Things We Never Say (50 page)

‘And now, if you like, we’ll drop you back to your hotel,’ said Lisette.

‘Grand,’ said Abbey, enjoying the fact that she could use the word again.

They left the house together.

She didn’t look back.

Ryan and Ellen were sitting together in Ellen’s now regular place beside the fire when Abbey walked into the hotel. He stood up and greeted her with a quick kiss to the cheek.

‘How’s your headache?’ he asked.

‘Gone.’

‘When your mam told me you were meeting Lisette and Zoey, I worried that it might come back worse than ever.’

‘Thankfully not.’ She told both of them about the Fitzpatrick women’s confession and showed them the painting.

‘They shouldn’t have taken anything from the house!’ Ryan was shocked.

‘It doesn’t matter now,’ said Abbey. ‘In the end, they were only taking their own stuff.’

‘It could’ve – should’ve – been yours,’ objected Ryan.

‘But it isn’t,’ said Abbey. ‘And now I have a nice painting.’

Ryan shook his head. ‘I’m glad all our clients aren’t like you and Ellen,’ he said. ‘We’d be destroyed by goodness.’

‘Please stop telling me I’m good!’ cried Abbey. ‘I’m so not. All I am is someone who’s looking forward to getting back to her own life.’

‘Won’t you miss us?’ asked Ryan.

She smiled. ‘I’ll miss you for sure.’

‘You will?’ He looked intently at her.

‘Of course.’

‘Would you two like to be alone?’ asked Ellen as they continued to look at each other without speaking.

‘No. No. It’s OK,’ said Abbey.

‘Ryan was saying to me that he’d promised to take you to dinner but that he hadn’t managed it before today,’ said Ellen. ‘As I’ve already had lunch with Suzanne, I’ll be fine here with my prayer book if you two want to eat together.’

‘You’ve been praying all afternoon,’ Abbey said.

‘You can never have too much prayer,’ said Ellen.

‘I did come here to see if you wanted to have dinner with me,’ Ryan confessed to Abbey. ‘Even if things didn’t work out the way Alex and I expected, I felt it would be good to have a celebratory meal together. After all, we didn’t actually lose the case.’

‘That’d be lovely,’ she said. ‘Let me go freshen up first.’

She went up to the room and changed into a sapphire-blue wraparound dress which enhanced her bust and flattered her waist. It was one of her favourite dresses, and she’d packed it for whatever celebration she’d been sure they’d have when the judge ruled in their favour and awarded her and Ellen the ownership of Furze Hill. Was I out of my mind, she asked herself, to give in without a fight? To be going home with nothing when I could have gone home with everything? Did Mom’s presence here influence me somehow?

She spritzed her throat and her wrists with perfume and went downstairs again. Ryan and Ellen were still chatting companionably beside the fire.

‘You look sensational,’ said Ryan as she approached them.

‘Thank you.’ Sensational was pushing it, she added, but she was glad that he liked the dress.

‘I don’t think it is.’ There was a tone of wonder in Ellen’s voice. ‘I never realised before what a lovely daughter I have.’

‘Genetics,’ said Ryan. ‘She takes after you.’

Ellen, laughing, told him he was a charmer, and he said that he did his best, and then he took Abbey by the arm and led her outside.

‘There’s a lovely seafood restaurant not too far from here,’ he said. ‘We can walk if you don’t mind.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

They strolled along the pavement in silence, but it was an easy silence, she thought, and she didn’t feel the need to fill it with chatter. Even when they got to the restaurant, she was happy to look at the menu and choose what she wanted to eat without much conversation. It wasn’t until they’d both been served starters that Ryan started to talk about the Fitzpatricks again.

‘Don’t,’ said Abbey. ‘I’ve put that behind me. I hope they get what they want out of the house – although going on what Lisette and Zoey told me, that might not be plain sailing either. However, it’s their problem, not mine, so let’s stop talking about them. Tell me about you instead. Any more missing persons cases?’

‘Nothing so exciting,’ he said. ‘I’m working on a boring old corporate case now.’ He explained the background to her, and she listened to him, entranced as always by his accent, loving the softness of it, wondering if Irish girls thought their men sounded sexy every time they opened their mouths. Probably not, she reasoned. It’s a grass being always greener thing again, isn’t it? Anything and anyone different always seemed better, more intriguing. She wondered what Cobey was doing now, if he’d already moved on to someone with greater prospects than her, someone prettier and richer and able to give him the kind of life he wanted. Poor girl, she thought suddenly. Whoever she might be, Abbey felt sorry for her.

‘Why do I get the idea that you’d rather be somewhere else?’ asked Ryan.

‘I’m so sorry.’ She put down her knife and fork. ‘I’m putting everything that’s happened into context.’

‘And where in that context do I fit?’ he asked.

‘You’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,’ she told him. ‘With the hottest accent in the world.’

‘Jeez, and there I thought I had you spellbound by my witty conversation.’

‘That too,’ she said with a grin.

‘I’ll miss you when you go back,’ said Ryan. ‘You were one of the best clients I ever had.’

‘Maybe not the most profitable.’

‘It wasn’t about the money,’ said Ryan.

‘For a case that they wanted to be all about the money, the two of us are hopeless!’ Abbey sat back, an amused expression on her face. ‘I was thinking earlier that I got more out of it than money, in the end. I got to know the female Fitzpatricks, and I think we might stay in touch. That definitely wouldn’t have happened if me and Mom had taken the house.’

‘You think it was worth it?’ he asked. ‘To be friends with people who – well, Lisette and Zoey had their eye on Fred’s stuff for a long time.’

