night,” Pop Pop confessed.
“Yeah. I’ve had better nights.”
“I have a very good feeling everything will turn out okay. Jealousy isn’t a weak emotion.”
“Dad said the same thing. It’s just…he’s it for me, Pop Pop. The Collins curse took me down at twenty. I’m trying to be patient, trying to give him time to…”
“To?” Pop Pop prompted.
Before Darcy could reply, a deep voice behind them answered the question for her.
“To get his head screwed on straight.”
Darcy twisted around on the stool and came face-to-face with Ryder—who was carrying an obnoxiously huge bouquet of red roses.
“To figure out that he’s been a jackass,” Ryder continued. “To recognize that he’s walked away from the love of his life. The best thing that ever happened to him.”
“The best thing…” she whispered, standing.
He nodded. Then he tilted his head, studying her. “You got your haircut.”
She laughed, though the sound was mingled with some of those tears she’d been holding back. “Just a trim.”
“I like it. And…I love you.”
Darcy struggled to breathe. Her heart was racing, her palms sweaty, stomach twittery. “Ryder.”
“I’m sorry about last night. And I’d like the chance to make it up to you. If you’ll let me.”
She smiled and nodded. “Okay.”
He smiled back as he handed her the roses, then he took her hand and drew her closer, stealing a quick kiss. Obviously, he’d noticed they were surrounded on all sides by her family.
“Do you mind if I steal Darcy, Mr. Collins?” Ryder asked.
“Not a bit, son. And for future reference, it’s Pat. Or in your case, I think Pop Pop might work best.”
Darcy didn’t miss how moved Ryder was by her grandfather’s words. Or how he glanced at Padraig behind the bar and gave him a quick nod and a smile. “Thanks, Paddy,” he said.
“Paddy?” Darcy asked, surprised to hear Ryder use their family nickname for her cousin.
“You two get out of here and have a good time,” Padraig said, reaching out to take the roses from her. “Hand me those and I’ll put them in water, run them upstairs for you.”
And that was when the light went on.
The hair, the makeup, the new dress, her parents hovering like two nosy old women…
“Everyone knew you were coming,” she said as Ryder grasped her hand and led her to the door.
“They might have helped me set some stuff into motion.”
Darcy was only two steps out of the pub when she stopped in her tracks and gasped. “Oh my God.”
A stretch limo awaited them on the curb.
She laughed. “You got a limo.”
Ryder tugged on the hand he still held and led her to the car. The driver got out, but Ryder waved him off. “I got it,” he said.
Before he opened the door, he whisked her around, pressing her against the side of the vehicle, and kissed her with so much passion, her head spun.
“I love you,” he said again.
“I love you too.”
“What’s the Collins curse?”
Darcy frowned. “What?”
“I heard you tell your Pop Pop that the Collins curse took you down at twenty.”
She laughed. “It’s something Colm made up. He said the Collins family is all cursed because when we fall in love, it’s fast, hard, and forever.”
“And here I was thinking you’d put me under a spell.” He opened the door and she climbed into the back of the limo, overwhelmed by the need to pinch herself to make sure this was all real.
Ryder handed her a champagne glass once they were inside, and the limo pulled away from the curb. He poured them both a glass of bubbly. “I’m afraid I had to make a few changes to your plan for the ideal date. Too many people live in my house and it was easier to move us than the baby.”
She laughed. “I understand completely.”
“So we’re going out to dinner at this little Italian place near the waterfront. Then I’ve booked us a suite at a hotel, where we can dance and talk about our plans for the future, and then…”
“Sex?” she asked with a mischievous grin.
He shook his head as if disappointed. “So unimaginative.”
Darcy shrugged. “What can I say? Compared to you, I clearly suck at romance.”
Ryder took the champagne glass from her, placing them both in a special holder before turning back to her. He wrapped his arm around her and drew her close. “Tell you what. You keep coming up with the plans and I’ll carry them out. Speaking of which, I think this is the part where we get to make out.”
She laughed. “At the beginning of