She looked at him amazed. The idea was exciting. “Are you really serious about resigning?”
“I swear. You do still love me, Rach, don’t you?” He took her hands in his, fear in his eyes as he waited for her reply.
“Yes, Carl, I still love you,” she said, in a small voice, and then she was in his arms. She wanted desperately for him to take her to bed and make love to her but she knew they had to take things slowly. It would not be easy to put the past behind her but she knew she had to give it a try, if only for the children’s sake.
“Why don’t we go away together next weekend?” he suggested, “and see how it goes?”
“Do you want to do that?”
“Oh, darling, I’d love that more than anything. And I meant what I said. I’ll resign my seat, if that’s what it takes to get you back.”
Becky and Jacob came in just then, whooping as they saw their parents kiss and jumping on them for a group hug. Rachel smiled at Carl over the little blonde heads, hopeful that everything was going to work out alright. One could only wait and see and hope for the best.
Ronan was happy for Rachel when he heard that they were thinking of getting back together again. He’d always known that she’d never stopped loving Carl. He was happy now that he hadn’t made love to her that night when she was so distraught. What a mistake that would have been! She’d have regretted it and it probably would have ruined their friendship.
Business had quietened down in the shop after the New Year but they were still doing a steady business. He and Fiona were a great team and he had grown more and more fond of her as the weeks passed. She now worked every weeknight and he found himself with a spring in his step as he waited for her to come on duty.
He adored Oisín, who had inherited his mother’s sunny personality and, like her, was always smiling. Most Sundays he took them both out for the day, either up the Wicklow Mountains or to Brittas Bay if the weather was fine.
The weather was particularly horrendous one nightas he and Fiona were closing up the shop. Thunder crashed and as the lightning flashed, Ronan could see that Fiona had gone terribly pale and was shaking.
“I’m terrified of lightning,” she said, moving closer to him as the rain lashed against the windows.
“Well, you can’t go anywhere in that storm,” Ronan said as he locked the door and switched off the lights. “Come on upstairs and wait it out.”
Gratefully, she followed him and, just as they got into his apartment, the lights went out and they were plunged into darkness.
“Damn!” he said and fumbled for the torch he kept on top of the bookshelf. Grateful now for the candles that Rachel had brought for his party, he moved around lighting them, one after the other.
Fiona was huddled on the sofa, her arms wrapped around her body. He poured each of them a whiskey and sat down beside her. She took hers in her shaking hands and took a big slug, almost spilling it all as another crash of thunder echoed around the room.
“Oh my God!” she cried, edging closer to him.
He put his arm around her and she snuggled into his body. It felt good. Before he knew what was happening, he was kissing her and to his surprise, she was kissing him back. As the storm raged, unabated, they sat in the candlelight, holding each other.
“I don’t know how this happened,” Ronan told her, his voice gentle.He took her face in his hands.
“Oh, Ronan, you ninny! Don’t you know I’ve been waiting for it to happen? I’ve loved you for ages,” she admitted, shyly.
Ronan was thunderstruck. She was right, he was a ninny not to have seen that or to realise that he had fallen in love with her too.
“Could you ring your mother and say that the storm is too bad for you to travel home tonight and that you have to stay here?”
“I already did. When you went to the loo a while ago,” she laughed.
“Oh, you seductress!” he cried, pulling her down on the sofa.
She quieted him with her lips. He was lost!
80
Four Months Later
Rachel was busy preparing for her Midsummer’s Eve party but this was a very much smaller affair than the one the previous year. She had invited only eighteen people, but they were eighteen good friends. Charlotte was coming from Italy with her new boyfriend and Naomi would also be there with her husband, all the way from New York. Carl’s two brothers and their wives would be there along with his old friends, Mark and Steve and their partners, She had also invited her wine friends and was looking forward to meeting them all again.In comparison to last year’s party it was small fry, but much more select, as she’d said laughingly to Ellie.
So much had happened to them all in the past twelve months. “If you put it in a book, nobody would believe it,” she’d remarked to Ronan, when she’d called to invite him to the party (no specially printed invitations this time), and it was true!
