Page 143 of Twist of Fate
That, and teaching her on a country road in Clare is a lot less hazardous to our health than a busy street in Dublin.
Ash’s first year back in school was hard. Harder than I think either of us realized. I don’t know if it was the curriculum or the challenge of going back to school after so long, but there were times when she really struggled. I can’t count the number of evenings I would come home and find her asleep on the couch with textbooks scattered around her.
With the changes I made at corporate, I actually have free time now, and she doesn’t. It’s sort of ironic, really.
But we made it work. She not only survived that first year, but she conquered it, even when her RA flared up due to the added stress. My girl persevered.
She has one more year of post-grad work left, and then she is considering several different career options. Personally, I hope she goes the professor route, but that is purely for selfish reasons.
What guy hasn’t had the hot professor fantasy a time or two?
The song on the radio ends, and local news takes over. I begin to tune it out until the woman transitions to sports. “Football fans are filling the streets of Dublin today as?—”
I turn it off.
“Not a football fan, Finn?” she teases.
“I can’t believe that thick arse is still playing.” I shake my head.
Ash just shrugs, and I wince. The movement causes her to jostle the wheel, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s just as bad a driver on the other side of the road. “It doesn’t matter. It will all catch up to him eventually if he doesn’t learn from his mistakes.”
I don’t believe Theo is the type of guy who knows how to grow like that.
When he left that night, having nearly scared Ash to death and admitting he’d been trying to win her back for his own personal gain, we thought he would confront the consequences of his actions.
He didn’t. Instead, he returned to his bosses at Arsenal and fabricated a ridiculous story about losing the love of his life due to his addiction.
His sex addiction.
He was now revered for his honesty as he faked a genuine illness other people struggled with, and his sex appeal practically doubled in the process.
So, win-win for Theo.
Ash was okay with letting everything go. Water under the bridge and all that, but I would always have that image of her in that hallway, wide-eyed and scared as he pressed her against the wall.
No, there would be no water under the bridge as far as Theo Vasquez was concerned, and it was no coincidence that we were out of the city this weekend while he was in it playing against the Rovers.
As for the rest of the proposal…
Her friends have all assured me it’s perfect, but…what if it isn’t?
My gut starts to churn as we get closer to our destination.
What if they’re all wrong, and I botch this whole thing—this whole weekend, and my romance novel-loving girlfriend forever remembers the day I proposed as one of the worst days of her life?
Bollocks.
Is it hot in here?
* * *
Aisling
“You know, I actually think I’m starting to get the hang of this?”
“Definitely,” Finn agrees. “You barely clipped that sheep back there.”
“I did not clip a sheep, Finn!” From my periphery, I can see his shoulders shaking with laughter. “You suck.”
