When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
Blaecleah Brothers 8
Part Ten
STORMY
GLENN
Copyright
© 2022
Seamus
chuckled as he stepped out of his room with John and Yancy and saw the flush on
his brother's cheeks. Neason was hanging onto Brody like a monkey. Seamus had
no doubt what the pair had been up to...probably the same thing he had been up
to with John and Yancy.
Hopefully,
they were all a lot more relaxed now. Between the early morning rush to get to
the airport, the insane flight across the ocean, and now meeting his
grandparents for the very first time, Seamus was about ready to call it a day.
He
glanced over his shoulder when he felt a hand on his back. Seeing Yancy behind
him, he gave the man a smile. "Hungry?"
Yancy
whimpered.
"Not
to worry, I'm sure they put on a big spread."
Everyone
in their family was aware that Yancy was ruled by his stomach. He was a six and
a half foot tall bottomless pit. Strangely enough, he carried it well. There
wasn't an ounce of fat on his muscular body.
John
did, too, even if he didn't eat as much as Yancy.
Seamus
was a lucky, lucky man.
When
they reached the dining room, he felt as if his luck had just run out. The long
mahogany dining table was set with a full service right down to the cloth
napkins.
"Are
we allowed to even eat on those dishes?" Neason whispered.
Seamus
wasn't so much worried about the bone china dishware as he was about the
crystal wine glasses. Besides, he didn't drink wine. Man, what he wouldn't give
for a good old fashioned barbecue and some beer.
"Come
sit down, boys."
"Yes,
Ma."
They
all moved around the table, surprisingly sitting in the same spots they would
have sat in at home. No one said anything about it, but Seamus saw a few smiles
so he knew his brothers noticed it too.
"I
hope you like beef wellington," Grandmother said. "Our cook prepared
it especially for you."
Seamus
did like beef wellington, but that wasn't what was on the plates the maid's
brought out. There was soup and salad served before the beef wellington came
out.
Seamus
smiled at the woman after taking a bite of the main dish. "Ma has made beef
wellington for us a few times," he said when the silence became strained. "We've
always enjoyed it."
It
was meat. What wasn't to enjoy?
Ava's
eyes darted to Ma. "Does your mother cook a lot?"
Seamus
blinked for a moment, surprised by the question. "Yes. I mean, we've all
moved out the house now, but we all go home for Sunday dinner. She cooks up a
real storm then."
Ava's
eyebrows lifted. "All of you?"
Seamus
chuckled. "We are a rather large family. Pa is supposed to be making Ma a
new dining room table this year because it's getting a bit cramped on Sundays
with all of us there. Good thing all of my brothers are married off now."
"You
forgot the kids," Lachlan said. "If any of us adopt, we'll need the
extra room for sure."
"You're
planning to adopt?" Ava asked Lachlan before glancing at the rest of them.
"Well,
we kind of have to," Seamus started. "It's not like we can—"
"Seamus!"
Seamus
cringed at his mother's whispered hiss.
Yeah,
he was in trouble.
"I
think what my brother is trying to say," Lachlan interjected, "is
that we are looking into adoption."
"All
of you?"
"Neason
and I probably won't adopt," Brody said, "but we'll have lots of
nieces and nephews to adore."
"Because
of his accident?" Ava asked.
"No."
He smiled as he glanced at Neason, fiddling with the hair at the back of
Neason's neck. "Our life doesn't lend itself to children very well."
"Is
that due to your work in the church?"
"That's
one of the reasons," Brody replied.
Seamus
was damned proud of himself for keeping a straight face. He just picked up his
fork and took another bite. It was a well known, but untalked about fact that
Brody and Neason had an unusual relationship. It worked for them and made them
both happy, so no one said anything about it. Since Brody would rather cut off
his arm than harm Neason, none of them cared that it was unusual.
"Have
any of you considered using a surrogate to continue the family name?"
Seamus's
head snapped up at Ava's words. "We are continuing our name." He
pointed to Alani, Aidan, and Niall. "With them."
"Well,
yes, but—"
"We
see no distinction between blood and none-blood children or grandchildren,
Mother. Everyone here is my family."
"Of
course," Ava said before looking down at her plate and getting a forkful
of beef wellington.
Seamus
glanced at his mother. When he saw her tight pressed lips, his temper flared. "I
don't know how things are done in your family, but in the Blaecleah family love
is what binds us together, not blood."
Ma
looked up, and for a moment Seamus thought she would reprimand her again, but
she just smiled and nodded at him. Seamus returned her smile and went back to
eating. He knew this was supposed to be a family reunion of sorts, but it
didn't seem to be going that well. Maybe the rift between Ma's uber rich birth
family and the one Seamus had grown up in was too wide?
