‘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
