Page 122 of For Love or Money
‘Oh!’ She couldn’t think straight, her head spinning. If only she could take Rafe up on the offer, it’d be perfect. But she couldn’t ... could she? ‘Thanks, but that’s not—I mean, it’s really kind of you, but I couldn’t ask you to drive all that way.’
‘You didn’t ask me, I offered. I’m not letting you go on the train. Apart from anything else, Dad would disown me.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s only about two and a half hours to Galway. We could have dinner there, or somewhere along the way.’
‘It’s not Galway city, though. It’s Gorebally.’ She winced apologetically, rubbing her arms.
‘Right, that’s probably about another hour.’ He pulled out his phone. ‘Where were you planning to stay tonight?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t got that far.’
‘You’re not staying with ... family?’ he asked tentatively, as if trying not to pry.
‘No. I was just going to find a B&B or something. Or stay in Galway for the night and find my way there in the morning.’
Rafe nodded and started thumbing through his phone. ‘I’ll sort something out, while you go and get your stuff together.’
‘Thanks, Rafe.’ She blinked back tears, overwhelmed with relief. She couldn’t work out if it was a mistake involving Rafe, but right now she was just glad he was here.
‘Have you spoken to Dad?’Rafe asked as he sat into the car beside her.
‘Oh! No, I haven’t. I suppose I should tell him where we’ve gone,’ she said, pulling out her phone. But she hesitated to hit his number, reluctant to disturb him when he was ... what? Out shagging his ex-wife? The thought didn’t sting as it should – it made her feel weary more than anything.
She’d thought she didn’t care about the wedding, that she just wanted the marriage. But instead, she’d enjoyed organising the wedding, and now a cloud of inertia settled over her at the thought of what came after. She suddenly felt like being with Peter would be an enormous burdensome task that would crush her beneath its weight. Were they kidding themselves thinking it could work? She foresaw a life of endless effort, both of them trying too hard to jolly themselves and each other along and convince themselves they were happy. She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and shook her head, trying to dispel her gloomy thoughts as she dialled Peter’s number.
She couldn’t tell him the truth with Rafe beside her listening, but Peter was kind and sympathetic when she told him Rafe was taking her to Galway for a family friend’s funeral. She felt soothed as he spoke, the concern in his voice warming her. He apologised repeatedly for not being there.
‘Do you want me to go? I could head off now and meet you there. Or join you tomorrow?’
‘No, there’s no need. I’ll be home tomorrow.’
‘Well, I’m glad Rafe was there to look after you,’ he said. ‘He’s much more use than me in a crisis anyway.’
She felt a little better after talking to Peter, comforted and less wobbly about their future together. He was a sweet, kind man, and she did love him.
‘Everything okay?’ Rafe asked her.
‘Yes, fine. Oh,’ she gasped, suddenly remembering. ‘You have that viewing tomorrow.’
‘I’ll cancel it,’ Rafe said. ‘I’d be useless without you there anyway.’
‘Hilary would be over the moon to have you all to herself,’ Stella said with a smile.
‘Well, she’s not getting me. I’ll ring her in the morning and reschedule.’
’Did you find us somewhere to stay?’
‘I booked us a couple of rooms at this place,’ Rafe said, nodding at the satnav, where he’d put in the address of a small hotel on the outskirts of the town. ‘It was the closest hotel I could find, and it’s got decent reviews. But we can change it if you find something better.’
‘It’s pretty much the only show in town,’ she said. She looked the hotel up on her phone. It had been spruced up recently, and looked much more welcoming than she remembered it. ‘Apart from some B&Bs,’ she said, thumbing through the accommodation website. ‘And there’s a pub with some rooms above it.’
‘Well, if you’d rather stay at any of those ...’
She suppressed a shudder at the thought of staying at a local B&B. She’d probably know the landlady. As for the pub, that was where Dan had told her they were going after the funeral tomorrow. It was way too close for comfort. Her best shot at any semblance of anonymity and privacy was at the small hotel. ‘No, this place looks good,’ she said.
She felt increasingly anxious and queasy as they got closer to her home town, lurching nauseatingly between dread and wild optimism at the thought of seeing her mother tomorrow. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to speak to her after more than ten years. She didn’t dare acknowledge the tiny glimmer of hope that her mother would be glad to see her, and she tried to block out visions of tearful reunions, telling herself they were pure fantasy. But she couldn’t help thinking what a frightening man her father could be, and how cowed her mother had been by him. She wondered if things might be different now that he was gone and she was out from under his thumb.
‘So this is where you grew up?’ Rafe said, looking around with interest as they drove through Gorebally’s single street.
‘Well, this is the downtown.’ At the top of the same road she said, ‘And now we’re entering uptown Gorebally.’
