Keenan
Standing in the middle of the very crowded Irish pub, The Lucky Irishman, Keenan had only eyes for the gorgeous woman walking up to him in a sexy, tight, ivory dress.
With her carroty hair curled and pinned halfway up, she was like a wet dream taunting him that he should be on his best behavior in front of all of their family and friends. Ryleigh smiled knowingly at him as she walked next to her dad. While he wheeled forward in the makeshift aisle, he said something to his daughter, making her joyous laugh travel across his family’s pub.
When they were close enough, he could overhear him say, “I say what I think.”
His father-in-law was one special guy, all right. He’d welcomed Keenan into his family from the first moment they’d met and he couldn’t be happier with his in-laws.
Ryleigh leaned down and kissed her father’s cheek. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, my sweet lioness. Go get your prey.”
Ron winked at him and said, “You’d better remember what I’ve told you. I’m still good with a hammer.”
Several family members who stood close enough to overhear busted out laughing.
With a wide grin on his face, he said, “Yes, sir.”
He took Ryleigh’s hand in his and during the entire ceremony; he never drew his attention away from her. When Tommy had been summoned to give the rings, his chest expanded at his brave boy stepping forward in his matching groomsmen tuxedo.
Instead of giving the rings directly to Keenan, he held still next to Ryleigh and kissed her cheek. Keenan heard his sister Deirdre ‘ooh and aah’ at witnessing this tender moment.
“Thanks, son. I love you.”
Tommy handed over the ring box and hugged his father. “I love you, too.”
They exchanged the rings and vows, and after kissing Ryleigh incredulously long in front of all the people they loved, it was time to celebrate.
The party had been in full swing for over two hours when he snagged his wife on the dance floor. He pulled her in close and said over the loud music, “We’re going home, darlin’. I’m not torturing myself any longer. I need to make love to my wife.”
Before she could answer him, Ronan whisked her away on the dance floor and made a sport out of holding her a little too close for Keenan’s liking. Although Ronan had said he didn’t want to discuss the money for Evangeline, they’d talked about it six months ago when she had walked out clean from the rehab center and was granted her final ten grand.
She had been clean for three weeks before Calum’s friend in Jersey found her doing drugs again and brought her back to rehab for the second time and later on a third and last time. They had decided in a meeting at Donovan’s office last week, that they would leave it up to Evangeline now.
They had done everything they could by setting her up with twenty-five thousand dollars and paying for an upstate rehab center for not only one, but three rounds. Keenan had a sinking feeling that she would fall off the wagon again. Although thinking about it pained him, there had to be a time where he had to say; enough is enough. Today was all about starting his life with Tommy and Ryleigh as a family.
His best man Declan slapped his shoulder once and said, “I’m proud of you, Keen.”
He hugged his best friend and said, “Thanks, Dec.”
With their loud cackles, they turned a lot of heads when Ryleigh’s bridesmaids pulled her into their huddle. Ryleigh had asked her cousin Mia as her maid of honor, and the twins Nora and Catriona as her bridesmaids.
He loved how close Ryleigh was with her best friends. And even though Catriona had taken a lot of warming up to first, she now also came over several times a week just like Mia and Nora.
“This is the first event with all the Ryan sisters and your wife’s family in the same room,” Declan said.
His wife, Bree, had been the only Ryan sister who’d made an effort with Ry’s family today. It didn’t surprise him, because Bree and Ryleigh had become friends over the past months. Whenever he got home and Tommy and Ryleigh weren’t there, he knew to look for them across the street at Bree and Declan’s house.
They hadn’t invited Rob and Brenda Walker today. It would have been weird to have his reunion with his five estranged daughters during Keenan and Ryleigh’s wedding. Thankfully, the Walker family all understood.
Thinking about the Walker family, he needed to ask his detective cousin something about what he’d seen earlier. “Did you see Ry’s cousin? The firefighter?”
“Ah, you mean Kieran?”
He nodded at Declan. “Yeah.”
“Emmy walked out of the kitchen with the wedding cake and she’d almost dropped it on the floor when she came face to face with Kieran.”