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little point in denying it. He nodded. He considered telling Rory the rest, that his new helper barely spoke English and prepared only Mexican dishes, but decided his friend had had enough of a shock for the moment. Instead, he simply reminded him that there was a replacement waiting in the wings. “So, let that be a warning to keep a civil tongue in your head. And when you meet her today, be nice.”
    “When am I not kind to everyone who works at the pub?” Rory demanded indignantly.
    Ryan rolled his eyes. “You don’t want me to answer that, do you?”
    “Okay, okay, I’ll be nice.” He regarded Ryan curiously. “Are you going to be seeing Maggie again?”
    “She says she’s going to bring her family to help out at the shelter today,” he admitted ruefully.
    “Well now, isn’t that splendid? Father Francis will have yet another blessing to count on Thanksgiving.”
    “Go to hell, Rory.”
    To Ryan’s disgust, the big man merely laughed. As far as Ryan could see, this was not a laughing matter. He was apparently surrounded by matchmakers who were going to take a great deal of delight in seeing him squirm. And they’d bothhandpicked Maggie for the task of accomplishing it, quite possibly because they’d both seen what he hadn’t been willing to admit—that he was attracted to her.
     
    The noise level in the O’Brien dining room was at an all-time high, with squealing toddlers scrambling for Maggie’s attention and her brothers fighting for the biggest share of her mother’s pancakes. It was all music to her ears, even if she couldn’t seem to get a word in edgewise.
    When her third attempt to interrupt the nonstop bickering fell on deaf ears, Maggie sent a beseeching look toward her mother.
    “Enough!” Nell O’Brien said without even raising her voice to be heard above the din. It was her quiet, emphatic tone that caused even the littlest grandchild to fall silent. The skill had to be something she’d acquired in the classroom to control unruly college students. Clearly satisfied by the effect, she said mildly, “I think Maggie has something she’d like to say.”
    “Since when does Maggie require your intervention?” Matthew asked. “Speak up, sis. You’ve never been shy about telling us to shut up before.”
    “You’ve never been this noisy before, and I’m out of practice,” she retorted. “Okay, here’s the deal. I more or less promised that we’d spend this morning helping at a homeless shelter in the city.”
    “Promised who?” Matthew demanded with more curiosity than resentment.
    “Must be that handsome man who brought her home last night,” her sister Colleen said with a smug expression. “Mom says after meeting him last night, her heart was still all aflutter this morning. I’m sorry I missed him. Count me in, Maggie. I want to get a look at any guy who can make Mom swoon.”
    “There’s definitely a man involved?” their oldest brother, John, asked. “Then we all go, am I right? We can’t have a stranger breaking our Maggie’s heart.”
    “This has nothing to do with anyone breaking my heart,” Maggie said. “It’s about helping those less fortunate on Thanksgiving.”
    “That may be your reason for going,” John conceded. “Mine’s less pure.”
    “Mine, too,” Colleen said. “My heart hasn’t gone pitter-pat over a man in ages.”
    “Thanks a lot,” her husband said, frowning at her.
    Colleen grinned at him. “I meant for a man other than you, of course.”
    Daniel leaned over and planted a noisy kiss on her lips. “That’s better, love.”
    “What’s this about a handsome man?” Katie, the youngest O’Brien, inquired as she returned from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice. “Where? Can I meet him?”
    “He’s entirely too old for you,” Maggie said.
    “That’s the truth,” her father chimed in. “Our Katie’s not to even think of looking at a man until she’s at least twenty-five. She’s our baby.”
    Katie rolled her