Christmas Craic and Mistletoe by Debbie McGowan & Raine O'Tierney

Author:Debbie McGowan & Raine O'Tierney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Interlude:

Christmas Eve with

The Williams Brothers

An evening of singing Christmas carols—what better way to spend Christmas Eve? First up, Patrick, who had drunk too much sherry, crooned his way through ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, leaving Aidan doe-eyed and gooey.

“Jaysus, Paddy,” Seamus exclaimed, shaking his head in dismay at his younger brother. “What’ve you done to him? I swear he never used to be a soft eejit.”

“Ha. Says he with the sappy cowboy almost sittin’ in his lap.”

Seamus glanced down at Chancey’s legs and then up at Chancey’s face. He grinned, feeling warm all over. Their first Christmas together, and they had a houseful. Perfect.

“Right, so, what you gonna sing, then?” Patrick asked.

“Well…” Seamus’s gaze remained on Chancey as he spoke. “I was thinking I’d sing ‘Away in a Manger’ but with the right tune. You know what I mean, Paddy?”

“Aye, I do that.”

“The right tune?” Chancey asked.

“Yeah. Not that dodgy version yous all sing.”

“Maybe our version is the correct one?”

“Aye, and Jesus was born in a stable in Texas, was he?” Seamus began singing ‘Away in a Manger’ in an exaggerated Texan accent and to the ‘American’ melody. He just about made it to the end of the first verse before he was crying with laughter, as was everyone else in the room.

“Christ, Seamus, you fairly murdered that, didn’t ye?” Patrick ribbed.

“I’ll sing one for real after Harrison and Pru have had their turn,” Seamus said, with a wink at Harrison’s friend Pru, surprised when she shook her head. She’d struck him as being something of a party animal. In fact, in her presence, the formerly quiet and unassuming Harrison was a lot more fun than he’d been the last time Seamus had seen him.

“Nuh-uh. I sing like a frog with a sore throat.”

“Aw, come on, Prudence,” Harrison goaded. He, too, had downed a few glasses of sherry, and it had made him chatty and daring. “Any requests?”

“Silent Night?” Pru suggested, miming pulling a zipper across his lips. Harrison gave her a weary look.

“I’ll sing with you, Harrison,” Aidan offered.

“There ya go.” Pru folded her arms and sat back, clearly pleased to be off the hook.

“You know, Aidan, I think our ‘Silent Night’ would blow ’em all away. What d’ya think?”

“Sure.” Aidan shrugged and stepped over Patrick’s legs—he was sitting on the floor and leaning against the sofa, with Tess lying next him, on her back. Patrick made a grab for Aidan, and he stumbled, letting himself fall into Patrick’s arms.

“Don’t you want me to sing?” he asked around the kisses.

“I’d rather we did more of this.”

“Later,” Aidan said, leaving Patrick with a chaste peck on the cheek before joining Harrison.

All things considered—all things being the lunchtime beers and the now empty sherry bottle—Harrison and Aidan were quite tuneful in their rendition of ‘Silent Night’, although the further they got into the song, the sillier it became. By the last two lines, they were stretching and sliding the long notes until they ran out of breath.

Sleep in heavenly peeeeeee-eeeeace…

Slee-eep in heavenly peeeeeeeeeeace.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.