Page 10 of Shamrocked
5
Slumped, I sat at the island in the kitchen waiting on the kettle to whistle. All the way back to her place, she’d put me through the Vivi Inquisition trying to figure out what token Warwick had been talking about.
“And you didn’t stop anywhere else, after you left Morgan and Tammy?”
“Nope.” My eyes ached, but I didn’t want to sleep. Doran would start after me again, and though I wouldn’t mind continuing that dream from this morning in the slightest… there were too many things I didn’t understand. My nerves shimmered with tense anxiety. It felt like a massive thunderstorm hung over the house crackling with lighting, without a single drop of rain.
She poured hot water into two cups, gave them a stir, and set a cup in front of me. Hot chocolate, yum. After the chilly and fruitless trip this morning, some chocolate was definitely on my must-consume list. “You don’t have a secret Irish ancestor in the family tree, do you? Like dear old Great-Grandma Molly who passed along the family’s holy shamrock or something?”
I snickered, shaking my head. “If only it was that easy. I guess I could have some Irish ancestors, but I don’t know anything about them. Newkirk is Dutch and we immigrated to America in the early eighteenth century. Beyond that, I have no idea.”
“What did you wear that night?”
My cheeks burned and I focused intently on my cup. With my curvier body type, I was usually trying to hide my body, not flaunt it or dress up in something sultry. Not like her. She could make a pair of sweatpants look sexy. Besides, I’d been married long enough that I’d forgotten how to dress up for clubbing. At least that was what I’d told myself.
And yeah, it stung that my gorgeous friend had no memory of what I’d worn that night when she’d been with me. It wasn’t like we were talking a month ago. “Black jeans and that corset top you gave me.”
“Oh yeah. You looked great. You put your hair up too, right? And you wore my silver bangles.”
“With the matching earrings.” If my wardrobe was sadly lacking from years in the corporate world, then my jewelry collection was downright miserable. “I put them back on your dresser.”
She headed down the hallway toward the bedrooms. “I’ve got an idea.”
I picked up my cup and followed.
“Let’s pull out what you were wearing that night and see if we can find this token he’s talking about.”
Sure. That sounded like a plan. “The jeans are in the hamper in the bathroom.”
She ducked into the bathroom and I sorted through the hangers in the closet until I found the top I’d worn. Just looking at it made me blush. It was so not me, Riann Newkirk, the married customer service rep. No, I’d been the sexy artist who couldn’t wait to taste her freedom. The emerald-green velvet bodice had hugged my curves and nipped in my waist enough to look sexy, without making me feel like a stuffed sausage all night. The girls had looked fucking fantastic with the extra lift and support. Though I hadn’t gone out with the goal of picking up a man for a one-night stand, I’d gotten a couple of appreciative looks that had boosted my self-confidence to the stars.
With the outfit laid out on the bed, I set my cup of hot cocoa on the nightstand and pictured myself walking down the street towardShamrocked. Eyes closed, I felt the brisk air on my face. I’d been buzzed, my emotions high and light, having the time of my life. I could have skipped and hopped down the sidewalk with joy. In fact, I did, at one point. My friends had giggled, but I didn’t care. I was too happy. I’d swung myself around like I was dancing—
And promptly fell on my butt.
They’d roared with laughter, almost falling down themselves. I put my hand out to get up, and…
My eyes flew open. “Oh! I found a coin that night!”
I dug into the pockets of the jeans, front and back, more frantic as each one ended up empty.
“The hamper,” Vivi said and we raced to the bathroom. She beat me of course. Laughing, she dumped all the dirty clothes out on the floor and we slung them aside piece by piece, until a coin lay on the tile. “A penny? That’s the token?”
I gasped, my eyes widening. “You see a penny?”
She frowned. “Yeah. What do you see?”
I picked up a rough golden coin that looked old enough to have seen Stonehenge built. The carvings were faded by time, but I could make out a Celtic knot on one side, and a face on the other. A woman, I thought, but it was hard to tell as worn as the coin was.
“Oh,” she breathed out. “Now that you’re holding it, it looks different. It looks like an old gold coin.”
Watching her face, I laid the coin down on the tile and removed my touch.
“Back to a penny.” Wide eyed, she met my gaze. “How is this possible?”
“Magic?” I shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t know.”
She looked at me like she didn’t know me. Me, her friend for twenty years. It made my stomach tremble. “Where did you find it?”
