“Let me give you a quick tour of the house,” Eoghan said and took Charlotte by the hand. “The house isn’t terribly big, so this’ll be quick.” They walked down the corridor, where photographs of his family celebrating the holidays and Eoghan growing up lined the walls. “I’ll show you my room,” he said.

  He took her inside his room, now the guest room, which contained many of his awards and trophies. Pictures of him and the MAKin’ crew as they climbed the levels remained the best features in the room.

  “Oh my gosh. You guys were so skinny back then,” Charlotte cooed at his younger self. “So cute.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “I love this one with you and your parents,” she said.

  “That was when I got accepted into the juniors for the Republic of Ireland. Big day.” He reminisced about how excited he’d been. “Oul Donal couldn’t have been prouder. It was the first day I’d ever seen him cry.”

  She hugged his waist and squeezed. “Thank you for showing me this,” she said. “It’s not every day a girl gets to be in the childhood bedroom of the most famous celebrity in the country.”

  He approached her and brought her body to his. “Exciting, isn’t it.” He fluttered his eyebrows for her before angling his head for a kiss. Her glossed lips were warm and inviting.

  “I see where this is heading.” She scooted around him. “Your parents are right downstairs, and your dad hates me. The last thing I want him to do is find us doing the nasty.”

  “I can’t remember the last time I heard that term.” He laughed. “First of all, my dad doesn’t hate you. He’s a hard man. You’ll get used to it.” As soon as he said the words, he heard how presumptuous they sounded.

  “Supper’s ready,” his mother called, and he was relieved that he and Charlotte hadn’t started something that would have been interrupted.

  They gathered around the small dinner table, his father pouring wine and his mother pointing out the dishes for Charlotte.

  “We have beef stew and corned beef, braised cabbage, and herbed mashed potatoes. There’s plenty, so please help yourself. I also got a red-velvet cake for dessert from the bakery. I hear that in Harlem, it’s a popular dessert.”

  Eoghan’s heart melted at the thought his mother had put into making Charlotte feel welcome.

  “Thank you for welcoming me for dinner. This is great, Grace. Red velvet is quite popular in the States. I appreciate the thought. It’s one of my favorites.” Charlotte smiled.

  This was what he’d wanted to see happen with her and his family. They ate and drank with light small talk for the first half of dinner, and Eoghan loved the interest his mother took in Charlotte’s upbringing and New York.

  “Harlem is world known. The Harlem Renaissance,” his mother said, her eyes bright. “When we visit the States, we pass through to see the Apollo Theater and the murals. The restaurants are amazing. Have you seen much of our country?”

  “I’ve seen a few places in Dublin and the north of Ireland as well. County Monaghan,” she said. “Eoghan took me to see Castle Leslie.”

  His mother dropped her fork and stared at him. He felt the heat on his face and probably looked like he did at the end of an intense game, minus the sweat dripping from his face, clothes, and hair.

  Charlotte, ever sharp, noticed the exchange between him and his ma. “Is something wrong?”

  Grace cleared her throat. “No. That’s lovely, Charlotte. The north is the gem of the country for sure.”

  They continued to eat, and Eoghan settled into the meal, happily swallowing spoonfuls of his beef stew, but he was sure his mother would find him with questions later.

  “So,” Eoghan’s father said. “You’ve worked your way up from doing Eoghan’s cleats to doing ones for the whole team, eh?”

  “Da,” Eoghan said. Charlotte hadn’t fully picked up on the intention of his question, but there was definitely one.

  “What? It’s ambitious, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, it is. When the top of the organization approached me, I couldn’t say no,” Charlotte responded.

  “And his boots?” his father asked her.

  Eoghan interjected, answering in Charlotte’s stead. “I’m wearing the boots game after game.”

  “How’s that going for you?” His father scratched his brow with his thumb and sat up with his elbows on the table, and Eoghan wondered what lecture he was about to hear. “You’re slow, tripping over yourself out there like you’re in the juniors again.”

