Chapter 16
Maeve
Verklempt (adj) completely overcome with emotion
On the way to the bistro, Callum places his hand on my upper thigh, his fingers right at the edge of the hem of my skirt.
I lean against the center console, wrapping my arm around his so I can hold onto his bicep.
I look at the tattoo of woven celtic symbols along his forearm, tracing them with my free hand.
I feel like I see a new tattoo each time I pause to look.
When we arrive, Aisling is already waiting for us at the table.
We walk through the front door, and a petite blonde girl is working at the hostess stand.
I wait for the inevitable, but to my pleasant surprise, she’s professional the entire time.
Callum escorts me to his mother's table while Orin and Ronan grab their places inside.
She stands as we walk through the open doors to the patio, and he kisses her on the cheek.
Aisling glances down at our clasped hands and grins brightly at us.
“I’ll be right inside if you need me, okay?” Callum reassures me.
“She will be just fine, Cal. Now, go on, and you boys eat. Maeve and I have a lot of catching up to do.” He laughs and kisses my hands before he makes his retreat inside.
The bistro has a beautiful courtyard-style patio for dining.
The cobblestone floor still has green grass growing between the stones, and the trees have different shades of yellow, orange, and red.
That’s my favorite thing about the fall.
The cycle of life that nature took. The trees, showing all their beauty while they die and then lie barren until spring, watch as a subtle bud turns into a burst of green life.
Nature was one thing I knew so much about, yet so little.
Aisling broke me from my wandering thoughts as I took in the space.
“Is Nessa running behind?”
I tensed and tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t take away from this moment.
“No, um, actually Aisling, she won’t be with us today.”
She looks at me curiously.
“Oh, why is that?”
Shit. What do I tell her? I want to tell her the truth. I need a mother's perspective on this. Fuck it.
“I don’t want her anywhere near me, to be honest.”
At this, Aisling raises her brows.
“Go on. Tell me,” she coaxes, taking a sip from her water glass. Just then, a waiter comes over and places two glasses of white wine on our table, which Aisling must have ordered. I let out a long breath and begin to tell her everything.
“She’s the reason Callum and I spent the last nine years apart.
Well, that and my stubbornness.” I swirl the wine glass at the base and stare at the liquid spinning around as I go on.
“She set Cal up to make me believe he had betrayed me. She drugged him at a party and took advantage of him. He tried to explain everything to me after it all went down, but…” I trail off, embarrassed.
“But, I wouldn’t hear him out. I believed her.
I believed that he willingly cheated on me. ”
Aisling straightens in her seat.
“Callum never told me this,” she says, a touch of anger in her voice. “Does Nessa know that you know the truth now?”
“No. I just found out last night. I haven’t answered her calls. I don’t want to talk to her over the phone, but I also don’t want to see her because there’s a high chance I might kill her.”
I take a large sip from my glass and finally look over at Aisling. She turns sideways, reaching over, and takes my hands in hers.
“Well, we have much to discuss,” she says, putting on the mask that had been developed over decades.
The one used to hide her true feelings when it wasn’t the time or place to feel them.
She takes a deep breath before continuing.
“I hear you will be going with Callum to see Uncail Declan. He will take you to the Opera House while you are there. We need to get you a dress.” She pulls her phone out and sends a message to someone.
“We will go to my friend's boutique, private shopping, after we leave here.” She leaves no room for discussion, but I give her a genuine smile.
I really missed you. The thought runs through my mind over and over.
“You and Callum are one and the same, you know, even after the time you spent apart,” she looks off, spacing out for a moment before she continues. “Anyway, I take it you aren’t going to want any light color, right?” she asks with a grin.
I return her smile. “I don’t think so. I’d prefer a black or dark green dress. Or maybe red. Something that Cal would love,” I say, looking down at my hands.
“Maeve, Callum would be happy if you wore a potato sack,” she says with a laugh, then pauses, looking down at her glass. “You know, he wasn’t the same without you. I think if it hadn’t been for Ronan during that time… I don’t think he would be alive right now.”
My heart physically hurts hearing her say those words. I could have lost him forever. Fuck Nessa. Damn it, why didn’t I just hear him out the next morning?
“Maeve, you know that none of this is on you, right? This is all Nessa’s doing, and I will get down to the bottom of it one way or another.
