Better Together (6 page)

Besides, she was sure that he had a far more exciting life in Dublin, where he was a part-time actor, a job that sounded exciting and exotic to someone whose only experiences of theatre had been the pantomimes she’d occasionally been brought to as a child. Sean’s acting career was far more authentic than panto. He’d been in a number of plays and had one or two walk-on parts in TV shows, but the work was sporadic and not well paid, so he also had a job as a van driver for a delivery company. Nina thought it sounded a glamorous sort of life (although she accepted that spending your days in a delivery van probably wasn’t all that glamorous), but when she went to Dublin to see him in a walk-on part in the theatre and then to a party afterwards, she asked herself why on earth he still visited Ardbawn when there were so many exciting things to do in the city instead.

‘Although I probably don’t get the most out of Dublin,’ she told him that night as they lay side by side in his single bed – Sean shared a flat with another part-time actor. ‘I’m a country girl at heart.’

‘You could make me into a country man again,’ he murmured as he slid his hand between her legs. ‘Because you’re far more exciting than anything that this city has to offer.’

Nina laughed at that but Sean wasn’t entirely wrong about her, because, although she had initially been tentative about sleeping with him, he discovered that she was surprisingly
enterprising between the sheets, even if she did have a tendency to suddenly sit up in the bed after making love and scribble in the notebook she always carried around with her. When he asked her, the first time, what she was doing, she said that she’d just thought of something else that needed looking after in the guesthouse. If, she added, she ever got the damn loan from the bank. It was nearly three months since she’d asked for it and Dominic Bradley told her that they were still discussing it.

‘What do they need to talk about for three months?’ he asked.

She shrugged. ‘I think they believe that I’m a silly young girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing. They’re right up to a point. I’m terrified I’ll make a mess of it. But I’ve got to try. If I don’t get the money, though, I’m not sure what I’ll do.’

She’d been astonished the week after that conversation when Dominic had phoned her up and told her that her loan had been approved. She’d jumped up and down with joy and had phoned Sean, who was back in Dublin again, to tell him.

‘Great,’ he said. ‘I’m glad it worked.’

‘What worked?’ she asked.

Sean told her that he had asked his father to talk to the bank manager on her behalf.

‘And because your dad did this they’re giving me the loan?’ Nina was shocked.

‘Hey, why not? Dad plays golf with Bradley. Knows him well.’

Nina was delighted to get the loan but not entirely happy with Anthony Fallon’s involvement. After signing the agreement at the bank, she went around to the doctor’s house. Anthony told her that Sean had been very enthusiastic about
her plans for the guesthouse and that he had persuaded him that it could be very profitable.

‘. . . and so I went and talked to Dominic, and of course you do have a lot of work to do, but the house itself is an excellent asset and good security for the loan,’ said Anthony. ‘I reckoned that it was worth the risk.’

‘Well, thank you very much,’ said Nina, who was still taken aback at the notion that the two men had been discussing her financial situation.

‘You’re welcome,’ said Anthony. ‘If my wayward son is sleeping with someone, I’m comforted by the fact that she’s a woman of independent means. And a lot more intelligent than the airheads he normally associates with.’

‘Wayward?’ asked Nina to cover her embarrassment over the fact that Anthony knew she was sleeping with Sean and didn’t seem perturbed about it.

‘He’s wasting his time with that acting lark.’ Anthony snorted. ‘He’s not good enough, I’ve told him that over and over. He’s nearly thirty. He needs to settle down, get a proper job. Fooling around with fringe theatre while working for a delivery company is a waste of his time.’

‘He’s a great actor,’ said Nina loyally.

‘Great doesn’t always mean lucky,’ Anthony told her. ‘He should know that by now. Oh, and speaking of luck, I hope you’re not relying on that to avoid getting pregnant. If you need a prescription for the pill, let me know.’

At that time in Ireland, the pill was prescribed for medical, not family-planning reasons, and it was hard to come by in small towns. But Nina wasn’t stupid. She’d gone to the Well Woman clinic in Dublin. She tried not to look embarrassed as she told Anthony this, but he nodded approvingly.

‘I knew you were a sensible girl,’ he said. ‘That’s what I told Sean, too.’

