up and send Jamie to my place to stay.”
“Yay, thank God we’ve finished,” said Ryan, lifting the bowl of mashed potatoes and lumping a dollop on his plate from a large serving spoon.
Listening to everyone give thanks had momentarily diverted my attention from my queasy stomach, but since they had finished with that and drawn their focus back to myself, another wave of nausea consumed me.
As the bowls were passed from person to person, I skipped most things and had four string beans and the mashed potatoes, I knew my stomach could handle on my plate by the time everything had been set back in the middle of the table.
“Not hungry?” Nick asked, grinning as he took a huge juicy bite of a turkey leg like he was auditioning for the next Flintstones movie. I shook my head and a visible nauseous shudder ran through me.
“Daisy’s a wee bit delicate this afternoon. I don’t think she’s learned to live life in the fast lane yet,” Paddy offered.
“I can hold my drink as well as the next person, it’s just that none of you people are the ‘next person’. You’re all freaks, sitting here eating like you’ve not seen food in a week, yet the amount of drinks you all consumed last night would have made a herd of elephants unconscious. It’s a wonder I’m not hugging a toilet bowl somewhere.”
As we all sat and ate, even the noise of them chewing gave me a metallic taste in my mouth, and the smell of that fecking turkey made me gag. It lingered all day in the air, in my nostrils, and I’d even had to swap outfits as the smell had seeped into my clothes.
In the afternoon, the others drank again, but I was too delicate to even stomach a soda. I stuck to water, figuring once I had rehydrated myself, I’d feel better.
I noticed Jamie didn’t touch a drop either and I was pleased about that because our time together was precious. I hadn’t wanted to spend another minute beside him in a drunken coma.
“So, Daisy, what’s Ireland like?” Catrina asked. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“Green, gorgeous, it rains a lot … hence the lush colours of the vegetation. You can’t beat the people, they’re the best.”
“From my experience there are two types of people, those that are fun-loving and those that are happy being miserable,” Jamie replied, and we both chuckled because we were thinking of Seamus, Archie and Ronan three nosey old regulars who always complained and bickered with one another.
“What category are you in, Daisy?” Ryan asked me and winked. “My guess is you’re a lot of fun. You must be if my uncle, here, is hot for you,” he remarked, trying to get a rise out of me.
“Oye, Ryan, I won’t have you disrespecting her,” Jamie told him, tightening his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. I immediately felt embarrassed.
“Now, see, that’s your dirty rock star mind working there, Uncle Jamie. I was meaning she looked like the kind of girl that liked dancing and parties and such,” Ryan clarified.
“Right,” Jamie remarked, although his eyes were narrowed in warning toward his nephew.
I tried to look unaffected by his comment, but I was with Jamie on Ryan’s remark. That boy had hit on me from the moment I’d entered the house.
“You’ll have to excuse my brother, he’s as subtle as a sledgehammer on glass, but I think our Ryan has developed a little crush on your woman there, Uncle,” Nick goaded.
“She could do worse,” Ryan snapped cockily.
“I’d apologize for the boys, Daisy, but the more we try to keep them in check, the worse they get. It’s like a form of Tourette’s with Ryan. He’s still a horny teenager who acts like he’s just discovered what his cock is for,” Jamie stated in a slapdown as he flashed a glare in Ryan’s direction.
Beer spewed everywhere when Paddy began laughing, coughing and choking as Bernie giggled and slapped his back. “Is that so?” Bernie asked, looking concerned for Paddy.
“God help him when he gets to college. He’s going to wear those chicks down with his charm,” Paddy muttered, and Bernie chuckled, picked up her drink, and threw it back in one.
“Or wear his dick down trying to charm them,” Nick replied.
The look on Ryan’s face told me he knew he’d gone too far with his joke and he shook his head. “Sorry, Daisy, they’re right, I didn’t mean any disrespect I just pushed