Chapter 23 #2
‘Well, if you happen to be looking for work this side of The Shannon in the new year, I will certainly be looking for a hygienist.’ He put his hand into his suit pocket and handed me a business card with Patrick O’Mara embellished above an Irish mobile number.
I took it gratefully. ‘Thank you. You never know.’ It seemed a lot less unlikely, than it had two months previously.
‘What does your man do?’
‘He’s a farmer.’
‘So, you will be looking for a job down the line.’ He winked at me, knowing I didn’t have a hope in hell of persuading John to move to the UK.
‘It’s beginning to look that I way…’ I was only fully beginning to appreciate the extent of it myself.
We passed the hour with him hypothetically asking what instruments a hygienist would like in a new surgery.
I had it in the bag. Thankfully, I had the foresight to be polite to every human I met, regardless of whether it had been a long day or if I was tired.
If my mother was in my position, she’d have called it fate.
I left the flight with a new ally, a potential employer, and a lot more hope than I expected to feel about the uncertainties that lay ahead of me.
John waited for me in his usual spot at the arrival area in Knock, one shoulder leant against the wall, as cool as a cucumber as usual.
He wore a close-cut navy jumper that depicted the blue of his eyes.
I was so utterly obsessed with him; I was sure that every other woman in the world must want him.
Clara and Katie assured me that wasn’t the case.
A flicker of excitement crossed his even features as he took my bag from me. ‘You look good enough to eat,’ he whispered in my ear, and kissed me.
‘You look pretty good yourself.’ I revelled in the security of his strong arms around me, his chest against mine.
‘If only we didn’t have to go straight to my mother’s house, I’d have those clothes off you before you got up the stairs.’ His eyes ran the length of me.
‘Promises, promises. I’m looking forward to dinner at your mum’s. And I can’t wait to meet your sister.’
‘She’s a headcase. You will love her,’ he promised, as he helped me into his car.
It was dusk. The sun had set in the midnight blue sky, and I was acutely aware that Clara had made a valid point. The clocks were due to change, winter was setting in. I didn’t relish the thought of our travel plans being interfered with, when the little time we spent together was so precious.
‘So, I only got a job offer on the flight.’
‘What kind of job?’ He glanced at me, his eyebrows knitting together, immediately suspicious.
‘The guy in the seat next to me was a dentist.’ My voice echoed a level of smugness that I couldn’t hide.
‘You are unreal. Where is the surgery?’
‘He bought a practice in Ballina. He’s renovating it, hoping to open in the new year.’ I Googled his name while John drove us through the winding country lanes. A picture from his LinkedIn page appeared in the search results, and I flashed it under John’s nose.
‘You are the jammiest woman I know. Luck just seems to follow you.’ From the tone of his voice, I gathered he was excited.
‘Well, he didn’t actually offer me the job, but he said he’d be looking for a hygienist in the new year. Besides, I’m sure I used all my luck up the night I met you.’ I winked at him, refusing to count my chickens.
‘You have it in the bag, honey, and you know you do.’ He slapped my thigh, openly ecstatic with the evening’s developments.
‘You can’t fight fate.’ He quoted me.
‘Hmm. We’ll see.’
‘We should celebrate.’
‘Not yet. I don’t want to jinx things.’ I was adamant. ‘And let’s keep it between us for now, it mightn’t come to anything yet.’
I recognised the landmarks we passed all the way from the airport to Killala. I could drive from the airport to John’s house myself at this stage. As we turned a bend in the road, a herd of cattle were being moved from one field to another, completely blocking the road.
‘Traffic jam?’
‘Welcome to the west, honey. Country life. We could be here all fucking night.’ He tapped the steering wheel impatiently and sighed at the hold up.
We crawled along the narrow road, a few feet at a time, before John pulled off the road into a small by-road. He engaged the handbrake and undid my seatbelt.
‘If we’re delayed, we’re delayed. There isn’t a lot we can do about it.
But I’m damned sure I’m going to make the most of twenty minutes alone with you.
’ He pulled me over the armrest and onto his lap, as though I weighed nothing.
I squealed, struggling to get a leg either side of him to comfortably sit on his lap.
