Breakaway (25 page)

Sandra fell silent. Erin studied her friend’s face: she looked so fragile sitting there, a worn out little girl with tired eyes, staring out at the gentle ripples of the pond’s surface.

“I know you miss him, San.” Erin put an arm around her shoulder. “I know it’s tough.”

“It is, even though I know he’s a prick.” Sandra took a long drink of tea. “But the thing is, Rory was right. People do deserve second chances.”

“Even Rory Brady?”

Sandra frowned. “Even him.” She lifted her face up to the sun, wiggling her toes and taking a deep breath. “God, I’m freezing my tits off.”

“Me, too,” Erin confessed with a small shudder.

“We’re tough, though. We can stay.”

“I agree.”

“Right. Here’s my big finale, Er: I do believe he’s well and truly sorry for what he’s done, and I do know you still love him.”

“I haven’t said I still love him,” Erin gingerly pointed out.

“You don’t have to!” Sandra bellowed. “This is me you’re talking to, remember? You love him. Okay?” Her voice was so loud a flock of birds scattered.

“I love him, I love him, calm down.”

“You and your semantics and technicalities—oh! Oh! Christ, I’m an idiot! How could I forget? Rory said you kissed him. Is that true?”

“We kissed casually. It was no big deal.”

“Then tell me all about it.”

“Well.” Erin pictured a smaller, hysterical version of herself running around her brain, arms flapping, screaming,
Help get me out of this!
“We were both in Crosshaven, and we passed the jewelry store.”

“The alley.” Sandra’s eyes lit up dreamily. “It was like you were strolling down memory lane. There was the store, and the alley, and it all came flooding back.”

“In a way, yeah,” Erin replied uneasily. “It wasn’t like a snog or anything. It was just one little kiss. No rockets and all that.”

“Frenchie?”

“SANDRA!” Erin’s cheeks were burning.

“It was a Frenchie,” said Sandra, pleased with her detective skills. “What happened next?”

“I told him it was madness for me to have been getting rides from him, and that it had to stop. He kept pushing, and finally I said that I needed time to sort everything out.”

Erin lay back on the blanket, closing her eyes. “I do still love him. But I’m scared. If he did that to me again, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Well, what’s your heart telling you to do?”

“Forgive him.”

“Then do that,” Sandra said simply.

Erin lifted her head. “Really?”

“Yeah, I know it’s a risk. But what’s the alternative? Pretend the feelings between you two aren’t there? You’re a different woman than you were two years ago, Erin. And judging from what we’ve seen so far, he’s a different man—listening to what you have to say, being considerate of others, willing to admit when he’s made a mistake. He doesn’t think the world revolves around him anymore. I think you should forgive him.”

“All right. I just hope you’re right.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Two weeks after her conversation with Sandra, Erin decided it was time to have
the discussion
. Instead of looking forward to it, she was anxious about it, even though she knew there would be a positive outcome (unless Rory had suddenly gone mental). It made her feel vulnerable, which is why she had put it off until now.

She’d rang him, surprised when he picked up on the second ring. His gran had him doing chores. He couldn’t get together until later in the day because she was insisting the legs of the kitchen table were uneven, and she wanted him to even them up. He knew damn all about sanding, but he’d done as she asked. Now they were even worse.

“Glad you rang,” he said, relief in his voice. “The only skilled carpenter I know died two thousand years ago. Clearly, we’re in no way related.”

“We need to talk,” Erin told him calmly. Rory agreed to pick her up later, saying he had a surprise for her. And now here they were on the Copley Road, one of the old country roads rarely traveled anymore, and he was dangling his car
keys in front of her face, saying he was going to give her a driving lesson. The hedges on both sides were overgrown, but not so badly the road was undrivable. There was no chance of being interrupted, that was certain. But a madman coming out of the woods with a machete and hacking them to bits? That, she wasn’t so sure of, considering how isolated it was.

Rory jangled the keys. “C’mon, then.”

“I told you I wanted to talk.”

“We will. After I give you your first driving lesson. It’s been eating at me, you saying I was a bad driving teacher when we were kids. I think we were both very young and uptight. It’s different now, so I thought we’d have a go. C’mon.”

Erin’s anxiety turned into a full-out case of nerves as she exchanged places with Rory. She turned the ignition and the car purred to life. Her foot barely touched the pedal.

“Go on, then, adjust the seat. There’s a switch on the right side.” Erin felt butterfingered as she felt for the switch and the seat slowly moved forward. Rory clapped.

“If that’s going to be your attitude, we’re ending this lesson right now,” Erin huffed.

“Relax. You’ve got to relax.”

“I am relaxed.”

“Right,” Rory said dryly. “You’re relaxed. Next, adjust your mirrors. You do the rearview mirror manually, see? You want to make sure you can see behind you. This panel between us has the switch to control your side-view mirrors. You want to see a little bit of the side of the car, but mostly what’s going to be alongside you.”

Erin started to adjust the side mirrors. “Don’t watch me.”

“Whaddaya mean, don’t watch you? This is a lesson, remember?”

“I think I can handle adjusting mirrors without your supervision.”

Rory looked up at the car ceiling, whistling. “Let me know when you’ve got that done.”

“You’re the biggest arse God ever made. I just want you to know that.” It took her all of a few seconds to adjust the mirrors.

“You can stop whistling the Bee Gees ‘Stayin’ Alive’ now,” she told him.

Rory looked at the side-view mirror of the passenger seat. “Good job.”

