Who's Your Paddy?

Chapter 15

The woman from the records hall in Ireland had several emails sent to me in response to my query. None of them were helpful, they came up with the same name variations I came up with in my own internet searches. Crumlin, Ireland couldn't be a very big town, it mystified me how they could come up with nothing.

The other response I'd been waiting for finally happened too. "H-hey." Liam's voice sounded tentative.

"Thanks for calling me back. Can we talk?"

"Yer attack dog Roisin got me already."

"It's not like that."

"I know..." His voice trailed off.

After a moment of silence, I came out and asked. "What's going on? If it's the story I'll-"

"Is that what matters to ye?"

"No. You are what matters."

"Then meet me at the pub in an hour. It'll be quiet, we can talk."

"I will, but the others are supposed to meet me there later for a photo shoot. You sure you want to talk there?"

"Aye, I know. I'm in, but we got a few things ta sort first. I'll be there in an hour."

I was nervous as hell driving to the Harp. To try to calm my nerves, I called Paul to ask him if he'd had time to look at my car. After a suitable berating about my reluctance to purchase a new car, he assured me he'd have mine running by the next day.

The pub was nearly empty. The owner, John Kelly was behind the bar stocking beer. There was one man dressed in a suit at the bar and Liam waved to me from a booth in the corner.

My heart leapt into my throat. Please let him be one of the good guys.

He stood, hugged me a little awkwardly and waited for me to have a seat before opening up with small talk.

"Gonna be mad this week," Liam said, toying with the napkin the waitress left on the table.

I nodded. "I'm excited, it's my first Paddy's Day at the Harp."

"Really? I figured you'd been here before."

"No. First time in my life was the same day I met you. I spilled a drink all over myself. Remember?"

"Yeah. I thought ye were cute. I remembered seein' ya eyeballin' me through the mirror."

"You knew? I thought I was so clever."

"It was clever. I was just more clever is all."

He shifted in his seat and reached a hand across the table. I put mine in his and he closed his fingers around it. He stared at our intertwined fingers for a long few moments. When he looked up, his eyes had a hint of melancholy.

"What're we gonna do?"

"If you aren't comfortable telling me what's going on, Liam, that's fine. All I ask is you don't lie to me."

"I've never lied to ya."

"Listen, if there's something in your past that makes the fact that I'm a reporter uncomfortable, I respect that. I'd rather not push this further and have us go back to where we were. I don't want to toss everything aside because of the story."

"It's not that, I jest wanna keep it separate from our stuff. And I'm really sorry by the way. I acted like an arse."

"Well, you did." I grinned. "But thanks."

He nodded.

"Just tell me what you need from me for this to be a comfortable situation."

"Fer today, Annie, let's jest get through this. Deal?"