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ChapterOne
Andrea
Six yearslater
Andrea “Andi” Collins strode around her and her best friend Charlie’s apartment, making sure she had all her bits and pieces sorted before she flew home to Ireland tomorrow. The thought of going home made her both anxious, and excited. She loved her family and friends, but the chance she would run into Declan Walsh while at home was massive.
It had been six years since she had told her parents she wanted to go abroad to study, six years since she stood Declan up at the gig they were going to because Andi had overheard her teenage crush basically slating her. Andi had been so in love with the dark-haired, devastating smiled handsome teen that seeing him every day after that would have been torture.
Andi had always been smart, found it easy to learn anything, and her parents had been only too happy to let her go to a private school for the last few months and then to apply to the university in Manchester to study PR, specializing in music.
Music had always been a passion for her, and she could have been in a band herself, but she had decided not to venture down the girl band route and instead, focus on making sure others’ dreams came true.
And it was at that university in Manchester that Andi had crossed paths with Charlotte Coyle and once they realized they were the only two Irish girls in the course, they quickly bonded. Charlie was the opposite of Andi: Charlie was sporty, shy with those she didn’t know, and a disaster when it came to fashion, but when Andi had walked in on the first day and heard Charlie talking on the phone, they had immediately clicked.
Andi walked into the lecture hall, glancing around almost relieved when she noticed she was one of the first few people to arrive. There was a small group of girls up the back who looked like they had known each other for years, one of them had hair a brash colour of red that had Andi rolling her eyes.
There was a solitary girl a few rows from the front who was talking on the phone and Andi’s ear caught the Cork accent right off.
“Da, I’m grand. I promise. I’m moving into the dorm later.”
The girl was smiling, her eyes twinkling as she shook her head and lowered her voice. “Da, I’m good. And no, I want to experience college like a normal person. I gotta go. I love you.”
The girl hung up her phone and looked up, her eyes meeting Andi’s, a faint blush on her cheeks. Andi strode forward and grinned. “They don’t stop being your parents just cause you leave the country, do they?”
The girl blinked in surprise then returned Andi’s grin. “Oh my God, you dunno how nice it is to hear a familiar accent!”
Andi slid into the seat beside her, holding out her hand. “Andi Collins.”
The girl took her hand. “Charlie Coyle.”
Dropping her hand, Andi nudged her shoulder and said. “You and me, Charlie. We are gonna be the best of friends. I just know it.”
They had been inseparable since, her and Charlie, ending up sharing a dorm room like it was fate, bonding over dickhead first crushes, and plotting and planning to take over the world and open Rebel PR. They had managed to do so, with a little investment by Charlie’s millionaire dad, his race car company quickly making strides and last year they had finally entered F1.
The company had been so successful in its first year that she and Charlie had decided to open an Irish branch to cope with the influx of clients. And now that Charlie’s dad had sadly passed away and left Charlie his multi-million company, Charlie would have less time to devote to the business they had cultivated and Andi couldn’t be in two places at once.
Her friend had returned home to Cork to begin her life as CEO of her dad’s company and face the demons of her past. Charlie was most apprehensive about seeing rising racing star Noah Donovan, and Andi could totally understand exactly how Charlie must be feeling.
Andi knew because that was exactly how she felt. Going home meant seeing her family and her brother and where Rhys was, Declan tended to be. Their band had taken off recently, like Andi always knew they would and they were a hot commodity, trying to finish the last few tracks of their debut album.
She spoke to Rhys nearly every day and if they weren’t calling, they were texting. They had been close growing up, with a mere eleven months between them and they had always been a musical family. Their dad played for fun in a trad group, playing the bodhrán of all things. Rhys played the guitar and the keyboard, and Andi did too.
But while Rhys couldn’t sing worth a damn, Andi loved to sing and she did as often as she could, especially after a few pints during open mic night at the college bar she had worked during college to support herself
Charlie came and sat with her most nights she tended bar despite the fact she didn’t have to work for cash. Charlie never made her feel like she was poor or offered her money when she was short because she knew Andrea would ask if she needed help She respected Andi’s need to work for the things she had and Andi worked her ass off so she could be an equal partner in Rebel PR.
She loved the bones off Charlie, like she was the best friend she’d always wanted growing up. When she was a teenager, she had felt so different to the girls in her school, hadn’t gelled with anyone of her own sex and when she told her mam that, wise as always Mabel Collins told her.
“Sometimes, you have to wait a little longer in life to find the person who is the other half of your soul. And I don’t mean a romantic soulmate, I mean the other person who you know has your back without question. The person you would call if you needed to bury a body.”
Her mam was as funny as she was wise sometimes.
Striding over to the fridge, Andi took out a bottle of beer, opening it and curling her legs under herself before she decided to give Charlie a call and see how her friend was coping being back on Irish soil.
The phone rang a few times before Andi heard a welcome voice on the other end.
“I haven’t even been in Ireland five minutes and you can’t cope without me.”
