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  Agreeing to marry his right hand man was such a lame assed move on my part.

  Richard had been with me through thick and thin, it was true, but I didn’t feel anything more for him than the love of a great friend. He had asked me to marry him one day during a particularly hard day of chemo and in a moment of self-pity, I said yes. And then promptly threw up in the bucket beside him. And here I was, a couple of years later, heading back to get married at City Hall.

  It would make my father very happy, but what would it make me? I approached the counter and made a snap decision. I wasn’t ready to go home just yet. I turned around and headed out of the airport, dragging my carry-on behind me and wondering if the car rental agency still had an automatic for me.

  Chapter 11

  Ryan

  The sun hit me like a ton of painful needles sticking into my eyes. I rolled over to try to escape it, but the fucking thing was relentless. I buried my head under the covers until I remembered why I had put myself in that state to begin with. This seemed to be becoming a bad habit of mine and it needed to stop.

  Aiden had stayed for another hour, and together we had finished the bottle. I was now officially a divorced man and I was pretty sure I had drunken texted Chloe sometime during the night to let her know. Chances were good she was on her way to the airport by now, doing the dance of joy. She was a free woman.

  It was at that moment I remembered the reason Aiden had come over in the first place.

  “Shit.” I pulled the covers back and slowly rolled to the edge of the bed, thankful either Aiden or I had the foresight to leave a glass of water and some ibuprofen on my bedside table. I made it up to sitting, swallowed the water and a dose of the pills and sat on the edge, waiting for the room to slow down. I needed a shower and then someone to drive me as I was likely still partially drunk. My drinking buddy probably wasn’t in any better shape to take me, but I knew just the person.

  A quick text and I limped into the bathroom and suffered through a pounding shower until my body started to feel a tiny bit better. I knew one thing. I was really thankful the Brennan and Sam had a super powerful shower installed in this flat. Most of the showers around here were mere trickles coming out of the faucets.

  I toweled off and swiped my phone to see if Keeva had texted back. By the pounding on my door, I figured she was here already. I didn’t have any time to check as she had apparently let herself in.

  “Jesus, Ryan. Put some clothes on.”

  I didn’t have the energy to argue the point that this was my house and she had walked into my bedroom. I just grabbed some clothes off a pile on the floor, hoped they didn’t reek of anything shitty, and gave her my ass as I tried to get dressed while my cousin lounged on my bed. Shit had just become super awkward.

  “Haven’t you ever heard of privacy? Jeez, give me some space, Keev.”

  She ignored me and kept on texting someone while I continued to dig up a presentable shirt and go brush my teeth. I was finally feeling closer to my old self, but just to help speed up that process, I chugged another bottle of water and threw some plain crackers down my throat.

  I tossed my keys to Keeva and we headed out to try to save whatever was left of my marriage.

  We arrived at the B&B Chloe was staying at a lot later than I would have wanted to. Who knew Keeva and our Granny shared the same driving abilities? She claimed it was because she was born and raised in America and driving on the wrong side of the road freaked her out, but for Christ’s sake, we were passed by bikers. And not the ones on motorized bikes either.

  She left the car running while I ran in the front of the house, hoping that our first stop was successful and that I wasn’t about to spend my day off running all over the hills of Ireland. Turns out, that was exactly what I was going to be doing. The innkeeper let us know she was long gone and had completely checked out. She figured she had gone to the airport.

  I looked up possible flights leaving Shannon and Dublin this morning bound for New York and wasn’t impressed to see there were quite a few options. I tried to remember if Chloe had mentioned where she had landed when she flew in and finally remembered she had said Shannon as it was much closer to Castlegregory. That eliminated most of the options and left me with two flights. Only one was going out in a few minutes and the other left in a couple of hours. Since she wasn’t answering her phone, I would have to pray that the one leaving in a couple of hours was hers, otherwise, I was too late. I would have lost her.

