Jack and Djinn (The Houri Legends, #1)(21)
“And I tell her of course I’ll do it, even though I got no idea what the silly girl has in mind. So she pushes me down to the ground and starts tuggin’ at me pants, and I’m wonderin’ if the girl has gone and lost her silly damn mind. I say so, too, I ask her, ‘What the bloody hell are you doin’, girl?’ And she just says, ‘Well, I took a dare from Emily that I wouldn’t get married still a virgin, didn’t I? And I’m gettin’ married tomorrow, so I can’t stay a virgin.’ And with that, the girl, whose name I didn’t know, who I’d never met, why, this girl pulls up her dress and shows me her bubbies, and away we go. And it were my first time, that was, right there in the grass behind a bush, with a girl I ain’t never met in my life. And you know what? I still don’t know her name, to this very day. I saw her next day, ridin’ in a wagon with a strapping young lad, and she were dressed all in white with flowers and the whole bit, just married. She passed right by me on that wagon, sittin’ next to her brand-new husband, and she smiles at me, nods, as if we had only spoken in the pub or somethin’. Damnedest thing ever, that was.”
Jack was coughing, having aspirated his beer. “Gramps! You can’t go around tellin’ stories like that!”
“Why ever not, Jackie? It’s all true, every word, and don’t no one know that that’s livin. ’Specially not your grandmother, and I’ll thank you not to repeat it. She’d skin me alive if she knew, though it happened ’fore I ever met her.”
“Gramps,” Jack said, “that never happened, did it?”
“Why, of course it did! Would I lie about that?” Séan grinned, and Miriam saw a glint of roguish humor in his eyes.
“Gramps, you tell the biggest fish stories of anyone I know.”
“This ain’t a fish story. You need more details, to prove it? The girl, she had red hair, all braided up, and she wore a blue gingham dress, with black shoes. And she had a big old freckle, right near her nose, and another one on her ribs, just below her great, big—”
“Gramps! Okay. I believe you.”
“She did have the biggest, roundest bubbies I ever saw, though,” Séan muttered into his cup. Miriam actually laughed out loud at that. Jack just shook his head and finished his beer, then stood up to get another.
When he was gone, Miriam asked, “Was that story really true, Séan?”
Séan nodded. “Oh, aye, mostly. I did know her, though. Kate O’Hara, her name was. And we’d been flirtin’ all summer. I’d been tryin’ to get up the nerve just to kiss her for weeks. But I really was fishin’ with my mates on a Sunday after mornin’ mass, and she came up and took my pole from me and dragged me off and we really did…you know…without so much as her sayin’ nary a word. I guess she got tired of me hemmin’ and hawin’ about it. It was a dare, that’s true enough, and she did get married the next day, as I said.”
Miriam heard Jack just inside the kitchen, and it sounded as if he was angry about something, his voice raised. Jack threw the screen door open and stormed out, followed by a younger man who looked enough like Jack that she assumed it was his brother. He was an inch or two shorter than Jack, but wider and more muscular, wearing a white tank top and black jeans, his massive arms covered in tattoos. “I said I don’t want to talk about it,” Jack was saying. “There’s nothing to discuss, okay? Just let it go, Jimmy.”
“You’ve never let me explain, though,” Jimmy yelled. “She came on to me! She was throwin’ herself at me—what was I supposed to do?” They were now out in the middle of the yard, standing face to face. Jack pushed Jimmy, hard.
“You were supposed to say NO! You were NOT supposed to sleep with my fiancée!” Jack was furious, the veins in his neck standing out, the muscles in his arms corded and bulging, fists clenched.
Jimmy shoved Jack back, shouting, “Well, I did, didn’t I? She was a slut! She was sleepin’ around on you behind your back the whole time you were with her. You were just too damn stupid to see it. She slept with your friend Brian, too. Did you know that? And I slept with her again, after you broke up. The day you dumped her, she came back here, and I f*cked her in my car.”
Jimmy was poking Jack in the chest, spitting his words, goading Jack, who half-turned away, rubbing his forehead. Then he whirled around and hit Jimmy in the jaw. He struck so fast Miriam wasn’t even sure what had happened until Jimmy stumbled backward, staring at Jack with anger in his eyes. Getting to his feet, he then bull-rushed Jack, swinging both fists. Jack took one to the gut, but the other missed, and then Jack was dancing away, Jimmy following, head down between his shoulders, fists low, bouncing on his heels. Miriam stood up to stop it, but Séan pulled her back to the swing.
“Nah, let ’em go, lass. They’re Irish boys—that’s how they solve things. And those two have had this comin’ for a while now. Best for them to get it out rather than stay angry.”
“So no one’s going stop it?” Miriam was horrified.
Séan shook his head, waving a hand at the fighting brothers. A crowd had formed around them, cheering them on. “It ain’t a family party without a scrap, is it? Oh, I know you’re worried for your boy. You can relax, girlie. Jackie can take care of himself. I know Jimmy is a rough-lookin’ sort, and he is, right enough. He fights in those, what do you call it, cage matches. Disgraceful, if you ask me, fightin’ for money like that, tearin’ apart people you don’t know, just for show. But Jackie, now, he’s a canny scrapper, he is. Don’t look it, but he is. Jimmy loves the fight. He’s got the warrior in him. Jack ain’t that way—he only fights if he has to, and he fights to get it over with.