Page 10 of After Indigo Irish Nights
“Donal,” Bets cried out from the other table, jostling him playfully. “You lived in Boston for a year—”
“Ages ago,” Donal said, already shaking his head. “No, for the love of God, don’t ask me to do the accent. No offense, Kathleen, but when I was a server there in my youth, sometimes I had to ask people to point to a menu item when I couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were saying.”
She leaned back in her chair. “I had the same problem at Dublin airport when I was trying to find a bathroom. I couldn’t understand a word the man was saying.”
“He was probably from Donegal,” Declan’s dad called out.
“Or Kerry,” Seamus added, making everyone snort with laughter.
“It’s the same way in the States,” Ellie said, nudging her friend. “I’m from the South, which is why my accent—”
“Is the sweetest sound this side of heaven,” Brady called from behind the bar, prompting Ellie to blow him a kiss.
“What Ellie is saying is that hers is like spun sugar and mine more like battery acid,” Kathleen said, making everyone’s head turn back to her. “But I just happen to like battery acid. All right, who wants to try saying this one? ‘I’ve gotta park the car.’”
Even Declan grimaced as a number of lost souls tried—and failed—to imitate her.
“So the trick is to not pronounce therand to make theathe apple sound, correct?” Jamie asked, repeating the phrase and not too shabbily this time. “Isn’t it amazing, the way English can be spoken so differently depending on the place? Imagine traveling to hear it instead of watching it in the movies.”
“He’s the village teacher,” Ellie explained to Kathleen as a few people actually applauded Jamie Fitzgerald’s attempts.
Declan couldn’t believe it had come to this—were they really having an accent competition for who could sound the most like Mark Wahlberg?
“Hey, Ace,” Kathleen called out. “Try this one. ‘We’re out of whiskey. Let’s go to the packie.’”
“Who are you talking to, dear Kathleen?” Eoghan asked. “And what’s a packie?”
Declan knew exactly who she was talking to. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being called Ace, but he met her dare straight on. “‘You talkin’ to me?’” he bandied back the iconic line fromTaxi Driver.
Liam hooted in delight.
The woman he wanted to put his hands on simply lifted an eyebrow. “Not bad, Ace. But De Niro’s a New Yorker.”
“What’s the difference, dear Kathleen?” Eoghan asked, leaning forward like the eager art student he was.
She held Declan’s gaze for another moment before she smiled with that luscious mouth dotted by a sexy-as-hell mole to the right. “I’d like to think people from Boston have a better sense of humor.”
Her laughter swept over him, and he couldn’t help but think about Sorcha again. He wanted to curse. Since Brady hadn’t brought his drink over yet, he’d go to the bar for it. “I’m getting a whiskey.”
Jamie and Liam practically catapulted out of their seats in their haste to follow him to the end of the bar. They were going to be busybodies. He just knew it.
“You two need another drink?” he diverted.
“Always.” Jamie looked around before saying quietly, “The Yank seems to favor you. Oh, my God! Do you smell oranges?”
His friend’s face turned a ghastly green. Declan locked his jaw as the scent hit him too. She wouldn’t…except he already knew she would. He looked around casually, but he didn’t see Sorcha. Yet.
“I smell oranges too,” Liam said, grinning at the two of them as he signaled to Brady at the end of the bar. “I wonder what our girl Sorcha will be up to now that she’s seen Brady settled with his soulmate.”
Declan hissed. “Enough of that talk.” Sometimes his friend’s Yoda act made him want to bash his head against a wall.
Jamie’s earnest eyes widened. “With that tone, I’m half-afraid you’re going to make me stay after school, Declan, and I’m the teacher here. Why are you so cross? Don’t you want the new Yank to like you?”
Liam fingered his gold pirate earring. “I imagine you’ll come to the way of things, Jamie boy. Now, let’s do as Declan says. He knows his own mind.”
With Liam, there was always a hidden message under a comment like that. “You have something more to say?”
Brady slid three whiskeys toward them. Throwing a thanks his way, Liam turned back to Declan. “With a new whiskey in our hands, I might wax poetic about the knowing of one’s heart, but in your mood, you’d as soon knock me out.”
