‘Right then,’ Cormac said, and if he’d had a gavel, Aisling suspected he would have banged it down. Instead he had to make do with placing his mug on the table. ‘Aisling, I want you to explain to Quinn why you behaved like a mad woman over this wedding.’
Aisling grasped her hands a little tighter and licked her lips. She had nothing to lose by opening up. ‘It doesn’t make much sense, Quinn, but from the minute you put my beautiful ring on my finger I had this sinking feeling something would go wrong. I suppose I felt that because Marcus called everything off, I wasn’t worthy of being married and so to compensate I overcompensated by trying to bury those thoughts in buying and booking things.’
‘Bling, darling,’ Cormac elaborated for her before turning to Quinn. ‘You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to work out that her compulsive spending was a reaction to the anxiety she was feeling. I’ve seen it time and time again on Rodeo Drive where my boutique is. Women throwing the cash around to try to make their problems go away.’
Quinn nodded. He got it, he did, but what he didn’t get was why she hadn’t trusted him. He put voice to this.
Aisling dug her nails into her palms and her voice was tinny. ‘I do trust you. It’s me I didn’t trust.’
Quinn looked bewildered but didn’t get a chance to probe further because Cormac was pointing at him. ‘You’re on.’
‘Um,’ Quinn hesitated.
‘Come on, you’re a chef, you should be good at expressing your feelings.’
He found the right words. ‘I never wanted a big wedding, Aisling, but I didn’t want to upset you because you were a force to be reckoned with. You’d ask my opinion but I could see you didn’t want it, you wanted me to agree with whatever you were suggesting. All I wanted was to say our vows, me and you in front of our family and friends. Then celebrate with a party at the restaurant. Simple.’ He gave a shrug as though he still couldn’t believe how hard it had all gotten.
There was truth in his words. Aisling knew it had been her way or the highway. Her face felt hot and not because of the spots, they’d finally disappeared, but because she’d been so unfair. ‘I’m sorry, Quinn.’
Cormac looked at Aisling and then at Quinn. They both looked to him wondering what he’d say next. ‘Do you love, Aisling, Quinn?’
‘Of course, I do.’
Aisling’s eyes welled and a plump tear formed on her lower lashes.
Cormac nodded – this was going exactly how he’d planned. ‘And, Aisling, do you love Quinn?’
‘More than anything.’ The tear rolled down her cheek.
‘Do you remember the Beatles?’ Cormac asked.
This was getting weird, Quinn thought. ‘Yeah, who doesn’t?’
Aisling agreed with his sentiment.
‘Well as Paul sang, all you need is love.’
Aisling and Quinn locked eyes. It was Quinn who spoke first. ‘Shall we start again?’
‘I’d like that.’
Quinn reached over and brushed the tear from Aisling’s cheek. Cormac cleared his throat and got up from his seat. Humming the classic Beatles tune, he decided his work was done. It was time to leave them to it and he wouldn’t mind another slice of that brownie either.
Chapter 35
Noreen’s case lay open on her bed and she folded the last of the necessities she’d need for her stay in Dublin, placing them carefully around the vase she’d bought for Aisling and Quinn. It was well padded and she’d be sure to tell Terry not to be throwing her case around when he put it in the boot. He and Rosamunde would be here shortly to pick her up. She’d hang her outfit from the handle about the window in the back of the car. She checked her watch again wishing the hands would turn faster. It was still a good twenty minutes until they were due to collect her and she was unable to settle, thanks to the nervous excitement about what lay in store these next few days. Emer, she’d gleaned from Rosamunde, was living an hour out of Dublin and planned on meeting her mammy, daddy, and the rest of her siblings, who were also spread far and wide these days, at the church. Sadly, her marriage had broken down this last year and as such she’d be attending on her own. She wasn’t bringing her children either who were nearly adults now and had no interest in attending the wedding of a sort of cousin they barely knew.
The thought of Emer’s children nearly grown up was a reminder of the lost years and Noreen pushed those rogue thoughts away. The past couldn’t be changed; it was what lay ahead that mattered.
Chapter 35
The day of the wedding
Uncle Cormac was indeed her fairy godmother, Aisling thought, admiring the way the tiny crystals on the bodice of her dress sparkled under the light. She felt like a princess. He’d insisted on footing the bill for hers and her bridesmaids’ dresses. ‘Aisling,’ he’d said bossily, ‘I have dedicated my life to fashion and a girl should have the dress of her dreams on her wedding day but a pumpkin carriage,’ he’d shaken his head, ‘she does not need.’
‘You’ve got my something borrowed?’ Roisin checked, and Aisling dutifully lifted the heavy fabric of her gown to display the garter belt her eldest sister had worn at her own wedding. Roisin grinned, ‘I hope it brings you the sort of wedding night I had.’
Aisling wrinkled her nose at the thought of Colin and Rosi doing the deed. She knew they had to have done so at least once or they wouldn’t have had Noah but still she preferred to think her nephew had been an immaculate conception.
‘He was many things, my ex-husband—’ Roisin continued.
‘A chinless feck for one,’ Moira piped up.
Roisin ignored her, ‘But in those early days believe it or not, he was quite the ride.’
There
