Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sometimes she just wished she could sleep in.
That those dreams where she kissed Andy and he kissed her were more than wishful thinking, that she could wake up and they be real.
But alas, they were not, and neither had she mastered the art of sleeping in, not with the way that attending the university’s early classes had reset her body clock.
And not with the way her sisters insisted on calling too early on a Saturday morning.
Her phone rang with the special tones that showed a group video call. Which meant she could answer or ignore it and pay the price of avoidance for weeks to come. The easier option was always to answer. Even if she would have to multitask and have breakfast at the same time.
“Why are you looking so tired?” Fiona asked.
“Because I am tired. It’s been a big week.”
“How is school going?” Kara asked. Fiona had questioned on a previous call why Kara should join them, but they’d reminded her about Kara’s lack of family and she’d soon relented.
“It’s been okay.” She shovelled in more cereal.
“Those kids still behaving?”
“Yesterday I did some team teaching, and it wasn’t as easy as Moira made it look like. I kept forgetting where I was meant to be in the discussion.”
“You’ll get it,” Rory said.
“I hope so.” But she didn’t want to talk anymore about school.
Talk about school skated too close to thinking about who else taught at school, and even though she’d done a fair bit of soul-searching last night, she still wasn’t sure she could talk to anyone, not even her sisters, without crying.
“So, um, Rory, would you care to tell us about why you wanted us so bright and early on a Saturday morning?”
“Oh, seeing as you insist. So, Aidan and I have decided that we’d like to try for a Christmas wedding, but I wanted to make sure you could all come.”
“Oooh, that’s deadly! What date specifically?”
“The Saturday before Christmas.”
“What about his grandmother?”
“She’s given her blessing for us to marry without her. We’ll try to visit her after the honeymoon.”
The conversation soon turned to wedding dress shopping and bridesmaid dresses. “Because I want you all to be my bridesmaids.”
“Even me?” Kara asked.
“Of course you,” Rory said. “You’re our sister, remember?”
Kara smiled.
The conversation spun to questions over where Rory and Aidan might live, and at least here there was more clarity with that. “It looks like he’s able to get a job in Killarney, so it might mean we live there, rather than home.”
“Oh. What does that mean for the hotel?”
“Well, that’s another reason for talking. Mam is saying that she’d like to step in but I’m not sure. Of course, with his grandmother not well it’s a little tricky to say anything too definitively.”
“Kara, what about your plans for moving?”
Kara blushed. But said nothing.
“Kara?”
She glanced down. “I don’t want to say, not while Colin is away.”
“Don’t want to say—oh! Kara!” Aisling gasped. “Are you really?”
“Really what?” Fiona asked.
“Oooh, Kara!” Rory exclaimed. “Congratulations!”
“Congrat—? Oh.” Fiona’s face blanked. Then she found a tight smile. “Does Mam know?”
“We told her last night. But it’s only early days yet.”
“When would it be born?”
“Just before summer.”
“Oh, I bet Mam is thrilled!” Rory gushed. “She’ll be beside herself. The first grandchild! Oh, congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Kara said. “But I really don’t want to steal focus from your news. That’s so exciting. A Christmas wedding, wow!”
“Oh, but we’re all glad to celebrate with you,” Aisling insisted. “Have you been keeping well? Is Colin over the moon? I bet he is.”
“It’s sooner than we thought, but we’re glad. It does mean things with my job in England are going to have to draw to a close sooner than I like.”
“So you definitely are going to move to Ireland?” Rory asked. “If you’re there, and Mam is there with the baby, oh, it’s just perfect, isn’t it?”
Fiona coughed. “I don’t mean to break up the party but I just remembered something I need to do.”
“Fiona?” Aisling asked, but her sister had already exited the call. “Hmm. Anyone else think she looked a little weird?”
“That’s not nice to say,” Rory reproved.
“She did seem a little tense,” Kara said. “I hope it wasn’t anything I said.”
“Oh, she’s never been interested in babies,” Aisling dismissed. “Don’t take it personally.”
“Has she got a boyfriend?” Kara asked.
“She dates but it’s never serious. I think there must’ve been a guy who broke her heart.”
“How about you, Ash? Anyone on your horizon?”
She swallowed. “I’d really rather not get into it.”
“That sounds like there’s something worth getting into,” Rory teased. “Don’t tell me. You’ve seen him again.”
“Seen whom?” Kara asked, as Aisling pressed her lips together.
