Chapter 9
The next day, the ship docked bright and early in Cobh, Ireland. Ali and her friends had already stopped here about a dozen times, so I was content to follow her.
“Renting a car is so much better than doing one of those bus tours,” she said as she opened up what I thought was the shotgun side door. “We have more freedom when we rent a car, ya know? I figure we’ll drive up to this really cool castle, yeah?”
“Yeah, sounds good.” I didn’t care what we were doing, so long as we were doing it together. When I popped open the driver’s side door, I stared down at a bucket seat facing the dash. My eyes flew over to her side. “Oh, you’re driving?” I asked, feeling a little uneasy.
Taking in my reaction, she let out a little giggle. “Is that okay with you? I figured I’m already used to driving on the left side of the road.”
“Yeah, okay,” I forced out. Ali never had the best track record of driving, but that was back when we were teens. She’d been driving just fine for the past decade on her own, so I had nothing to worry about…right?
Wrong.
I was so wrong.
“Ali, Ali, Ali, wait!” I grabbed the Oh-Jesus handle and held my breath as a car just barely squeezed by us. These roads were incredibly narrow. “Get over,” I yelled at her.
She looked over at me in question. “Over where?”
“Don’t look at me, look at the road!”
“What?” She snapped her head forward. “You yelled at me, so I looked at you! That’s your fault.”
“Ali, you were almost in the middle of the road,” I gritted out, practically holding my breath. My chest felt tight, way too fucking tight.
Her eyes drifted to mine again and she laughed. “No, I wasn’t. You are way too high strung about this. Relax, JP. I’m used to these roads. I’ve done this drive at least ten times,” she explained, taking her hand off the wheel to push her hair behind her ear.
“Hands on the wheel.”
She side-eyed me. “Okay, now you’re just being ridic—”
A yell ripped from my throat.
She yanked the wheel to avoid the car on the right side of us, which was probably another tourist because they were drifting into our lane, then she almost crashed into the brick wall to our left, then she finally righted the little car.
My ears rang from the shock of what just happened.
A second later, she looked at me with wide eyes. “Now that was not my fault!”
My eyes slowly met hers. And then we were both struggling not to laugh, which was completely ridiculous. It’s like my body didn’t know how to react from the shock of what just happened.
Her cackles filled the car. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry. Don’t make me laugh. I’m crying!”
“Me too,” I said, holding my chest.
“No, you’re not,” she said through her laughter.
“I am on the inside,” I said evenly, struggling to keep a straight face. The sound of her laughter was contagious, and I wanted to keep it going.
“I’m shaking,” she said, not even able to talk because she was laughing so hard.
“Me too,” I said, playing it up.
“I’m sorry, but that was your fault, too.”
My eyes widened in disbelief. “My fault?”
“You distracted me, or else I would’ve been prepared for that asshole.” She lifted her hand to wipe her tears.
“Hands on the wheel,” I ordered.
“I can’t see through my tears, Jameson,” she complained, still shuddering with laughter.
“Then maybe I should drive?”
“Ha! In your dreams, buddy boy. I love driving on the other side of the road,” she said, grinning at the windshield. “Gives me an adrenaline rush.”
“Dear God,” I mumbled, rubbing my jaw to hide my grin. “We need new ways to get you adrenaline,” I mused. “Just get us there in one piece, please. I’m not watching anymore.”
She laughed as she pushed the gas harder.
“Please, for the love of God, go the speed limit,” I added.
“JP, I’m literally going under the limit right now,” she said with a laugh. “C’mon, you have to admit I’m good at this.”
I wasn’t about to fully agree, but her confidence had a grin tugging at my lips. It was nice to see the wild, reckless side of her hadn’t been fully tamed.
A few minutes later, she patted me on the back. “You okay, big guy?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s nice.” I gently took her hand and placed it back on the wheel. “But hands on the wheel, please," I said, making her giggle even more.
________
When we finally arrived, she gave me a bright smile. “Don’t you love traveling? It’s like we’re on this grand adventure, ya know?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. But in all honesty, I couldn’t care less where we were going or what we were doing. I just liked being with her.
