Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
The sun was gleaming on the still waters as she went downstairs and joined her mother and aunt for breakfast. Yes, they usually had breakfast in their private apartment, but on occasion they preferred the options and service of the restaurant.
And here, with a breakfast of eggs and only a little serving of bacon—plus, okay, a hash brown and serve of black pudding—she could feel nearly virtuous, like her get healthier goal was easier to attain.
Well, at least she’d woken up remembering it, which made a change from the many times she’d made a New Year’s resolution and somehow the next day forgotten all about it.
“Mm, this is good,” she said, forking in another mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“The chef certainly knows his way around eggs,” Aunty Aine agreed.
“Her way,” Aisling corrected. Weekdays saw a different chef to weekends.
“Of course.” Aunty Aine sipped her cappuccino. “So, Aisling dear, what are you going to do with your life?”
“An excellent question.”
It was one thing to graduate with a degree, it was quite another to walk straight into a job. And while she was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work here at the hotel, it didn’t mean that was all she wanted to do with her life.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Sometimes I think it would be so good to be like Aidan and know that practicing law was what I was meant to do. Or even teaching, like Andy. But I don’t feel like that.”
“What, apart from teaching, has your degree equipped you for?”
Another excellent question. Had it been self-indulgent to study Celtic history if there was no real use for it?
Fiona had said as much, bless her. Sure, the lecturers had assured the degree meant she could go work at a library or in research, but they hadn’t admitted just how rare those jobs were.
Or that they inevitably didn’t pay too well.
Which was why she’d put her name down for secondary teacher training, as a kind of insurance policy of sorts.
Even if, despite the non-refundable payment she’d made, she sometimes wondered if high school teaching was what she should do after all.
She sipped her orange juice. “Do you think I would make a good secondary school teacher?”
“Truly? I didn’t think you wanted to study anymore. In fact, I was sure you said words to that effect not so long ago.”
She sighed. “I didn’t know what else to do last year, and thought I could maybe do a postgraduate course that at least qualifies me in something.”
“Yes, but is that what you truly wish to do?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled.
Aine sighed. “I don’t like to say it, not when my husband was a school principal and I’ve worked in the system too, but I truly think there are some people who are meant to teach and some who are not. One needs to have a certain level of patience in order to do that.”
“Are you saying I have no patience?”
“I’m saying that it’s a quality you could probably afford to develop before you take on teaching.”
“It can’t be that hard.”
Aine looked at her. Okay, so maybe it was. “Isn’t this something you should have thought of long before now?”
Apparently.
Apparently there were many things she should have thought of before.
She snuck a peek at her aunt. Maybe Aunty Aine felt like she needed to get in all the inquisition while she still could, but it seemed awfully sudden.
There’d been none of those questions last night when she’d had dinner with her and Mam, and they’d played cards while watching old episodes of Dance Off Canada on TV.
Instead, they’d enjoyed watching the brute-like hockey player twirl his tiny dance pro partner, and made comments about whether the chemistry they shared meant they were a couple in real life as well as on TV.
Where had the inquisition been then, huh? Apparently waiting for today.
She ate the last of her black pudding—yum!—then dragged her soda bread through the remains of her egg. Double yum! She’d go to the gym later and work it off.
“Look, Aisling, I don’t mean to sound harsh,” Aine said. “But I didn’t want to leave today without having the chance to talk. And I know your mam is concerned about you—”
She was?
“—and wants to see you settled and happy, too.”
“I don’t need to be settled just yet. I am only twenty-three. And I am happy,” she insisted. Well, most of the time, anyway. Studying for exams didn’t make her happy. But did anyone actually enjoy study? Ugh. What would that mean for the next two years?
“I guess it’s more the thought that you may feel like you’re living a little aimlessly, without a clear goal.”
“But that doesn’t mean I need my life mapped out in its entirety.”
“No. But it won’t hurt to pray about your future.”
“I do pray. And I’m trusting God.”
“Good.” Aine’s gaze veered to the restaurant entryway and her smile was enough to make Aisling turn there too.
Rory and Aidan came in holding hands, Mam following behind, wearing a broad smile.
“Hey, what have you two been up to?” Aisling asked. “I haven’t seen you since lunch yesterday.”
Rory held up her left hand, which was now decorated with a ring.
