The Gypsy Ribbon

by Shannon MacLeod

  Beth looked around startled when the doorbell rang once then the pounding started. “I’ll get it,” she called out. James nodded and stepped back into the kitchen to grab them both a bottle of water.

  Meg charged in and the scolding commenced before the door closed. “Seamus Aidan Kelly, you feckin’ eejit,” she snapped, jabbing her finger furiously into Ian’s chest. “You’re supposed to be home resting and all I’ve heard on the radio this afternoon is how you’re running around town having yourself a grand old time. What the hell is it you’re thinking?”

  Ian bit his lip to keep from laughing at his sister. “But–”

  “Don’t you but me, brat. What…” her voice faltered as she narrowed her eyes and took a good long look at the object of her ire. She snatched the ball cap off and smacked him with it as his long wild curls tumbled out. “What the hell are you playing at, Ian?” she demanded.

  Ian threw his arms up in self defense when the cap came down again and laughed when James came running out of the kitchen to see what the ruckus was. “There ye are, Seamus. Best call off this termagant before she hurts herself.”

  “Termagant,” Meg shrieked.

  “Harpy, then,” Ian giggled, wrapping his arms protectively around his head. “Or virago. That’s always been one of my favorites.”

  James knew better than to laugh although it was killing him. “Ian, I wouldn’t poke at her so if I were…”

  Meg’s howl of outrage interrupted that bit of sage advice. “Damn you straight to hell, Ian Kelly. I told Ma what a feckin’ shame it was she didn’t drown you at birth–”

  Deciding an intervention was necessary, James snatched the cap away before Meg could raise it again. “Lay off him, Meggie,” he explained calmly. “Ian provided a diversion so Beth and I could slip out and shop for furniture.” He gestured at Beth, standing frozen with a sort of deer in the headlights expression at the sudden uproar.

  Meg’s demeanor changed immediately, both brothers’ transgressions forgotten. “Oh, that’s lovely,” she gushed, taking Beth by the hand. “So tell me all about where you went and what you bought...”

  ****

  Aaron sat at his desk in Myrtle Beach weeding through correspondence and glaring daggers at the picture of James still hanging on the wall. His cell phone chimed softly and after a frantic search he dug it out from under the stack of papers. When he read the caller ID he answered with a gruff “Well?”

  “It’s done,” Finch said.

  20

  Over the next several days, the furniture began arriving en masse. Not willing to negotiate the finer points of decorating, James turned the task over to Beth, Lily and Meg with his blessing. Early Sunday morning, Beth blinked when James handed her a platinum American Express card with her name emblazoned on it. “Go on, sweetheart,” he assured her. “Have fun fixing the place up a bit”.

  Meg grabbed Beth by the arm and whispered, “Let’s go before he changes his mind.” Snatching up her purse, she pushed Beth and Lily towards the door. “You lads will be all right while we’re gone?” she asked.

  They all nodded. “We’ll be fine, dear,” Dan assured her. “I’ve got some new ideas for the park I want to bounce off Ian. Maybe James would be willing to give his opinion, too,” he added, eyebrows raised in inquiry. James nodded eagerly, and with a smile and a wave, the women left for the mall.

  Once the girls were safely out of the parking lot, the boys sprawled across the sectional couch, hard at work and intently focused on the serious task at hand.

  “You greedy bastard, that was my mushroom,” Ian snapped in accusation, gesturing at the TV with the Wii controller.

  “Too slow,” James crowed. “Serves you right. You knocked me into the lava apurpose and me on my very last life. Jaysus, Ian. What would Ma say?”

  “She’d say it was my feckin’ mushroom,” Ian muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching. “And then she’d tell you to quit deviling your brother.”

  Dan laughed. “Speaking of slow,” he asked James, “What’s the story with you and Beth these days?”

  “I love her,” he said simply, pausing to stroke Bella. The cat lay wedged between him and Ian, shamelessly enjoying the intermittent petting from both men.

