Page 53 of One Midnight With You
It might convince someone else, but not Ailish. No point in pressing the matter though, because Emmy clearly didn’t want to talk about it here. Maybe it was a work thing, Ailish decided. Working on the elderly ward came with such sadness sometimes. Yes, that must be it, because everything else in her daughter’s life seemed to be going so well. She had a lovely group of friends, a job she loved, a wonderful boyfriend.
‘Honestly, Mum, don’t worry,’ Emmy continued to reassure her. ‘Just you get on with having a fab night because you deserve it, especially after… after…’
Now Ailish was really worried. Emmy had suddenly paled, lost her words, closed her eyes and now she was making the most peculiar groan.
‘Oh… hell… no.’
Panicked, Ailish immediately reached for her hand. ‘Emms, are you having some kind of medical issue? Are you feeling faint? Dizzy?’
Emmy managed to lift her eyelids. ‘Sorry, Mum, I should have warned you.’
‘Warned me of what?’ Ailish felt her worry escalating. ‘Are you sick?’ A sudden thought. ‘Emmy, are you… pregnant? That would be amazing. Oh, my goodness!’
‘Mum, I’m not pregnant!’ Emmy hissed. ‘I’m… absolutely fricking raging! I told him not to come here but apparently he couldn’t help himself.’
Ah, that gave Ailish her answer as to why Emmy was out of sorts. She must have had a fight with Cormac, and told him she didn’t want to see him tonight. In her mind, she put her fictional grandchild’s baby-grows back in their drawer.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Emmy said for the second time, confusing Ailish even further. Why would Emmy be apologising about fighting with her boyfriend? What was she missing here?
‘Sorry about what, honey?’
Emmy was staring right past her now. ‘Sorry about him.’
Ailish slowly turned her head, focused her gaze, blinked. Then blinked again. And again. Nope, he was still there. Eric Ryan was headed straight for her.
‘Aw bugger, someone give me a fork and bail money,’ Rhonda demanded beside her, and Ailish guessed she’d just spotted him too.
Unlike Rhonda, she was momentarily speechless, so she was glad when Emmy took the lead. ‘Seriously, Dad? Did I not make you promise not to do this tonight?’
‘I know, I’m so sorry, Em. But I just need to speak to your mum for two minutes.’
Ailish felt like she was in some other realm, watching this unfold with detached curiosity. Eric. Her Eric. But he wasn’t that, any more, was he? This Eric’s hair was different, longer, swept back off the face that she’d kissed goodnight every night for three decades. He was unshaven, which was unusual, but somehow it worked on him. If she was being objective, she’d say it gave him a bit of a sexy, rugged edge. But she wasn’t objective because this was the man who’d broken her heart.
‘Ails, can I talk to you for a moment? Maybe outside?’
‘Nope,’ Rhonda answered for her.
Ailish’s questioning gaze immediately went to Emmy, who gave a helpless shrug. ‘Whatever you think, Mum. Up to you.’
No, Ailish decided firmly. She didn’t owe him anything. Not a minute more of her life.
‘Please, Ails,’ he said again, and she felt a chisel start to chip away at her defences. He reached his hand out towards her, and she was painfully aware that everyone at the table – Rhonda, Gwen, Brodie, Emmy – was frozen in time, waiting for her response.
Before she could give it, like some kind of rapid response unit, Dario appeared out of nowhere. With their parents all being so close, Dario and Eric had always rubbed along just fine, so she was surprised by the disgusted glare he was firing Eric’s way now as he asked, ‘All okay, Ailish?’
She wanted to say no, but her deep-rooted, conflict-avoidance habit had programmed her differently. ‘I’m fine, Dario. Eric just… popped in to see me.’
She could see from Dario’s shifting gaze that he was being protective, but didn’t want to overstep his mark. ‘Okay, well shout me if you need anything at all,’ he said, pointedly, beforeswitching attention to his friend. ‘Brodie, can I have a quick word in the office?’
Brodie nodded, and slid out of the booth. They both headed away from the table in the direction of the kitchen, but not before Dario threw Eric another piercing stare.
On any other day, Ailish would ponder the reason for that, but right now she was already up to her neck in an ex-husband confrontation.
And the ex-husband’s hand was still outstretched, waiting for hers. Almost without conscious thought, her own hand rose towards it, and as they touched, she felt a charge of electricity that almost undid all the spectacular work that Roxy had put into her hair.
As she rose, she heard Gwen ask, ‘Are you sure, Ails?’ Ailish managed a nod that said yes. Maybe. No. Yes. Possibly.
Gwen took it as a yes, but Ailish could feel several sets of eyes on them as she followed Eric to the nearby alcove, which contained a dessert trolley and the banjo that Gino often played after midnight, so they sidestepped those.
