Page 52 of Arse Over Irish Teacup
Rain was coming, stocks were up, and U2 were on the first leg of a new concert tour. Jesus, were those guys still touring?
Roan and Beth arrived at the swanky hotel in Sneem, and man Roan was not kidding when he said it was “very nice.” Very nice didn’t do it justice. It was modern luxury nestled beside a brilliant tranquil cove. Beth sighed and smiled. What a perfect place for a wedding.
Before Roan parked the car, they were met by a parking attendant. Roan rolled down his window and the man spoke and pointed. Roan rolled up the window looking confused. “Did you understand any of that?”
“Not a word.”
“Neither did I. We’ll find the wedding ourselves.”
The hotel was like a palace but before joining the wedding, Beth needed to wipe off her purse before she got dirt on anything. Roan pointed her toward the ladies’ room and she excused herself.
Roan waited near the front doorway looking around the room at all the familiar faces nodding and smiling in friendly greeting. It was good to get together every now and again. His gaze stopped at the face of an old friend approaching and he smiled wide.
“Roan, how have you been? I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”
Roan gestured a hello with his chin and shook hands. “Hi, Aidan, did I miss the ceremony? Oh, what a shame.” He was familiar with how this marriage would most likely go and to be honest didn’t want to dedicate an entire day to another one of Heather’s eejit dossers. “Anyway, I’m not bad, and yourself?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Remind me, what’s this one? Husband number four, right?”
Aidan nodded his head and pinched the space between his eyes. “He’s twenty-seven, a folk musician, and plays the uilleann pipes.”
“So, he’s broke as a joke.”
“She really screwed the pooch this time.”
“That’s funny. I’d gone my whole life never hearing that but that’s the second time this week I’ve heard that expression. The girl renting Grannie’s house said it.”
“Here she is now.” Roan held his arm out to introduce Beth but she recognized the man first.
Aidan raised his drink to his lips and froze. The ice cubes burned against his skin.
“Aidan?” she said. Cripes!
“You two know each other?” Roan asked.
Aidan swallowed an ice cube—Jesus Christ did that burn—and nodded, lowering his glass. “In a manner of speaking.”
“Fate has conspired against me,” Beth muttered louder than she’d intended.
Aidan leaned in closer to Beth. “That’s funny. I was just thinking the same thing, Spinner.” He leaned back and crossed his arms.
Awkward.
Beth and Aidan both had the same hard line across their face. Desperate as Roan was to know how Beth and Aidan knew each other—hey just because he was a man didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy a good bit of gossip now and then—Roan sensed that they had something to work out. Maybe they could use a minute? “I’ll just get us some drinks while you two catch up.”
Aidan took Beth by the arm and led her away from the crowd that was moving in. “What are you doing here?” He hadn’t meant to sound so demanding. But there it was.
Aidan sounded irritated but his eyes said something different. Beth wasn’t sure what that something different was, but she sure would not stand there in the middle of a wedding and argue about it! Or would she? “You know, that’s exactly what you said the last time you saw me? Roan never told me whose wedding this was!” she hissed.
“I meant in Ireland! You’re supposed to be back in Minnesota!”
“My flight was cancelled, okay?”
Fine. She didn’t control that. But that still didn’t explain why she was on the arm of the local heartthrob handyman. “Well, how did you meet Roan?” That condescending tone of his was back in full force.
“Why did you say it like that?”
