him as if to imply, over my dead body and aim the glass at my lips again. I take a deep breath and swallow. And keep on swallowing until I get to the froth at the bottom of the glass. I clatter it down on the table upside down.
There’s a moment’s silence while everyone looks at my face and waits to see if all that liquid is going to stay put, then a mammoth cheer breaks out, complete with hoots and cries. Everyone wallops Jack on the back as if it was him who rose to the challenge but he stoutly accepts their praise on my behalf.
Frankly I’m glad no-one sees fit to thump me. All that liquid may well come back up if I’m so much as patted.
“She’s one of us,” Diarmuid whoops.
“Fancy another?” Con asks.
I shake my head and pull a sick face. I’m incapable of speech for a while as the great quantity of liquid swills around my stomach. Already I’m dreading the taxi ride home.
Jack
sends someone to the bar to fetch me some mineral water to wash the taste away and I pull a queasily grateful face. We settle back to listen to the folk band while I watch Jack and his friends laughing, chatting and having a great time.
“Aren’t you going to claim that dance yet?” Aoife asks me as she drags Steve up onto the crowded dance floor. “Your choice of any stud present.”
I look around the room as if weighing up the competition, then turn, grinning, to Jack and hold out my hand. He looks very pleased with me.
“Haven’t you heard? I’m good at picking a winner.”
He unfolds his arms, takes my hand and heaves me to my feet. Walking me into the moving crowd, he pulls me hard against him and whirls me off in time to the fast beat of whistles, drums and fiddles playing their blood-stirring tune.
This man is so different to the Jack Keogh I danced with formally at the Commerce Ball, to be unrecognisable. He really is two different people. A public face and a private one. The Boss and my lovely Jack.
I tilt my head back to look up into his beautiful face. “I love you.”
He looks down at me, without missing a step. I’m whirling in more ways than one. “I bet you say that to every man that dances you around after a pint of Guinness.
I shake my head in protest. “Not true. Only you. I really love you.”
“And I love you, my sweet, sweet darlin’. cailín álainn. Only ever you.” He whizzes me until my head spins.
After two more dances, I force him to let me sit down. As the evening grows old, the wild music grows gentler, more ballad-like and traditional.
“Could you play this stuff?” Aiden wonders.
I nod. I’ve absorbed the rhythmic beat and the melodies readily enough. He sets off towards the folk band. Over the microphone, I hear them announce a fellow musician in their midst to which there is thunderous applause. Jack’s family pulls me to my feet and heaves me to where the band is playing. Suddenly, my nerves kick in and I pull back.
Jack is at my side instantly. “You’re amongst friends. And you’re good. I’m so proud of you. I love you.”
I take the violin handed to me and automatically pluck each string and listen. The band leader jokes about my lack of trust in his musicians’ sobriety and ability to tune their own instruments and I blush as everyone laughs. I recognise it as friendly banter.
“Ready?” he asks.
I place the violin under my chin and nod. He taps a count-in beat and the band starts to play a lively Irish jig. I listen for a bit to establish the rhythm and phrasing and notice Jack’s family all holding their breath, in case I’ve frozen in fear. The look on Aoife’s face is one of concerned horror at my dilemma and the fact that they have pushed me into this position.
She steps forward to rescue me but Jack holds her back. He trusts me. He knows I can do it. He smiles as my eyes hold his and his, mine.
I begin to play.
I pick up the music quickly and keep up well. So well, they pick up the pace and go faster, feet tapping, smirking at me in challenge. They know a musician when they hear one. I grin back, enjoying the familiarity of my task as I fiddle like the devil.
Toes are tapping, people dancing and clapping and everyone relaxes with confidence in me. It’s an amazing feeling. These lovely, warm people are the ones who shaped Jack’s own confidence growing up. He isn’t arrogant at all. He’s simply well loved.
At the end of the number the crowd go wild. It seems they love a guest player jamming with the band. I’m persuaded to stay and play a couple more tunes before Jack rescues me.
“I’ll make you drink another pint of Guinness if you step back up there one more time,” he threatens as I laugh and shake my head.
“I’ll be good, I promise.”
We dance, talk and drink until dawn.
In the taxi home I snuggle up against him. His arm rests protectively round my shoulders.
“You were right, Jack.”
“I’m always right.”
I grin in the darkness. “About your friends. I like them.”
“They like you too. How could they not, when I do?”
I close my eyes feeling completely contented.
Back at the house, Jack swoops me into his arms and carries me inside. He ignores every protest to put me down and let me walk.
“Guinness,” he says simply as we pass his mother, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. He laughs at my indignation, leaving her to draw her own conclusions, carrying me, complaining, up the stairs.
“I’m going to kill you,” I whisper as he lowers me onto my bed.
