Page 17 of Almost Priest

Sheilagh was laughing with her cousin Patrick and when Sam passed them Sheilagh yelled, “Hey Sam, you guys brought the truck, right?”

Sam stopped. “Yes.”

“Can you drive a truck? We’re trying to figure out drivers for later.”

“Drivers?”

“Yeah. Big Irish family going to a pub… My brothers like to drink themselves fuller than a gypsy’s bra after a good game. Pat and I can’t drink so we’ll drive. My mum and dad will likely leave before the others are ready to go. Kate probably won’t stay late. Colin won’t drink so he can drive, but other than that we’ll probably be leaving some cars behind.”

“I guess I could drive.”

Sheilagh grinned with elfin grace. “Great! We’ll see you there.” The two teenagers trotted off.

When Sam turned, Braydon was gone. Colin was gathering the bats and other equipment from the empty batting area when he spotted her.

“They all went out to the lot. Luke has a cooler of drinks out there.”

“Oh.” Why wouldn’t Braydon have told her where he was going? She was getting tired of constantly hunting him down.

Colin zipped an equipment bag and slung it over his shoulder.

He didn’t look like a priest. He looked like an average guy, an average drop dead gorgeous guy. He cleared his throat.

“Listen, Sammy,” he said.

When had he started calling her Sammy? No one had called her that in ten years.

“I wanted to apologize for this morning. If I had known you and Braydon were staying in his room I would’ve been sure to lock the other door.”

“Braydon slept with Kelly. I slept alone.”

Why had she blurted that out? For some reason she didn’t want Colin to think she was sleeping with anyone. She didn’t want him to think of her as a sinner, but deep down she knew it was because she didn’t want him to assume she and his brother shared more than they actually did.

“Ah, okay. Still, my apologies. I’ll be sure to lock the door next time I shower.”

Or not.

She immediately chastised her evil mind. “It’s okay. I should’ve knocked.”

“Well, still, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Surely when you came here you didn’t expect to be caught in your unmentionables on the first morning.”

Sam’s face heated and she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. How had she not considered that while she was seeing Colin he was also seeing her? She had stood there, in front of an almost priest, in nothing but a short cotton tank top and a pair of see-through panties. They were probably writing her name in Satan’s registration log right that very second.

“I can see I just made things worse. I’ll stop talking before I put my foot any deeper in my mouth. I promise it won’t happen again. Let’s forget about it and start fresh.”

He shifted the cumbersome bag and held out his hand. “Hello, I’m Colin McCullough.”

She looked at his large waiting hand. His fingers were clean, his nails trimmed neatly. There was nothing sloppy about this man. He appeared deceptively unthreatening, yet Sam had seen the hard muscle and indisputable ruggedness he kept hidden under his plain clothing. She swallowed a dry lump in her throat and took his extended hand.

“Samantha Dougherty.”

He smiled. “A pleasure to meet you, Sammy. What do you say we go grab a drink?”

O’Malley’s Barand Grill was only a short drive from the ball field. It was a brick faced building with a nondescript wooden door. Inside, the floor was a black and white vinyl checkerboard and the walls were paneled in honey colored wood. The bar was simple, about twenty feet long with brass handrails and footrest. The countertop was worn so smooth, scrapes and grooves were swirled beneath the flat surface like fossils tattooed over time. The walls were covered with everything from pictures of family and the bar league, to taxidermic game donated by locals.

When they arrived, Sam was introduced to Colleen and Rosemarie, Maureen’s sisters and their husbands Paulie and Liam. Rosemarie and Liam Clooney were the owners of the pub. Rosemarie, the youngest of the three sisters, had laid out a feast along the back of the bar for family and friends. Apparently the scrimmage they played at the field was some kind of kick off to summer for the entire town.

She and her husband grew up with Frank, Braydon’s father and Paulie and Frank owned the logging business that employed many of the younger men in the family. Turns out, there was a bit of a scandal back in the day when Frank set his heart to Maureen.

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