Page 45 of Beside Golden Irish Fields
“You don’t think they’re going to show the village their lady bits, do you?” Brady asked, grimacing.
“Good God, I hope not,” Carrick said, pressing his hand to his eyes.
Angie started to laugh along with everyone else as the women took up positions on the bar and started to dance. Well, Bets gyrated like a punk rocker from back in the day. Siobhan and Brigid mostly shimmied. Nicola wove her body like a belly dancer in a sultan’s tent.
“Are you planning on tearing off your clothes for us?” Eoghan shouted out.
A cheer went up from the men—save the cluster of sons around Angie, all of whom groaned.
“Don’t you wish?” Bets called out, but when no one made a move to strip off anything, the crowd settled down.
“Mind if I sit?” Donal asked, grabbing a nearby chair and pulling it up to their table. “Liam, forget what I said earlier. I’m not giving up on your mum. How could any man give up on a woman like that, who’s breathing a fiery challenge at me in front of the whole village?”
“Angie!” Bets called out, motioning to her. “Come on up here, girl!”
People turned their heads and looked in her direction. A cheer went up. A surge of excitement rose within her.
“Maybe the Yank will give us a real show?” someone shouted.
That froze her like a deer in headlights. “Not on your life.”
The crowd started to clap, encouraging her. Megan’s face swam in her mind. She could already hear sister’s chiding.A few whiskeys is one thing, Angie. Dancing on a bar in the village pub is another. Would a teacher dance on the bar? No students equals no money. You want people to respect you, remember?
“Oh, go on!” Liam encouraged. “This is why you’re here, isn’t it?”
No, she was here to paint and teach. She couldn’t afford to alienate the people in town who thought like Randall and her dad and Megan—the ones who wouldn’t understand or approve of what she was trying to express.
Better to play it safe, Angie.
Bets called her name again, and the crowd gave a groan when she shook her head. Her cousin stopped motioning to her though, and the crowd turned back to the show.
She hunched down in her chair, reaching for her whiskey, only to realize Carrick had it. When she lifted her gaze, she noted his eyes weren’t on the women dancing on the bar, but on her. In them, she saw compassion and an eerie sense of understanding. Her heart banged against her rib cage. She thought he was going to speak, but his jaw tightened. After a few moments, he silently slid the whiskey to her. Then he looked away.
She’d disappointed him as well. Hell, she’d disappointed herself. The artist she used to be wouldn’t have given it a thought, but the party had gone out of her.
Hanging her head wasn’t the way, so she pasted a smile on her face. The better to cover up a hard truth: she was still letting other people dictate her expression, and a true artist didn’t do that.
In any form.
Chapter Thirteen
She’d wanted to join them on the bar.
Carrick had seen the green fire that had lit up Angie’s hazel brown eyes. Green fire was a sign of the unstoppable force of nature, his granny had always told him when they had a bonfire around summer solstice.
But the Yank had stopped herself. She’d frozen up like a frightened animal and then bowed down to her fear. He’d almost given her an encouraging word. Pulled her out of her chair and helped her onto the bar even.
But Jamie and his friends were watching him too closely. She wasn’t his business.
Hell, she wasn’t his woman, and he’d do best to remember it.
And yet, he continued to keep track of her as the evening progressed, all the while noticing how lovely she looked with her hair tumbling down around her shoulders. She didn’t drink any more of the whiskey offered her, saying she wasn’t in proper drinking shape. The smile on her face was as fake as the rhinestone tiaras women wore to hen parties.
He loathed that smile.
When she sent it his way as Liam walked her around to give her goodbyes, he ground his teeth so hard he feared a toothache later on. She looked about as animated as a wooden pigeon, for heaven’s sake. As she left, a cheer went up to see her off. He didn’t join in. He couldn’t look away from her sunken shoulders of defeat before the door closed, stealing her from his sight.
Kade leaned close to his ear as Bon Jovi came on again. “You want to go after her.”