Scrambling out of the car, she tugged me forward.
“The flowers around here are so gorgeous, just wait ‘til you see. Your dad would absolutely love it here. And there’s this whole area that looks like a fairy garden,” she rambled on.
“And then there’s the castle, of course.
I’ve never actually gone up inside the castle before.
We usually just get some food and discover different parts of the gardens. ”
I blinked at her little revelation. “Do you want to go up the castle?” I asked, looking at the towering grey structure in the distance.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Do you?”
“Uh…” I tried reading her face. It looked like she really wanted to try it. “Why not? Like you said, it’s an adventure.”
Her face brightened with a grin.
After purchasing tickets, we walked through beautiful grounds as we followed the pathway up to the castle.
Ali was busy studying every angle of the ancient building, clearly enjoying herself, until she set her gaze on the staircase.
“Oh.” Her eyebrows pinched together.
“What’s wrong?” I rubbed her shoulders.
She worried her bottom lip. “It’s a little tight, isn’t it?” she asked, studying the stairwell.
“I mean…” I watched a guy about my size dunk his head as he made his way up. “I think we’ll fit, but we don’t have to keep going if you want to turn back.”
“No, no.” She fixed a small smile on her face. “I think you’ll really like it. Let’s…let’s just go, right?”
I shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you want to do.”
With a nod, she pulled us into the line of people moving toward the extremely narrow staircase. While climbing, I had to tilt my head forward to avoid skimming it on the ceiling. As we moved up in the line, Ali almost slipped on a step. My hands darted to her hips to steady her.
“You good?”
“Yeah, why?” she asked, a little breathless.
“Because you were always…” afraid of heights, I finished in my head. I knew her fear of heights is what kept her out of pairs skating. But by the way Val and Brandon had been tossing her up in practice, I figured she’d gotten over that fear in the last decade.
As soon as we reached the top platform, the view around us came into sight, and it knocked the breath clean out of me.
From this vantage point, the woodlands surrounding the castle were even more sprawling and impressive than I originally thought.
We honestly had the perfect day to come up here.
There were blue skies for miles, making it an even prettier scene to take in.
“JP.” Ali’s voice wobbled behind me.
“Yeah?” I asked, mesmerized by the incredible view. “This is insane. Come over here,” I said, moving to the wall.
“No, no, no.” Her voice was strained. “I can't.”
My neck whipped around to her. She hadn’t moved an inch.
She was still standing on the platform at the entrance to the roof.
There was a line of people forming behind her, clearly frustrated.
I moved in the opposite direction of the line so we could exit faster.
“C’mere, it’s okay.” I ushered her to follow me.
“No, we can't go that way.” Her panicked eyes had a way of hitting me right in the chest, making my protective instincts kick into gear.
“Yes, we can,” I said slowly. “We don’t have to see anything else. That way is an exit.”
“We can’t go that way,” she repeated, her body frozen in fear.
“Yes, we can,” I said calmly. “You can follow me.”
She shook her head, staring at me with wide, scared brown eyes. Her hands hadn’t budged from the walls beside her.
I offered her my hand. “Trust me?”
She hesitated. Her brown eyes seared into me. A second later, she finally grasped onto my hand and squeezed it. Knowing she trusted me—even if just for a moment—had my heart swelling in my chest.
“Take firm steps. You have solid ground beneath you. You’re okay,” I said, trying to talk her through it. “One foot in front of the other. We just need to make it to the door.”
We moved at a snail’s pace around the top of the castle to the exit. At one point, her gaze went out to take in the view, but then her body froze up again.
“We’re almost there,” I pushed.
When we finally reached the stairwell to go back down, she scrambled down the steps and almost slipped again.
I grabbed her hips to keep her from falling.
“Let’s pause for a minute, yeah?” I asked, not letting go of her.
“Yeah,” she squeaked. Her hands went on top of mine on her hips, as if she didn’t want me to let her go either.
“Here, I’ll go down first. If you fall, you’ll fall into me, and I’m not goin’ down, okay?”
“Okay,” she squeaked out. She held a fistful of my shirt as we made our way down.