  “And?” Dan persisted. Giving Ian a nudge with his elbow he pointed to the screen and whispered, “There’s a vine up in that block right there, takes you to a cloud that–”

  “Quit helping him,” James complained, “and we haven’t talked about anything past the now. Soon, though.” A shadow passed over his face. “That whole protecting thing’s got me all kinds of worried,” he added. When Dan raised a questioning eyebrow, Ian quickly explained about Beth’s Tarot reading.

  Dan’s jaw tightened in his resolve. “I’ll have extra security watch out for her while she’s at work. Wonder who’d be telling lies about her and what she’d need protecting from?” He thought for a moment, giving his beard a gentle tug. When he spoke again, his voice was hesitant as if he didn’t want to voice the thought aloud. “You don’t suppose anyone would want to physically hurt her, do you?”

  James paled at the thought. “They’d best not,” he growled.

  ****

  The ladies were having a field day shopping, choosing linens, pots and pans and decorative touches for the apartment, with occasional segues to look at nursery furnishings. When Lily trailed her fingers wistfully over a white lace bassinet, Meg gave her hand a reassuring pat. “Your time will come soon enough, dear”, she smiled.

  Both women grinned at Beth. “So I’m thinking things are going well between you and James,” Meg commented as she browsed a display of decorative throws. She selected one and held it up, throwing it in the cart when Beth nodded her assent.

  Beth blushed slightly. “I guess so,” she admitted with a little laugh.

  Meg gave Lily a playful nudge. “She guesses so,” she mimicked with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “Do you have any idea how sweet he is on you? He gave you his credit card, dear. He wouldn’t give Ma his credit card and she birthed him. Best pick out things you like. I get the feeling you’ll be spending a lot of time there.”

  Beth snapped her fingers. “Something I’ve been meaning to ask. What does mo chroi mean?”

  Lily and Meg gave each other a knowing smile. “My heart,” they said in unison.

  A perky blonde sale clerk in her early twenties approached the ladies and said, “May I…” She stopped speaking as she looked first at Beth then at the Horizon tour t-shirt she wore. She recovered quickly. “…assist you with finding anything?” she continued.

  “Not right now, but if we–”

  Just let us know if we can help,” she said crisply. Spinning on her heel, she strode back toward the front of the store.

  Lily turned to look at Beth in astonishment at the clerk’s rudeness. “What was her problem?”

  “Looks like someone needs a date,” Meg muttered. The women exchanged a confused glance then shrugged and continued browsing the bed, kitchen and bath superstore. When the women reached the bed linens, Meg called out, “What kind of sheets do you want?”

  “The bed’s a king,” Beth said, scratching her head at the myriad of choices. “Who knew there were so many kinds of sheets?”

  Lily chimed in adding, “James said he likes the percale sheets we have, so look for those. The bedroom colors are crimson and gold.” She added pillow shams to the growing pile in the cart.

  Beth nodded and rounded a display to peruse the comforters on the other side. When she did, she caught two teenage girls in the act of eavesdropping on the trio. She made a small noise of surprise in the back of her throat. “Excuse me,” she said, stepping around them.

  “No excuse for her,” one girl snickered to the other then raised her voice to sneer at Beth, “Great shirt.” They laughed at what was apparently an inside joke and strolled away, casting dark glances back at her.

  Beth’s temper welled up at the younger girl’s nasty attitude but then she s
tiffened in sudden apprehension. Something’s wrong here. Very wrong, she thought.

  Sensing the shift, Meg immediately went to her side. “What’s going on here?” she asked in a heated whisper. “There’s a whole lot of tension in this store suddenly.”

  Lily nodded her head in agreement. “I feel it too,” she murmured. “A lot of anger. Dark like a strengthening thundercloud. What on earth…”

  “Let’s just get what we came for and go,” Beth whispered back. “I don’t know what’s going on either, but I don’t like it.”

  Without further comment, they pushed their cart to the kitchen area. Beth cast a longing look towards the Rosenthal china, but Meg directed her toward the sturdier stoneware instead. “Trust me on this one,” she nodded. “When you register, you can pick out your china. Gallia Corporation gave me my whole set of china, crystal and sterling. They do that for all the family weddings.”

