It's in His Kiss Holiday Romance Collection (9 page)

“Where can we find him?” Cathy asked, quickly standing.

“Lives outside of Milwaukee, small town called Cudahy. So that’s why you’re here. You’re needing a bit o’ luck yourself, then?”

“You could say that,” Ronan told him. “Do you have an address, and a phone number?”

Paul pulled his phone out from his pants’ pocket, sliding his finger across the small screen. “Great guy. Was kind of down on his luck when I gave him the coin about three years ago. Didn’t believe in its power even after I told him about my babies. Can you believe that?”

“Yes,” Cathy said, staring at Ronan.

“Some people just need more proof, that’s all,” Ronan quipped in self-defense.

“Three babies should be proof enough.” Paul’s fingers stopped moving on the screen. “Here’s his address. Have his phone number as well. Want me to call and clear the way for you guys?”

“Sure. Thanks,” Ronan said. In the meantime, Cathy copied the information into her phone.

“I’ll let you know if there’s any problem with your stopping in to pick up the coin.”

“We better get going, thanks for the tea and cookies.”

“Anytime. Don’t be a stranger.”

Everyone hugged again and five minutes later, Cathy and Ronan were on their way to Cudahy, about a two-hour drive, to meet up with Sean, the current owner of the coin.

All during the drive, Cathy had a strange feeling Adhamh wasn’t far behind.

* * *

“He’s following us you know,” Cathy said as they pulled up in front of Sean Costello’s house, and parked.

“I’ve had a feeling that someone’s been watching us all day.” Ronan hadn’t exactly seen anyone tailing them, not in the physical sense. He simply knew there was someone watching them. Even now, as he turned off the ignition, he felt as if they weren’t exactly alone. He flashed on what Tommy had said about someone following him, and wished he had taken him more seriously.

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

“Then you saw him out the front window at Paul’s house?”

“I caught something move in the front yard. Something or someone wearing funny green pants, but when I looked more closely out the window, nothing was there.”

“So why didn’t you walk outside and check it out, like a good cop should?”

“If he is in fact a leprechaun, and I’m not saying he is, I might have a better chance at apprehending him if I knew more about how to catch a slippery, one-shoed bandit. No telling what he has up his sleeve the next time around.”

“Why, Mr. Kelly, I do believe you’re finally getting some Irish sense knocked into that hard head of yours.”

“More like Irish caution.”

“Whatever it is, I like it.”

“That’s at least a start.”

Cathy chuckled and Ronan had even more reason to keep going with this whole charade. Not that he was as skeptical as he had been when he’d started out on this mission. He merely wasn’t one-hundred-percent. Not yet. Hell, his police training alone demanded proof—he just couldn’t give in as easily as everyone else seemed to when it came to leprechauns and ancient Irish lore. Could he?

They exited the SUV and headed for the sage-green, Cape Cod house surrounded by a lawn and dotted with tall oak trees that would nicely shade the entire area, once the leaves grew back in spring. The property was located in a quiet, upscale community with a view of Lake Michigan. Apparently, Sean was no longer
down on his luck.

As they walked up to the front door, Ronan glanced over his shoulder, thinking he’d catch a glimpse of who was following them, but it was like trying to catch the wind.

No one was there.

Cathy rang the bell and within moments a great big man, with a broad smile, a gray mustache and thick, gray longish hair opened the door. “You must be Ronan Kelly.” The man had a husky deep voice.

“Um, yes. And this is Cathy O’Toole. I think—”

“I know exactly who you two are. Come on in.” He opened the door wider and two little girls with long blond locks came running up behind him. “Mommy, the magic people are here!” the older one yelled, turning toward the back of the house.

A woman emerged from a long hallway. She had dark long hair, a warm smile, and a slim body. She was busy wiping her hands on a white apron that hung from her waist over her jeans and pink tee-shirt.

Ronan and Cathy stepped inside and immediately the entire family seemed to surround them with great big hugs. Ronan felt uncomfortable with all the attention, and tried to back away but the girls kept pulling at him.

“Okay. Okay. That’s enough or they’re going to think we’re weird. Let’s all sit down and listen for a minute.” The girls immediately sat on the end of the sofa while their mom and Sean backed away. “Please have a seat,” Sean said to both Cathy and Ronan, as he motioned toward the spacious living room.

