Page 48 of An Irish Kiss
“I put a tracker in her phone,” she warned him.
“What?”He glanced at Rory.“Has she?”
She laughed.“Let’s go.”
“I want her back by ten o’clock,” Aisling called.
“Does she mean in the morning?”
“I’m pretty sure she means the evening.But it’s okay.Come on.”
She directed him back into Derryloughlin, and he parked outside the bakery, where she ordered two coffees and two Irish breakfast rolls to go.Once served, they drove to a viewing spot five minutes away which overlooked the beach.
“What’s in an Irish breakfast roll?”he asked, as she handed one to him.
“Well, I’ll admit it’s not especially authentic, but it does the job.It’s a baguette packed with bacon, sausage, egg, a hash brown, black pudding and white pudding.”
He stared at it.“Dare I ask what’s in white pudding?”
“No.”She laughed.
Okay, so it couldn’t be that bad then.“Let me guess: if black pudding contains animal blood then white pudding doesn’t.”
“Correct!It generally has oatmeal or barley and breadcrumbs and some kind of fat.”
“Sounds like a heart attack ready to happen.”
“But if you only live once, you might as well live, right?”She took a big bite of her roll.
He chuckled, and followed suit.And yes, while there was alotof roll and flavours to get his mouth around, it was interesting.And filling.Even if he was happy to say “I might only live once, but once was enough, I think.”
She chuckled, and wrapped the other half of her roll in a napkin.“It is a lot, isn’t it?I’m going to keep the rest for lunch.”
“Oh.I hoped to take you somewhere for lunch.”
“You did?”
“Well, you’re my tour guide, so it’s only fair that I pay you by supplying the rest of the meals.”
“Fine.Be like that then.”
His heart warmed.He liked this fun and bantery side of her.It reminded him of the ease with which he and his sister often carried on.Except he’d never felt this sense of anticipation with another woman before.
“Now, are you ready for the next exciting instalment of our magical mystery tour?”
“For sure and for certain,” he gently teased.
She snorted.“You willnotbe saying that again to me if you know what’s good for you.Not if you don’t want a tour of the backside of the village rubbish tip.”
“Fine.Be like that then.”
She chuckled, and directed him back up the road, and through several back streets of Derryloughlin, until they came to a scene he recalled.She stopped, and opened the door, and he joined her in getting out.
He stared at the little cottage, the thatched roof just like the picture Mary had shown him three days ago.The second stop on this spontaneous tour of Rory’s hidden gems of West Ireland had been unexpected, but heart-searing.For this cottage, humble as it was, was also a reminder that there was a chasm between them.The elephant in the room that they were both doing their best to ignore.“It’s so little.”
“A little cottage.”
“Do…do you think we could go inside?”
