a year. But the guy was his cousin, and he liked to hear stories about their small village, Talamh an Óir, back in Ireland where they were all born. A town Ronan longed to return to if he ever had the chance.
“I don’t know. That place—”
“Cathy O’Toole will be waitin’. She says she ain’t seen your sorry arse in a while. I thought you two was gonna tie the knot? What’s up?”
Cathy O’Toole was everything Ronan ever wanted. Unfortunately, he was everything she didn’t want. The last time he’d seen her she’d hurled her stilettos at him and told him never to come back. Those damn things could poke out an eye or kill a fella.
They should be illegal.
“It’s complicated.”
“Nothin’s that complicated when it’s a garl like Cathy. I’d a’given me left nut for a night with that one, I would. Hey, I best be goin’. I’m gettin’ a funny feelin’ ‘bout this here saloon. Goin’ back to my room. Meet me straight away tomorrow night for a bit of a laugh. I won’t be takin’ no excuses. Maybe you can give a good scare to the freckin’ guy who be tailin’ me. A guy like you’s gotta be worth somethin’.”
As much as Ronan didn’t want to meet him or Cathy, who probably hated him even more now, he knew he better agree. There was no telling if Tommy was actually being followed or not, and if he was, at least Ronan could find out why.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll be there. Eight o’clock, right? And don’t keep me waiting or I’ll leave.”
“Ah, and you’d leave a grand garl like Cathy? You must ‘ave rocks for brains, man.”
“Just be on time.”
“‘Tis my way.”
They hung up and Ronan headed straight for the shower. It wasn’t bad enough he’d just made a date with a troublesome cousin, but he’d be seeing Cathy again. The one girl he couldn’t shake no matter what kind of shoes she threw at him.
* * *
It was a few minutes past nine in the evening when Cathy O’Toole considered the possibility that she’d been royally stood up. Not the best situation to find oneself in, especially since she hadn’t wanted to meet up inside the Village Tap to begin with. Now, as she worked on her second pint while sitting at the elbow-end of the mahogany bar, she felt like a complete arse.
To hell with the two of them!
She had better things to do with her time, like finishing the sweater she’d been knitting for her five-year-old niece’s upcoming birthday, rather than waiting around for men who obviously didn’t think enough of her to call and cancel the date. Not that this was in any way, on any level a date of any kind. She had made that quite clear to Tommy. Still, there she sat, alone in a somewhat crowded neighborhood tavern in Roscoe Village, her new hometown.
The tavern itself brought back memories she would rather not dwell on, so getting up and leaving seemed like a smart move. Unfortunately, the beer had already intensified those memories causing her to want to wait around just a wee bit more to see if either one of them would show up. Plus, she had promised Tommy she’d be there.
But an hour late? Who did that?
She’d brought her knitting along with her, like she always did, but she was too mad to knit.
It didn’t seem worth the pain the date was bound to cause if she waited around much longer only to realize that Ronan Kelly had stood her up, and he’d done it at their favorite tavern in all of Chicago. The very place they’d spent countless hours talking about their futures together. The very place where he’d proposed in front of a hundred people, some of which were there right now, watching her, glancing over at her, probably wondering where the hell she’d been for the past year.
Cathy only lived four blocks away on Oakley Avenue, but ever since her relationship with Ronan had fallen off a cliff, she had avoided the Tap at all costs.
Until tonight.
She would do almost anything for Tommy, especially since he was one of the few connections to their old village in Ireland, Talamh an Óir, which she desperately missed with all her heart. She had tried to get him to meet her at any number of other taverns Chicago had to offer, but he’d insisted it be this one.
Still, he was late or more likely had blown her off for a better