Firstly, there had been the awful Zita affair. Rachel still shuddered every time she thought of that woman and the narrow escape they’d had. She had tried very hard to put it all behind her but it hadn’t been easy. However, time is a great healer and she could now go days at a time without even thinking of the whole awful episode. It had certainly changed their lives and now it looked as though it was for the better. As her friends were so fond of saying, “Behind every cloud, there’s a silver lining” and it appeared that this was the case. She and Carl were in a much better place now than they had been when the whole Zita thing had imploded their lives.
Carl had been true to his word. He’d resigned from the Dáil, as he’d promised, which was something she still found hard to believe. He had loved politics so much that, when he gave them up for her, she realised that he did truly love her. They were closer now than they had ever been and the children were in a much happier, healthier environment than before.
Working together had helped. They had started the online party-planning company Carl had envisaged and to everyone’s surprise, it was taking off at a great rate. That was mainly thanks to Carl’s entrepreneurial skills. He was a brilliant marketing man and, as always, everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. It was not easy learning to trust him again and it was an ongoing work-in-progress but she felt she was getting there. He did seem to have changed and was much more relaxed and happy than before. Rachel felt hopeful for the future.
Carl was a terrific father and spent lots of time with Becky and Jacob who were growing up fast. So when Carl suggested having another baby, Rachel was not altogether against the idea. She was really quite excited about the possibility and hoped it would happen soon as neither of them was getting any younger.
She and Ellie had kept up their friendship and tried to meet up at least once a week, if only for a coffee.Ellie could talk of little else but Robin.
Ellie was still working for Sam although Robin had tried to entice her away to work for him. But Ellie and Sam were still bosom buddies and she stayed loyal to him. She and Robinhad moved in together and were head over heels in love. Robin had hinted at marriage but Ellie wanted to take it slowly. She hadn’t forgotten how close she’d come to marrying the wrong man before. This time she wanted to be absolutely sure and was enjoying living with Robin and getting to know him.
She’d never have believed it possible to be so happy. Robin was a wonderful partner and lover and was always touching and caressing her, unable to be away from her for a moment. She still talked of her ‘lucky escape’ but now she could laugh about it. It gave her some satisfaction to know that things hadn’t worked out for David and Sandrine although she felt no bitterness towards David. Her relationship with her sister was still very strained and Sandrine was more jealous of her than ever after she’d been introduced to Robin.
Sam had a new girlfriend, a glamorous TV presenter, but it didn’t look like it was going anywhere. Everyone had thought that Sam and Ellie might have ended up together but that was before Robin appeared on the scene. It seemed that Sam would be another George Clooney – a
perennial bachelor! They were all looking forward to the Diploma Course which was due to start in September. By all accounts it was very rigorous and Rachel hoped she’d find the time for all that study but Carl assured her that he’d take over the business to allow her to do it.
Ronan and she still had a very close bond. They’d been a great support to each other through the troubled times and neither of them would ever forget it. They still kept in touch regularly but they were both busy with their new careers and both had moved on in their personal lives too. She was very happy that he’d found love with Fiona. Rachel hadn’t been at all surprised when he’d told her. She’d known that Fiona was in love with him but like all men, Ronan had been a bit slow on the uptake. He was mad about Oisín who was now a darling bundle of energy, walking already, although he wasn’t quite a year old. Becky and Jacob adored him. Fiona was having a big party for his first birthday and Rachel suspected that there might be another announcement made at that time. She hoped so. Ronan deserved to be happy. He was such a wonderful guy.
As she waited for the first of her friends to arrive, she surveyed the beautifully set table.Just then Carl came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back into him.
“What a difference this is from last year,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “But you know something? I like this much better.”
“Me too,” she agreed, her voice gentle.
“I guess it took all that heartache for us to realise what really matters. Family and friends,” he remarked, turning her around in his arms.
“I guess behind every cloud, there is a silver lining,” she said softly, as she reached up to kiss him.
Behind Every Cloud Page 35