"Time?" She stopped staring at his hands-they were so quick and clever-and glanced down at her watch. "Lord, it's after eleven. I had no idea." Her hour had stretched into nearly three. "I need to get back."

Aidan gave her an absent nod, a great deal less than she'd hoped for, and filled his sister's order while Jude searched for the money to pay for her drinks.

"My grandson's paying." Mr. Riley laid a fragile hand on her shoulder. "He's a good lad. You put your money away, darling."

"Thank you." She offered a hand to shake, then found herself charmed when the old man lifted it to his lips. "I enjoyed meeting you." She slid off her stool, sent a smile to the younger Riley. "Both of you."

Without Darcy to clear the path, getting to the door was a little more problematic than getting to the bar had been. When she got there, her face was flushed from the heat of bodies, and her blood dancing to the hot lick of the fiddle.

She considered it one of the most entertaining evenings of her life.

Then she stepped outside into the cool night air. And saw Aidan just as he ducked under the violent swing of an arm the width of a tree trunk.

"Now, Jack," he said in reasonable tones as a giant of a man with shocking red hair bunched hamlike fists again. "You know you don't want to hit me."

"I'll do it! I'll break your interfering nose this time, by Jesus, Aidan Gallagher. Who are you to tell me I can't have a f.u.c.king drink in the f.u.c.king pub when I've a f.u.c.king mind to?"

"You're well and truly p.i.s.sed, Jack, and you need to go home now and sleep it off."

"Let's see if you can sleep this off."

He charged, and while Aidan prepared to pivot and easily avoid the bull rush, Jude let out a short scream of alarm. It took only that to distract Aidan enough to have Jack's wild punch connect.

"Well, h.e.l.l." Aidan wiggled his jaw, blew out a breath as Jack's lumbering charge sent the man sprawling facedown on the sidewalk.

"Are you all right?'' Terrified, Jude rushed over, skirting the sprawled form that was approximately the size of a capsized ocean liner. "Your mouth's bleeding. Does it hurt? This is awful." She fumbled in her bag for a tissue as she stuttered.

Aidan was irritated enough to tell her the blood was as much her fault for screaming as it was Jack's for throwing the punch. But she looked so pretty and distressed, and was already dabbing at his painfully cut lip with the tissue.

He started to smile, and as that hurt like twice the devil, he winced.

"Oh, what a bully! We need to call the police."

"For what?"

"To arrest him. He attacked you."

Sincerely shocked, Aidan gaped at her. "Now, why would I want to have one of my oldest friends arrested just for b.l.o.o.d.ying my lip?"

"Friend?"

"Sure. He's just nursing a broken heart with whiskey which is foolish but natural enough. The la.s.s he thought he loved went off with a Dubliner, two weeks ago last Wednesday, so he's taken to drinking out his sorrows the past few days, then causing a ruckus. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"He hit you in the face." Perhaps if she said it slowly, clearly, the meaning would get through. "He said he was going to break your nose."

"That's only because he's tried to break it before and hasn't found success. He'll be sorry for it in the morning, nearly as sorry as he'll be because his aching head won't just roll off his shoulders and leave him in peace."

Aidan did smile now, but cautiously. "Were you worried for me, darling?"

"Apparently I shouldn't have been." She said it primly and balled up the b.l.o.o.d.y tissue. "As you appear to enjoy brawling in the street with your friends."

"Was a time I enjoyed brawling in the street with strangers, but with maturity I prefer my friends." He reached out, as he'd been wanting to, and toyed with the ends of her bound-back hair. "And I thank you for having concern for me."

He stepped forward. She stepped back.

And he sighed. "One day you won't have quite so much room to back away. And I won't have poor drunk Jack at me feet to deal with."

Philosophically he bent down and, to Jude's astonishment, picked up the enormous semiconscious man and swung him handily over his shoulder.

"Is that you, then, Aidan?"

"Aye, Jack."

"Did I break your nose?"

"No, you didn't, but you bloodied my lip a bit."

"f.u.c.king Gallagher luck."

"There's a lady present, you knothead."

"Oh. Begging pardon."

"You're both ridiculous," Jude decided and turned away to march to her car.

"Jude, my darling?" Aidan grinned, hissed as his lip split again. "I'll see you tomorrow, say at half-one." He only chuckled when she continued to walk, heels clicking briskly, then turned to give him a fulminating look as she got into her car.

"Is she gone now?" Jack wanted to know.

"She's going. But not far," Aidan murmured as she drove decorously down the street. "No, she won't go far."

Men were baboons. Obviously. Jude shook her head, tapped her finger on the wheel in a disapproving manner as she drove home. Drunken brawls on the street were not amusing pastimes, and anyone who thought they were was in dire need of therapy.

G.o.d, he'd made her feel like an idiot. Standing there grinning at her while she dabbed at the blood on his mouth and babbled. An indulgent grin, she thought now, from the big, strong man to the foolish, fluttery female.

Worse, she had been foolish and fluttery. When Aidan had tossed that enormous man over his shoulder as if he was a bag of feathers, her stomach had definitely fluttered. If she hadn't tightened up that very instant and stalked away, she might well have whimpered in admiration.

Mortifying.

And had he been the least bit embarra.s.sed at getting a fist planted in his face in front of her? No, indeed. Had he blushed to introduce the drunken fool at his feet as an old and close friend? No, he had not.

He was very likely behind the bar again right this minute, entertaining his customers with the story, making them laugh over her scream of alarm and trembling hands.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

She sniffed once, and felt better for it.

By the time she pulled in the drive she'd convinced herself that she'd behaved in a scrupulously dignified and reasonable manner. It was Aidan Gallagher who'd been the fool.