He pushed his hands under my jumper dress, they were freezing cold from the steering wheel.
‘Can I help you with something, Mr Kelly?’ I whispered into his left ear.
It was only just beginning to get dark, but he didn’t seem to care. Neither did I for that matter. I knew what he wanted. As if we hadn’t already given the neighbours enough to talk about.
‘You certainly can,’ he murmured, kissing my neck and rubbing his hands over my bra and pulling it down shamelessly.
As his fingers traced the lace borders of my stockings, I could feel his excitement beneath me.
Placing his finger in my mouth, I sucked it lightly, using my other hand to undo his jeans.
He pulled up my dress, kissing my breasts, the fact we could get caught only adding to our excitement.
He pulled my underwear to the side and straddled him, both of us groaning with pleasure as I slid up and down the length of him.
Neither of us lasted long. He pushed his face into my chest to muffle the sound of his climax.
‘You are one seriously sexy cat.’ His head fell forward onto my chest.
‘You bring out the best in me.’ I assured him, secretly surprised at my lack of inhibition. He drove us back onto the main road again, the ‘traffic’ clear, and both of us satisfied, for the short-term at least.
‘Where were ye?’ Mama Bear asked, opening the front door wide and kissing both of us on the cheek as a welcome.
‘That flute, Freddie thought Friday evening was a great time to move his cattle. We were stuck there for about twenty minutes.’ John winked at me over her shoulder.
‘Come in. Come in. Welcome home,’ she said warmly.
John’s parents’ house was a beautiful four-bedroomed bungalow which also backed onto the sea but at an outlet slightly further on from John’s house. It was warm and cosy; the open fire roared as we were led into the sitting room.
A short auburn-haired girl, who looked no more than fourteen-years-old sprinted across the wide hallway and flung her arms around John’s neck happily.
‘How’s my big brother?’ Her tone was a mocking, babyish one, as she squeezed his cheeks between her fingers.
‘Have you got your heels on, Hannah?’ He delivered a friendly dig on the arm, referring to the fact that short as she was, she’d actually managed to reach his face.
‘Lucy?’ She opened her arms, offering a warm embrace.
‘Jesus, how did he pull you? It must have been the accent that got you, was it?’ She joked at her brother’s expense, and for all the piss taking, it was clear to everyone in the room the two absolutely adored each other.
I wondered for a split second would I ever get used to this culture, where every insult was intended to be more endearing than the last.
‘Where’s that bull of yours?’ John asked, looking around the room for Hannah’s husband, Matthew.
‘Ah, working unfortunately. I came with The Two.’ She nodded towards the direction of the bedrooms, where the boys were apparently already sleeping.
Papa Bear entered the room at that moment, his hair damp from a recent shower.
‘Baby Bear.’ He came to me first, enveloping me in a warm hug. I smiled from ear to ear.
‘He’s still doing it for you, I see,’ he acknowledged with a hearty rumble.
‘You have no idea.’ A vision of only ten minutes earlier flitted through my mind, and I blushed thinking about it.
‘Dad.’ John greeted his father with a fist pump.
‘Are ye hungry?’ Mama Bear returned to the sitting room with a tray full of smoked salmon, homemade soda bread, and a bottle of champagne under her left arm.
‘Open that will you, love?’ She handed the bottle to Graham and returned with five champagne flutes.
‘I’ve a roast lamb in the oven, but it won’t be ready for another half an hour. I thought Lucy’s flight might be delayed. This will keep ye going for a while.’
John and Hannah pretended to jostle elbows to both get the biggest slice of the soda bread. It was obvious they were very fond of each other, despite the jibing.
‘How was the flight, Baby Bear?’ John’s father asked between mouthfuls of delicious salmon.
‘It was grand.’ I’d unintentionally adopted their terminology in a subconscious effort to fit in.
‘Ah, tell them Lucy!’ John urged, handing me a glass of champagne.
‘There’s nothing to tell yet.’ I shot him a warning look, which he blatantly ignored.
‘She sat next to a dentist on the plane who happens to be opening a dental practice in Ballina,’ he blurted.
‘Jeez, John, God forbid it was a secret,’ I said, rolling my eyes.
