Chapter 10 #3
For a movie that he’d never wanted to see this one wasn’t bad.
He wasn’t a fan of epic sci-fi movies involving space wars.
They’d never made much sense to him, because why would aliens want to invade a planet with clearly inferior beings?
But just as Rory had said, this wasn’t so much about watching the movie, but about getting out and hanging with people he was starting to consider his friends.
And later, at dinner, after they dissected the movie, he finally got the chance to get a little more real, when Aidan asked why he’d chosen to come stay at the Castle Griffin Hotel.
He had the choice to be honest or just skim the surface. Given their generosity in including him, he felt he owed them a degree of honesty.
“So you know that I was supposed to get married a year ago.” They all nodded. “Greta saw an article about the hotel and wanted to stay in a castle.” Like a princess, she’d said. “She was like that princess in the movie, latching onto whatever place or person she thought would help her get ahead.”
“What does she do?” Rory asked.
“I barely know,” he admitted. “She was in sales for a cosmetics firm. I think she was trying to get into the influencer scene, whatever that is.”
Aisling bit her lip, glanced down.
“All I know is that she wasn’t happy when I retired from competitive sport.” He grimaced. “Apparently she hadn’t agreed to marry a secondary school teacher.”
Aisling frowned. “Are you serious? She dumped you because you’re a teacher?”
“She didn’t say that, not in so many words, but yes. That’s the gist of it.”
“I would have thought that being a teacher would give a lot more security,” Rory said. “In fact Aisling here—”
“Never mind about me,” Aisling said, shooting a look at her sister. “Can I ask why you decided on teaching? I imagine you probably could have gone into coaching or something else as well.”
Now that was another thoughtful question. He explained how coaching steered a little too close to professional sport and the inevitable regrets when things hadn’t worked out.
“I can’t imagine how hard that must’ve been to give up on a dream you’d dedicated so much of your time to.”
He glanced at her, and found himself sinking into her green gaze, and the empathy he could see shining there. “Thanks,” he said gruffly.
Aidan cleared his throat, and shared a wry look with Rory. “I know a little bit about what it’s like to see a dream have to take second place to other things. But I’ve learned that it’s in those places that we really learn to trust God.”
Aisling nodded. “And sometimes what we think we want is not God’s best for us.”
“Exactly.” He didn’t know why he felt surprised at her empathy. But she did. He glanced at her again. “You seem to understand this.”
She nodded. “When my dad died, we all had to readjust our ideas about we’d thought we’d do with our lives, Mam especially.
And I guess it helped me see that we can’t always cling to what we think are certainties.
” Her lips twisted. “Even if sometimes that means certain family members of mine think I could afford to plan a little more.”
“Do you have a plan for what you want to do? Or are you going to spend the rest of your life working at the hotel?” Did her life goals line up with his at all?
She shrugged. “I have some things I’m exploring, but a lot depends on these two and what happens with them. I can’t leave Mam to run the hotel alone.”
He nodded, even as he felt a sense of dissatisfaction with her answer. A non-answer, really.
“Are you two ready to go?” Rory smothered a yawn. “Sorry, it’s been a big day.”
Aidan drove back, which meant Andy was supposed to share the backseat with Aisling once again. And once again he felt a little bit like this had been something of a set up.
But if it was a set up, then he really didn’t mind the fact that it was set up with her.
Even if it felt a little like he was on a slippery slope of attraction, with one false step and he could tumble headlong into those same sorts of feelings that he’d had for Greta, feelings that had tied him up in knots for years.
But unlike Greta, this felt like it was based in friendship.
He peeked across at Aisling, as the moonlight washed paleness across her face.
She might have her passionate moments, but she possessed her compassionate moments too.
And the fact that she was sympathetic made her light years ahead of Greta, who seemed to have existed in a bubble of her own self-importance.
Not that it mattered too much. Not that any of it mattered at all. Because he’d made the decision to not date for five years, remember? Which meant resisting Aisling and not giving into the attraction he could feel stirring between them. This was obviously just a test from God. One that he’d pass.
So obviously he’d have to be careful and not give her a moment that made her wonder if he liked her.
Which probably meant he was right to go with his first instinct and pull back from doing anything that might be construed as leading her on.
How could he, when he had nothing to lead her to?
They could be friends—actually, after the past few days it felt like they were friends.
But anything more? Obviously couldn’t be from God.
At all.