“As well as beautiful, courageous ladies and saints and elf armies,” Pop Pop added.
“And one peaceful dove, but let’s don’t bring that up in front of Colm. It’s a bone of contention for him that his name doesn’t mean something tough…or cool.”
Pop Pop was clearly pleased Padraig recalled the meaning of everyone’s names. The two of them continued to look around the room together, chuckling when they spotted Will and Keira sneaking off toward the storage closet like a couple of teenagers, hand in hand.
“Ewan’s right. We need to put a lock on that closet to keep the family from using it as Lover’s Lane,” Padraig mused.
“No,” Pop Pop said. “If we did that, it would only tie up the restrooms.”
Padraig laughed. “Excellent point.”
“Besides, Sunday and I availed ourselves of that storage closet on quite a few occasions as well. It was the only place we could sneak kisses without Sean or Riley catching us, proclaiming our show of affection ‘gross.’”
“They seem to have changed their tunes on that,” Padraig said as they watched Riley, who was delivering food, stopping behind Aaron to place an affectionate kiss on the top of his head. Aaron reached around, squeezing her butt as she swatted at him, laughing.
Another glance toward the darts game and Padraig spotted Sean and Chad high-fiving, just before giving each other a quick buss after hitting a bull’s-eye.
“There’s so much love in this room,” Pop Pop said. Padraig followed his grandfather’s gaze around the pub, taking it all in.
Pop Pop was right. Everywhere he looked, he saw it. He saw it in the way Sunnie and Darcy excitedly talked about babies, rubbing each other’s stomachs, as Bubbles wiped away a happy tear. In the way, Lochlan grasped May’s hand and pulled her to the floor for a slow dance. The way Ewan stole Natalie’s camera from her, holding it over his head until she gave him a kiss. In the way Dad fist-bumped his twin, Killian, after he and Justin won the second round of darts. In the way Emmy caught his gaze from the dance floor, blowing him a kiss that he pretended to catch.
“So much love,” he murmured, repeating Pop Pop’s observation, feeling like the most blessed person on the planet.
“It’s the Irish in them,” Pop Pop said with a twinkle in his eye. “Everyone knows the Irish are passionate, fun-loving, high-spirited, devoted, loving…wild.”
Reaching for a pint glass, Padraig walked to the tap and filled it with Guinness before returning to his grandfather, lifting it in a toast. “To the Wild Irish?”
Pop Pop chuckled. “To the Wild Irish.”
Epilogue
“Mind a couple of visitors, Pop Pop?”
“For you, my dear. Always. And I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. I like the sound of the words Pop Pop coming from you.” He smiled as Emmy walked in, and she caught him putting the bookmark into one of her novels.
Emmy had called him Mr. Collins right up until the day of her wedding to Padraig, when the dear man put his foot down, insisting he wouldn’t walk her down the aisle if she didn’t call him Pop Pop. She’d made the switch instantly because she didn’t want to take the chance he was serious. She’d called him Pop Pop, he’d offered her his arm, and together the two of them walked down the aisle toward Padraig, who awaited her with so much love in his eyes, it had taken her breath away.
“Haven’t you read that one a few times before?” Emmy asked, gesturing toward the book with a tilt of her head.
Pop Pop winked at her. “I’ve read it at least a dozen times, my sweet girl. It’s my favorite of yours. You wrote my story with Sunday so beautifully.”
Emmy had asked Pop Pop if he would mind if she penned the story of how he met and fell in love with Sunday. He’d been incredibly touched, and the two of them had spent the better part of two months in this room as he shared memories that Emmy wrote down. The book—his story—was her best-selling book to date, and it was one of the things she was most proud of.
That and…
Emmy glanced down and smiled at her baby daughter, sound asleep in her arms.
Pop Pop holding out his arms expectantly.
Emmy laughed softly as she placed Lila Rose Collins in his arms. She and Padraig had named their daughter after her mother, Lila, and given her Mia’s middle name, a namesake for two extraordinary women.
As she often did, Emmy drifted over to Pop Pop’s wall of family pictures, looking to see if he’d made any changes since the last time she’d visited. She studied one she hadn’t seen of Hunter and Ailis, standing outside their new tour bus, and grinned when she spotted a fun one of Yvonne, getting a piggyback ride on Leo’s back at a family picnic last summer.
Then she gasped, spying another picture she’d never seen before. “Where did you get this?”
Pop Pop chuckled but didn’t rise, well aware which photograph had caught her eye. “Wondered when you’d see that. I found it by chance.”
“Where?”
“On my phone, if you can believe it.”
The picture was of her and Padraig the very first time she’d ever been in Pat’s Pub. She’d forced herself to walk in that day, fighting through her discomfort of sitting and eating alone in a restaurant. She’d chosen the spot at the end of the bar, hoping it would make her less noticeable, and then she’d set up her laptop even though she’d had no intentions of writing. The laptop had been another layer of distraction, another shield. She thought people who glanced her way would merely assume she was working through her lunch break.
That might have worked with normal people, but neither Padraig nor Pop Pop had ever met a stranger, and she’d been no exception.
“Don’t know if you recall or not,” Pop Pop went on to explain, “but I’d gotten a brand-new phone that day. Yvonne was waiting tables and when she saw me struggling to figure the darn thing out, she stopped by my stool to show me a few tricks. You and Padraig were chatting, unaware that I was practicing how to use the camera feature with you two as my subjects. That was the very first picture I ever took. I always liked it, so I kept it.”
Emmy studied it more closely, looking at it through different eyes. In the photo, Padraig was leaning against the counter directly opposite her, the same way he always did. She was laughing at something he’d said as he smiled.
“Paddy didn’t smile a lot back then, but damn if you didn’t get a genuine one out of him within minutes. I think that’s why I kept the picture originally. Those days, it was rare to see him look so at ease, so happy. Then…I held on to it because it became obvious you were going to be very special to him. To all of us.”
Emmy, touched by his kind words, fought hard not to shed happy tears. “You moved down the counter that day and sat next to me, chatting like we were old friends. It was the reason I came back. You made me feel so comfortable, welcome.”
“I’m sure I was one of the reasons you returned, but you and I both know, the main reason was Paddy.”
Emmy acknowledged that truth with a nod. “Guilty as charged.”
She started to cross the room to her usual chair, but Pop Pop stopped her. “Hold on a second. I wonder if you might grab that scrapbook from the bottom shelf of the bookcase.”