  Lily nodded in agreement. “Formal place settings for twenty-four. Ours was waiting for us when we got back. There was like a gazillion pieces. I’ll show you the website where I picked out our patterns…”

  “Re…register?” Beth stuttered, interrupting her. “As in bridal register? Merciful heavens, Meg, we haven’t even talked about…”

  Meg put an innocent finger to her lips. “There’s my hormones talking again. Don’t mind me, sweetie.” She took the delicate coffee cups Beth held and put them back on the shelf. “Not microwavable,” she explained, “and trust me, you’ll want something sturdier in James’s hands first thing in the morning.”

  Lily laughed. “Meg’s hoping you’ll marry him to keep him out of trouble,” she explained, holding up a pretty set of wine glasses then adding them to the cart. “Come to think of it, so am I,” she said. “And Ian’s pretty keen on the idea too, I think.”

  Beth counted silently on her fingers for a moment before turning a baleful glance to Meg. “But…I don’t even know twenty-four people,” she wailed.

  Throwing a steadying arm around her friend’s shoulder, Lily winked. “Hmmm…I have a sneaking suspicion all that’s about to change.”

  In dire need of a subject change, Beth colored and added a blender to the overflowing cart. “I think we’re about done here, don’t you?” she blurted out. They wended their way towards the checkout and emptied the contents of the cart onto the counter. When the last item had been bagged, Beth handed over the credit card.

  The same blonde clerk took it by her fingertips. “Lisbeth Vargo. I’ll need to see some ID, please.” Beth handed over her driver’s license and the clerk smiled, showing an alarming amount of teeth. “You go by Beth?” she confirmed, handing both back when the sale was immediately approved. The bags were loaded into the cart and as the women were leaving, the saleswoman called out in a syrupy voice, “Y’all have a nice day, now.”

  Beth was the last one out the door, but there was no mistaking the whispers behind her. “It was her,” the voices said.

  ****

  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Did you have to buy the whole bloody store?” Dan complained good naturedly as the three men lugged the numerous bags and boxes up from the parking garage up to Lily and Ian’s apartment.

  “Hold on there. My Beth bought only what was needed, didn’t you, darlin’,” James retorted in her defense.

  Ian snorted. “I don’t know of a soul on this earth that needs…what are these? Pillow shams, it says here,” he read from the label. Lily gave him a scathing look before snatching them out of his hands and stuffing them back in the bag.

  “Were you gents able to get a lot of work done?” Meg asked sweetly. At the ensuing chorus of affirmation, she waddled over and laid a hand squarely on the video game console, still warm after having been hastily shut down when the girls called up from the garage. Three faces flushed guiltily. “Busted,” she grinned.

  Beth squealed as James lifted her off the ground and into a tight hug. “Thank you for doing all that, my love,” he murmured. “I wish I could have gone with you, but I think you were in more capable hands when it comes to stuff like this.” He pressed the length of his body against her and ran a hand down her back and toward her bottom. He whispered softly in her ear, “Speaking of capable hands…”

  She squirmed and cleared her throat meaningfully. James craned his neck back to see four pairs of eyes blinking back at them then buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Tell me they didn’t just see that,” he groaned.

  “Aftereffects of separation anxiety. Saw it on TV once. There’s a telethon and everything,” she explained without batting an eye.

  “Oh, aye,” Ian agreed dryly. “Then why don’t you separate yourselves and start carting all this stuff next door where it’s needed?” James didn’t need further invitation; he grabbed Beth by the hand and took off through the front door, leaving all the bags behind and the two couples laughing.

  Ian shook his head. “I’m glad these apartments have heavy insulation. It’s going to be like Animal Planet over there.”

  * * * *

  The door had barely closed behind them before James began yanking off his clothes. “Bring that luscious ass here to me, wench,” he growled, shaping his hands into claws and lunging for her. “Let me show you what beautiful gypsies and well hung Irishmen were made for.”

