The Guesthouse on the Green Series Box Set 2 Read online

  ‘It came at a cost, too. Do you think she’ll meet him at the Merrion, Mammy?’ Roisin had seen the look in Gerry’s eyes when he spoke about Cliona and knew his heart would be broken if they didn’t get a second chance at love.

  ‘You’re a softy you are.’ Maureen patted her daughter’s hand and looked pensive. ‘I like to think we all deserve a second chance when it comes to love, Rosi, because life’s too short to spend it sad.’

  Again, there was something unsettling about the expression that passed over her mammy’s face and Roisin squirmed in her seat, grateful when Paula appeared at the table and set about distributing the drinks. She was glad when the glass of red wine that was put in front of Mammy broke the strange spell that had settled over her.

  Chapter 24

  Roisin watched Cindy out of the corner of her eye. She had a ritualistic style of eating that was fascinating to observe. Her brother’s girlfriend forked up another piece of sausage and held it to her pert little nose, which quivered delightedly as she sniffed at it. In that instance she reminded Roisin of Mr Nibbles. A look of bliss settled over her face just like it did the gerbil’s when he had hold of a lettuce leaf but instead of nibbling at it gleefully like Noah’s new pet did, she put the sausage back on her plate. She then cut a tiny sliver off and popped that in her mouth, pushing what remained of it to the side of her plate to keep company with the new potatoes that had been relegated there. Roisin counted twenty chews before she swallowed. She knew all about mindfulness, and it was something she tried to practise. Mindful eating, however, was something she, Mammy, and her sisters, who were like pigs at a trough when they were hungry, could do with a lot more practise at. She added it to her mental new year’s resolution list. Cindy however was taking things to the extreme.

  Roisin couldn’t contain herself, she had to ask, ‘Erm, Cindy, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you sniffing your food?’

  Cindy flashed her a blinding smile. ‘Of course, I don’t mind. The Ciccone-Scent diet is the latest craze sweeping through Hollywood. All the A-listers are trying it and getting great results.’

  ‘Oh, is it a sniff your food but don’t eat it diet then?’ Roisin could quite see you’d get results doing that.

  Cindy laughed, it sounded high pitched and girly. ‘It’s not quite that simple, Roisin.’ She stabbed in the direction of the new potatoes with her fork. ‘I don’t touch potatoes in any form because they’re full of carbs. Carbs are the enemy. But us girls already knew that, right?’

  Roisin nodded, looking everywhere but at her own plate where she’d already wolfed down the French fries that had been served with her prawns. As for Moira, she seemed to be trying to see how many of the deep-fried potato sticks she could get in her mouth at once. Mammy’s, like Roisin’s, were long gone. They’d both saved the prawns for last.

  ‘Okay, so as a devotee of the Ciccone-Scent diet, I avoid all carbs and only eat half of the protein served on my plate. Dr Ciccone’s research shows that inhaling your food before you eat it tricks your stomach into thinking it’s full and that way you only need to eat half your normal meal size. Makes sense, right?’

  Um, no, it sounded mad, Roisin thought, as she nodded that yes it did.

  ‘I love it because it’s so easy to follow and I don’t have to buy any fancy food. It really works too. I, dropped five pounds before Patrick and I flew out of LA.’ Her eyes drifted down to Roisin’s midriff and she automatically sucked her stomach in.

  ‘You must be very disciplined, Cindy. Sure, I couldn’t be doing with sniffing and not eating.’

  ‘Oh, you could if you lived in LA, Roisin. Everybody does it.’

  Roisin was very glad she lived in London.

  Cindy pushed her plate away while the rest of them carried on shovelling in their food. Roisin was feeling panicked by the idea of only being allowed to inhale her food and so she was getting her prawns from plate to mouth in record time. ‘Excuse me, I’m just off to powder my nose.’ Cindy got up and caused several male patrons to begin choking on their fare as she sashayed past.

  Mammy elbowed Moira, pointing, ‘Sure, look at your man there. He’s as bad as your Hugh Hefner Playboy one.’

  Mammy and Moira launched into a discussion on everything that was wrong with a man, who was clearly old enough to be Cindy’s grandfather, having impure thoughts about a young woman.

  ‘He wants to tie a knot in it at his age,’ Moira said.

