CAMELOT FANTASIES

Meet Bronagh Stewart in Closer To Home
December 1, 2015 at 2:06pm

Bronagh lived out of town, but she was going to be in Baton Rouge for some Christmas shopping and to meet Grace for the evening. Bronagh planned to spend the night with Grace and her husband, Garrett. Grace was certain Shaw would fall head over heels for her friend. Not likely, he had told himself. He liked being a bachelor, especially at his age. He got tail when he wanted it, lived his life as he pleased, and he had a loving group of employees that were, for all intents and purposes, his family. They had taken him in as their own, a crude and conceited Scotsman who simply loved music and had made a good living doing what he loved. Except for some ancient, painful baggage that he had long ago buried, he was very happy with his life.

It was a little after 7:00 p.m. when Grace brought her friend into Charley's Pub to meet him. Shaw was an arrogant bastard, and he knew it; selfish, too. He learned it was truly a gaffe to take that egotistical attitude into this arranged get-together. Bronagh, a fifth-generation Louisianan, whose ancestors had sailed from Dublin, Ireland, with a proud history, was an old-South girl: well-mannered and well-bred. She came from “old money,” a term he had learned since moving to south Louisiana. Knowing that much about her still didn’t prepare him for the woman he was about to meet.

 Joe Garrison was the owner of Charley's Pub, and a trusted friend. He would let Shaw behind the bar occasionally, so he could relive his Glasgow beginnings as a bartender. Tonight, it gave him a great advantage to watch Grace and her friend. Bronagh was Shaw's age, he guessed, maybe a little younger. She wore gray slacks, a black and gray blouse, and a black, leather Harley Davidson jacket. She stood about 5'6", with long legs and a pretty smile. She had long, black hair, a fair complexion, and black eyes. God, he thought, she's Irish, except for those eyes— elegant, but sexy; pure-dead brilliant.