“Stop making me feel like I’m five and I’ve just completed a drawing of an apple or something!”

“I’m trying to encourage you!”

“All you’re doing is making me annoyed with you, which makes me more nervous.”

“Apart from giving you instructions, I’ll keep my piehole shut. Would that make you happy?”

“Very.”

“Now. Put your hands on the steering wheel at ten and two. Imagine the wheel is a clock. Ten and two.”

Erin put her hands at ten and two.

“Time to drive.”

Erin panicked. “What, now? The first time out?”

“What did you think? We were gonna practice adjusting mirrors all afternoon?”

“I don’t know about this.”

Rory leaned over and caressed her cheek. “You’ll be fine.”

Erin closed her eyes for a moment, relishing his touch. “If you say so.”

Rory clapped his hands together enthusiastically. “Now. Keep your foot on the brake, and see the stick shift here? Put it in drive—but still keep your foot on the brake as you do it, yeah?”

Erin nodded. Her right hand gripped the wheel while her left sought the stick shift. She could hear her heart whooshing in her ears.
You’re not an idiot,
she reminded herself.
If that fat dosser Teague Daly can drive, then you should be able to grasp it in no time.

“Now,” Rory continued ever so authoritatively, “take
your foot off the brake and put it gently on the gas pedal. Then push down slowly on the gas pedal with your foot. Slowly mind. And you’ll be driving forward.”

A nervous wreck, Erin did as Rory instructed and the car began to move forward.

“Keep it going. Just aim straight.”

Erin slowly motored up the old road. She was shaking a bit, but she was driving.

“Right. I want you to stop now, so put your foot on the brake.”

Overwhelmed, Erin pushed her foot down hard and she and Rory rocked forward, then back.

“I said
gentle
!”

“You didn’t! You just said ‘put your foot on the brake’!”

“I thought it would be
obvious
that if you gently tap the gas pedal to go, you would gently tap the brake pedal to stop. Put it in park.”

Erin leaned her head against the steering wheel. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

“What are you on about? It’s a good idea. You just have to loosen up. Here, this’ll help. Fresh air.” He hit a button and the car windows rolled down. “This time, keep going forward slowly till I tell you to stop.”

Erin put the car into drive and slowly crawled up the road. She was just gaining in confidence and picking up a little speed when some overgrown brambles smacked her in the face through the open window. Panicking, she hit the gas rather than the brake and they were flying.

“Brake!” Rory yelled.

Erin was too shaken to stop.

“Erin, stop the car. BRAKE!”

She mashed down on the brake pedal, hard. This time she and Rory jerked forward and back with even more force.

Erin’s leg was shaking as she put the car into park.

“Um. Okay. Okay.” Rory’s voice was kind but impatient at the same time. “That’s all right—those brambles smacking you in the face was unexpected. But that’s what good
driving is all about: keeping alert, keeping aware, concentrating on what you’re doing. My da gave me a golden piece of advice that still applies to this day: assume that everyone else out on the road is a jackass who doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing. It works.”

Erin was still shaking. Rory took her hand and kissed her palm. “I know it’s scary the first time out, but you can do this.”

“I know I can. I just get so overwhelmed, and it doesn’t help that I’m sitting here thinking, ‘He thinks you’re a twit.’”

“I don’t think you’re a twit,” Rory insisted. “I just think you need to relax. Tense drivers aren’t good drivers, Erin.”

“You should put together a driving handbook for twits,” Erin said bitterly.

“I could put you on the cover if you like,” Rory offered. He pointed at her face. “Ah. Don’t think you can hide it from me. I see a smile coming on. Oh, she’s fighting it, but her mouth isn’t listening. The corners are curling up…”

Erin broke into a grin.

“There it is! The smile I love.”

She turned to him. “Rory.” The safety belt was cutting into her shoulder.

Exasperated, she undid it. “I really think we should talk.”

“Me, too. But not sitting here in the car. Let’s take a walk. I’ll find a nice old brick wall covered in moss you can crash into.”

“I’d forgotten what a wisearse you could be.”

“Anything else you need to be reminded of?” Rory asked seductively.

“Maybe,” Erin murmured back.

There was no mistaking the dark gleam of desire in Rory’s eyes as he got out of the car and came around to open the door, extending his hand like a true gentleman to help her out of the car.

She was no sooner free of the vehicle’s confines than Rory pulled her into his arms. The hug, so heartfelt and
fierce, felt like home. She’d forgotten how safe she could feel here. Rory tilted her chin up and their eyes locked.

“I love you. I know I don’t deserve it. But a life without you is unimaginable, Erin. Please take me back.”

Erin’s eyes slowly drifted shut as she savored the fervency of his words, as seductive as anything he’d ever said to her over the years.

“I love you, Rory.” Saying the words aloud made her feel like a prisoner who’d just been set free. “God help me, but I do.”

“Thank God,” said Rory, bending to kiss her mouth. Erin had forgotten that desire could be coated in sweetness. But once that sweetness melted away, what was left was a hunger that wasn’t easily satisfied.

Erin felt reason slowly crumble as Rory’s kisses grew more possessive. It spurred Erin’s own boldness as she tore her mouth from his to nip at his neck. Rory’s low groans incited her to do more. And so, ever so gently, here and there, she bit him.

“I want to make love to you,” he whispered huskily. He grabbed her chin and clamped his mouth on hers, greedy and demanding, pulling her closer to him than she ever believed possible. No boundaries. They were just brilliant silver molecules, combining and recombining, binding them together forever.