Page 51 of Beside Golden Irish Fields
She nodded.So am I.“We’re not going to let that ruin our day, are we?”
Eoghan’s wisdom about life rose in her mind.
“There’s way too much fun to be had,” she told him. She was going to have some fun and forget other people’s judgments.God, please let it help her art.
If she didn’t figure out how to do it, she would never find her way back to being someone she was proud of again.
Chapter Fifteen
The bedroom was foreign with its plain concrete white walls and old windows.
The only familiar items were her favorite tan jacket draped on the bed and the framed picture of her, Tyson, and Ollie that sat on the side table. The quiet around her was unsettling to her frayed nerves. Ollie had never yelled at her like that, and she and Angie never quarreled as they just had.
She looked longingly at the bed. The white down comforter would wrap around her and drown out the world. Brushing at the tears running down her face, she walked over to it. Touched the softness. How she wanted to shut out the world and everything in it, a world as foreign to her now as this place she found herself in.
Ollie’s angry words ran through her mind. He’d said that he hated his father and wanted Angie to be his mother. God! Even if he didn’t really mean it, he’d meant it in that moment. What had she and Tyson done to make him say such things?
If she got into bed, she’d be a failure as a mother and a sister. Maybe Ollie wouldn’t be as angry if she met with Kade and arranged a pony ride. As for what to do for Angie… She would have to see. Her sister’s mention of Carrick still troubled her. She’d seen her sister enthralled with a man before, and this had all the markings. Had she picked another bad egg?
Although Megan hadn’t really spoken with Carrick since that first day, she’d liked him well enough. He’d seemed like a solid sort of man. But he was clearly still caught up with his deceased wife. Was there more?
The rumble of Liam’s motorcycle sounded. Liam. He could tell her how to reach Kade. She rushed to the front door and flagged him down as he appeared on the driveway, visible from their cottage.
He cut the engine and took off his helmet. “Morning, cousin. How’s everything?”
Everything is crap,she thought, but said, “Ollie is a little upset, and I was hoping you might tell me how to reach Kade and set up a pony ride.”
He grinned and swung off his bike. “Perfect timing. I was just going over to his place to start painting some fencing. Why don’t you get dressed and come with me? I keep an extra helmet with me at all times.”
Sure enough, he popped the small container on the back of the bike and pulled out a sleek black helmet like the one he wore. “Ah…I’ve never been on a motorcycle. I probably shouldn’t. I’m a single mom now, and it’s not very safe, is it?”
Oh, how she hated talking about herself like that, but shewasa single mother now—and widowed. She hated those labels. Every time she filled out a form, she was reminded that the life she’d planned was gone.
“Do you trust me to take care of you, Megan?” Liam asked, coming toward her. “I wouldn’t invite you or anyone on my bike if I weren’t completely sure it was safe.”
She looked longingly at the cottage.
“Come on,” he said, holding out his hand. “There’s nothing like seeing the countryside on a bike and feeling the wind around you. If it weren’t for all the rain, I’d drive my bike all the time. But it’s another glorious day out. Mum and me were just saying that you guys had brought good weather. It’s been mostly dry since you arrived. Come on, Megan. A good ride clears the head.”
Her head needed clearing, that was for sure. Tyson never would have approved of her taking such a risk, but she found herself saying, “All right, I’ll get dressed if you promise not to go too fast.”
He crossed his heart, and she rushed inside to change. When she returned, he took her hand and led her to the bike, helping her with the helmet. “Now hang on to me, and when we go into a turn, lean with me.”
She climbed onto the bike after he did and wrapped her arms tightly around him. Nerves barbed in her belly when the bike thundered to life, and then they shot forward. The hedgerows and trees were a green blur as he drove down the remainder of the driveway until they reached the main road. Then the engine seemed to growl ferociously, and they started flying.
An open blue sky dotted with white clouds and the first shafts of sunshine stretched out above bright green pastures filled with sheep painted with words. A few caught her eyes.Power. Magic. Music.
There was a certain loud music to the ride, she realized, and it drowned out everything else.
She was shocked by how much she liked it.
The wind rushed over her clothes, making her feel almost electrically charged, like someone might touch her and get a shock. They came to a T in the road, and Liam signaled for her to lean with him to the right. Her hands clutched him as they dipped in the direction of the ground before leveling out and racing down a narrow Irish road overtaken by brush and bramble. She watched it all race by, and it dawned on her that that’s how life felt to her now—rushing by too fast for her to touch.
They rounded another corner, and she saw pasture after pasture of horses. A large wooden sign saying The Donovan Farm sat at the end of the driveway. They turned onto the road. If they hadn’t slowed down, she might not have seen the smaller sign saying Pony Therapy Ahead closer to the ground.
They passed a white two-story house on a small hill, and then they were traversing a dirt road past a trio of large gray sheds. At the back was a smaller shed, this one bright red. A tall man with curly brown hair was leading a black and white pony out of the large doorway, but he stopped and lifted a hand in greeting. The pony nudged him playfully, and he laughed, cradling its head in a way she could only interpret as loving.
This had to be Kade.
