“Depends.” She laughed.
“When we sleep together, no handcuffs.”
“No worries. What about locks?”
“I don’t have one of those rings, so there is nothing to worry about there.”
“Oh, maybe you should get one,” she said.
“Only when hell freezes over,” he said, leaning in close to her. “Do you have any piercings?”
The only piercings she had on her body were her ear piercings, and those she’d fought hard for. “That is private information.”
“We could play seek and find,” he said. “I could search you and see what I find.”
“I swear, Gallagher, I will pour this drink in your lap.”
He raised a brow. “Wouldn’t be the first time a woman’s spilled something on me. Usually comes after I make them moan.”
She nearly choked on her drink. “You aresofull of yourself.”
“Confidence is sexy.”
“Overconfidence is delusional.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
He ordered them a fourth drink, and she gazed at him. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”
“No trying. I think you already are,” he said.
Leaning back, she laughed. “No, I’m not. And I don’t drink excessively. There is something about not being in control.”
“Don’t worry, you’re always a little out of control. Getting drunk will just make it more fun.”
Just then, the speakers overhead crackled to life, and the opening fiddle of “Tell Me Ma” burst through the pub.
The crowd erupted. Stools scraped. Pints were hoisted. And suddenly, Paddy was shouting from behind the bar, “Dance, ye gobshites! Or surrender your drinks!”
Ronan grabbed her hand and pulled her from the booth. “Time to earn our town legend status.”
“I don’t know this dance!”
“Fake it like you fake laughing at my jokes.”
With a shriek-laugh, she let him lead her into the crowd. Hands clapped. Boots stomped. Everyone shouted the chorus in unison like it was gospel:
“She is handsome, she is pretty, she is the belle of Belfast City…”
Aisling spun, stumbled, laughed, caught up in the rhythm, of the pure joy of forgetting everything for a moment. For the first time in weeks, she wasn’t carrying her mother’s grief, her grandmother’s secrets, or her own heartbreak like armor.
She was just a woman dancing with a man who made her forget how to breathe.
When the song ended, breathless and dizzy, they collapsed back into their seats.
“That,” she said, “was fun.”
“You looked like you were about to challenge the entire pub to a dance-off.”