  I researched her family and her possible contact details and what her life was like as Keeva drove us as fast as she could to Shannon. I had always cursed Chloe’s family money, but now I was thankful for it. It meant their activities were well documented, and all that money had probably saved Chloe’s life. I’m not sure why, but I had never Googled her. Turns out I could have saved us both a ton of heartache. I would have known she had cancer. Breast cancer to be exact. Oh and I would have also known that she was engaged to the douche Richard who was her father’s second in command. That information I could have done without, but knowing it before she ambushed me would have helped. How, I had no idea, but I was sticking with that theory.

  We finally pulled into the airport, took a ticket in the “it’s going to cost us a fortune” parking lot and raced inside. I frantically looked around for the first possible airline counter and ran towards it with Keeva following closely behind. Thankfully, there was no lineup and I was able to get to the agent fairly quickly.

  “Hi. Can you please tell me if flight 301 has boarded yet?”

  She typed a string of letters and numbers into her computer. I knew by the look on her face that it had boarded. But maybe just leaving? My wishful thinking was becoming embarrassing. I needed to pull my manhood back in line. I just needed my wife back and my alpha side would hopefully come back to life.

  The agent looked up at me. “It has boarded sir, and has actually taken off for New York. Was there anything I can do for you?”

  “Besides make it turn around? No, nothing.” I guess there was no hope for it. The other flight was with the same airline and she was nowhere to be found. She must have left on the first flight. It looked like I was going to New York City to bring my ex-wife back. I turned to Keeva and squared her shoulders in my hands. “Keev?” She raised an eyebrow and chewed on her bottom lip, preparing for the worst.

  “Ryan?”

  “Can you guys do without me for a few days?”

  “What! No way, Ryan! You’re Brennan’s manager and in charge of the pub while he’s away. He’s gonna kill you. You’ve seen how good a bartender Aiden is.”

  “Well, Quinn is around too right? And Aislyn?”

  “Well, ya, but those two idiots can’t tend bar. They’re the backup’s backup.”

  “I’ve got to do this, Keeva. If there’s a chance she left me because she’s sick, I have to know.”

  “Know what?” I turned towards the voice that I was sure was a hallucination. “Ryan? Keeva? What are you doing here?”

  “Chloe,” I nearly screamed. I scooped her up in a bear hug and remembered how we had left things and promptly put her down. “Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane going home?”

  “Can we walk? I don’t want to have this conversation in the ticketing line.”

  “I’m going to be waiting in the car, Ry,” said Keeva. “Chloe, it’s great to see you again. Hope you’re sticking around this time.”

  Chloe smiled and Keeva took off, leaving us standing in the airport staring at each other. I decided if this was all I got, then I would make the first move.

  “Chlo, what’s happened? Why didn’t you go home?”

  She ran her hand through her hair, the movement a reminder of our younger years. She always did it when she was worried. “I tried to go home, I really did, Ryan. But as I trudged my way up to the ticket counter, I decided that for once in my life, I was going to make the plans. Not my father. So, I texted my Dad a
nd Richard and extended my stay for a while.” She smiled and my heart grew, full of hope that maybe, just this once, my prayers were answered.

  “So, yeah, I’m here. I was just going to rent a car and drive. Without a plan, without direction, just drive. That’s where I was on my way to when I saw you.”

  “Well, I’m damn glad you stumbled by us. I was about to buy a ticket to New York. Jesus, that would have been a disaster.”

  “You were? Why?”

  I took her hand and turned to face her. “Why? Do you really have to ask me that?”

  Her face grew red and she looked out the window away from me. I gently turned her face to look at mine. “Chloe, love. No matter what you say, there’s always gonna be a part of me that’s still in love with you. Even when you try really hard to convince me that you’re in love with someone else. I’m still in love with you. You’re my wife. Well, you were my wife, but still, I think of you as my wife. I knew I never should have signed those damn papers. I would follow you to the ends of the earth to get the chance to make you understand how I feel. I’ve gone a lot of years without you mo chroi, I don’t plan on going any more.