“Dinner should be ready in about fifteen minutes. Can I get you a beer, wine or water or maybe a cold soda?”

“Dinner? No, please, thank you. Dinner is completely unnecessary. We didn’t expect—”

“We won’t take no for an answer. Besides, Judy’s been cooking ever since Paul called telling us you two were on your way. I think we timed everything perfectly. She’s cooked the absolute best corned beef and cabbage you two will ever taste. Nobody makes it better. You’ll think you’re back in Ireland.”

“But—”

“No buts about it. Dinner’s served in fifteen. I hope you two are hungry ‘cause when Judy cooks, it’s enough for the entire block.”

“Actually, I’m famished. Thank you. Haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Cathy said.

“Great. Now how about a nice cold glass of beer after that long drive from Chicago? I make it myself. A good stout, dark beer. Better than a Guinness.”

Ronan relented. There was no getting out of this. “Sure. That sounds great.”

“Make that two,” Cathy chimed in.

And within minutes the beer was served, and everyone moved to the dining room for a traditional Irish feast complete with boiled potatoes, carrots, and Irish soda bread. The entire meal reminded Ronan of how much he missed family dinners, and how much he longed to call Cathy his family.

The meal was so pleasant Ronan almost forgot why he was there. Not once did the leprechaun or his gold come up. Dinner conversation was mostly about how amazing the food tasted, how Sean made his beer, how the girls did in school, and about Irish lore, much of which Cathy seemed to already know.

Later, after the dishes were cleared and the girls were tucked in bed, and Ronan and Cathy were on their fourth pint, Sean and his wife were finally ready to tell their tale about the coin.

“I’m sorry to admit that I was a doubter,” Sean began.

“He more than me,” Judy said, “and between the two of us, I almost lost the coin in a vending machine, that’s how much we thought it of it. “Good thing the machine wouldn’t take it.”

“Yeah, plenty good or I know for a fact I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you,” Sean agreed. “Either of you mind if I smoke a pipe? It’s a bad habit, I know. But it’s my one vice at the end of my day.”

“No, go right ahead. My grandfather used to smoke a pipe after dinner. I miss the smell,” Cathy said.

Sean made himself comfortable in a leather chair, pulled out a pipe, packed it with tobacco, and lit it before he began his story. After a few puffs, the room filled with the sweet scent of his tobacco.

“It all started when I had to leave the girls for the first time. I had lost my job and was getting progressively more and more depressed about it when out of the blue I received two phone calls about potential opportunities. I work in IT. Anyway, one of the interviews was in New York City, and the other was in Charlotte, North Carolina. We pretty much thought we didn’t want to move to Manhattan, but the pay scale there was so good I couldn’t pass up the interview, just in case. So the plan was that I would go to New York first, and then head for Charlotte for the second interview.

“Anyway, while I was packing, Judy came over and handed me the coin telling me that our youngest had found it under her bed—to this day I have no idea how it got under her bed—and was it worth anything?

“I told her I’d gotten it from Paul, and I doubted it was worth anything, monetarily, but it was supposed to bring you good luck. She encouraged me to bring it along. As I was taking it from her, I suddenly remembered that Paul had told me about how it had changed his life. That it was a leprechaun’s gold coin, stolen right from his stash at the end of a rainbow in Ireland. But neither of us truly believed that story.”

“It was?” Cathy asked Ronan.

“Okay, yes, there was a rainbow that day.”

“You never told me this before.”

“I didn’t think it was important.”

“You and your cousins found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow in our village in Ireland and you didn’t think that was important information?”

He shrugged, not wanting to get into it with her. “Sean, please go on with your story.”

“Sure, so Judy insists that I bring the coin with me for good luck—”

Judy interrupted, “I’d had a bad dream the night before, and when I awoke I’d heard this strange crying. I couldn’t tell if I was still dreaming or if it was coming from somewhere outside. Nevertheless, it scared me to death, so anything Sean could do to keep safe, I encouraged.”

“Sort of like a baby crying, only sharper, right?” Cathy asked.

“Yes, just like that. Made my skin crawl.”

Cathy glanced at Ronan. He didn’t respond, not wanting to encourage her.