“What? You didn’t!”
“We did!”
Aisling pushed back her chair with such force it tipped over and hugged Rory, then Aidan. “Oh, you know you better look after her.”
“Otherwise I’ll have you to deal with, right?”
She laughed, remembering when she’d said something fairly similar last year. “Still doesn’t mean it’s not true,” she warned.
“I consider myself duly cautioned.”
Mam took a seat, and Aisling hugged her too. She seemed happy, like this was what she wanted. But—had Mam really said she was concerned about Aisling?
“Oh, it’s a shame that Fiona and Colin and Kara aren’t here to hear this,” Aine said.
“Fiona made her choices,” Aisling murmured.
“I think Colin and Kara have other things on their mind,” Rory said, peeking up at Aidan.
He smiled. “I did actually canvass Colin’s opinion last week, and he was happy. So I don’t think it will take him by surprise.”
“You did that?” Rory asked.
“Your dad isn’t here to ask permission, so your mum and brother are the next best thing,” he said softly.
Aisling’s heart panged. Her dad might’ve died several years ago, but he’d be so proud of his son-in-law to-be.
“Kieran would have been so glad to welcome you into our family,” Mam said, patting Aidan’s arm.
“Thanks, Maeve.” He hugged her.
Oh, that’s right. Like Kara, Aidan didn’t have a large family. His parents had both passed, and his Gran and sister and her family were all the relatives he had left. Bless him.
Aisling ate her marmalade-laden toast as they discussed some of the details, like where they’d live.
“My Gran is still with us,” Aidan said, “but I’m hoping to return here when I no longer need to look after her.”
“Really? You’d do that?” Rory asked.
“Of course I would.” He turned to face Aisling and Mam. “I told Rory this, but last year I was told to contact an office in Killarney if I was to return, and I’ve been keeping in touch with them. They’ve told me about a position that’s likely to become vacant in the next year or so.”
“Wow. That sounds like an answer to prayer, doesn’t it?” Aisling said.
Rory nodded, her eyes glowing as she gazed at Aidan. “An answer to prayer before we’d even prayed.”
“Indeed it does sound like God’s hand was in this.” Mam’s smile was soft. “And as sad as that news would mean concerning your grandmother, it would be nice to know my daughter doesn’t need to live on the other side of the world.”
“It is a wee distance, isn’t it?”
“I’d be very happy to go to Australia, you know, if you decide to live there one day,” Aisling offered. “I could be the super cool Aunty Ash, and your kids could take me surfing or to pat a koala. I think that’d be grand.”
He smiled. “You know you’re welcome any time you want to come.”
“Really?”
“Aidan, don’t encourage her. She’ll be on a plane before you can say tomorrow.”
Aisling laughed, and glanced across the room to where two others had entered. Her heart thudded, and she offered a small smile.
But either Andy didn’t see her or he was too busy thinking of something else, because his gaze drifted straight past her. Her heart sank.
“What is it?” Rory asked her.
“Nothing.” She wouldn’t let her susceptibility for a certain man get in the way to cloud a second of Rory’s happiness. “So, tell me what happened. Where did he propose? Did he get down on bended knee? I want to know it all!”
Rory and Aidan did exactly that, sharing about a beach and a restaurant nearby where they’d eaten the most perfect meal last year. “We went for a walk on the beach while it was sunset, then Aidan got on one knee and proposed.”
“Ah, that sounds grand,” Aunty Aine said. “It’s a beautiful ring.”
“It was my mother’s,” he admitted.
“Oh, how special.” Aisling picked up her sister’s left hand and examined the ring more closely. Three round diamonds glinted in a simple, elegant band.
“She would have loved you, you know,” he murmured to Rory, side-hugging her. “Even my sister and Gran said so.”
“Aww.” Aisling placed a hand on her heart at the perfect romance of it all.
“Well, this certainly is a weekend for happily-ever-afters, isn’t it?” Aine said. She patted Aisling’s hand. “Don’t worry, your time will come.”
She nodded, pretending the words didn’t sting.
She knew it would happen eventually, even suspected she knew who it would happen with, but after yesterday he seemed to be avoiding her.
Which certainly didn’t make a woman feel too confident about this Fairall legacy and whether it was as good as it was cracked up to be.