Page 50 of A Merry Irish Christmas
‘Fair play to you for coming out this morning,’ she said to him. ‘Freezing, isn’t it? The girls aren’t liking this one bit,’ she added in an undertone to Mary.
But Evan had obviously heard and dropped his head to hide his amused smile.
‘Wow, I even got to meet the famous girls,’ he said to Mary when Caroline had moved away. ‘They don’t seem so bad to me.’
Mary rolled her eyes. ‘You would think that.’
‘Okay, here goes!’ Aifric said, as they lined up and Owen began counting down, yelling to be heard over the crash of the waves. The supporters joined in loudly and enthusiastically.
When Owen shouted ‘One,’ everyone charged towards the sea, squealing and roaring, while behind them the gathered crowd cheered them on with shouts of encouragement and hoots of laughter.
Mary gasped for breath as she ran into the waves and the icy cold water sent spikes of pain shooting up her legs. But she’d never felt so alive as her friends and neighbours splashed around her in the foam, laughing giddily at the craziness of it all, the tangy sea air filling her lungs and the taste of salt on her lips. She saw Owen dive under the water and come up, shaking his head and spraying droplets of sparkling water all around him, his blonde hair now dark and plastered to his head like a seal. Shedidn’t get further into the water than her waist, but she noticed Evan had got down and managed a few strokes, looking surprisingly at home. She was amused to see Ryan spot him and follow suit, not to be outdone. Mary contented herself with frolicking around in the shallows with Aifric.
After a few minutes, all but the hardiest swimmers began running back to the cars to change and get warm. Evan and Mary stood facing away from each other while they quickly towelled dry and got into their clothes.
‘That was awesome!’ Evan turned to her grinning when they were dressed again. Droplets of water dripped from his hair onto his face and his eyes sparkled.
‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ she said. They were both still shivering, and Mary fought the urge to throw her arms around him and snuggle into the warmth of his body.
She settled for standing extra close to him as they warmed up over cups of tea and coffee doled out by the little beach café. Everyone lingered for a while, chatting and congratulating each other. Then they began to disperse to their warm houses, appetites sharpened for a well-earned feast.
17
Mary set her laptop on the coffee table and sat on the sofa.
‘I’m going to hit the shower,’ Evan said, sticking his head around the door. ‘Wow!’ His eyes widened as she looked up from her computer and he took her in. ‘You look amazing.’
‘Oh. Thanks.’ Mary felt her cheeks warm at the unexpected compliment. She always bought something new to wear for Christmas Day, and this year’s outfit was a short purple swing dress teamed with thigh-high suede boots. She’d curled her long blonde hair into loose waves and put on make-up so she’d be ready to go to the O’Sullivans’ as soon as she finished the Zoom call with her family.
‘Say hi to your mom for me,’ he said, nodding to the laptop.
‘Okay, I will.’
She logged into the Zoom call, and tears pricked her eyes as one by one her family appeared on the screen – her parents in one square, Aidan in another, sitting up in bed with Bo huddled beside him, and Finn, Abbie and Cara squeezed together in another frame sharing a single iPad. They were all in pyjamas, and looked tired and bleary-eyed.
‘Happy Christmas!’ they all chorused.
‘Happy Christmas! It’s lovely to see you all. I hope I didn’t get you up too early.’
Aidan shook his head. ‘We’ve been awake since five, haven’t we, BoBo?’ he said, smiling at his daughter.
‘Santa comed to New York!’ Bo said excitedly.
‘Did he? And what did he bring you?’
The next hour went by quickly as they all chattered and opened presents, and too soon it was time to go. Her mother needed to prep the turkey, Bo wanted to go to Central Park to try out the new skates Santa had brought her, and Mary was due at the O’Sullivans’.
‘Have a great day!’ she called as they waved and blew kisses to her.
‘Don’t miss us too much!’
Mary did miss them all, but she didn’t feel as bereft as she’d thought she would as they all closed out the call and disappeared one by one from the screen. Evan was proving to be good company now that he’d dropped the grumpy attitude and she was looking forward to spending the next few days with him.
The sweater was a good call, Mary thought when Evan joined her in the living room. The colour suited him and it was chunky and rugged-looking yet wonderfully soft. He looked drop-dead gorgeous.
‘It fits!’ was all she said.
‘Yeah. Lucky you got me this, so I have something respectable to wear to dinner.’