I lost two children that day.” Aisling looks down at her lap.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Maeve. I should have been.
I did everything I could without ruining what had been set in place.
I’m sorry I failed you, I’m sorry I failed your mother. ”
And that’s the drop of water that breaks the dam.
I begin crying, and Aisling reaches for her napkin as her tears fall.
I wrap my arms around her and hold on as we both cry the tears we had been harboring for years.
After a few minutes, she pulls back and holds my face in her hands, wiping my tears from my face with her thumbs.
I hear my phone ping, and I check it, knowing who sent the message. I huff out a laugh, and Aisling raises a brow in silent question.
“Your son,” I say. “He asked if I needed him to come out here.” I shake my head and we both laugh and turn to the window where the guys were sitting in their seats, ready to fight whatever was threatening us.
We both just smile and wave to them and watch as they physically relax.
I turn to face her again. "They are ridiculous sometimes. "
“You know those boys would give their lives for you,” she says. She moves a stray hair behind my ear, looking over my facial features.
“Yeah, I do. I don’t know what I would do without them.
” I take a quick glance over my shoulder, seeing the boys laughing at something.
Callum looks in my direction as if he knows I’m looking at him.
I smile at him before turning back around.
“Callum doesn’t know that I know he watched out for me during college.
I knew he was always close by, and I think that’s the only thing that kept me from dropping out.
” I lean back in my seat, tracing the condensation on my water glass. “He has always been my safe haven.”
“If only you knew the lengths he went to and will continue to go through to ensure you are safe.”
I nod. The waiter approaches our table, and we order our salads.
“Can I ask you something? And please don’t hold back because you think I can’t handle it. I’m tired of everyone keeping me out of the loop as if I’ll break at the first sight of danger.”
Aisling places her fork down and wipes her mouth with her napkin. “Okay, what is it?”
“This… rift. This thing between our families…” I say, trying to form a complete thought under her intense gaze. “Why?”
She lets out a slow, controlled breath.
“I’m sorry we put you and Callum through that,” she says, looking down at the rings adorning her fingers. “There was a leak somewhere within our organization, and we were trying to smoke them out. It went on far longer than we originally intended.”
Anger flares within me, but I wait for her to go on.
“Something big happened, and we found out that whoever was leaking information was also the catalyst for it.”
“What was so big that we had to destroy everything our families built?”
“Oh, dear. We never stopped communicating, and we continued to work together. Now, we did have to get creative to make the francach believe it was real. We still don’t know who it is, but this has gone on long enough.”
“But Callum and I weren’t allowed to see each other,” I say, my voice shaking.
“Maeve, we never once said you two weren’t allowed to see each other,” she tells me, reaching out to grab my hand. I think back and realize that she is right.
“My dad was so strict about me going anywhere,” I say, an attempt to rationalize it.
“Your father,” she pauses, sighing. “Your father loves you very much. He’s scared that he’ll lose you, or that someone will take you from him.” She clears her throat and sits up, taking a sip of her wine with a faraway look.
“All of that started before… before I was taken,” I say, clearing my throat. “Why was he strict before that?” I ask, watching her face closely.
“That is something you need to talk to your father about, Maeve.” Her face is apologetic.
What the hell.
“How long has Callum known?” I ask, still watching her expressions twist her face.
“We told him shortly before you two stopped speaking,” she says, and my mind starts reeling.
Why didn’t he tell me when he found out? We’d told each other everything, purged all the secrets. Or at least I thought we had.
Aisling and I eat in silence for a few minutes, each of us lost in thought.
“I wish she were here,” I say, pushing a piece of lettuce around my plate. I didn’t have to say who. She knows who I’m talking about.
“Me, too,” She repeats, not looking up from her plate. “Me, too.”
Once we are done eating, Callum comes to our table to escort us to the vehicles.
He greets me with a kiss on the top of my hand and then places one on my forehead.
I take a deep, steadying breath I didn’t realize I needed.
He pulls me close, but I’m tense. I can feel his stare, and I give Aisling a soft smile in an attempt not to end lunch on such a bad note.
“I have an errand to run before our appointment, so I'll meet you there once I'm done,” she says with a soft smile. There’s that mask again. It looks like I need to work on schooling my facial expressions, which will come in handy one day. Hopefully not any time soon.