  She skipped nimbly out of his grasp. “No you don’t,” she shrieked and ran laughing through the great room. He caught her with minimal effort and pulled her shirt over her head, tossing her bra away with the flourish of a matador. Her jeans were next and he unzipped and slid them down, taking the lace panties with them. Beth put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself and stepped out of them daintily. As soon as she was free, she darted naked into the dining room and ran to the opposite side of the new oak table. “Seamus, we have to start putting things away. We have no time for this,” she said reprovingly, angling her body to keep the table between them.

  “There’s always time for this,” he grinned and with one graceful movement leapt over the heavy table to her side. She squealed when he caught her again. “I missed you, sweet,” he murmured against her ear.

  “I was only gone a couple of hours,” she insisted, returning his embrace. “It’s nice to know I crossed your mind, though.”

  He laughed huskily, spinning her around to face away from him. “And this is what I was thinking about the whole time you were gone.” He smoothed his hands up the curve of her hips as he pressed his hard erection against the small of her back. One hand covered her breast, rolling the nipple between his fingers while the other hand dipped between her legs and applied a delicious pressure to the already sensitive area. She melted against him as he alternately kissed and nipped at her neck. Very slowly, he bent her forward until her breasts pressed against the cool wood of the polished table.

  She gasped then giggled as his tongue traced a path down her spine. He slowly slid a finger inside her and she growled in response, pressing back against his hand and willing him to move. “And you expect to ravish me here in…” she looked around “…the dining room without so much as a struggle on my part, ye great heathen?”

  He chuckled. “That’s it, darlin’, fight me,” he encouraged, curling his finger to just the right sweet spot.

  She let out a breathless sigh. “I’ll fight you, all right,” as she reached around and wrapped her hand around him, pulling him forward.

  “I’ve told you that’s not a pull toy, but if you were to want to play with it, I wouldn’t mind so much,” he said with a grin. “Right now, though, I’ve got other plans for it.” He pushed her arms forward on the table, capturing both wrists with one of his large hands and covering her body with his. She purred when he entered her, fully encasing his length in one slow thrust. He growled low in her ear. “Oh, I’ve been dreaming of this all morning.” He slowly rocked back and forth within her, making her entire body tighten with mind jarring need.

  “I never knew you…liked tables so much,” she giggled in between the ecstatic mo
ans.

  He threw his head back and laughed with the sheer pleasure of the moment. “It’s not the table, silly woman. God, how I love you, Lisbeth.” Her moans took on a kind of keening note as he stepped up his efforts, releasing her hands to place his on her waist, holding her still while he ground himself against her. She clung to the edge of the table as she felt herself starting to spiral out of control and when her climax hit her full force, she screamed against her arm to muffle the sound. His voice joined hers seconds later when he found his own happy place. The air left her in a sudden whoosh as he collapsed on top of her.

  “You’re going to be the death of me,” he sighed, caressing her hips with gentle hands, “You and this lovely arse of yours that incites me to madness.” He climbed up and stretched out atop the table, pulling her up into his arms. They lay entwined for a time before he added softly, “But I shall die a happy man, to be sure.”

  Beth raised her head to look at him through sated eyes. “You know, when you said you wanted to christen the table, I really thought you meant having everyone over for dinner.”

  He pondered that for a moment. “Well, they’re an entertaining bunch and all, but this was much more fun, don’t you think?”

  * * * *

  The following day saw both the beginning of a new workweek and the first morning in James’s new apartment. Beth rolled over to look at the handsome man in bed beside her, the voluminous covers thrown back to expose his chest and abdomen to the cooler air. He was soundly asleep. No surprise there, she smiled in fond memory of their marathon multi-room lovemaking session from the night before. The man’s insatiable, but I think I could get used to that.

  She gave him a kiss on the temple. He exhaled softly, the corners of his lips tipping up in a smile. With one last lingering look, she slid out of bed and gingerly wobbled toward the bathroom. After a quick shower, she got dressed and peeked in on him again. Still asleep, she smiled. The aroma of fresh coffee wafted into the bedroom, its lure too potent to resist. Giving thanks for automatic timers, she poured a mug and sat down at the nook table to make a grocery list.