Page 19 of An Irish Hope

Okay, that definitely was a chuckle. Was it a good chuckle, or was he laughing at her?

“I think your family is waiting for you.” He pointed to the café across the road from the church, where Rory and Aidan stood.

“Oh.” But she was so enjoying this conversation with him. Even if it felt like half the town was watching. “Um, are you doing anything for lunch?”

“I hadn’t made plans, but Grady might be wondering where I am.”

“Doesn’t he know you’re at church?”

He nodded.

“So he might not be expecting you for a while, anyway. So in that case, would you like to join us?”

“Join your family?”

“It doesn’t have to be for long. But I thought after the way I treated you yesterday that it would be nice to show that I’m not all bad.” And if she could correct that first impression and see if this twinkling feeling she had in his presence was something worth pursuing, then that would be good too. And to do so with some of the people who knew and loved her best so they could offer their opinion, also? She was totally okay with that, too. “Please?”

He studied her a moment longer then dipped his chin. “Okay then.”

She beamed. “Excellent!”

* * *

He wasn’t exactly sure how excellent this would be. Meeting a girl’s family he barely knew probably didn’t fall into the ‘stay away from women and the risk of potential relationships for five years’ plan that he’d decided yesterday. Yesterday? How could so much feel like it had changed since yesterday? And yet it had.

He found himself doing things he’d never would have expected, like duetting with a woman he barely knew, and now attending a post-church meal with her like he was part of a couple. But something in the way Ash smiled seemed to call to him, and whether this was more of that ‘strong woman’ internal warning he needed to pay heed to he didn’t know. But it was too late, he’d crossed the road, was shaking hands with the couple from last night.

“Hey, good to see you again.”

“I’m Aidan.” The Australian man stretched out his hand. “And this is my Aurora.”

“Rory,” she clarified.

Andy shook her hand too, his mind ticking as he grasped his school teaching tools to remember their names. Aidan-the-Australian he might remember with the rhyme. Rory looked more like a sweet-natured red setter than a lion. “I’m Andy.”

“And I’m Aisling. People call me Ash.”

“Seriously? You hadn’t even introduced yourself?” Rory murmured to her sister.

“Look, there hasn’t been much time.” She drew them inside the crowded café to where two older ladies sat at a longer table. “Here they are. Mam, Aunty Aine, this is Andy. Andy, I think you met Maeve, my mother when she checked you in. And this is my aunt, Aine Flannery.”

“Andy, welcome,” Maeve said. “I trust you’ve been enjoying your time in Derryloughlin?”

“It’s been very interesting.”

“You were at the service?”

“Yes. It was very similar to what I hear at home.”

The other woman nodded. “You’re a friend of Ash’s then?”

He glanced at Aisling, and she nodded. So that made it a “Yes.”

Rory glanced at Ash who suddenly thrust plastic-encased menus at them. “We should order before the kitchen gets too busy.”

The next few minutes were spent ordering food and doing chit-chat as they shared about the karaoke last night. He perched nervously and ate his salmon and cod fishcakes, wondering again exactly what he was doing here. This was a cosy family gathering. And he wasn’t family. And while Ash may have claimed him as a friend he barely knew her. Although, sitting here, listening as they spoke, he was starting to get more of an idea about what made this woman (and her family) tick.

They weren’t unlike his, in that they obviously cared deeply for one another. But unlike his, the Fairalls apparently owned the Castle Griffin Hotel, something he only realised by a dropped comment that made him murmur to Aidan, “They own the hotel?”