Night Of The Blackbird

“What? Are you trying to be just a wee bit condescending, so I don’t have to be eternally grateful for making you change the entire schedule for the season?”

He laughed. “Maybe. Maybe it’s just amusing to see you so afraid of going home.”

“I am not afraid of going home! I go home all the time. Here comes the waiter. Just order me a hamburger—and another beer.”

Josh did so diligently, but there was still a sparkle in his eyes.

“So what are you so afraid of?” he asked softly, once the waiter had taken their order and departed.

“I’m not afraid. I go home all the time.”

“But this time you seem uneasy. Is it the fact that you think we should film at your home as an excuse to go there? The whole thing does fit nicely. There are a lot of Irish in the United States. And on Saint Patrick’s Day—”

“Everyone is Irish. Yes, I know,” she murmured. Her second beer arrived. She flashed the waiter a smile. He grinned and left. She took a sip of the brew immediately, then sat back, running her fingertip along the edge of the glass.

“So? It’s perfect.” Josh said.

“Perfect—and what a cast of characters we have.”

“Your mother is charming. So is your father.”

“Mmm. They are. Just…”

“Just what?”

“Well, they are…eccentric.”

“Your parents? No.”

“Stop teasing. You know Granny Jon. She had me convinced for years that I had to be really good or the banshees would get me on the way to the outhouse. I think that Colleen, Patrick and I were all out of high school before we suddenly realized the great flaw in her terror tactics—we didn’t have an outhouse.”

“Your grandmother is adorable.”

“Like a hedgehog,” Moira agreed. “Then there’s my father, who has yet to accept the fact that in the U.S., the Fighting Irish are a football team.”

“Not true! I’ve watched college football games with him. Though he does root for Notre Dame, I’ll give you that.”

“My mother will give speeches on how the traditional dish is bacon and cabbage, not corned beef, and somewhere along the line, if you’re not careful, Dad will get going on English imperialism against the rights of the Gaelic-speaking people of the world, and then he’ll get going on the wonders of America. He’ll forget that as a country we massacred hundreds of thousands of Indians and he’ll start to list famous Americans of Irish descent, from the founding fathers to the Civil War—both sides, of course.”

“Maybe he’ll avoid talking about Irishmen who rode with Custer.”

“Josh, I’m serious. You know my dad. Please, God, make sure no one brings up the question of Irish nationalism or the IRA.”

“Okay, we’ll keep him off politics.”

She barely heard him as she rested an elbow on the table, leaning over, preoccupied. “Patrick will bring my little nieces and nephew, so Mum, Dad and Granny Jon will all be running around pretending there are stray leprechauns in the house. They’ll have beer kegs everywhere, and everything will be green.”

“It sounds great.”

“We’ll have all kinds of company—”

“The more the merrier.”

She straightened and looked him in the eye. “Danny is coming,” she told him.

“Oh, I see,” he said softly.

He awoke very late and very slowly, and in luxurious comfort. The mattress he lay on was soft, the sheets cool and clean. The woman beside him still smelled sweetly of perfume, and of the scent of their lovemaking. She was young, but not too young. Her skin was tanned and sleek. Her hair was dark, and a wealth of it graced the hotel pillow. She’d had her price, but what the hell, so did he. They’d had fun together.

Coffee had brewed in a pot he’d set to go on a timer last night. Brewed and probably burned. He’d never imagined he would sleep so late.

He leaned against his pillow and the headboard.

America was good.

He had always enjoyed it.

There was so much here. Such an abundance. And such foolish people, who didn’t begin to understand what they had. Aye, they had their problems; he wasn’t at all blind to the world, nor did he lack compassion. But problems were different here. Spoiled rich kids, racial tensions, Republicans, Democrats…and, he had to say, though with all compassion, if they didn’t have enough problems, they just made more for themselves. But it didn’t change the fact that life was good.

The phone rang. He reached to the bedside table; picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Have you the order ready, sir?”

“I do. Shall I deliver, or do you want to come here?”

“It’s probably better if you come here. We may have more business to discuss.”

“That will be fine. When?”

He was given a time; then the phone clicked. He hung up.

The woman at his side stirred and moaned. She turned toward him; her eyes flickering open. She smiled. “Morning.”

“Morning.” He leaned over and kissed her. She was still a cute little thing. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, tanned.

She reached for him beneath the sheets, her hand curling around his sex.

He arched a brow at her.

She laughed. “Freebie. I don’t usually stay until morning—”

“I don’t usually keep a who—a woman—till morning,” he amended kindly.

Her fingers were talented, and he found himself quickly aroused. He noted, though, the light that was beginning to show around the edges of the curtains.

“What’s the matter?” she asked him.