‘He can’t hold his own piss. He never could,’ Hannah told me.
I was seeing a different side to John in the comfort of his own home house and his immediate family.
He dropped the cool as a cucumber persona, seeming completely relaxed, borderline childlike.
It was refreshing to see what lay behind the cool, understated mask.
In this environment, his childhood home, he was peeled right back to his boyish self.
‘His name wasn’t O’Mara by any chance, was it?’ Mama Bear asked.
‘Actually, it was.’ There was no denying it, literally everybody knew everything about everyone else in this tiny town.
‘His wife, Breege, was in my sister’s class at school, they’ve been in England for years.’ She confirmed what I already knew. I nodded in agreement, devouring my second slice of soda bread.
‘I heard he bought Gilroy’s old surgery,’ Graham said.
‘They could do with knocking the place and rebuilding it if that’s the case, never mind renovating it.’ John seemed to know the exact site.
‘It was a great contact to make, even if nothing comes of it.’ One of us had to keep it real here.
‘Ahh, we’ll make a good country woman of you yet,’ Hannah promised me. Despite my initial doubts, the thought of it wasn’t as ridiculous as it had once seemed.
Dinner was fabulous. John’s mother was an extremely talented chef; the gravy was rich and the meat succulent. We drank two bottles of red wine over the table between us.
‘Who is working in the pub?’ It suddenly occurred to me.
‘My cousin, Charlotte,’ Hannah answered.
‘How lovely.’ Would I ever remember all of these extended relations?
Mary brought in a homemade apple and lemon tart with ice cream for dessert. Even though I was fit to burst, I managed to polish off my portion.
John held my hand under the table, stroking my fingers as they chatted about people I had no knowledge of. I was happy to listen, to enjoy their easy company. I couldn’t have been made more welcome anywhere else in the world.
A loud cry echoed across the walls from down the corridor, and Hannah jumped to her feet to grab baby James before he could wake his two-year-old brother up as well. She brought him to the dining room and placed him straight into my arms.
‘Here’s your aunty-to-be.’ She nudged John as I took the baby in my arms.
James wore a baby blue sleep suit and a growbag with tiny blue whales printed over the cotton. I smiled in delight as he looked up at me curiously and pulled his tiny fingers through my hair.
‘She has the knack for it, John. Look out!’ John’s father warned him.
‘This time next year, I can just see these two here with their twins! One of them to mind each.’ Hannah eyed her baby with a loving look in her eye.
John glanced subtly at me for a reaction, but neither of us commented.
The funny thing was, I never wanted children, never considered it as even a remote possibility.
Yet here, in this very moment, after consuming a fair few glasses of wine, it seemed to be not an entirely unreasonable prospect.
An acute, longing pierced my core, and I wasn’t the broody type.
I didn’t even like kids. But I loved the thought of John’s children, imagining their beautiful red hair and Irish accents.
I began to stroke James’s fine tufts of blonde hair. Slowly but surely, his eyelids began to flutter. John’s mother nodded approvingly as the child slowly drifted back to sleep.
‘A natural, I told ye,’ Hannah said, taking the child and bringing him back to his bedroom.
‘I’ve a suggestion to make, say no if you don’t fancy it. I won’t be offended.’ Papa Bear rose from the table.
‘No, Dad, Lucy doesn’t want to leave her keys in the fruit bowl.’ John, the joker as ever, made himself laugh.
‘You’ve your mother’s sense of humour, son.’ Graham dismissed John’s joke with the wave of a hand. ‘I thought we might take some blankets outside and a few hot whiskeys and look out at the stars. It’s such a clear night. Cold but clear.’
‘That sounds lovely.’
Graham gathered several woollen blankets from the hot press as Mary boiled the kettle. Outside, we sat on folding fishing chairs; the blankets wrapped around our shoulders.
My breath momentarily clouded my vision as I exhaled into the crisp moonlit night.
I’d never felt more alive, here in this foreign country, welcomed as one of John’s family, and loved by the most amazing man I had ever met.
A deep sense of contentment immersed my soul like never before.
I looked up into the clear starry sky with my hot whisky, John’s hand loosely entwined in mine.
He squeezed it and we exchanged a look. He had me, and he knew it.