  Eoghan went into himself like he normally did with his father. He wanted to speak his mind but also stay respectful. It was a constant struggle, and there were times he’d just succumb to his father.

  “That’s not very fair,” Charlotte tried to mumble, but it came out at standard volume for inside voices.

  “Football isn’t fair, deary,” Donal said.

  “Actually”—Charlotte held up a finger—“it’s quite fair. I mean, there are plenty of rules, some of which I’m still figuring out and others that are just trash.”

  “Football means a lot to us, especially this family. I’m not sure how much you know about it.”

  “I respect that, but it doesn’t take a football expert to understand when a grown man is being criticized for doing his best.”

  “You keep talking like you know my son better’n I,” his father said.

  “Not at all, Donal, but I know him very well, just in a different way,” she said. Everyone at the table paused what they were doing. He could only imagine their interpretation of Charlotte’s words.

  She looked around the table. “Oh! Not like that.” She giggled nervously. “I’m, well, not only . . . what I mean to say is, business-wise and working with him on something so personal as a customized shoe has allowed me to get to know him in a different way. Eoghan’s such a wonderful man. I’m just saying that you can learn about that side of him too.”

  Grace jumped in. “Like what?”

  “I keep telling you, we know him just fine,” Donal said.

  “Do you know that he loves horses?” Charlotte asked.

  “Charlotte,” Eoghan warned.

  “Of course I do,” Donal said.

  “I actually don’t, Da.”

  His father crimsoned, and his body twisted and rocked in his seat. “So now we’re being tricked?”

  His ma shushed his father, which Eoghan hadn’t heard in a long time.

  “Charlotte.” Grace encouraged her to continue, curiosity in her gaze.

  “Yes, you’re right,” Charlotte said. “That was unfair of me. I’m sorry. But I’m just trying to point out that there are things you can still learn about Eoghan.”

  “Just who do you think you are, coming in here, disrupting what we have?”

  “Don’t, Da,” Eoghan said. “Don’t speak to her like that.”

  “You’re okay with her tricking us, then, to prove her little point.”

  “Her methods, no.” He side-eyed Charlotte. “But she didn’t mean any harm.”

  “You agree with her over your own father?” his father said, and Eoghan saw the hurt through the anger.

  “Da, calm down. We can talk about this,” Eoghan said.

  Charlotte cleared her throat to speak. “I have a tendency to be too honest sometimes, Donal, and protect those I lo . . . I care about.” Her lids fluttered, and she held her stomach.

  “You all right?” Eoghan whispered, thinking Charlotte was about to hurl her guts.

  “I didn’t mean to—I only wanted to defend Eoghan,” she said.

  “I don’t believe a word of it,” Donal said. His father stood and left the table.

  “Best to stop talking now, dear,” Grace suggested to Charlotte. “Like you mentioned, my son has hair on his chest. He can speak up for himself.”

  “And when have I been able to do that, Mam,” Eoghan said, wondering when it had all gone so south. “My whole career, once I’d been identified as talented to the point where they wanted to put me on the track, Da has been inserting himself.”

  “What was he to do? Let a child run his own career?” his mother asked.

  “No, but as a man he never helped me take control and be a man about business. Most of that I learned from my agent.”

  “He just wanted to be close to you and part of things.”

  “I know, but he’s taken over to the point where he’s blowing up because I chose a boot without him.”

  His mother’s face softened. She knew all too well about what Eoghan spoke of. “You have to find a way to make him understand, son. There are better ways to go about it than ruining his supper.”

  “I’ll help you clean up, Grace.” Charlotte exchanged glances with his mother, and whatever was shared between them, he stayed out of it.

