Midsummer's Magic

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 

Beth walked into the pub just after 7PM and looked around for Ginny and her friends. She acknowledged greetings from a few people she had met at the party and made her way to the bar. Rory grinned at her surprised face from behind the counter. "Hey, Beth, what can I get you?" 

"Rory? I didn't know you worked here." 

He laughed as he replied, "I don't officially, but seeing as my parents own the place, I sometimes get roped into helping out. Dad's on the darts team, and they have a match tonight." 

"Ah, I see. Well, I'll have a vodka and coke please." She smiled back at him. 

He made short work of preparing her drink and waved her attempts at paying for it away. "This one's on me, I think I owe you." 

"Thanks, have you seen Ginny? I'm supposed to meet her here." 

"She's in the back lounge with her mother," he answered, pointing to a door by the side of the bar. 

"Oh, that's just bloody marvellous." she groaned. 

He chuckled and turned to serve someone else. 

Beth pushed the door open and was immediately hit by the sound of men laughing and cheering. Looking around the room, she saw a group of them standing in front of a dartboard. Her eyes roamed over the men of assorted ages, all clutching a pint, and chatting. She locked onto a pair of vivid blue eyes staring back at her. 

She drew in a sharp breath and felt a familiar flutter in her stomach as everything around her faded into the background. It felt like hours, but could only have been seconds before she was abruptly brought back to reality by the sound of someone calling her name. 

"Beth! Over here." 

Pulling her eyes away from Liam, she looked around and saw Ginny and her mother who sat in the far corner of the room. She smiled and made her way over. 

Ginny and Bunny were grinning at her as she took a seat at their table. 

"Hi, is everything ok?" She looked at the pair still grinning like Cheshire cats. 

"Everything is bloody marvellous, my dear girl." Bunny replied. 

"Oh! Ok, I think." She smiled at them both with a growing sense of unease. 

Bunny leaned over and patted her hand. "Don't look so worried, we're here to help you." 

"That's what I'm afraid of." she muttered as she lifted her glass to her mouth. 

Across the room, someone else was muttering expletives to himself; yet another dart bounced off a wire and fell to the floor. It narrowly missed the person who was keeping score. 

"Fuck, Liam! Are you trying to kill me?" he shouted as he jumped away from the dart. 

Joe leaned into him and said quietly, "I hope you're messing around to wind the Red Lion up." 

"I wish," growled Liam. He just couldn't focus on the dartboard at all. The only thing he could see was those gorgeous green eyes that had zeroed in on his when she walked into the room. He swore he could smell her vanilla scent from where he stood even though she was way over on the other side of the room. Glancing over, he noticed Ginny grinning at him before returning to the rather heated conversation going on between Beth and Bunny. 

Even though he couldn't see her face, he could tell by the way she held herself rigid in the chair that something was upsetting Beth. 

His thoughts were interrupted abruptly by a sharp dig in his ribs which made him jump, spilling his pint in the process.