Chibs' cell phone trilled next to him. "Fuck." He'd drunk himself into a stupor again the night before to keep himself from riding to Aoife's and knocking on her apartment door, and he wasn't even sure he was sober yet. Why had he drunk that damn whiskey Tig offered? Cheap spirits gave him a hangover every time. He rolled over and looked at the clock. "Eight fucking thirty," he muttered. The cell phone rang again, and Chibs answered with a growl. "There better be a damn good reason you're calling me this early on my day off."

"And good morning to you, too, sunshine," Piney's gruff voice answered.

Chibs groaned and let his head fall back on the pillow. "Piney, why the hell am I on the phone with you now instead of sleeping?"

"Doc wants me over to St. Thomas for some testing this morning. Specifically told me to bring a ride with me. Donna was supposed to do it, but both of her kids have the flu and Opie can't get out of work."

Chibs sighed and covered his eyes with his free arm, hoping that blocking the light would relieve the pounding in his head. "Okay. Can you get down to the garage? I have a car we need to deliver this morning."

"I'll be there in 30," Piney confirmed and the line went dead. Chibs dialed another number.

"Chibs?" Half-Sack answered. "Why are you calling me from inside the clubhouse?"

"Cause I'm hungover and you're a prospect. Are the new tires on that station wagon yet?"

"Got it done first thing."

"Now that's a good Prospect. Call Ms. McIntyre and let her know I can bring it to her with the invoice."

"Can do. What about Mrs. Millington? You going to drop her car off, too?" Chibs shivered at the thought of facing the woman again today.

"Ah, no. Tell Tigger that he's on his own with that one. Tell him it's a present from his dear friend Chibsy for feeding me cheap shots last night."

Chibs was leaning on Aoife's station wagon when Piney pulled up in his pick-up. "Takin' it to the Irish Coffee Shop on Main." Piney nodded in acknowledgement.

Chibs settled himself into the driver's seat, adjusted it for his height, and turned the key in the ignition. The car stereo immediately began playing. Chibs recognized the drumbeat and accordion of the Pogues'" If I Should Fall From Grace with God," and he grinned. "Excellent fucking taste, lassie," he said to himself. By the time he reached the coffee shop, he was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to Flogging Molly.

Chibs expected Piney to stay in his truck, but as he was standing at the counter with the invoice and keys, waiting for Aoife to finish waiting on a customer, Piney shuffled up next to him. Chibs didn't quite realize that he was there until Piney left out a wolf whistle and said approvingly, "Now ain't she a looker! I didn't get a good look at her the other day."

Chibs bit his lip to hold back a smile. He didn't have any right to feel proud of Aoife's beauty, she wasn't his. Not his old lady, not his girlfriend, not even a girl he was seeing. But Chibs felt his chest puff out, just the same. And then Aoife greeted him, and Chibs got an eyeful of her outfit today. She was wearing a sapphire blue halter-top that complemented her eyes and accentuated her ample bust, and her hair was pulled into a high ponytail so that her curls just brushed the tops of her exposed shoulders. He barely heard her ask him how he was because all he knew was that his jeans had suddenly gotten way too tight. As she leaned over and gave him her customary kiss on the cheek, he was still picking his jaw off the floor. He finally managed to sputter out, "Christ, love, you look gorgeous."

She took the invoice and began to count out the cash, and Chibs watched a blush color her cheeks. "Thanks, Chibs. I am toying with going over to the tattoo shop after work, and I know I want something that will be visible when I wear a top like this."

"Getting some ink, lovely?" Chibs felt jealous of whatever tattoo artist got to do that work. He unconsciously licked his lips at the thought touching Aoife's creamy skin and kissing his way across the dusting of freckles on her shoulders. "What're you thinking?"

Aoife's eyes got a little misty. "It's a memorial piece." An alarm behind them went off. "Sorry, boys, I'd love to chat more, but we're hopping today. Can I get you anything?"

Chibs ordered an industrial-sized coffee and muffin to go. "Gotta take this old bastard to the hospital for some tests, so I can't stay."

"Maybe you can come by later?" she suggested. "You seem to be a man who knows something about tattoos," she said, her eyes tracing the tattoos up his right arm until they disappeared under his sleeve. He felt like he'd been scorched where her gaze lingered on him. Another alarm pierced the air, and Aoife gave Chibs another peck on the cheek before hurrying away.

Piney didn't say anything until they were in the cab of his truck. "That's a damn fine woman, Chibs. She ain't like nothing I've ever seen you with before."

"That's because a lass like that ain't interested in being with a guy like me." Chibs grunted back. If he told the lie often enough, that there was no chance between he and Aoife, a girl who couldn't be much older than his daughter, maybe he would believe it.

Piney gave a snort of disbelief and muttered, "yeah, right."

Chibs sat patiently in the benches provided near the hospital registration desk while Piney got checked in. He had a paperback in his hand, but he wanted to make sure Piney was properly settled before he got involved in the story. Chibs watched Piney lumber over to the bench and sit down. Piney said, "Okay, brother, they've got me all set. They're taking me back to radiology to start." The older man stopped speaking. He cleared his throat a few times, but didn't say anything more.

