Page 20 of Just Say Yes
‘I promise not to do it again. And just for absolute clarity, I would never, ever kick a puppy, or any other animal.’
‘I didn’t think you would.’
‘So Bod’s saved my reputation.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far. He’s excessively cute but I’m not sure he can work miracles. Now, which airline are we flying with?’
With a flurry of things to attend to at short notice, I’d been happy to let Lorcan make the arrangements as he’d suggested.
He named one of the north American lines and began moving off, apparently already knowing where to head without checking the signs.
‘Really?’ I asked, catching up with him and taking two steps in my heels to his one long-legged ones.
‘Yep. Why?’
‘I… I’m just surprised.’
‘A lot of the regular European ones don’t let animals in the cabin. I want Bod with me. This airline allows that. Hence, here we are,’ he said as we approached the desk. He gave a winning smile to the attractive woman behind the desk, advising he’d already checked in online and going through the last items with her and confirming Bod’s inclusion.
‘Will he be all right for the flight?’ I asked as we walked away.
‘Yeah, he’s an experienced flyer already.’
‘No… I mean. His needs?’
Lorcan glanced at me. ‘Don’t worry. He won’t wee on your expensive shoes.’
‘I wasn’t worried about me. I was thinking about him.’ I stopped suddenly and Lorcan pulled up short beside me. ‘Why do you always want to see the worst in people?’ I snapped. ‘You assumed Tom is after something with his kind offer and I just asked a perfectly reasonable question and you immediately jump to the worst possible reason for me asking it. Did it ever occur to you that I was concerned for your dog’s comfort? I’ve never taken an animal on board a flight before so I don’t know how that works.’
Lorcan was looking down at me. I’d worn heels but he still had quite the height advantage. He remained silent.
‘I’m going to have a look around the shops. I’ll catch up with you later.’ He was still holding the boarding passes in his hand. I plucked them from his fingers, took mine, and handed the other back to him before heading off towards the security check.
7
I poked around the shops, squirted a few perfumes onto cardboard sticks and tried on a few pairs of designer sunglasses before wandering over to a coffee shop. Placing my order, I moved along, waiting for my drink. The barista put the hot chocolate and slice of cake down on a tray And I juggled it with one hand and my carry-on suitcase with the other, praying to any god that was listening not to let me send the whole tray flying in front of all these people.
Suddenly the tray was lifted from my hand. ‘I can take that for you,’ Lorcan said, looking down at me.
‘Thank you,’ I said, opting for gracious, and followed him to where two comfy chairs were pushed together, a small table in front of them, which already held a large black coffee and a piece of cake the same as I’d chosen. His case was next to one of the chairs and Bod, peering out from his pet carrier, was beside it. Lorcan unloaded my items for me and placed the empty tray to the side.
‘You’re welcome.’
I took a sip of the chocolate and felt it warming me from the inside as I cut off a piece of cake with the side of my fork. The zingyness of the lemon drizzle bounced around my taste buds.
‘Not bad, eh?’ Lorcan said, gesturing at his own piece of cake with his fork.
I gave a brief smile and nodded before leaning down to my bag to pull out my planner and go over what I needed to accomplish this weekend. Despite the faith Peyton had in me and my contacts book, what I hadn’t liked to admit was that I didn’t have any in this area of Ireland. I’d done a few weddings in Dublin and one in Belfast but none near the castle. I’d scanned the web to see what I could find and put out some feelers within my network but, so far, I wasn’t having a lot of luck. That was definitely something I needed to sort this weekend. The cake-tasting had been arranged for tomorrow, which was good of the baker, allowing us to impinge on her weekend. From what I understood, it was a woman both Patrick and Lorcan had known for years, so I was sure that familiarity had helped grease those particular wheels. I sneaked a sideways look at Lorcan under my lashes. Surprisingly, and unlike about 95 per cent of the other customers in the coffee bar, he didn’t have his nose stuck to his phone. He was just sitting, sipping strong black coffee and watching the world go by.
Suddenly he turned, as if sensing my eyes on him.
‘I was just wondering how you two know the baker?’ I said, before he could take a moment to think I’d been checking him out – which most certainly wasn’t the case. Obviously. I’d already seen a couple of other women doing so but Lorcan didn’t appear to have noticed.
‘Primary school.’
‘Really?’ I asked, more interested than I wanted to be. ‘I’m not in contact with anyone from primary school.’ To be fair, I wasn’t in contact with anyone from secondary school or university either, but I’d had my reasons at the time.
‘I think it’s probably easier if you come from a small village like ours. Some people move away but visit regularly, like Patrick and I, but some have lived their whole lives there. When there’s only ten of you in the class, it’s hard not to form a bond.’