  What the fuck had she been thinking, agreeing to coming here? Charlotte found herself doing a lot of things she didn’t think she’d do as it related to Eoghan, and many of them felt out of control and led by emotions that overrode her common sense. If she’d had her wits about her, she’d have declined his invitation when he’d asked her to come. Thank you, but no thanks. Instead, her overwhelming need to protect Eoghan and stand with him had taken precedence. Now here she was, at the dinner table in the middle of an argument with a family that wasn’t hers. Didn’t Eoghan know that she was too bullish to be trusted to keep her mouth shut? He should have known better. What had he been thinking? She’d fallen into a trap and was petrified that, like her mom, she’d started making decisions with him in mind, yet the thought of being without him made her feel empty, lost.

  Eoghan had gone to find his father, and Charlotte stacked plates on the counter and brought serving dishes with food into the kitchen. She genuinely wanted to help Grace clean up, but she needed to do her penance as well. She really had a problem and couldn’t help but speak her mind.

  “Will Donal be okay?” Charlotte asked, putting plates into the dishwasher.

  “He’ll be fine,” Grace said as she put a pot in the sink to soak.

  “My goal wasn’t to disrupt dinner,” Charlotte said hesitantly. “I’m not trying to replace anyone or pretend that I know Eoghan better than his family. I just . . .” She didn’t know how to say what she meant without further irritating Grace.

  “You care about him.”

  “Yes,” Charlotte said simply. “He’s a friend, and well, I’ve met a few bullies in my time . . .”

  Grace put the food in more manageable containers for the refrigerator. “Donal is a bully for sure, but he loves his son.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  “But?” Grace asked. “You’ve something to say, then say it.”

  Grace sounded just like her son. “I think he micromanages Eoghan and inserts himself when Eoghan can and should advocate for himself.” Charlotte braced herself for Grace’s wrath, which never came.

  “You’re right in some respects. I’ve asked him to ease off on occasion, but I think that it would be best that Eoghan asserts himself with his da.”

  “Because we’re women?” Charlotte asked.

  “A pinch perhaps, but he’s waiting for Eoghan to show him and tell him what he wants. Donal’s a private man and would have preferred to deal with something like this as a family affair.”

  “I overstepped,” Charlotte said. “I’m sorry for that too. Please convey my feelings to him. I really was looking forward to getting to know you both more, but . . .”

  “You have. This is our family. We’re loving, brutish, opinionated, and dysfunctional like any other family,” Grace said. “You were protecting your man.”

  “We aren’t . . . I . . . um. I’m . . . we’re actually . . .”

  “Are ya or aren’t you with Eoghan?”

  “We haven’t said anything official about it—”

  “Yer face says you are.”

  “Whew. It’s warm in here, isn’t it?” Charlotte examined the silver handles of the brown cabinets above the black-and-stainless-steel stove in the updated kitchen. The pop of yellow from the stand mixer drew her eyes, helping her to avoid Grace’s.

  “He took you to Castle Leslie,” Grace said. “I think you are. Even if you’re not aware of it as yet.”

  Charlotte felt her brows knit. “What does Castle Leslie have to do with anything?”

  Grace tilted her head. “Surely Eoghan has told you that if he ever found the person he wanted to spend his life with, he’d take her to Castle Leslie. He wants to get married there.”

  Charlotte’s jaw locked, and her teeth ground with the pressure. She wasn’t sure if she was still breathing, but by the dryness in her eyes, they were bulging.

  “Sit down, dear, you look like you’re about to fall over,” Grace said and slid a circular stool directly under Charlotte’s seat. “I’m assuming this is news?”

  Charlotte nodded blankly, unable to recall when she’d actually sat down. The savory fragrances of the meal that had made her stomach growl earlier now nauseated her flipping stomach. She shouldn’t have been surprised by what Grace had revealed. She and Eoghan had become intertwined in each other’s lives. Why would the blossoming feelings between them be one sided?

  Charlotte wanted to believe that she didn’t care what his parents thought, but she remembered Yaya telling her about Grace’s dig about Ayanna not being Irish in the traditional sense, and Eoghan had also not so gently alluded to the fact that his mother also wanted this girl to be Catholic. Charlotte, to her dismay, had to admit that she cared what Grace and Donal thought about her.