A few months later, Sean asked Nina to marry him. He proposed to her on the banks of the Bawnee River, where the sunlight dappled through the trees and sparkled on the water. It was a favourite place of theirs, peaceful, secluded and quietly romantic. He told her that he knew she was the one for him and he hoped that he was the one for her. He traced his finger along the curve of her jawline as he spoke and Nina knew that she was going to say yes. But first she wanted to know why he loved her.

‘Because you’re a sexy little minx underneath that quiet exterior.’ He winked as he spoke, which made her laugh.

‘It can’t only be sex,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you’ve had plenty of women who are better than me in bed.’

‘Not plenty,’ said Sean. ‘And not better, either. Of course I’ve had other girlfriends, you know that already. But you suit me the best, Nina Doherty.’

‘Why?’

‘You’re my anchor,’ he told her. ‘You keep me sane.’

‘I do?’ She wasn’t sure that being an anchor was a great reason for him wanting to marry her.

‘You’re the sensible side I don’t have. You’re good for me. You don’t pander to me.’

Not in the way his actor friends did, but whenever he called, she came running. She couldn’t help it.

‘I’m fed up with Dublin,’ he said. ‘It’s a rat race. And I’ve got to realise that I’m never going to make it as a serious actor there.’

‘Is this because of what your father thinks?’

‘My father has a point,’ Sean said. ‘It’s time for me to face facts. I auditioned for a part going on
Chandler’s Park
last week. They said I was too attractive. The last audition I did, I was told I didn’t have enough character in my face. I’m fed up with their bullshit.’

Nina was sympathetic. Sean was a good-looking man, but his face was smooth and line-free and didn’t fit in with the gritty times the country was going through. It would have been great for him to have landed a part on
Chandler’s Park
, which was a new soap opera set on a suburban housing estate in Dublin and was getting high ratings.

‘So you want to come back to Ardbawn?’

‘I want to come back to you,’ he said. ‘Besides, I think I’ll be a much better guesthouse owner than actor. I’m hoping you’ll think so too.’

‘Are you sure you love me?’

‘I couldn’t be more certain.’

‘You’ll be happy in Ardbawn?’

‘I already am.’

‘You won’t think you’re settling for second best? After all—’

‘Absolutely not,’ he interrupted her. Then he put his arms around her and kissed her, and she allowed herself to melt into his embrace.

It was a big wedding, paid for by the Fallons. Bridie and Peadar returned for it (it was too far and too expensive a journey for Tom), and they were amazed by the difference to the guesthouse since they’d been there for Dolores’s funeral. Peadar remarked that it must be worth a fair few bob now and that Sean Fallon was doing well marrying a
woman with bricks and mortar behind her. Bridie said that her sister had done well for herself in marrying the doctor’s son; didn’t everyone know that old man Fallon had a stash of cash, and hadn’t he pushed the boat out for the wedding? She also muttered that she’d never seen Nina look so well, that her dress was stunning and that it must have cost a fortune. The two of them asked themselves if they shouldn’t have badgered Nina into selling the house when their mother had died, because it seemed to them suddenly that their younger sister had got the better end of the deal, and wasn’t she the sharp one making sure that everything to do with her ownership of the house had been legally dealt with? Not as thick as we supposed, said Peadar darkly. A shrewd little cookie after all.

But the only thing Nina thought was that she was the happiest girl in the world, and that she and Sean would live happily ever after together in their lovely house by the river.

When Sheridan finally woke up, she thought her head was going to explode. She wished fervently that Talia, who in fairness had looked after her so well the night before, had nevertheless saved her from herself and refused to allow her the two glasses of whiskey she’d drunk on top of the bottles of Bud. Whiskey wasn’t her drink. She’d allowed herself to acquire a bit of a taste for it when she went out with some of the other sports writers, because there was a breed of them (the older ones in particular) who liked hard drink. Those times she took it well watered down and slowly. Just so that she didn’t look different. Last night she’d chugged the damn stuff back as though it was lemonade.