  Once Cindy was out of earshot, Aisling leaned in close to Roisin, gesturing in Cindy’s direction. ‘Do you know what she’s after telling me and Moira?’

  ‘That she sniffs her food?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Never mind.’ Roisin couldn’t be bothered explaining the whole Ciccone-Scent diet thing.

  Aisling shook her head. ‘You’re an eejit. She told us Patrick was desperate to come home to Ireland for Christmas.’

  ‘Really?’ Roisin had always got the feeling Patrick was rather lukewarm when it came to Dublin. It wasn’t fast enough or glitzy enough for him. Oh, she knew right enough he loved them all. As much as Patrick loved anyone who wasn’t himself. It was just, Patrick.

  He’d never been any different. Roisin could remember Mammy having to drag him away from shop windows when he’d caught sight of his reflection as a young lad. ‘People will think it’s the underwear on the mannequin you’re after drooling over Patrick,’ she’d said tugging at his arm. When they’d reached their teens, the battle of the bathroom had begun in earnest and Daddy had taken to timing them; turned out Patrick spent the longest getting ready of a morning. In the end they’d been allocated five-minute time slots apiece. Patrick had been most put out, but then it was the eighties and hair was big.

  ‘I know, I was surprised too, but she said he’s been missing us all something terrible and that he told her Christmas is a time for family.’

  ‘Stop it.’ Roisin wasn’t sure this was her brother they were talking about.

  ‘I’m only repeating what Cindy told me.’

  Roisin felt a surge of love for her brother. Beneath all that shiny polish he was still the Pat she’d grown up with.

  ‘Apparently he’s ashamed of the way he behaved after Dad died. But you know Pat, he never could say he was sorry.’

  That was true. Many a time Mammy had marched him in front of his sisters and ordered him to apologise for some misdemeanour or other like giving Barbie a crew cut so as he could enlist her in his army or standing on their dolls house, which had been demolished in a surprise attack by his army. The word had seemed to get stuck in his throat as he was held firm by Mammy. In the end he’d mutter something that came out in a big whoosh and Mammy would release him having decided to interpret it as an apology.

  ‘Cindy says he feels bad about pushing so hard for Mammy to sell O’Mara’s after Daddy died. He doesn’t know what got into him.’

  ‘So, he should,’ Roisin said.

  Aisling nodded. It had been her who’d been the most affected by his behaviour. She was the one who’d fitted her life in around the guesthouse to ensure it stayed in the family.

  ‘Did she say why he was so keen to offload it? Was it to back some venture over in the States?’ That was what they’d all thought, after all.

  ‘No, apparently not. Well not entirely anyway. He thinks it was a kneejerk reaction to Daddy dying. A bit like Mammy, you know, with her wanting a fresh start over in Howth. He wanted shot of it because the memories were too painful. Everywhere he looked he saw Daddy and he didn’t know how to express how he was feeling.’

  ‘So, he came across as an arrogant, bullying, money grabbing arse instead, who dragged his sulky self back to Los Angeles.’

  ‘Pretty much, but guess what?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s been going to therapy.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘He’s a proper American now, so he is.’ Roisin tried to imagine her brother sitting on a white sofa talking about his emotions, b
ut couldn’t.

  ‘I know. I think Cindy’s good for him. She obviously brings out his softer side because he finally seems to have realised there’s more to life than making money and driving flash cars.’

  A leopard didn’t change its spots did it? Therapy or no therapy, Roisin thought. Patrick would always have a hankering for the finer things in life and chasing after the almighty dollar. Appearances mattered a lot to her brother. She glanced at Cindy making her way back from the Ladies and rested her case. He’d never go for a wallflower type simply because she was a nice person. Still Daddy’s death had obviously hit him hard, just as it had all of them. Roisin sighed into her glass of cola. Grief and the way they’d reacted to it hadn’t been straightforward. They’d all acted out in different ways, his passing leaving a gaping hole in all their lives. Patrick had been the only one seemingly untouched, blustering in and pushing for O’Mara’s to be sold, although apparently it had been just that, bluster. A cover for the rawness he felt from Daddy’s passing.

  ‘Anyway, I’ve decided Christmas is a time for forgiveness so I’m going to give Pat a second chance.’ Aisling stated, and Roisin noticed her cheeks were flushed the colour of the wine.