Seamus
glanced up when Jenkins came rushing in, moving quickly around the room before
bending down to whisper something in Tierney's ear. Tierney grimaced before
leaning over to say something to his wife. He tossed his napkin down on the
table and stood.
"I'm
afraid I've been called away for a bit. Trouble with one of our mares down in
the stables. "Please, enjoy your dinner and I'll see you tomorrow."
"Trouble
with mare?" Da asked.
"One
of our mares has gone into labor, but she's having trouble. Randolph, our
stable master, believes that she is having a breech birth."
"Tierney,"
Ava whispered harshly, "not at the dinner table."
"Sorry,
my dear."
"Need
some help?" Da asked as he stood. "I've helped my share of mares
through giving birth."
Tierney
looked bewildered for a moment before nodding. "It would be appreciated."
Da leaned
down to press a kiss to Ma's cheek. "I'll be back soon, lass."
Ma
chuckled lightly. "I'll believe that when I see it, Donnell Blaecleah."
When Tierney
and Da walked out of the room, dead silence hung in the air. A quick glance
around the room told Seamus exactly what the problem was. They were all anxious
to get out of there. Going to the stables was a perfect excuse.
Ma
sighed heavily. "Go, go. The rest of us will stay here and watch the
children."
"Thanks,
Ma," several of them said as chairs scrapped back and they stood.
"Would
you mind if I went?" John asked.
"No,
go ahead," Seamus replied. "I'll stay here and help Ma with the
kids."
"I
think Matty and Billy are going to stay. You could come if you wanted to."
Seamus
shook his head. "You and Yancy go. I'm good." He leaned over to press
a kiss to John's cheek, then thought about it and did the same to Yancy.
"You two go have fun."
"Thanks,
babe."
Seamus'
smile grew bigger when he got a kiss on each cheek before his husbands
hightailed it out of the room, followed quickly by several of his brothers, the
blood related ones and the ones related by marriage.
He
glanced toward the end of the table where his grandmother sat. "Is there
dessert?"
"When Irish Eyes
Are Smiling" coming soon!
~~@~~
COWBOY CHRISTMAS
Blaecleah
Brothers 7
Life
has settled down for each of the Blaecleahs. They’ve all found their legends
and are living a life filled with love and happiness. But anything worth having
is worth fighting for and not even the luck of the Irish can keep the
Blaecleahs from having to fight to keep what they have when the past comes back
to haunt them all.
In
order to save Ma and Da, they may have to decide who they want to keep in their
family, and who they don’t before that choice is taken away from them by
someone they never expected.
When
violence threatens them, aid comes from an unusual source but will it be enough
to keep the Blaecleahs in Cade Creek or will the life they have built for
themselves disappear before their eyes?
http://www.bookstrand.com/cowboy-christmas
https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Blaecleah-Brothers-Publishing-Everlasting-ebook/dp/B00SGCDROU
STORY EXCERPT
A Christmas wish…
May you never forget what is worth
remembering,
Or remember what is best forgotten.
~ Irish Proverb ~
“That’s
the last of them.”
Alani
Blaecleah turned to see her husband setting another green rubber tub down on
the hardwood floor of the living room. She chuckled softly when Da grunted and
rubbed his lower back with his hands as he stood.
“You’ll
live, old man.”
“Not
if I keep lugging your holiday boxes around, I won’t.”
Miffed,
Ma planted her hands on her hips and sent her husband her best don’t make fun
of me glare. “Now, you know it wouldn’t be Christmas without all my
decorations, Donnell Blaecleah.”
“Woman,
I’ve been married to you for almost forty years. You could make Christmas
happen with a shoebox and a ball of twine, and have.” Da waved his hands toward
the stack of tubs that held all of the Christmas decorations Ma had collected
over the years. “You don’t need all this fancy stuff to make a holiday.”
Ma
smiled despite Da’s flustering. “They hold our memories.” She reached into the
small box in front of her and pulled out a folded piece of faded paper. Ma set
it on the table and smoothed it open with care. There was a lace doily snuggled
inside the paper. “You gave me this on our first Christmas together,” she said
as she held the small piece of lace lovingly in her hands.
It was
one of her most prized possessions.
“I
remember.” Da’s soft chuckle was as warm and light as summer’s breeze. “We had
nothing that year, barely a roof over our heads or potatoes in the root
cellar.”
“And
yet you found a way to buy this for me.” Ma still remembered how blessed she
had felt when Da gave her the small piece of white lace interwoven with
intricate purple flowers. The small piece of fabric was so delicate she often
worried it would just disintegrate if she breathed on it too hard, but it had
held up for decades.