She opened one eye and closed it again as the light from the half-opened curtains stabbed through her brain. And then she opened both of her eyes, more gingerly this time, and realised that she was in Griff’s bed. But he wasn’t there. She vaguely remembered him collecting her from the pub the night before, and a taxi drive to the townhouse in Donnybrook that he shared with two of his five sisters, but she didn’t remember anything else.

She rolled over and looked at the alarm clock. It took a
few minutes before the red numbers, which seemed to dance in front of her, settled down again and she could see that it was nearly ten.

She groaned softly. She couldn’t remember a time in her whole life when she’d stayed in bed past nine. At home with the rest of the family half-eight was considered a lie-in. Her dad and the boys were up and out for an early run every single morning. Alice would have come in from her own run by the time they were leaving so that she could have breakfast ready for their return. Occasionally Sheridan ran with Alice, and sometimes she even went out with her father and brothers, but regardless, she was still usually up by eight for breakfast. When she’d moved in with Talia, she hadn’t been able to break the habit of early rising, even on her days off. She’d stretched the lie-in to nine o’clock after a late night, but she always felt that half the day was wasted if she wasn’t out of the house by ten.

It occurred to her, as she stared at the ceiling, that it wouldn’t much matter what time she got up at in future. There was no reason for her to leap out of bed at all.

‘Stop dramatising,’ she told herself. ‘Get your act together. Remember that this is an opportunity, not a tragedy.’

She sat up and the room did a dizzying 360-degree spin in front of her. She waited for a minute or two to allow it to settle, before sitting up a little more gingerly and reaching out for the bottle of water Griff kept on the bedside table. He’d left a note propped up beside it too. She had to blink a few times before she could make out the words:
Hope you’re feeling better this morning. Didn’t want to wake you. Call me later. Stay in the house as long as you like. Gemma and Marianne are out
.

OK, she said to herself. Time to take stock of the good things. I can take my time about getting up. I have a great boyfriend. I have a great girlfriend. I’m twenty-nine years old and I can change my life. I’ll get another job and I’ll work my way back to where I was before. And I can freelance. Even though I don’t want to. I just need to think positive thoughts.

Think Positive Thoughts was one of Pat’s mantras. He said it to the boys before they went off to play their matches. He said it to himself too. Both he and Alice were great believers in the power of positive thinking and not letting negativity hold you back. I wonder, thought Sheridan, as she eased herself out of bed, if they win so much because they think positively, or whether it’s because they’re all winners that they don’t understand what it’s like to feel down?

Every bone in her body ached. She pulled Griff’s bathrobe from the back of the bedroom door and wrapped it around her. Then she walked slowly downstairs to the kitchen and made herself a cup of the strong black coffee she needed.

It was early afternoon by the time she headed back to the apartment she shared with Talia in Kilmainham. Kilmainham had been very convenient for getting to the
City Scope
, a half-hour’s walk at most for Sheridan, who normally set a brisk pace. She usually walked to and from Griff’s place in Donnybrook too, which took about an hour, but although she started off today with good intentions, she was feeling so shaky by the time she got to Ranelagh that she flagged down a cab for the rest of the journey.

Not that I can afford to be jumping into cabs now, she thought gloomily. I’m unemployed. I have to economise.

She hadn’t quite got to grips with that concept yet, but
when she said the words in her mind she felt herself shiver. She told herself not to panic. There were bound to be opportunities out there. She just had to find out what they were.

She was surprised to find Talia sitting at the table by the window when she opened the door to the apartment.

‘Decided to work from home today,’ said her friend as she closed the laptop in front of her. ‘How’re you feeling?’

‘I’ve got the hangover from hell,’ confessed Sheridan. ‘My head has an army of hobnailed boots marching through it and my mouth feels like the Gobi Desert after a particularly dry spell. Otherwise I’m fine.’

Talia grinned. ‘That’s my girl.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Sheridan slumped into an armchair and put a cushion behind her neck. ‘Did I make a total arse of myself last night?’

‘You were grand,’ Talia assured her. ‘Once you’d knocked back the Jemmies, you were out of it.’

‘Sorry.’

‘No need to be.’ Talia stood up. ‘Cup of tea?’

‘I’m not sure I can hold it down,’ said Sheridan. ‘I had coffee at Griff’s and threw it up.’