  ‘Good for you, Ash. We all deserve second chances.’ She said as her sister announced she was going to have to forfeit dessert and make tracks back to the guesthouse. Second chances was a theme that kept popping up and her mind drifted back to Shay. She looked up and blinked, not sure whether she was hallucinating or not because there like a mirage, walking toward their table, was Shay.

  Chapter 25

  ‘I called in to see you at O’Mara’s. I wanted to catch up with you before I head to Castlebeg later this afternoon. See how you were feeling. Bronagh told me you were here for lunch and it’s only around the corner,’ he shrugged. ‘So here I am. I hope you don’t mind me gatecrashing like this?’ He grinned apologetically at Roisin and then at the others. She blinked again several times, still not convinced she hadn’t dreamed this moment into reality. She flinched as a foot connected with her ankle, Aisling’s way of reassuring her she was very much in the here and now. She was reminded too that she owed this man an apology for her behaviour the previous night. The memory of her waffling on made her squirm but before she could speak Mammy leapt in.

  ‘Oh no, she doesn’t mind at all, do you, Roisin? I’m Roisin’s mammy, Maureen, by the way, seeing as my daughter’s forgotten her manners. We’ve not had the pleasure. How do you do?’ Mammy beamed holding a hand out. Shay took her outstretched hand and for the briefest of seconds, Roisin thought he was going to kiss it but he didn’t. He shook it, smiling at her mam in a way that made her blush. Mind, it didn’t take much to make Mammy blush once she was on her second glass of the red.

  ‘I can see where Roisin gets her good looks from.’

  Maureen looked like one of those specialty Japanese fish you take your life in your hands by eating at this, and Roisin couldn’t help but smile. It was cheesy but coming from Shay it didn’t seem clichéd. It came across as genuine. She’d have words with Moira later too, she decided seeing her sister going red from the effort not to laugh at Mammy’s puffer fish impersonation. They were so embarrassing the lot of them. Even Aisling and Cindy were looking eagerly at Shay as though he were going to bestow them each with a compliment like some sort of fairy godmother who’d rocked up in battle-worn denim. She couldn’t blame them, she supposed, because he did look gorgeous. Not in the clean-cut coiffed way of her brother but in a rugged, earthy way, that made her think things that would definitely make Mammy tell her to get her mind out of the gutter. She couldn’t understand why she kept picturing him with a Stetson on his head, though. She’d no idea she had a thing for cowboys until she met him. Cindy, clearing her throat daintily, galvanised her and she introduced the blonde bombshell to him.

  As she held onto his hand longer than necessary, Roisin gave him a mental ten out of ten for keeping his eyes trained on her face the whole time. No mean feat given the heaving bosom just under his nose. She bit her bottom lip as Aisling elbowed her and whispered, ‘She’ll start singing Happy Birthday Mr President in a minute.’

  ‘Bunch up, girls,’ Mammy ordered, giving Cindy a look that made her drop Shay’s hand like a hot potato. She scanned the room for a spare chair but Shay stopped her.

  ‘Actually, Maureen, I wondered if I might be able to borrow Roisin for a few minutes.’

  The puffer fish was back and was just about jumping up and down on her seat with the excitement of it all.

  Roisin got up from her chair, feeling the hot stares of her family on her back as they excused themselves, and she followed his lead past the toilets and out the backdoor. What had he come to say? The door led outside to the car park which, although full of cars, didn’t have a soul in sight. There was a pot on the ground near the backdoor full of cigarette butts. Hardy lot, smokers she thought, standing outside for their fix in all weather conditions. She could smell that faint greasy odour of stale fat from the extractor fan whirring overhead.

  ‘Sorry to drag you out in the cold.’

  ‘Not at all.’ Her breath was misty in the chill air. She leaned against the cold brick wall shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans for warmth. She owed him an apology and she decided she better jump in first and get it over with. ‘Listen, Shay, I’m sorry about getting myself in such a state last night and the way I went on. I don’t know what you must have thought of me but it’s been ages since I’ve had a night out and I got carried away. Can you please just forget everything I said?’

  His eyes twinkled, ‘What, even the bit about me being highly rideable?’

  ‘Ah Jaysus.’ She freed her hands to cover her face, peeking through her fingers at him. ‘Don’t remind me.’

