Beyond the Sea by Joann Ross

Author:Joann Ross [Ross, Joann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, romance, contemporary romance
Publisher: Castlelough Publishing, LLC
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

26

E ileen had gone all out with a full Irish stir-up. If nothing else, she’d thought as she’d covered the old oak farm table with Irish sausage, rashers of bacon, black and white pudding, eggs, and potatoes, with brown bread to soak it all up with, the fuller her sons’ stomachs were, the less energy they’d have to argue against her plan. Or to ask questions she wasn’t yet prepared to answer.

When Conn had come in a tad later than the others, looking like a man who’d had little sleep and enjoyed every moment of it, she wanted to ask how Sedona Sullivan was doing this morning. But fairness demanded that she not inquire about her son’s love life if she wasn’t willing to discuss her own.

Which she most certainly was not. She and Dennis had, in fact, enjoyed an amazing night. Despite all their years apart—her choice—they’d come together with the ease and sense of “rightness” that they had the first time they’d made love.

“This is just grand,” Declan, who’d probably used up a thousand calories before he’d put the cows out to pasture this morning, declared.

“It’s always a special time when I can have all my boys together under this roof for a meal together. At least one I’ve cooked myself.” She went around the table, refilling orange juice glasses.

She’d been getting the Spanish oranges from Mrs. Monohan to serve guests for years. The first time she’d discovered that Americans, who were blessed to live in the land of plenty, were willing to settle for concentrated orange juice, or even worse, frozen, Eileen had been stunned. Ever after that momentous morning, she’d never failed to keep fresh oranges in her fridge.

“You said you had news?” Conn asked around a mouth of fried pudding. He’d been rushing through the meal like a ploughman. Either he was starving or, more likely, he’d left Sedona Sullivan waiting for him back at Mary Joyce’s cottage.

“Aye.” She made a second round, filling coffee cups, then sat down at the table with her own cup of stout tea. Although she’d burned a great many calories herself last night and should have been starving, the nerves tangling in her stomach had done away with her appetite. “I’m taking a holiday.”

“That’s a grand idea,” Aidan said. “Where to? Italy? The Greek Islands? If you’d like recommendations—”

“That’s lovely of you to offer. But I’ve already made plans.” She took a deep breath and resisted glancing toward the stairs, which went up to her bedroom on the third floor, where Dennis was waiting for her to return. She took a long drink of tea to calm her nerves, then said, “I’m going to Dublin.”

“Dublin?” Six male voices spoke in unison. From their expressions, she might as well have suggested she was taking a spaceship to Mars.

“Is there something wrong with our country’s capital city?” she asked. Then realized she’d come off overly defensive.

“Nothing at all,” Bram said quickly. A bit too quickly, Eileen thought. “It’s a grand city.

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