Page 100 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
She tackled him—after he’d slid the ring on her finger, of course. He was laughing as he fell backward on the floor, knocking the side table against the wall.
“You just made me the happiest man ever,” he said as his mouth swept in for a kiss.
A pounding sounded from the other side of the wall. “Hey! It’s getting awfully rowdy over there.”
Sheila!
Spurting with laughter, Robbie slid over her. “No, but it’s about to.”
She eyed her ring as she laid her hands on his shoulders, pulling his head down to her. Rowdy wasn’t how she’d describe it.
Perfect was.
EPILOGUE
O’Connor’s Pub had seemedlike the perfect place for Lily to meet his full family for the first time.
She’d already made the rounds—first meeting his unusually emotional father, fresh back from Ireland along with the rest of the Irish contingent, and then the rest of his brothers. She’d been lifted off the ground and kissed on the cheek more times than he could count, making her soon-to-be ex-partner chortle as she was given the same treatment.
He’d told Lily he’d wanted to invite Sheila to give her another friendly face when she met his family. Of course, everyone had already wanted to meet the famous Sheila, the woman who’d duped Billie.
The moment Lily’s partner had walked in, every O’Connor male had shouted out a welcome. Except for Billie. Even now, no one knew how Billie truly felt about her. Sure, he’d been jealous of Tyler, but after leaving the Outer Banks, he’d remained mostly mute on the Sheila subject. Robbie didn’t plan on asking, but he knew Tara had a strategy working in that ingenious brain of hers to get to the bottom of things.
Their cousin felt she owed all of them a debt, and matchmaking Billie and Sheila might just be on her radar from the way she’d been circling those two and whispering with his brothers. Robbie only hoped no blood would be spilled. Because Billie loved to pick a fight when he was feeling cornered and emotional.
And brotherly roughhousing wasn’t happening at this party if he had anything to say about it.
Although Lily had already jokingly offered to arrest them all with him if it were needed. He turned to his fiancée, relieved she was still sporting a delighted grin. From the moment they’d arrived at the pub, her happiness had been obvious. She’d told him she’d never had a family and she planned to enjoy this new part of her life. “You still good?” he asked. “Do I need to dig out one of my stupid criminal videos to keep you laughing?”
“They do make my day.” She chucked him under the chin. “I’m so good that I’m ready for a dart game with one of your brothers. The new ones I’ve met today.”
Her clarification was important because Tim and Billie were hovering around Lily, trying to ease her into the rest of their crew. There was no way they would have suggested darts, knowing the kind of mayhem that would ensue.
“Lily, since I’m kinda like your O’Connor docent, let me steer you away from accepting a dart challenge.” Tim raised his pint. “Let’s have a toast instead. It’s safer. Watch this.Sláinte!”
His brother’s shout was heard throughout the bar, and suddenly the whole group was raising their pints and shouting it back.
“Sláinte,”she added, a little late, inciting another chorus of other toasts around the bar.
“Cool.” She tapped her pint to Robbie’s. “They’re a friendly lot, the O’Connors.”
He hoped it would stay that way, because if someone started a dart game, the O’Connor competitiveness would kick in, and things would get ugly.
“What does that word mean?” Reagan asked after running over from where she’d been standing with her mother.
Robbie ruffled her soft brown hair, avoiding the thick pink glitter headband she was wearing. Tara had tricked the two girls out in mega-bling for this party. Earlier, Tim had joked that a unicorn had barfed glitter all over them, making Cassidy peal into laughter and point to the dancing unicorns on her dress. Reagan sported a cotton dress covered in glittery butterflies decorated in a kaleidoscope of colors.
He couldn’t help but smile as she looked up at him with those big baby blue O’Connor eyes. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of glitter. He was still picking it off his backside after he and Lily had used Sheila’s special cuffs last night. But he loved these little girls something fierce and was glad to be back in Boston where he could see them anytime he wanted. Which lately was a lot since he missed being around them.
Even Miss Purrfect seemed to look forward to seeing him, which was weird. The last time he and Lily had gone over to watch the girls with Tim and Billie, the cat had brought him a dead bird. Tim had told him it was like a feline love letter, something he hoped wouldn’t become a habit. Because he really loved seeing Tara’s girls in their spare time, and that was really gross.
He hoisted Reagan up because it always made her smile. “It means good health, I think, but if you want an expert opinion, go ask Kathleen and Ellie’s husbands. They know the Irish language.” He spied his sister sipping a ginger ale in the corner, and he savored the knowledge he was going to be an uncle. She’d even invited him to pat her belly earlier, which had made him start thinking about him and Lily having kids at some point when they were both ready.
“They talk funny,” Reagan whispered as she leaned in. “I can’t always understand what they’re saying.”
Billie threw back his head and laughed. “Neither can we, sweetheart, and I’m thinking it’s for the best. One less person to listen to in this insanity.”
Tim elbowed him. “Hey! You’re talking about family.”
