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Chapter 1
“C'mon Catrina, you know you want to! You and the boys will love it. I promise you’ll have the time of your life. Dubliners are so friendly, it’ll be amazing. What else are you going to do? If I’m not with you, it’ll be boring. Trust me, the boys will feed into that vibe and stop hanging around. Do you really want them out there in other people’s homes instead of celebrating the festive season with you?”
My sister had been so dedicated to her boys after the breakup of her marriage, she’d rarely thought of herself.
I worried about her because, Ryan and Nick were due in college. With one due to go in the summer and the other after a gap year, before starting as well. Once that happened, she’d be living alone for most of the year.
“Of course, I’d love it, but first with Thanksgiving and now with this, you’re forcing us upon Daisy for the Christmas holiday. The poor girl will think she’s dating all of us. It's a nice thought, but you and your girl need some time together to let your relationship grow.”
“Daisy won’t have a lot of time for me with running the pub, besides, the way I feel about her, she’s already part of our family. I think the boys will jump at the chance of a trip to Ireland. It’ll broaden their horizons to live like local people and not like tourists. It’s a different way of life.”
“They’ll get all that when they go to college,” she replied.
“Some of that, yes, but think of the cultural exchange of learning how other people live, mixing with people because they have to communicate, not gaining favor because of who I am. Everyone in their social circle knows I’m their uncle. In Dublin they’d have to work harder at being themselves.”
“Okay,” she agreed, somewhat reluctantly, but nevertheless, I still heard a smidge of excitement in my sister’s tone.
Previously, I’d invited them to come and spend time with me when I’ve been on the road. When I’d been somewhere I had thought Cat would love, I’d brought them to visit me for a few days when tours allowed. Having the lifestyle I had was worth nothing if I couldn’t share it with anyone.
“I want you to talk to Daisy first, though. If she agrees, then I’ll discuss it with Ryan and Nick. You know Ryan has a crush on her? You’re going to have to talk to him too. He’s sent text messages to his buddies saying check out Daisy, my Uncle Jamie’s smoking hot Irish girlfriend.”
“Fuck, he didn’t?” I snapped. So far, Daisy and I had managed to contain who knew about our relationship. Deep down I knew it could only be a matter of time before the press got wind of it, but we had tried to preserve our anonymity while we made a more solid footing to our relationship.
“Yeah only to Presley and Nelson. I already had a word about not telling anyone else, but that may need reinforcing.”
I felt somewhat relieved about who knew because the boys in question had a famous Mom, Wynona Lynton, the Country and Western singer. Those boys also knew the price of fame, so I figured my secret was still safe...ish for the time being.
I realized I was smiling while saying this of course, because my nephew had great taste, my girl was smokin’ hot. “I’ll have a chat with him about keeping his hormones under control around my girl, but I can’t disagree with his assessment… he has inherited my taste in women.”
“Somehow I knew that would be your response,” she laughed. “Jamie?” Her voice rose in question.
“Yeah?”
“She makes you happy, doesn’t she?”
“Happiest I’ve ever been,” I replied without hesitation. Before she could deepen the conversation, I wrapped up the call. “Alright, let me talk to Daisy tonight and see what she says, but I can tell you now to pack your bags, you’re going to Ireland for Christmas.”
Leaving Cat on her own at Christmas hadn’t sat well with me, I felt relieved to have won her over because it meant I could relax and focus my attention on Daisy. After concluding the call, I checked the time to see how long it was before I could check in with Daisy. I was still stateside, but I knew she had a break between three and five each afternoon, and I’d planned to call her then. A tight feeling gripped my chest when I saw I still had fifteen minutes to wait.
Although I’d gone back to Ireland with Daisy after the Thanksgiving break, I’d only been able to spend four days with her before I’d had another band commitment. Time flew by too fast whenever I was with her and there was never enough of it until I had to leave again. Since I’d traveled back to New York, I’d Facetimed most days, only missing one day, but spoke on the phone instead.
During the previous couple of calls I sensed some stress creeping into her tone, and she had hurried our calls. Even as we spoke, I had felt as if she were distracted and not really focusing on our conversations at all.
Another thing I’d noticed was that there hadn’t been one time when she had initiated the calls. I had been doing all the running with Daisy, but that was part of the attraction of being with her.
Finally, at 3.01 p.m., I hit the call button on my phone and the line connected on speed dial.
“Daisy’s phone,” Terry answered in a rapid fire broad Irish accent, answering her cell.
“Hey, Terry, Daisy there?” Frustration laced my tone that it wasn’t my woman’s sweet voice.
“Well, not here, no. She’s in the cellar at the moment. The delivery driver was late due to a flat tire. Can I get her to call you back when she comes back up?”
“Sure,” I replied, sounding deflated. I hung up before Terry could say anything else.
I reminded myself she ran a bar, she had responsibilities like she said, and being me, I knew how that felt to have others depend on me and not just be able to do what I wanted, when I wanted. However, I’d never said I’d call a girl before and not had her answer on the first ring.
In front of me, Daisy acted like I was her celebrity crush, but at the same time, treated me like the normal man she was in love with. She had tried not to let the celebrity side of things impact her daily life, until now. Only a very small circle of people within her pub clientele and friends knew who she was dating, and I found that secrecy around our relationship intoxicating.