Sean continued. “I shoved the coin in my pocket with the rest of my change. After all, it’s an odd size, almost like a fifty-cent piece. I thought it would be safe. Little did I know…” He paused and took another few puffs on his pipe.

“After my New York interview, when I get to the airport to continue on to Charlotte/Douglas International, I’m in need of my morning caffeine fix. So I get in the Starbucks line, order my black coffee and mistakenly try to give the coin to the girl behind the counter to pay for my drink. She immediately gives it back to me. Saying she can’t take foreign coins. So, I take it back, only this time I slip it in a pocket by itself. No other change.

“I board the plane, find my seat in the back, and we eventually take off from La Guardia, headed for North Carolina.”

Sean paused, as if he’s waiting for somebody to say something. When no one does, he continues.

“We’re not off the ground five minutes when there’s a loud flop, flop, flop noise, then dead silence. Like we’ve moved into the inside of a bubble or something. Nobody said a word. The entire plane full of people was dead quite for about a minute. Then all hell broke loose. I knew the engines had been cut. I think everybody knew.”

Cathy gasped. “Don’t tell me you were on flight 1549? That US Airways flight that Sully landed in the Hudson?”

“The very same one.”

“But that miracle had to do with Sully’s skills, not that coin,” Ronan said.

“Maybe a combination of both. All I remember is as soon as those engines died, that coin bit into my hip. Like it was on fire or something. I pulled it out and held on tight, thinking that as long as I held onto that coin, I would be all right. We took a sharp turn and I knew he was going to try for the river. That’s when a profound sense of calm came over me and I knew positively we would be all right. Don’t ask me how I knew, or why I felt so sure of the outcome, but I was certain we’d be fine.

“Sully’s voice echoed through the plane telling us to brace for impact, which we mostly did, but some of the passengers were scared, crying, repeating the word
pray
to everyone. I merely braced myself, with my head down on my knees, my fingers wrapped tight around that gold coin.

“The actual landing wasn’t all that rough. More like a smooth thud than anything else. Once we were down, it only took minutes for the passengers to get out. It would have gone smoother if a panicked passenger hadn’t cracked open an Emergency door and allowed the Hudson to flow inside. All that water made everyone a bit more panicky, but even then, I just kept holding onto my coin telling myself over and over that I was going to be all right.

“And we were all right. Every last one of us came out of that virtually unscathed. Except maybe the lady in the high heels who slipped off the wing we were all standing on, and went right into the river. Some guy fished her out and she was fine. I guess some people suffered emotional damage, which I certainly can understand. Fortunately, I suffered nothing but extreme gratitude, to Paul and especially to you.

“After that, there’s absolutely nothing that bothers me anymore. I figure it this way—if I can come through something like that, I can handle anything. There isn’t a moment since that day that I don’t feel as though I can conquer everything I put my mind to. I run my own IT company now, here, doing better than I ever thought possible, and whenever I think about that day, I know two things got me through it: Sully Sullenberger, and your gold coin. Without the combination, we might all be dead now.”

“Wow,” Cathy said. “That’s some story.”

Sean nodded.

Ronan said, “So, I take it you have the coin in a safe place?”

“Oh no,” Judy said. “We thought long and hard about who to give it to, and just last week we finally gave it away.”

Ronan’s stomach flipped. It was late, very late, and he really didn’t want to drive anywhere else tonight. His thoughts turned to the fact that maybe one good thing would come from this search, that he and Cathy might end up in some cozy little motel room for the night.

“Who did you give it to? We’ve got to retrieve that coin,” Cathy said.

“I gave it to my best friend’s little girl,” Judy said. “But you can’t do anything about it tonight. It’s past midnight, and you two look beat. I have a lovely guest room all set up for you on the third floor.”

“Thanks, but we wouldn’t dream of imposing on your hospitality any more than we already have. You’ve both gone way out of your way. I’m sure there’s a motel around here,” Cathy said.

“Plenty of them, but our guestroom is much quieter. Besides, neither of you are in any shape to be driving anywhere,” Sean said.

“Everything you need is up there, even toothbrushes,” Judy added. “All you have to do is walk up the stairs and jump in bed. Bathroom’s on the right. Bedroom’s on the left. We get up kind of early in this house. So if you want breakfast it’s served at seven-thirty.”