“Aye, she is. And she will be good te ye, Jack, if ye are good te her. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“Yeah, about that,” Jack said, his smile slipping a little. This was it. The perfect opportunity to suggest selling the bar back to him. Now that the taxes were paid off, Danny could pay him back with a portion of the profits each week. “Kathleen and I, well, we talked about it. And we wanted to know if you - ”
“Would consider staying on with us,” Kathleen said suddenly from his elbow. Jack stared at her, but she pointedly ignored him. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “After all, you know the business better than we do, and everybody knows you, Mr. Finnegan.”
The man’s eyes lit up. “They do, don’t they?”
“Aye.”
Jack continued to gape until Kathleen discreetly stepped on his foot. He closed his mouth. The pressure on his instep ceased.
“What did ye have in mind, lass?”
Jack was wondering the same thing. He had no idea where she was going with this, but he was every bit as curious as the old man to find out.
“Public relations.”
“Public relations,” he murmured.
“Yes. I can handle the books, and Jack can deal with the business stuff and getting the place fixed up, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for PR. That’s where you’d come in. You could set your own hours, come in and spend time with the customers. Tell them the history of the place. Get them talking and feeling comfortable. You have a gift for spinning a yarn, Mr. Finnegan.”
Son of a bitch, Jack thought. She had the old man eating out of the palm of her hand. He had stars in his eyes, for Christ’s sake.
“Kathleen, love, can I speak with you for a minute?”
She smiled up at him, the picture of wifely innocence, but he saw the glint in her eyes. “Of course. Excuse us, please, Mr. Finnegan. Think about it, okay? You’d really be doing us a huge favor.”
Jack grasped her around the elbow and tugged her into the stairwell, nearly blushing under the knowing stares of the women in the kitchen. Clearly they thought he and Kathleen were sneaking off for an entirely different reason.
The thought had crossed his mind. It was impossible to glimpse his new bride smiling and talking with the townsfolk and not want to throw her over his good shoulder and take her upstairs for a bit of loving. But in the interest of public decency, he would rein in his lustier impulses and resist until they managed to shoo everyone out which, at this rate, might be a while.
“What are you doing?” Jack spoke in quiet tones the minute the door closed behind them. “I just had Finnegan ready to buy back the place.”
“I know. That’s why I stopped you.”
“I thought you hated this place.”
“I don’t hate it,” she corrected. “I just didn’t think it was the ideal place to raise a family. What I hated was the fact that you didn’t even consult me first before making such a big decision. A decision that affects both of us, Jack.”
Kathleen’s hand rested upon her belly, and he knew she was thinking of the children they would one day have. One that might be growing inside her even now. The thought made him weak in the knees.
“You’re right. I should have discussed it with you first.” He captured her gaze. “Just like you should have talked to me before offering Danny Finnegan a job. We can’t afford to pay anyone, Kathleen.”
She grinned. “You don’t have to pay him. Just give him free drinks.”
“It would be cheaper to put him on payroll and give him a salary.”
“Good point,” she chuckled. “Best to set a limit.”
Jack looked into her eyes, hardly daring to hope. “Kathleen, does this mean you want to keep the place?”
Kathleen bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Aye, Jack, I do.”
Jack’s heart soared. He would never tire of hearing those words from her lips. And she wanted to keep the Pub. “What changed your mind?”
“You did,” she said, snaking her hands up around his neck. “Watching you today, seeing how you were with all those people who came in to help. For a little while, you looked... happy.”
“You make me happy,” he said huskily, brushing his lips over hers. His hand palmed her breast, stroking his thumb over her now-prominent nipple.
“Yes,” she agreed. “But we can’t do that all the time.”
Jack nipped her lip, then licked away the sting. His hand was already working at unfastening her jeans. “We could try. I say it’s worth a shot.”
Kathleen hissed as his hand slipped down into her panties. He couldn’t stop the low groan when he found her wet and ready.
“We’ve got a full house down there,” she protested weakly.
“Who already believe we’re getting it on right now,” he pointed out. Her jeans were shoved down to her knees and he freed himself.
“Well, we wouldn’t want to disappoint them now, would we?”