Page 68 of An Irish Hope

“You could go and explain to her what you did. I’m sure that’ll go over well,” he said sarcastically.

“That’ll be grand.”

Andy sighed. “Why did you have to interfere? I was managing things myself, you know.”

“Except you weren’t.”

True.

“Sometimes we need a helping hand, even if the result doesn’t always go according to plan. Look, I gotta go, but just think about what I’ve said, okay?”

“Make sure you talk to her,” Andy said. “And apologise. You owe us both that much.”

“I’ll not apologise for making your life better.”

“It’s not better,” he grumbled.

“Ah, but it will be. I can feel it in my waters, as my old grandmam liked to say.”

An expression Andy had never wanted to explore too closely. He hung up, and stared through the darkness, the lights of the TV and laptop gleaming in the dark.

“God, is there any way You can sort this out?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sometimes she just wished she could sleep in. That those dreams where she kissed Andy and he kissed her were more than wishful thinking, that she could wake up and they be real. But alas, they were not, and neither had she mastered the art of sleeping in, not with the way that attending the university’s early classes had reset her body clock. And not with the way her sisters insisted on calling too early on a Saturday morning.

Her phone rang with the special tones that showed a group video call. Which meant she could answer or ignore it and pay the price of avoidance for weeks to come. The easier option was always to answer. Even if she would have to multitask and have breakfast at the same time.

“Why are you looking so tired?” Fiona asked.

“Because I am tired. It’s been a big week.”

“How is school going?” Kara asked. Fiona had questioned on a previous call why Kara should join them, but they’d reminded her about Kara’s lack of family and she’d soon relented.

“It’s been okay.” She shovelled in more cereal.

“Those kids still behaving?”

“Yesterday I did some team teaching, and it wasn’t as easy as Moira made it look like. I kept forgetting where I was meant to be in the discussion.”

“You’ll get it,” Rory said.

“I hope so.” But she didn’t want to talk anymore about school. Talk about school skated too close to thinking about who else taught at school, and even though she’d done a fair bit of soul-searching last night, she still wasn’t sure she could talk to anyone, not even her sisters, without crying. “So, um, Rory, would you care to tell us about why you wanted us so bright and early on a Saturday morning?”

“Oh, seeing as you insist. So, Aidan and I have decided that we’d like to try for a Christmas wedding, but I wanted to make sure you could all come.”

“Oooh, that’s deadly! What date specifically?”

“The Saturday before Christmas.”

“What about his grandmother?”

“She’s given her blessing for us to marry without her. We’ll try to visit her after the honeymoon.”

The conversation soon turned to wedding dress shopping and bridesmaid dresses. “Because I want you all to be my bridesmaids.”

“Even me?” Kara asked.