Page 53 of The Billionaire's Kiss
Chapter Twenty-Two
Orla
It had been a month to the day since I’d left Warner. I hadn’t talked about him with anyone either. But I did continue to wear the expensive necklace he’d given me.
I played with the pendent as I left the bar once my shift was over. Cara, a coworker and old friend that had worked the shift with me, came up to me, taking off her apron. “There’s a party at O’Doyle’s. Come on, ya can ride with me.”
“Oh, no thanks.” I wasn’t ready to party. I had settled into a fine routine since I’d gotten back. Go home. Read a book. Work on the book I was writing. Go to sleep.
“I haven’t seen you out at all since you came back from that trip, Orla. Come on now. You need to get out and see people. And don’t try to tell me that you see people each day here at work. It’s not the same, and ya know it.” She seemed intent on getting me to go out with her.
But I wasn’t ready for that. “Look, I’m just not feeling well.”
“A pint will cure ya.” She looped her arm through mine. “At least come with me for a bit. I hate to walk into places alone. It makes me look like a loser.”
I did feel for her on that score and finally agreed to go. “But only for a bit, and only so you don’t come off as a loser.”
“Thanks, lass.”
The smell of beer and cigarettes laid a foul stench on me as soon as we went into the home of Chad O’ Doyle. He was known around Kenmare as The Party Man.
He called out a greeting as soon as we came in. “Balls of hay and sausengers on the table. Gurgle, gurgle on the bar. Help yourselves, bonnie lasses.”
“Ugh,” I huffed as we went to the table. “Bundles of spaghetti noodles and chunks of sausages isn’t a meal.”
“At least there’s beer.” She tugged me over to the bar where some bloke was serving up the food. “Can we have two, please?”
“Two gurgle, gurgles comin’ up. I’m Tom from London. And you two nice lasses are?”
“I’m Cara, and this is Orla. What has you in Kenmare, Tom?”
“Chad’s my sister’s ex-boyfriend, and he said I could come visit him anytime I liked. So I came for a visit.” He handed me a cup and said, “I like your red curls, Orla.”
Tom sported a crop of copper-colored hair atop his round head. For some reason, he combed it straight up, which made him look like the heat miser from that Christmas cartoon.
I just nodded. “Thanks.” Sipping on my beer, I looked around the living room to see if there was anyone at the party I might enjoy talking to.
Before my eyes got halfway through scanning the room, John McLemore caught them and came straight to me. “Orla Quinn, it’s been a million years since I’ve seen ya last, ya pretty girl, you.”
John was the brother of one of my oldest friends. And he was a bit of a troublemaker—always getting thrown into the clinker for one reason or another.
“Hey, John. How’s your family?” I put the plastic party cup to my lips as I continued to look around the room for anyone else who I might be able to talk to.
“Fine. Jules got married last year. Did ya hear about that?”
“I was a bridesmaid at her wedding, John.” He’d gotten so drunk at the wedding that he and his father had gotten into a fistfight over it. His father ended up laying John out, and his brothers had to carry him home to sleep it off.
“Oh, yeah. I must’ve forgotten about that.” He held up his empty cup. “I’m gonna get a refill. Care to join me?”
“Mine’s full, thanks. But go get yourself one.”
“I’ll be right back. Don’t ya move a muscle, fair Orla.”
I made sure to move all of my muscles as I went out the backdoor. I found a bunch of people standing around a fire that burned inside of a metal barrel and walked up to see who was there. “Hey all.”
“Orla, that you?” Sean McCallister asked as he came my way. “I haven’t seen you around in a long time. What’s got you joining us now?”
“Cara.” I took a sip as I stepped up to the warm fire. “She made me come with her.”