Rory’s breath hitched. “You have seen him, haven’t you?”
“Fine. He works at the school I’m at.”
“No way. Are you serious?”
She nodded.
“And you’re only telling us this now?”
“I didn’t want this reaction,” she complained. “Besides, there is nothing to tell. He made that clear. Again.”
“Again?”
“Ash, looks like you’re going to have to fill in our girl Kara here with the details.”
Aisling did the best she could, picking careful truths like she might a bouquet of flowers.
For while things might feel hopeless, still a stubborn tendril insisted that Andy was part of her future.
Not that she could see how, for surely—just like she’d said last night—even if she did want something to work out, the mentor teacher boundaries made that hard to work around.
And yes, Andy wasn’t her mentor, but there was a sense of propriety that needed to be observed.
Which made things hopeless. She was bound to that school until June, which meant each week she’d likely see him, or hear his name, and those glorious moments from back in Derryloughlin when they’d felt so right singing together would slip even further away.
“So you want us to pray that he finally sees reason?” Kara asked.
“I’m so confused, I don’t even know what I want you to pray. Just that God would have His way. And that I’d be patient in the meantime.”
“We’ve been praying for Aisling to be more patient for years,” Rory teased.
Aisling laughed, but her sister’s words struck deep.
There had been a lot of hard aspects of this, but she had grown up a lot in this past year, in these past few months.
Which made her realise afresh that just because things didn’t seem to be working out the way she wanted, didn’t mean that God wasn’t still working.
God had a way of doing more behind her back than she realised, and she suspected that whatever He was working on would result in those good plans that Mam had talked about.
Which reminded her: God’s plans were good, and just because her circumstances might feel wearying right now, it didn’t change the fact that there was so much to praise God about.
Like Kara and Colin’s special news. And Rory and Aidan’s shiny future. And even the fact that though teaching might be harder than what she’d thought she could still see how it felt like something that she’d been made for.
And the fact that God, all those years ago, might’ve crafted her and put her together with certain skills and talents and interests that could come into full bloom now, or at least bloom soon, took a load off.
She didn’t need to strive or stress. She could just rest in God’s favour, knowing that God held her in the palm of His hand.
“It’s all good,” she said.
“What’s all good?” Rory asked.
“Actually, everything. Even the hardest of things. Because if we’re trusting that God loves us, then we know He really is working things out for our good.”
“Amen,” Kara said softly.
“Amen.” Rory nodded. “And that means with your man.”
“Even him,” Aisling agreed.
“So you can invite him to the wedding if you like.”
She nodded, even though December felt impossibly soon for true reconciliation.
But still, trusting God meant there was no such thing as a perfect time frame.
God did things when He wanted. Which might even account for the near-instant soul recognition that her father, brother and now Rory had reported when they’d first met their spouses-to-be.
Because knowing that God could work all things out for good meant it didn’t even really matter what the Fairall legacy might say about instant love and finding one’s soul mate. Not when God could steer that ship His way too.
* * *
The pounding on the granny flat door could only mean one person. Sure enough, Andy’s sister didn’t wait for an invitation, poking her head through the door.
“What are you doing still in bed?” Beth screwed up her nose. “It stinks in here.”
“Go away.”
“But Andy—”
“It’s Saturday morning, and all I want is to sleep.” And get back to those dreams where Aisling kissed him. He wasn’t sure if such dreams were good for his head space, but it sure beat his current reality.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “You got in pretty late last night.”
“Are you keeping tabs on me?” He yawned.
“Mom and Dad mentioned it. They care about you, Andy. You know we all do. And this,” Beth kicked at a pile of clothes, “is not the Andy we know and love.”
“It’s been a big week. I planned to get to it today.” Yes, he hated mess. Yes, part of his OCD with lists and planning was because he had become a little fanatical about keeping things in order to not slip back to those weeks post-Greta when he’d spiralled out of control.
“I hope so. Because you’re not allowed to go back to how you used to be.”
“I’m not,” he said stiffly. “Are you going to judge me forever for when I was depressed?”
She had the grace to look embarrassed. “Look, like I said, we care about you. And we don’t want to see you fall back into patterns that weren’t healthy for you.”
He scrubbed his fingers over his face. First Grady, now his sister.
“What’s been going on?” Beth asked in a softer voice.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” he asked.
“Nope. Hubby has David and Eammon, and I’m about to make a cup of tea and put your washing on.”