  ‘I’m teasing.’ He pulled her hands away from her face and kept hold of them. They were swallowed up by his and she marvelled that hands that size could be so quick and nimble with the fiddle. She wondered what else those hands might be good at. ‘You don’t need to apologise, Rosi. I had a great craic, the best I’ve had in ages, and you were hilarious by the way.’

  ‘I was?’ She swallowed hard. She couldn’t recall having said anything particularly witty.

  ‘Yeah, when you launched into Who Let the Dogs Out on the way home, I just about lost it. I loved the little paws you made with your hands and the woofing was class.’

  ‘Please tell me I didn’t?’

  ‘Oh, you did alright.’ His smile and the way it worked the dimple in his left cheek made her forget she was cold and embarrassed.

  ‘Anyway, there’s a reason I dragged you out here.’

  ‘Oh yes?’ Roisin hadn’t a clue what he wanted but looking at him right then and there she’d happily throw all that nonsense about her being too old for him and their lives being too different or the timing being all wrong out the window. Life was messy, it didn’t run to a timetable.

  ‘Yeah, I wanted to tell you something before I go away.’

  Roisin couldn’t tear her eyes away from him and her body began to react very strangely to the proximity of his. A heat was coursing from her stomach to her chest and her limbs were tingling. How was it possible for anyone to smell as good as he did? It was a musky, spiced scent that made her nose want to twitch like Cindy’s had over her sausage. She was aware of his thumbs gently stroking the back of her hands and more than anything she wanted to stand on her tippy toes so she could kiss him. It was a seize the day moment but then she remembered, I had prawns, PRAWNS for lunch. Oh my God, what was I thinking? Now was not the time to retrieve the tube of mints from her handbag. She couldn’t surreptitiously pop one out and say, ‘I’m getting ready just in case you decide to kiss me.’

  ‘I think you’re a very special lady, Roisin, and I want you to give me a chance. I promise I won’t push you too fast and I’ll respect what you say because I understand there’s Noah to think about but please, can you give us a go?’ There was a sudden vulnerability about him
as a lock of his hair fell into his eyes and he looked at her almost shyly waiting for her reaction.

  ‘Oh,’ was all she could come up with. She hadn’t expected that but there was no time to mull over what he’d said or to worry about Dublin Bay crustaceans or the fact her fringe was sitting two-thirds of the way up her forehead because he was leaning in towards her. Their noses bumped and she was about to giggle nervously, not quite believing what was about to happen, but it was silenced by his lips finding hers. They brushed one another’s softly and then they broke apart looking into each other’s eyes with surprise. Shay brushed a stray curl from her cheek.

  ‘You have no idea how badly I have wanted to do that from the very first moment I saw you.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really.’ His mouth sought hers again and she parted her lips slightly to receive him. His fingers entwined through hers and she was glad when he pulled her close holding her steady because she was in danger of sliding down the wall if he let her go. As the heat of his mouth on hers intensified, Roisin wasn’t aware of anything other than the feel of his body pressing into hers and the sweet taste of him. It was as though the world around them had ceased to exist. Nothing mattered but losing herself in this moment because, like Mammy had said, everybody deserved a second chance at love and maybe this was hers.

  Chapter 26

  Moira, in her role as the youngest girl in the family, lit the candle and placed it well away from the curtains on the windowsill in the living room facing the street below. The Green across the road was in darkness, the bare branches of the trees’ ghostly spectres, but the road was busy with cars streaming home from Midnight Mass.

  ‘Watch your hair, Moira. Jesus, Mary and Joseph we don’t need that on Christmas Eve,’ Mammy called from the kitchen, where she was cutting everybody a generous chunk of seed cake. ‘Nobody’s going to bed without a hot chocolate and a slice of my cake. It’s traditional, isn’t that right Quinn?’ she ordered, as they all found somewhere to flop, weary from the long, but enjoyable evening. Quinn nodded as he stirred the pot in which he was brewing the bedtime drink. The restaurant had closed early and he’d joined them for Midnight Mass. He and Aisling were taking over Room 5 which was empty for the night. Moira and Mammy were topping and tailing and Patrick and Cindy were back in his old room. Roisin and Noah were in Aisling’s room. It was a case of musical beds but they’d all worked in together, apart from Moira who was muttering about Mammy being a bed hog. Tom was spending Christmas Eve with his family as his sister was home from America but he planned on joining them later in the day tomorrow.