"Piney, you alright?" Chibs pushed his sunglasses up on his forehead to see Piney better.

"Look, Chibs, I appreciate you coming down here with me and everything, but I just don't know if I feel comfortable with you being here all day. The only person who ever comes with me to these appointments is Donna. It just feels…what I got going on…I don't –"

"You ain't comfortable with me being around while they poke and prod ya?" Chibs asked. "It's understandable."

"You nailed it. I'm not."

"Tell you what. I've got my cell on me. I've got a book to read. You call me when you are ready for that ride home, and I'll come get ya."

"Where you going to go?" Piney asked.

"There's places I can walk – the park, restaurant across the street –"

Piney shook his head. "No." He pulled his truck keys from his shirt pocket. "What you need to do is go back to that coffee shop and chat up that pretty waitress. Go on, take the damn keys." Chibs obeyed. It wasn't hard when it was what he really wanted to do.

"Hey, there, lass." Chibs strolled to the coffee shop counter and leaned on it with one elbow. "You got anything back there for starving Scot?"

"Chibs! You're back! Would my favorite starving Scotsman like a shepherd's pie? My grandmother's recipe," Aoife offered almost seductively.

"That sounds fucking delightful," Chibs told her as he sat down at the table closest to the cash register. He knew that he was wearing another dopey grin as soon as she called him her "favorite starving Scotsman."

Aoife glanced around. "Where's Piney?"

"He didn't want me to wait the whole day at the hospital. Wanted to keep his medical issues private. He'll call when he needs me."

"You're a good friend," Aoife commented as she put the shepherd's pie in front of Chibs.

Chibs shook off the compliment. He sipped his coffee and tried to explain. "The Sons, we take care of each other. We're family. The club is pretty much the only family I have."

"Family," Aoife repeated, biting her lip and fingering the silver Brigid's cross that hung from her neck. "Aye. Nothin's more important than family."

Chibs spent the next four hours at that table not managing to read more than ten pages of his book. Aoife flitted around the coffee shop, brewing fresh coffee, serving customers, and busing tables. Every time her orbit took her by Chibs, which happened quite often since he had strategically positioned himself near the register, they kept up a running conversation – mostly Chibs asking Aoife about her past – where she had lived, what she had done there. He marveled at how much living she had packed into her short life.

Finally, at just before 2, they were the only two people in the shop. Aoife brought over a fresh pot of coffee to fill up Chibs' mug. "Thanks, lovely." She turned to walk away from his table, and he held out his arm, lightly catching her at the waist. "Why don't you take a minute to sit down?" She turned to look at him and his hand brushed the exposed skin of her lower back. Her back arched into his touch but then she froze like a startled rabbit. "Pardon, darlin'." Chibs apologized quickly and withdrew his arm.

"No, don't apologize. Your hand was just a little cold. It – it startled me." She sat down in the other chair at the table, putting down the coffee pot.

"You know, when I started up your car this mornin', I enjoyed the music immensely. First song was "If I Should Fall From Grace with God" – one of my favorites. Excellent fucking taste, lassie. I didn't expect a woman of your age to even know the Pogues. Were you even born when that album came out?"

"A woman of my age?" Aoife arched an eyebrow at him, and a smile played across her features. "Chibs, how old do you think I am?"

"Dunno," he shrugged, his palms suddenly sweaty. This could be dangerous territory. "You look about twenty, maybe twenty-one."

Aoife laughed. "Twenty," she said, and then laughed again, so hard that she had to stop to breathe. "Damn. You know how to make a girl feel good."

"I take it I'm a little off target then, lovely?"

"Only by a decade, sweetheart." She said with another chuckle.

"A decade?" Chibs' brain tumbled like a dryer full of laundry. A decade. Ten years.

"I'm 30. Nearly 31." She winked at him. "Damn. Twenty or twenty-one. My ego thanks you for that one." The coffee shop bell tinkled as a new customer entered, and Aoife stood up and took Chibs' face in her hands. "I'm going to be walking on air all day after a compliment like that." She kissed him on each cheek scar before swiping up the coffee pot and walking back to the register, still occasionally repeating the numbers Chibs had thrown out for her age.

Chibs felt gobsmacked. Her age had been his trump card to play against the desire he had felt since he first laid eyes on her. Because he wouldn't, couldn't be with a girl young enough to be his daughter. And now that barrier had evaporated like so much mist. Younger than him, yes, but 30, especially 30 running a business while taking care of a dying relative's affairs, was all kinds of things 20 wasn't. Thirty was a woman who'd done some living, been on her own, probably knew what she wanted and what she didn't. Thirty meant that there was a chance. He was simultaneously thrilled and terrified, contemplating this revelation. He didn't have an easy excuse anymore to brush off the feelings that bubbled to the surface whenever he saw her. He was still lost in thought ten minutes later when his phone buzzed to let him know that Piney was ready to go home from the hospital. Aoife was busy behind the counter with a busload of older women who had arrived, but he made sure she saw that he was leaving. She gave him a nod and a wink.