Who's Your Paddy?

Chapter 16

I didn't get any more information out of Tom. The moment I prodded him for more, he backtracked and dismissed it as something he shouldn't have been talking about.

His doing so only made it worse. My boyfriend had me on some kind of emotional rubber band and there was something that all his friends were reluctant to discuss. Of course, Liam is the one that I needed to get the information from and the more I pushed, the more evasive he became.

I did take small comfort in the conclusion that there was no way all of his friends, who obviously knew the story, would remain so loyal to Liam if what I didn't know was something horrible. But that didn't mean I stopped thinking about it. It became pretty much all I thought about. I wanted to keep digging behind his back but that felt horribly disloyal. Of course, the thought of not doing so also made me miserable. I wasn't sure if it was the information I was really after, or if I just wanted Liam to end up being one of the good guys.

The morning my feature was due to hit the newsstand, I sat clutching my coffee to my chest and admitted that the honest answer was both. I wanted to know the details and needed Liam to end up being the good guy I had hoped for.

Thankfully, Michelle called and her excitement over the news that Ireland was official was exactly the kind of distraction I also desperately needed.

She hollered so loud, I had to pull the phone away from my ear. "Fuck yeah!"

"Listen, I'll still try to come there too, but don't be disappointed if I can't. Okay?"

"I'll take Ireland over your coming here any day! So gimme details. When, from where, how long?"

"I don't know that yet, but it'll be two weeks for sure. Hoping sometime like the 31st or 1st."

"Annie, it's only a couple weeks away, those tickets aren't cheap if you wait 'til last minute."

"Yeah I know, I'm on it. Hey, when are you flying out of Boston?"

"Ooh, maybe we can hook up at Logan and fly together!"

"Exactly."

After the call, I hurried to finish getting ready for work. I wanted to get out and grab a copy of the feature before the morning traffic got heavy.

My first stop once I reached the office was at Jim's cubicle. I was dying to see the group photos he'd taken in the pub. Nearly all of the shots were stunning and I left him with a disk in hand so I could look into getting a few of them framed. I decided a small thank you would go a long way to smoothing over any rough edges. Every had been on edge from what was going on with Liam and I.

Quick Frame was one of our advertisers, so I went ahead and set up an appointment. After identifying myself as a reporter for the paper, they offered to send a sales rep to me within the hour. Right on cue the salesman arrived and after choosing frame colors and styles, he departed with the promise of same day service.

I dropped a couple copies of the feature into a FedEx overnight envelope addressed to my sister Lindsey and got busy checking voice mail.

Liam's was the first of congratulation messages that came in, so I decided to call him back. We'd been talking every day, but taking things a little slower than we had previously.

"Really great job," he said.

"Thanks, that means a lot."

"I knew you'd do a brilliant job, that was never in question."

"I'm probably gonna stop by the Harp...I mean, if that's okay."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know," I said.