Chapter Nine
“Ro, I’ve been thinking about you for an entire year,” he told her, jumping to the crux of the matter. “I like the man I am when I’m with you. Maybe more importantly—my family likes the way you bring me out of myself. They saw it right away at the pub, and they teased me about it mercilessly.” He chuckled a bit, remembering the comments of his siblings. “But that’s what I wanted to know, and why I invited them along. I wanted to see if the change in me was as obvious to everyone else who knows me well as it is to me. I wondered if they could see that when I’m with you, I’m…happier. I’m a better, more joyful version of myself. I’m the me I always want to be.”
“I like the man you are no matter what, Jim.” She smiled at him, fueling his courage. So far, so good.
“And I love that,” he agreed, not hesitating this time to use the L-word. He’d use it again in a few minutes…if he could keep his nerve. “And I love the way we are together. Hot for each other, but able to conduct ourselves with decorum in public. I love knowing that, when we’re alone, we’re combustible, but when we need to be buttoned down, we both know how to pull it off. I need that kind of control in my life. It’s something that’s important in my chosen profession, and to me, personally, as I think it is to you.”
“I was raised pretty strict, for all that I was brought up in the music business,” she admitted. “I don’t like making a huge spectacle of myself or my relationships, even if I spend a lot of my time in the spotlight. I don’t ever want the gossip about me to be sleazy or mean. Which is why I feel safe with you on that score, Jim. I know you care for your reputation, as well as mine, and I like that about you. A lot.”
“If I leave the Navy and go into private practice, I can live anywhere,” he said, not quite holding his breath in anticipation of her reaction. “I could stay here in Baltimore near my family, or I could relocate. I’m licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey, as well as Maryland.”
“You are?” She sounded interested to his ears. Was she? Was she really? Would she want him to relocate?
“I am,” he confirmed. “The question is, where do you need to be for your career, Roisin?” He was glad to see her breath catch as the implications of his words seemed to hit her. He looked deep into her eyes. “I want to be with you, Ro. Wherever you need to be, that’s where I want to be…if you’ll let me.”
“What are your proposing, exactly?” Her eyes narrowed, her expression unsure.
“Proposing. Yeah, look. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve been dreaming about you for a year now, Ro. Dreaming of what it would be like to be with you all the time. I think it would be amazing, but I know this is all happening really fast. Thing is, I’ve already made up my mind. If you’ll give me—give us—a chance, I’ll ditch the Navy and go wherever I need to go to make us happen. Whether that’s here in Baltimore or up in New York, I’m willing to go the distance if you’ll say you’ll be mine.” He took a deep breath, encouraged by the softening of her expression. “I’d ask you to marry me right now if it wasn’t so crazy. I’m in love with you, Roisin. I think I have been for an entire year.”
Her face crumpled, and tears leaked out the corners of her eyes. Had he totally botched it? Shit!
She took a deep, shuddering breath while he waited to see how badly he’d screwed up.
“I think I’ve been in love with you for a year too, Jim,” she told him, her voice shaky, her words lighting his heart with all the colors of a bright new dawn. “I’d say yes, right here and right now, if it all wasn’t so crazy.” She hiccupped a bit, then settled down, a smile stretching her luscious lips. “How about we agree to a long engagement? If we still feel the same after a year, we’ll do the deed.”
“Are you willing to live with me—in sin—for a year?” He frowned.
A good Irish Catholic girl like her, who had already admitted to being concerned about the reputation she earned in the spotlight might have trouble living with someone. But he couldn’t honestly see how he could do without her in his home—in his bed every night—for much longer.
“We’re committed. Engaged. I don’t see why the public needs to know where I lay my head each night, do you? And my folks will be okay with it. They’re old hippies at heart and would rather see me happy and cautious than rushing into a marriage on the basis of three encounters and a year spent pining.”
“Pining?” He marveled at the old-fashioned word. “Were you really pining for me all that time?”
“Yes, I think I was. I wanted to know where you were and if you were safe. I thought about tracking you down so many times. But I didn’t want to be some stalker chick that wouldn’t leave you alone. I mean, what if I’d found you and you didn’t even remember me? I would have died of embarrassment,” she admitted.
“No danger of that. I think I was pining for you too, Ro, though I never really connected that word to my obsession. I thought about you all the time and wondered where you were and if you remembered me fondly, or cussed me out for taking off that way.”
“I knew you had obligations. You were up front about that from the moment we met. You told me almost right away that you were shipping out in the morning. I knew what I was getting into,” she assured him.
He couldn’t believe how amazing she was. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her close, rocking her gently in his embrace, just grateful for the moment—and for fate, bringing them together again.
After a long time, he let her go and stepped back, dropping to one knee in front of her. He looked up into her eyes in the dim light. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears and he suspected maybe his were too, a little.
“I love you, Roisin,” he told her. “And if, in a year, we still feel the same, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “I love you too.” She wrapped her arms around his neck as he stood, and he carried her back toward the bed, ready to show her just how much he really did love her.
*
Roisin was supposed to drive home on Sunday but decided to extend her stay in Baltimore after her momentous night with Jim. She checked out of her hotel and went over to Jim’s apartment. It was a small bachelor pad that he’d rented until he could find something better, but it would do for now. They had plans to hatch.
First, she had to call her folks and try to explain a bit about what was going on. She couldn’t tell them all of it at once, because she knew it sounded completely crazy, but she was able to enlist some help from Tristan Collins, who vouched for Jim when Roisin’s father called him after hanging up with Roisin. That helped. And the fact that Jim was planning to ask for leave later in the week and make a trip up to New York to meet her folks was another calming influence.
Roisin was invited to Sunday dinner at Jim’s parents’ home and was welcomed by his siblings like an old friend. His parents were gracious, and although skeptical about the instant relationship, they were kind to her.
After dinner, when they were all sitting around talking, the phone rang. Oddly enough, the caller was Jim’s aunt, who asked to speak to Rose. Roisin took the phone, not really understanding what was going on, but his aunt turned out to be a sweet-voiced woman who welcomed her to the family as if she knew all about their plans to marry in a year, though they had deliberately not said anything about that to anyone else yet.
When Jim’s aunt hung up, Roisin handed the phone back to him. “How did she know?”
Everyone laughed. “Auntie Maeve always knows,” Kayla intoned in a comical voice like an old-time movie announcer.
“You’ll get used to her in time, dear,” Jim’s mother said. “Maeve has a way about her. She knows things without anybody ever telling her a thing.”
“She’s the one who told me to trust in fate,” Jim told Roisin. “And fate brought us together again.” He kissed her temple tenderly, affection clear in his every touch. “Fate made a believer out of me when it brought me you, Ro.”
And almost one year to the day of their reunion, with both families in attendance —including Auntie Maeve—Jim and Roisin were wed.
*
Thanks for reading Wild Irish Rose by Bianca D’Arc. If you’d like to know more about Bianca’s work, check out her website at . You can also sign up for her to be notified when she has new books out.
And be sure to look for more stories about the Irish music scene in her upcoming series, Irish Lullaby, coming soon.
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