  “I never should have let you run yesterday. And that kiss? My God it was of the stuff of my dreams. I’d waited to do that for ten years, you know? So, yeah.” I looked up at the ceiling praying for strength. “That’s why.”

  “Ryan, we can’t keep doing this. You signed the papers. We’re divorced. Let this be our goodbye.”

  I jumped up and started pacing. “Fuck that, Chloe. This isn’t our goodbye. That’s what I was chasing you down for.” I ran my hand through my hair and wished for a less public place to do this in. “Aiden told me something last night, and if I hadn’t been so completely blitzed, I would have driven to you right away.” I took her hands in mine and for the first time really noticed how frail and thin she had become.

  “Chloe, we need to go somewhere private and talk. I know you have cancer.”

  “How could you know that, Ryan? I haven’t told anyone—” She scrunched up her face and chewed her bottom lip inwards. “Aiden figured it out, didn’t he? And then he told you.”

  “Yes, it was Aiden. He saw you taking your medication yesterday and put two and two together. But, we weren’t entirely sure he was right.” I framed her gorgeous face with my large hands and leaned my forehead against hers. “Sweetheart, why haven’t you told me?” The last part of that sentence was whispered as I didn’t currently trust my voice.

  She wrapped her hands around my wrists and hung onto me for dear life. Her deep breaths were long and measured and working at calming her down. She looked up at me and I knew I was a goner. How could I look into that soul and walk away? “Ryan, can we go somewhere else and talk about this? I’m not comfortable discussing it right here. I’ll meet you back at your place in a day or two then I can fill you in, okay?”

  “Not gonna happen, Chlo. A day or two isn’t going to work for me.”

  She must have seen the determination reflected in my face, ’cause she gave in awful easy. “Well, I was going to rent a car and drive up or down the coast. Why don’t you join me? We can grab lunch, have a picnic, talk?”

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her along in my wake, not caring that she struggled to keep up. Shannon airport wasn’t huge and it turns out it’s kind of a challenge to find a secluded hall or even doorway. We were almost to the exit when I spied the perfect spot and swung her into it behind me. Her bags rolled to a stop and boxed us in. It was a narrow space, so I was able to crowd her back against the wall and hover over her so we were relatively protected from the public’s view.

  I wasn’t giving her any time to try to talk her way out of this. Thank God I was so tall compared to her. It made it easy to cage her in. I placed one hand flat against the wall above her head and wrapped the other around her hip and leaned in. Her eyes dilated, her breathing changed and she leaned her hips ever so slightly towards mine.

  I was deliberately moving slow. I needed her to feel the ache, the agony that I felt for so long after she left and had been feeling again in the few short days since her return. I wanted her to burn for me, to need my touch like her next breath. I slowly moved my hand from her hip, over the soft curve there and back towards the bottom of her ass and gently held it in my hand, circling the swell, pausing to occasionally grab hold.

  Her breath hitched sharply with each tug of my hand and I was that much closer to accomplishing my goal. My head bypassed her soft and inviting lips to trail along her hairline towards her ear. I let my nose tickle a path along the way, inhaling her warm, vanilla scent as I traced the rise and fall towards her neck. I buried my face at the alluring place where her neck meets her collarbone and allowed myself one more inhale before exhaling my warm breath along the soft rise of her neck, finally hitting pay dirt. Her quiet moan preceded her hands lifting to grab my shirt at my chest and tug me closer to her and I knew she was finally coming close to feeling what I was.

  I slowly moved up to her face, trailing my nose and breath over her skin, lightly skimming her open mouth as I moved to give the other side the same attention. I didn’t miss the moan she made when she realized I wasn’t quite ready to give her what she needed.

  I leaned in to her body as my lips finally made contact with her delicate neck on the other side. I was anything but gentle on her as I pulled and tugged her skin in between my teeth, urging her to lean towards me. I trailed these little tugs up to her ear where I pulled her earlobe into my mouth to tweak it, loving the soft intake of breath the move elicited from her.