“Lachlan
was still in diapers and Neason was just a couple of weeks old. We put every
spare penny into making their Christmas special and yet you made mine even
better.”
Ma
felt tears prickle her eyes when weathered but strong hands settled on her
shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze. The warm body of the man that had stood
by her side for so many years pressed gently into her back.
“It’s
just an old piece of cloth, woman.” There was a suspicious sheen in Da’s
pale-green eyes as he turned Ma and wiped his thumbs over her wrinkled cheeks
right under her eyelashes. “Didn’t cost me more than a couple of hours chopping
wood for old man Walker.”
“That
man had two sons that could have chopped wood for him.” Ma pointed a finger at
Da, not in an angry manner, but just to make her point. Her Donnell had a soft
spot whether he wanted to admit it or not. “He didn’t need you to do it.”
“No,
maybe not.” Da’s smile was a beautiful as a sunrise. His eyes twinkled and were
so full of love and affection that Ma felt like she could drown in them. “But he
also had a wife. He knew exactly why I needed to earn a little extra money.”
When
Donnell looked at her with that twinkle in his green eyes, Ma felt like her
husband’s universe. He had been looking at her like that for nearly forty
years. It had been the main deciding factor in her giving up a life of luxury
back in Ireland and coming to the new world with barely a penny to their name.
“No
one looks at me the way you do, Donnell Blaecleah.” Ma’s voice hitched, emotion
tightening her throat. “No one has ever looked at me the way you do.”
Da let
out a bark of rich laughter, a joyous sound that Ma had grown to adore over the
years. “I fought the whole of Ireland to have you, Alani, me love. I would be
very upset if someone else thought they could take you away from me.”
Ma
closed her eyes as she leaned her head back against Da’s solid chest, savoring
the moment for what it was—a slice of time when everything in her world was
perfect. Her soul mate held her in his arms, her sons were happy with their own
partners, and the next generation was alive and well and adored by everyone.
A
shiver of awareness slid through Ma when Da’s fingers threaded through her
graying hair. She was grateful that Da was one of those men not afraid to show
his affections. She, as well as all of their sons, knew that Da loved them, in
word and in deed.
“Do
you miss Ireland, Alani?” The words were whispered almost as if Da was afraid
of the answer although he had asked the same question a hundred times over the
years. Ma always gave the same answer.
Maybe
this time, she should tell him the honest truth.
“I
miss my ma, Donnell. I always do around this time of year. Christmas was her
favorite holiday. I miss watching her decorate the house, the smells that
filled every room, the food, the sense of something bigger than us that seemed
to take a hold of everyone.”
Ma
tilted her head back so that she could look up into the pale-green eyes she had
fallen for as a young girl of barely nineteen. “What I don’t miss is the way my
father tried to run my life, to dictate my every move, right down to who I was
to marry. I don’t miss feeling like I was a disappointment because I failed at
something my father believed I should have mastered just because of the family
I was born into. I don’t miss feeling like anything I did was never good enough
or that everyone in my family felt they were better than everyone else because
we had money and a family name that went back centuries.”
Ma
drew in a quick breath so that she could continue before Da said anything. “The
Blaecleah name is an old and proud one, just as old and proud as my maiden
name. But I’d much rather be a Blaecleah than the name I was born with.”
The
beginnings of a small smile curved up one corner of Ma’s lips as she smoothed
her hands down Da’s chest. “There are things that I miss, Donnell, but I think
the question you need to ask is if I regret coming to America with you and the
answer is a resounding no. It will always be no. Marrying you was the best
decision I ever made, one I have never regretted.”
As his
thumb gently traced Alani’s lip, Da smiled that sweet gentle smile he gave her
when it was just the two of them. “You are the one good thing that has happened
to me in my life.”
Ma
cocked an eyebrow. “What about your sons?”
“Without
you, I would have no sons.”
Ma
chuckled lightly. “Touché.”
“Because
of you, I have six beautiful sons, all of whom have found that one person meant
just for them.” Da’s head cocked to one side, a funny little smile on his face.
“Well, except for Seamus. He found two people. But the point is—”
“The
point is that we are lucky.”
Da
chuckled. “We are Irish, Alani. We’re genetically predisposed to be lucky.”
For
more on the Blaecleah Brothers series, visit my website at http://www.stormyglenn.com/blaecleahbrothers.htm
~~@~~
Stormy
believes the only thing sexier than a man in cowboy boots is two or three men
in cowboy boots. She also believes in love at first sight, soul mates, true
love, and happy endings.
You can
usually find her cuddled in bed with a book in her hand and a puppy in her lap,
or on her laptop, creating the next sexy man for one of her stories. Stormy
welcomes comments from readers. You can find her at:
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