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “You seem nice enough, Charlotte, but I can’t change what I’ve always wanted for my son. I do want him to be happy. That is what matters most to a mother, but I don’t pretend to have modern values. It’s not so easy to abandon or bury a dream that I’ve always had for his future.”

  “Understood.”

  What the hell did I expect? Grace and Donal’s blessing? No, but she hadn’t expected Grace to tell her what Castle Leslie meant to Eoghan only to knock her down with the fact that she wasn’t good enough for him.

  “Well, it looks like we’re all done in here,” Charlotte said, sliding off the stool, the stress in her body concentrated in her thighs as she stood. “I should get back to Eoghan.” She started to make her way toward the living room and Eoghan.

  “Thanks for your help,” Grace said. “And for coming.”

  “My pleasure.” Charlotte nodded. What was she supposed to say? Thanks for telling me that I’ll never be good enough for your son?

  “Let’s go find the boys,” Grace said and put one hand on Charlotte’s shoulder and carried a container of food in the other.

  Charlotte didn’t expect the gesture and was comforted by it.

  Charlotte and Grace found Donal and Eoghan deep in conversation in the corridor between the living and dining rooms. They stopped abruptly when they saw her and Grace approach. Eoghan offered her a tight smile, and Donal, with hands on his hips, nodded. Grace guided her to the living room.

  Charlotte didn’t know what to make of the situation, but she hoped that Donal hadn’t mowed Eoghan down and had given him a chance to speak his mind.

  “They’ll be done soon,” Grace assured her and handed her the container of food. “This is for you and Eoghan.”

  “Oh.” Charlotte took the glass container with the blue lid.

  “We’ll be in the city for Eoghan’s game in two weeks. Do you think we can meet for tea or lunch?” Grace said.

  “Yes,” Charlotte said, surprised by both Grace’s suggestion and her own response.

  “Ready to go?” Eoghan asked her.

  “Yeah.” Charlotte recognized the abrupt exit. They had to get back to Dublin, but they could have stayed a little longer for Eoghan to spend more time with his family.

  Charlotte reviewed the events of the evening as Eoghan drove her back to her place. The darkness outside threatened to blacken the thread of hope she still clung to within.

  “I know you think tonight didn’t go well—”

  She oscillated her head to him. “Didn’t go well? Eoghan, if dinner was a natural disaster, it’d be a tornado. You were there, right?”

  The steering wheel creaked under the pressure of his grip. “I warned you that my folks were tough, but I guess experiencing them is altogether different.” He sighed. “They’re not bad people, just set in their ways.”

  “I’m glad that you stood up to your father. I didn’t mean to start an argument.”

  “Then why did you say those things or ask my father those questions? You had to know that he’d be frustrated.”

  Charlotte didn’t miss the accusatory tone in his voice. “You know me, Eoghan. I speak my mind ninety percent of the time. I apologized to your father because I really was sorry. You’re blaming me for sticking up for you?”

  “No.”

  “Yes, you are,” she said plainly.

  He combed his fingers through his hair. “All I wanted to do was have a good dinner and have them get to know you.”

  “And we had a delicious dinner that your mom prepared, and they got to know me, whether they liked me or not.”

  “I’m sorry, this isn’t the way I planned for this to go.”

  “Me either.”

  They drove the roadways back to her apartment in silence until they reached the entrance of her building.

  “Do you want me to come up?” he asked.

  That he expressed doubt squeezed her heart. “Let’s talk tomorrow. It’s been a long day, and you have early practice tomorrow.” She wanted nothing more than his arms around her, but what was the endgame? His dad hated her influence in Eoghan’s life, and his mother wanted Eoghan to be with a completely different person. Not only that, but Eoghan was a celebrity football player in Ireland. He had a life here. Charlotte had only come for an assignment, to fulfill a contract. Did she plan on staying after that contract was over? If she was honest and being real, the outlook was bleak.

  “Umm, all right then,” he said softly. “Till tomorrow.”

 

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