The Irish Rogue Introduction

Sean’s story…

“Ignore him,” Sean’s half-brother asserted.  “He’s just the pathetic bastard of the town.”

Liam, Sean’s half-brother, walked over to one of the tables in the pub, pushing several chairs so that they were askew.  The jerk loved creating work for Sean and his mother.  Liam walked around town as if he were some sort of prince instead of merely the heir to the earldom. 

Granted, everyone in town treated him as if the little jerk was a prince too, so it wasn’t a shock that he’d started thinking like that. 

“Order up, Sean!” her mother called out.

Sean hurried over to the bar and grabbed the two bags of food.  “Out to the Ottermans?” he asked.

“Yep,” she replied, smiling at him.  “I’ll get the table orders.  Hurry back, love,” she told him, wiping her hands on her apron. 

Sean hefted the bags into his pack.  He’d designed a box that would hold the bags of delivery food so that he could help his mother expand her operations.  They’d more than doubled the pub’s revenue with the delivery option. 

When he came back fifteen minutes later, he was greeted by the warmth of the pub and a sappy sweet voice calling out, “Oh, delivery boy!” from Liam’s table. 

Sean truly hated his half-brother.  He ignored the hole in his sneaker, not bothering to tell his mother that he needed new shoes.  Every bit of money they earned either went back into the pub, or into his university fund.  There was no way he would stick around here while his half-brother went off to school.  Not a chance! 

“We need more potatoes!” Liam called out, slamming his glass down onto the rough, wooden table.  “And be fast about it, boy!”

Sean knew that his half-brother was aware of his name.  The little brat just liked being a lordling among his friends. 

“Ignore him, darlin’,” his mother urged.  “Here, bring this over to the corner table.  I’ll get more fries for the arse.  And I’ll charge him double for em, too!”

Sean laughed, then took the plates, bringing them over to the customers.  If Liam had bothered to look around, he’d realize that the other townspeople were not thrilled with his behavior.  And in a small town, everyone knew what was going on.  If Liam didn’t settle down and behave, Marty, Liam’s father and, technically, Sean’s pa as well, would hear of his bad behavior.  Martin O’Clary, the Earl of Winton, was a stickler for the family name and didn’t allow anyone to besmirch the earldom.  He still believed that he was some sort of feudal lord, and all of the townspeople were his subjects.  But Martin also believed that he was supposed to protect the townspeople. 

“Oh delivery boy!” Liam called out again, his whiny voice sounding shrill above the other conversations. 

Sean ignored him and headed into the kitchen.  He still had homework to finish, but he didn’t want to leave his mother during the dinner rush hour. 

“Is he still being an arse?” his mother asked.

“Is he anything else?” he retorted, then flipped over several burgers while his mother went out to pour several beers for the locals. 

When Sean came out with the next batch of burgers and fries, he nearly choked as he watched his father tugging Liam out of the pub by his ear! 

And what’s more, the townspeople were all clapping, cheering the punishment. 

Sean paused to relish the moment.  However, there would be retaliation.  Liam wouldn’t allow this sort of humiliation to be ignored.  He’d get back at someone, most likely Sean, the next day.  But Sean was over a foot taller than Liam and carried a whole lot more brawn.  He wasn’t afraid of his half-brother.  He just didn’t want anything to come back to his mother.  She’d suffered enough under the earl’s abuse. 

 

Kennedi’s story…

 

“How’s your mom, Kennedi?” Jessica Altino called out as she sauntered down the sidewalk in front of the high school.  “Still the best lay in town?”

Kennedi ignored her, hurrying towards the bust stop. 

“You can run all you want, Kennedi!” the head cheerleader called out, pulling everyone’s attention away from their after-school activities.  “But you can’t hide what you really are!”

Kennedi stepped onto the bus, wishing that the evil girl would just…not die.  Kennedi never wanted any harm to come to anyone.  But it would be super nice if Jessica fell on her butt during the next football game.  Or if she fell on her face and broke her two front teeth. 

Sliding into one of the pleather seats on the bus, she smiled at the image in her mind of Jessica with a bloody nose, or a black eye because she fell off of the cheer pyramid.  Yeah, anything that would break the other girl’s confidence. 

Thankfully, Kennedi wasn’t the only target of Jessica’s malicious nature.  As Kennedi looked out through the dingy windows of the school bus, she noticed that Jessica was calling out to another girl.  Did it matter?  Not really.  The damage was already done.

When would the past be banished? Why couldn’t the world just move on?  Kennedi hated her mother’s past, but there wasn’t anything that Kennedi could do to stop her mother’s activities. 

Maybe if they moved to a larger town, the gossip might not have been so bad.  However, living in a small, southern town where not much happened, there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about.  The days were sleepy and the biggest news was who got into a fight at the local bar over the weekend. 

Sighing, Kennedi slumped down even lower in her seat, praying that her friends hadn’t heard about Jessica’s latest slander.

But was it really slander if the gossip was true?