  I pressed my hips into her body making sure she knew just what she did to me. It was time to stop the public display and take a step back, but I was having a hard time pulling myself away. Her hands, which were in a state of flux on my chest, finally made the decision to pull and we were fused. No part of either of us wasn’t touching and I was well on my way to my first public indecency arrest.

  I rested my forehead on hers and regained control of my breathing; thankful she was in the same condition I was in.

  I pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Hey.” My hand trailed down and swept over her cheek. She smiled and closed her eyes, seeming to gather herself.

  “Hey back. So, what do we do now?”

  “We move. Chlo, I need to get out of here with you and we need to settle some stuff, so let’s go find Keeva and then find somewhere to rent you another car.”

  I didn’t give her any time to argue or plan something different, just grabbed her bag with one hand and her hand with my other and once again, dragged her behind me out the exit towards Keeva.

  Chapter 12

  Chloe

  What the hell just happened, I thought to myself. An hour ago I was supposed to board a plan to head back to New York to start planning my wedding to a man I didn’t love and now I had just about had sex in an alcove at Shannon Airport with a man I did love but couldn’t see a future with. Now he was dragging me off, caveman style, in order to beat his chest and piss a circle around me claiming me as his very own wife, and no other’s.

  “Ryan! Slow down.”

  Without breaking his stride, he looked over his shoulder at me. “Chlo, I’ve got another chance to prove myself to you, so no, I’m not slowing down. I’ve waited too long and I should have just gone and found you right away all those years ago, but I didn’t.” He turned back to face straight ahead. “So, that’s on me, but I’m giving you everything I’ve got left today. Then, the decision is on you. So, yeah, we’re not slowing down.”

  I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I dug deep and endeavoured to keep up with him. We finally arrived at the car park and found Keeva arguing on her phone with someone and she seemed pretty pissed off. We paused to let her finish her tirade and then Ryan banged on the window, scaring the shit out of her.

  She started the car and depressed the window and replaced her angry face with a huge Murphy smile. “Ready then, Ry?”
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  “Change of plans. Keev, are you good to head back on your own? Chloe is staying in Ireland a bit longer and I thought she and I could take the long way home.”

  She glanced between the two of us, seeming to try to decide if I had agreed to this plan, or been forced to agree. Her phone rang while she was contemplating the question and her whole demeanor changed as she glanced down at it. Viciously swiping it off, she turned back to us. “No problem, Ryan. Something’s come up anyway and I’m going to head out to the farm. I’ll call the pub if you want and make sure you’re covered tonight.”

  Ryan reached into the car and hugged Keeva, whispering something I couldn’t make out. Then she peeled out of the garage like a bat out of hell. I looked at Ryan wondering if he thought anything weird was happening with her, but he hadn’t seemed to notice. He had already started pulling me in his wake, hopefully towards the car rental agency.

  We managed to muddle through finding a car that I could drive without too much arguing. Ryan basically wanted to rent something that he could drive, manual transmission, larger in size, but I quickly threw my credit card down in front of the agent and demanded a small, automatic car. When Ryan once again tried to argue, I reminded him this was my rental, I was the driver and if he wanted to be with me today, he would have to be okay with being the passenger. We settled on a VW Golf and took off into the beautiful Irish countryside.

  We debated about where to head, but eventually, and since I was driving, I drove us west towards the cliffs. I had intended to take a trip there. Now that I had the time and we were really close anyway, so we were headed on a beeline for the coast. I wasn’t sure how much of my intentions Ryan was up for. While collecting myself this morning, I had asked a gate agent about a place to stay for the night, and she had directed me to a great bed and breakfast around Lahinch, one of my favourite spots from my younger days in Ireland. I had called and made a reservation and had every intention of sleeping there tonight. He was on his own, I supposed. Of course, after today’s airport encounter, I thought I could probably be convinced to share my room and a bit more with him.