Hands in his pockets, Aiden gave a little chuckle, turned and made his way back to the house, soon becoming a speck in the distance. She couldn’t help but smile. In fact, she was beaming from ear to ear like an utter fool.Calm yourself, Moran, she thought,you are thirty-two, not thirteen. In fairness though, she had not been quite so giddy over a boy since Jack McCarthy in the year above her at school in 2006. He had a provisional licence and facial hair; it was an exciting time to be alive but not a patch on this moment. Alex would never get to be with Aiden, but for now, for this moment, it was enough.
* * *
Half an hour later, Alex wandered back to the house, greeted by the smell of coffee and bacon. She followed the scent as if being pulled in by a delicious tractor beam. Tara, Beth, Erin and Paul were already seated. No sign of Aiden. Maybe a gull got him after all.
Beth looked predictably well put together: green dress, white shawl and a perfectly straight middle parting in her perfectly straight brown hair.
‘Morning!’ Alex said. ‘Erin, this looks amazing. I think you’ve missed your calling running a bed and breakfast.’
‘Oh, Lord, no,’ she replied, cutting into a bread roll. ‘I hate making beds. And making breakfast. And making small talk. Marian, who runs the hotel in Waterville, dropped this lot off earlier. Her catering is excellent.’
Beth and Paul side-eyed each other, knowingly.Catering.
‘No Becky and Christine?’
‘No sign of them yet,’ Tara replied. ‘Christine’s probably bored them both into a coma.’
‘Tara!’ Beth scolded. ‘Be nice…’
‘Ah, come on,’ she replied. ‘She’s not exactly a barrel of laughs, now is she… can you pass the butter please?’
Beth obliged. ‘Aiden still in bed?’
‘That fella was out for a run at stupid o’clock,’ she replied. ‘He was in the shower when I came down, he shouldn’t be long.’
Alex bit into her toast, giving nothing away.
‘Bit of a fitness freak, is he?’ Paul asked, working on his second bacon roll. ‘I went to the gym once. Awful experience. Zero out of ten.’
‘Not a fitness freak as such,’ Tara replied, ‘We both like to run, he probably went earlier because it’s cooler. I like to eat first and then burn it off… oh, here he is now.’
‘Morning, everyone.’
Alex briefly looked up to acknowledge Aiden who took the chair beside her. God, this whole thing was clandestine as hell.
‘Nice T-shirt,’ Paul complimented. ‘Is that a film? Don’t think I’ve seen that one.’
As Alex’s eyes scanned down from his face to his clothing, she nearly choked on her breakfast.
‘Thanks,’ Aiden replied. ‘Yeah,Oldboyis one of my favourite movies. You should give it a watch.’
Oh, for God’s sake, Alex thought, starting to giggle,he kept that quiet on purpose to see my reaction.
‘Something funny, Alex?’ Beth asked.
‘Oh nothing,’ she replied, sipping some water.No problem here Beth, just having an existential crisis along with my bacon roll. No big deal.
Moments later, Becky and Christine appeared. Becky bright and breezy as always, followed by Christine who did her best to appear happy to still be there. She wasn’t.
‘I was going to suggest that we all go for a walk along the beach after lunch,’ Erin said, blowing on her coffee. ‘There are stables nearby and they bring their horses to the beach at the weekend. However, since Johnny Knoxville over there has hurt herself, we might have to come up with something else.’
‘I want to see the horses!’ Beth protested, like a toddler. ‘I can still walk, you know, albeit slower and not very far. It’s fine, though; Paul can mosey along with me and carry me back if my leg falls off.’
She wanted to say that she had a rollator in the car – a very handy device, like a Zimmer frame on wheels with a seat in the middle, but that would be harder to explain. Those were for people with more serious mobility problems, not people who hurt their leg fake-jet-skiing.
‘I might go for a run,’ Tara said, completely missing the point of group activities. ‘I’m not much of a horse person. Anyone want to join me?’
‘I’m good,’ Aiden replied. ‘Once a day is enough for me.’
‘I will,’ Christine replied. ‘Work off some of that food from last night.’
While Becky was somewhat narked that Christine would not be joining them, she was happy that she wouldn’t have to spend the entire time making sure that her girlfriend was having fun. It was exhausting.
‘OK, so just the rest of us then,’ Erin said. ‘I’ll leave the keys under the doormat in case you get back before we do.’