“Better make it quick then. She’ll be timing me before I return downstairs.” He roars with hilarity.
“You’re a beast.”
“But I’m your beast and now you’re stuck with me.” He kisses me until I’m replete with pure, pure love.
Chapter Nineteen
Over the next few weeks I work like crazy finalising CaidCo’s advertising account bid to Zee-Com. I intend for it to be perfect. At the same time Jack and I plan our wedding which he wants as early as the autumn.
“I refuse to wait a single week longer to make you my wife.”
“A deal breaker?” I joke.
“A heart-breaker.”
Our days are frenzied but joyful. Jack and I have never before found such harmony together. Even the thought of hundreds of guests invited from all over the world isn’t enough to daunt me. I couldn’t be happier.
Jack meets me outside his boardroom on the day of the bids. The Advance team are already inside with Jack’s management team and I send Libby and the others on in ahead of me to attend to formalities.
“So I no longer have to force my way past security?” I laugh, remembering my first visit here.
“My doors are always open to the future Mrs Jack Keogh.” He kisses me warmly in welcome. “But you understand I’ll be making the best decision for Zee-Com today.”
“No special favours for your fiancée?” I tease from the comfort of my new found sureness and the knowledge that professionally, I know what I am doing.
“Only in the bedroom,” he whispers. “Not the boardroom. You’ve had as much mentoring as I can take.”
“Pity.” I shrug and throw a taunting look that implies he’ll be the loser by that decision.
He stops me on the threshold with his hand on the doorframe. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“You’ve just blown one of my fantasies right out of the water.” I lean closer and whisper. “It’s an amazing one too.”
“Your timing, as always, is perfect,” he growls.
I brush past, pushing the door wide, glancing cheekily over my shoulder as I flounce inside. My confidence is at an all-time high but it’s nothing to do with the designer clothing I now wear.
All eyes turn to me. Amanda Devereaux’s are filled with venom which quickly dissipates when Jack enters behind me. She’s aware of our genuine engagement by now. I’m not totally surprised to note Brent Tapper is part of their team. He does his best to ignore me but makes himself quite at home in the nest of vipers he counts as new colleagues. Good riddance.
Amanda stands and walks towards me. Jack immediately places himself between us, making it extremely clear with his body language and his expression that she’ll cause me any further unpleasantness over his dead body. The only reason Jack’s tolerating her here is because I asked him to. I don’t want anyone crying foul play over the bid today, or being able to suggest I took unfair advantage.
But I know she’s here under sufferance.
Advance insist that removing her from their bidding team at this late stage will severely jeopardise their tender and create unnecessary bias. Jack has already removed her from her former liaison role at Zee-Com by the time we return from Ireland, out of respect for me and that’s good enough. I won’t allow myself to feel threatened by her personally any longer but I want to win this contract fair and square.
It’s clear, to m
e at least, she blames me for everything that’s befallen her. Her public expression of cool indifference doesn’t fool me for a moment. I feel the animosity rolling over me like breakers but she’ll never knock me down again. If she’s foolish enough to imagine I’m the one standing between her and Jack being together as they once were, she’s deluded.
Her claws reach out and rest lightly on Jack’s protective arm. “I know we’re here for the purpose of business, Jack, but you wouldn’t deprive me of the chance to offer darling Tabitha my congratulations on your engagement, would you?” Her voice is as saccharine when she refers to me, as ever. Her insincerity boundless.
He subtly removes her hand. She has no claim to him anymore. “That will be Tabitha’s decision.”
All eyes are on me. Shall I coldly refuse the woman who has caused me such misery? Or shall I take the moral high ground and accept her false sentiments, with as much dignity as I can possibly muster? Frankly, I’d prefer a third option. To slap her scheming face. However, I’m here for business and can separate emotion from professionalism.
“Perhaps we could have a quiet word later, Amanda? I’m sure your priority, like mine, is to get this process underway.”
She hesitates, unsure how to react to this new Tabitha. No longer some ingénue, but a self-determining woman. One who won’t be so readily manipulated or fooled. One who’s well prepared to kick her rival’s business backside. I’ve worked relentlessly on making my presentation perfect. High achiever? Some things about me will never change no matter what difference Jack has made to my life. But now it’s not from fear of failure.
Everyone settles in their seats.
One of Jack’s senior managers addresses the room. “Thank you, members of the Advance and CaidCo advertising teams for being with us today. We look forward to hearing both proposals for taking Zee-Com’s vision into the future. Advance has the floor for the first presentation to the board.” He motions to their team and seats himself close to Jack.
Amanda stands, stepping to the front of the room by the display boards and projector screen set up along one wall. She’s an effective communicator so I’m not surprised to see her leading their pitch. She’s also a schemer. Zee-Com would be well advised not to believe a word that drops off her forked tongue.
