Page 7 of Twist of Fate
THREE
Aisling
PAST
“I wish I could have gone with you,” my mother laments over her frothy pint of Guinness. We’re sitting in the hotel pub after a blessed night of rest. The extra sleep really did her some good because she’s back to her usual over-the-top self. “I could have given you a proper tour of Dublin.”
Ever since I told her about my night wandering the city, she’s somehow decided I did it all wrong and now blames herself for not schooling me on the proper places to visit.
“I can’t believe you didn’t go to Dublin Castle,” she whines.
I huff out a breath. “It was nearly dinnertime,” I tell her. “I doubt it was even open.”
She reluctantly agrees, shrugging her shoulders as she sips the dark ale. I suppress a shudder, wondering how she can tolerate something that looks like sludge.
I am not a beer girl, much to my mother’s dismay. She believes it’s a dishonor to our Irish heritage or something. I think I can honor it just fine with a pint of Bulmers and a wool scarf.
“So, you just walked around then?” she asks as I stifle a yawn. I may have had a decent night’s sleep, but my body is still adjusting to this damn time change.
It didn’t help that my mom was up with the sun, already dressed and ready to go. We spent the morning walking around the quaint little village that surrounds our hotel.Don’t want to waste a single second, she told me over breakfast. We walked down to the beach and collected seashells while simultaneously trying not to freeze our asses off. The wind is brutal here on the coast.
We then did some shopping and had lunch. Even though Mom goes on these trips a couple of times a year, she still insists on buying gifts for everyone she knows. By the time we make it back to Dublin next week, we may need an extra suitcase for all the shit she’s accumulated.
It’s now late afternoon and nearly time for our tour to officially begin. According to my mom, we won’t actually tour anything until tomorrow, but today, we will meet our guide and go over the schedule and logistics.
O’Connell Tours reserved the whole pub for an hour for this meeting, and as usual, my mother is the first to arrive.
“Pretty much.” I nod in reply. “I realized I didn’t really have a specific destination in mind when I got in the cab, so?—”
“Oh, honey,” Mom says in that same tone she used when I was a child and struggled to tie my shoelaces.
“I was a little jet lagged,” I admit. “So, I just rattled off the first place I could think of—Trinity College—and then just kind of winged it from there.”
“Isn’t Trinity beautiful?” she asks as her attention begins to wander a bit. Deidre Farrell is a people watcher. She’s nosy as fuck and loves to know everyone’s business. It would make her a world-class gossip if her heart weren’t so damn big.
“It is.” I nod. But I’ve already lost her attention. Several people have taken seats at some of the tables nearby, in groups of twos and fours, and from the hesitant looks and subtle glances around the room, I’d say some of our group members have arrived.
“I ran into a guy.”
Her head snaps back, and I can’t help but grin widely.
“What? When? Tell me everything!” Her words spill out in a rush, making me giggle.
“It was nothing,” I answer with a shrug.
“Clearly, it wasn’t, or you wouldn’t be bringing it up.”
“Your attention was wavering,” I say, feigning innocence. “I just wanted to see if you were listening.”
“Oh, cut the bullshit, Ash.” She lets out an exasperated sigh but then smiles. “Tell me about him.”
I feel a blush heat my cheeks as I recall my run-in with the Irish hottie from last night. “I was very literally lost,” I tell her. “I had no idea where I was going.”
“I told you to use the app on your phone,” my mom chastises me right in the middle of my story, making me roll my eyes. “I should have never let you?—”
“Dublin isn’t my first big city, Mom. I live in one. Remember? Besides, I figured it out eventually. Anyway, do you want to hear this or not?” I raise my eyebrow at her, and she motions with her hand like she’s zipping her lips shut. “That’s what I thought. As I was saying, I was lost, and I turned a corner and ran into?—”
There’s laughter at the front of the pub, and I turn. A group has gathered. An elderly couple, several middle-aged women, and a young man.
