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Thankfully, with the equilibrium between the sisters back in place, it had only taken twenty minutes for all the seating arrangements to be configured with name tags, thanks to Daisy’s clipboard seating schedule. With the buffet tables in place, and only five hours to go to the turn of the year, all that was missing for the party night was the disco, the band, the customers and the rest of the food.
“How many people are coming to this party?” Nick asked once everything was ready, his eyes flitting between Daisy and Poppy like he didn’t know who he should ask.
“We’re at capacity tonight in the function room. Fire regulations say we can only have two hundred.”
“Trust me, boys, you’re going to love it,” I told them after my hilarious experience on St. Patrick’s Day that year. I could see by their faces they weren’t convinced.
“It’ll be a nice opportunity for all of you to connect with your heritage,” Daisy quipped, good naturedly. I was glad to see her back to her usual sunny self. Pissed off Daisy was scary Daisy.
“Big question. Do we get a table, and can we drink as much as we want, Daisy?” asked Ryan, who’d been unusually quiet. He was great at picking up vibes, and although he pushed his boundaries all the time, he was intuitive, at least as to when not to get involved.
“Yes, I set a table aside for all of us, for later. You’re classed as an adult in Ireland, Ryan, so the choice is yours. All I ask is that you don’t embarrass yourself or the pub. I have the power to say when I think you’ve had enough, and your Uncle Jamie might need a hand to clear tables and glasses if things get overwhelming. Oh, and you don’t call him Uncle Jamie.”
“Are you saying we’ll have to work?” he asked.
“Do you have a ticket to attend?” Daisy pressed her point that if he didn’t, and he wasn’t prepared to help, he had no business being there. I loved how quickly she thought on her feet to put my nephew in place without an outright challenge.
“Ouch, I’d just like to say it would be my pleasure to help things run smoothly,” he replied, catching her drift.
Daisy scoffed and shook her head, but bit back a smile at the same time. Placing one hand on her hip she pointed toward the pub entrance.
“Any minute, people will start coming through those doors. Their main objectives for this evening will be to dance their legs off, have a fabulous time, but most of all, they’ll try to drink this pub dry. The small bar will constantly be five deep in bodies and they take their drinking seriously. However, once the band takes over, the agency staff will be on their own so we can all have some fun and bring in the New Year together.”
“Is the place going to be full of old people?” Nick asked. His eyes followed a couple of the band members enter the bar, one carrying his accordion, the other with his fiddle case.
“Of course not,” Daisy chuckled, “they’re some of the band, she replied waving in acknowledgement to the guys, before turning her attention back to Nick. The questioning glare on Nick’s face made me laugh.
“We have some single sexed groups in their twenties and thirties, and because your Uncle Jamie, or Barney as he is known here in the pub, is very popular with the ladies, we have lots of groups of single ladies coming just to watch him collect the glasses,” Terry informed them.
Ryan chuckled, still finding that fact hysterical. “Let me get this straight. They come not knowing he’s a rock star, but he still gets mobbed by lots of hot chicks anyway? And you’re okay with that?” he asked Daisy.
“Here they can look but not touch, because they all know Barney is mine,” Daisy piped up with a grin.
“Honestly, lads, your uncle’s a legend here and not because he sings,” Terry said to the boys nodding his head toward me. “I’ve already been tagged in umpteen tweets and Instagram posts with the hashtag #jamiefontainelookalike #luckyshamrock from local women excited to see Barney at the dance tonight. I have no idea what they’re going to do when they all see two lookalike members of DistRoyed in the same small bar. I think when Paddy arrives, the game we’ve all been playing might be up.”
“True, but as all the tickets have already been sold, there will be no press here to validate the story,” I remarked. But Terry was right, with Paddy coming to the ceilidh, there would undoubtedly have been questions as to who I was.
Daisy interrupted with a look that told me she couldn’t begin to contemplate how she would cope with the public knowing who she was and took the boys to help her carry four crates of fruit juices up to the bar, right before Terry opened the door.
“Hey Jamie, this place has a lot of potential; it’s close to the city center, has local customers and a function room. This could be a great little investment for you both financially and it would show a commitment to Daisy,” Catrina suggested as Daisy came back into earshot.
“That’s not happening. The owner won’t sell,” Belle stated, deadpan as she wandered past us from the kitchen door with a stack full of white pottery plates.
“Here, let me,” Terry offered, diving forward and carefully transferring the plates from her arms to his.
“I’m sure if the price was right, he would,” Catrina replied, looking to me like she was prompting me to say something. “I mean if you owned the place, you could arrange to have someone to co-manage whenever Daisy was away.”
“Away where?” Daisy asked as she and my nephews came back from the cellar, each boy carrying a keg of beer. I shot forward and took the keg from my girl’s hands. “Could you go and take those up to Terry in the function room, lads.” Turning to look at me, her brow furrowed. “Well?” she asked waiting for me to reply.
“Cat was suggesting I maybe buy the place to give us more freedom. I mean I know we’re not there yet, but we should start to think about next year. I’ll probably tour at some point and I’ll ask our management to set up something around the times when you’re not busy at the end of January, February and the first part of March, September and October?”
“Daisy?” Poppy asked, her eyes shifting suspiciously from my girl to me. “They don’t know you’re already the owner?”
My eyes shifted from Poppy to Daisy who blushed, and I felt shocked she had never said anything about actually owning the pub.
“It just hadn’t come up yet,” Daisy replied, with a guilty look on her face. “Thanks a lot, Poppy” she mumbled, throwing her a death glare.
“It’s come up now,” I stated, flatly.
