Chapter 41 #2
He nodded. ‘It’s another world. You wouldn’t believe the money they have.’
‘No, I wouldn’t.’ So this was it, the end. Last time the ending had been swift and brutal. This time it would be long and drawn-out. It was probably best if she stayed away from the wedding completely. She was only complicating everything.
Behind them, Kerry-Anne was emerging from the water. ‘Well, that was glorious.’ She smiled at them both. ‘I have to say, the Irish Sea isn’t as cold as everyone makes it out to be.’
‘You wouldn’t admit it even if you did get cold,’ teased Patrick. ‘I know you. You like to psych people out by showing no fear.’
Kerry-Anne smiled. ‘Patrick, honey, I couldn’t possibly comment. But if I were you, I’d get dressed. That physique of yours is too distracting.’
Patrick suddenly blushed, embarrassed. ‘It’s a swimming place…’
Kerry-Anne laughed, scooping up her towel. ‘I know, that, Patrick… it’s only that with a bod like that, you will make the other men jealous…’ She looked straight at Rosie, a smile on her lips. ‘And all the ladies in Sandycove will want a slice of your action.’
Patrick was now draped in his towel and pulling on his shorts over his swim shorts. ‘Come on, ice creams,’ he said. ‘My treat.’
The twins were now dressed, even though Isabelle’s T-shirt was back to front and Killian’s shoes were on the wrong feet.
They walked down the slope towards the beach where the ice cream van had a long queue which Patrick joined the end of, while Rosie, Kerry-Anne and the children sat on a bench, facing the sea.
‘What’s Boston like?’ asked Killian. ‘Do they play golf there? I hate golf. My dad loves it.’
‘Do you know anyone with divorced parents?’ asked Isabelle. ‘Because we think our parents are getting divorced. They argue all the time.’
‘They are definitely not getting divorced,’ said Rosie, quickly.
‘But if they do…’ Kerry-Anne smiled at the twins. ‘I promise you, everything will be all right. It’s just a little bit of adjustment.’
‘But they’re not going to,’ insisted Rosie.
‘I’m sure they won’t,’ said Kerry-Anne. ‘But my parents divorced. And then they both remarried and they got divorced again and then another couple of marriages between them. They just like weddings, I think.’
Killian and Isabelle giggled at the thought of it.
‘My mother is on marriage number three and my father is on number four. And I think that number five is in the wings.’ Kerry-Anne smiled at the twins. ‘Why don’t the two of you go and see if Patrick is at the front of the queue? Tell him I want one of those chocolate things in mine.’
‘It’s called a Flake,’ said Isabelle. ‘Which makes it a 99. Don’t you have 99s in America?’
‘We don’t, which is a shame,’ said Kerry-Anne. ‘I love my country, but I despair of it sometimes. No Flake things for one.’
As soon as the children were gone, Kerry-Anne turned to Rosie.
‘So, tell me,’ she said, quickly. ‘We don’t have much time. What are your feelings for Patrick?’
Rosie was taken aback by her directness. ‘I don’t know what to say…’
‘Time is short,’ said Kerry-Anne. ‘As is life.’
‘So they say…’
‘No, but it is. My best friend, Caitlin, died last year. Cancer. She had it ten years ago. Got rid of it. But it came back. She was the nicest person I’ve ever met.
We’d been friends since we were fifteen years old.
She was my sanity, my joy. She could make me laugh like no one else.
And growing up with my crazy, fractured family, I needed some joy.
Anyway, of course, the Big C won, as is its wont, and my beautiful, brilliant and brave Caitlin is no longer here.
’ Kerry-Anne shook her head. ‘You know, sometimes I wake up and forget she’s gone.
And then I remember all over again. It’s like a daily torture.
Talk about twisting the knife, your own brain hating on you. ’
‘I lost my mother when I was a teenager. I used to forget she was gone as well.’
‘So, you know what I mean. Life is short. And worse than that, it can be taken away from you at a moment’s notice.
And it’s always the good ones, your mother, my Caitlin.
The bad, horrible ones get to survive. Go figure.
So, I thought I’d remind you that… you only live once.
’ She fixed Rosie with a look. ‘So, tell me, your feelings for Patrick?’
‘We loved each other a long time ago. We live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I run a hotel, he’s busy with his bar…’
‘So, it’s not going to happen?’ Kerry-Anne fixed her with a look.
‘I don’t think so. I just can’t see how?’
‘You wouldn’t take a chance?’
‘That sounds easy when you say it,’ said Rosie. ‘I wish I could. But I’m not the type to just change my life like that. Things go wrong…’
‘And things go right.’ Kerry-Anne sighed.
‘Although, in my life, things are going wrong far more than they are going right. I feel as though I deserve a bit of luck.’ She looked up just as Patrick and the children returned and the rapidly melting 99s were passed out and they sat together licking their ice creams. ‘You know,’ said Kerry-Anne, ‘I could see myself living here. Swimming, ice cream.’ She glanced at Patrick. ‘What do you think? Would I fit in?’
‘You’d miss Boston too much. You’re a big-city person.’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Kerry-Anne was quiet for a moment.
‘But I tell you this, Irish ice cream is worth a lay over. And the calories.’ She looked across from Rosie, whose ice cream had collapsed and she was trying to lick the bottom, as well as her hands.
‘You only live once. Isn’t that right, Rosie? ’
‘Mmmfphph,’ was all Rosie managed, but she looked at Patrick and he was the same with his ice cream.
The twins were a mess. It was only Kerry-Anne who was eating it perfectly.
Rosie and Patrick suddenly grinned at each other, both aware of the difference between them and Kerry-Anne.
Or perhaps it was a 99 on a perfect Irish summer’s day? Or perhaps it was something more.