‘They expected to get it and I won’t blame them for that,’ she said. ‘Anyway, Mom and Suzanne kinda clicked, which was nice. Plus she’s invited me back to Spain, and she’ll visit the States later in the year. She worked in San Francisco for a while, you know. Just think – I might even have bumped into her in the street and not known who she was. I do feel like she’s family to me. Which was definitely worth it, because I didn’t have anyone before.’

‘I think she would’ve been quite happy for you to have the house.’

‘Perhaps. But Donald and Gareth wouldn’t and that would’ve widened the split between them. It’s not right that the three of them should resent each other. Anyhow, Gareth and Lisette’s marriage is under huge stress, and if they’d lost the case I think it would have been a hammer blow for them. As it is … well, I have my fingers crossed. If everyone comes out intact, it’s definitely been worth it.’

‘You care that much?’

‘I think I do,’ she said.

‘You’re amazing,’ said Ryan.

‘Don’t say that – with your accent I believe every single thing you say.’

He laughed. ‘So what’s next for you, Abbey Andersen?’

‘Well, you know about my burgeoning nail artist career, and hopefully I’ll make a success of that. But I plan to do other things too. As well as travelling more, I want to get back into painting again. I know I’ll never be world famous, but that’s not important. It makes me happy.’ She told him of her idea to paint snow-covered Californian landmarks and he nodded his approval.

‘I’d like to keep in touch with you too,’ he said. ‘I mean, I know it’s difficult for it to become anything more than it is now, with the distance between us and everything. But if we can stay friends … I’d like that.’

‘Me too,’ said Abbey. ‘Besides, maybe you’ll be sent to the States again sometime.’

‘Sadly, I doubt it. You were my coolest ever assignment.’

‘Perhaps you can come on vacation. Visit me.’

‘Definitely. I’d like to trek down to Los Montesinos one day. See where your mom lives.’

‘I’m sure she’d like that too. Anyway, it’s easy to stay friends no matter where you are in the world these days.’

‘Which is a really good thing,’ he said. ‘Now that I’ve found an American cailín, I’m in no rush to let her go.’

He took them to the airport the next morning and he kissed Abbey goodbye, another gentle meeting of their lips, in full view of Ellen.

‘You like him?’ she said when they were sitting in the lounge.

‘Sure I do. But we’re only talking about being friends. Anything else is expecting too much.’ Nevertheless, Abbey was reliving the kiss, thinking that she’d felt more from the pressure of Ryan’s lips than she ever had with Cobey, and wondering how soon it would be before she saw him again.

‘I’ll pray,’ said Ellen, which made Abbey give her an extra hard hug.

She hugged her extra hard the following day too, when Ellen, now dressed again in her coffee-coloured skirt and white blouse, checked in for her San Diego flight.

‘It was great having you back,’ Abbey told her.

‘It was good to be back.’ Ellen sighed. ‘I know now why they make us go through so much before making our vows. And why we rarely leave the monastery. It’s hard to say goodbye to the people you love. Especially knowing that you won’t see them or talk to them for a long time.’

‘But you love the sisters,’ said Abbey. ‘And you have this thing going with God …’

Ellen smiled. ‘I know. But it’s not the same as loving your own daughter. The last few days were full-on, though. We couldn’t live like that all the time.’

‘No, we couldn’t,’ agreed Abbey. ‘All the same – if you ever want to leave … not that I’m trying to influence you at all …’

‘I’ll ask for guidance,’ said Ellen. ‘That I do the right thing for the right reason. Like you did.’

‘Oh, you prayed for that to happen, did you?’

‘Not a bit,’ said Ellen. ‘Only that you’d be comfortable with the choices you made. Which I hope you are.’

‘Yes, I am,’ said Abbey. ‘And I want you to be too. So if prayer means you come up with something new – we can work that out. I can’t help sensing, though, that you’ll feel like you’re at home again when you get back to Los Montesinos.’

‘I like that you’re not trying to pressure me one way or the other,’ said Ellen.

‘Nobody could pressure you, Mom,’ said Abbey. ‘Same as nobody pressured me either. We’re strong women, both of us.’

They hugged again. And then Ellen picked up her bag and walked through the gate to board her flight home.

A couple of weeks later, Solí and Vanessa came to Abbey’s apartment for a nail-care evening. Her friends brought food and wine and she did their nails in return. It was the first opportunity she’d had to fill them in fully on the details of her visit to Ireland.

‘So, bottom line is you got nothing out of it, but you don’t care because your career as a nail technician – or should I say artist – is romping along, you’ve more than doubled your earnings over the last month, you won another prize in a competition, and you’ve got a great rental on the apartment from Pete,’ said Vanessa as she looked at her vibrant red nails, each now adorned with a tiny diamanté stone. ‘I applaud your generosity, but, quite frankly, I think you’re off your head. You should have stuffed them for whatever you could.’

‘And I’m not sure that your bonus long-distance relationship with the hunky lawyer is adequate compensation,’ added Solí, whose own nail art was a funky design in green and gold.

‘Oh, look, I still ask myself from time to time if I did the right thing,’ admitted Abbey. ‘But deep down I think I did. Besides, it’s nice to have some sort of family in the background, no matter how far away they are. I’m keeping in touch with them and I’ll be visiting Suzanne before she opens her hotel to give advice on the nail bar. I’m looking at some exclusive designs for her.’

‘So all’s well that ends well,’ said Vanessa. ‘Except that you’re not a millionairess and you could have been.’

‘Which would have been nice,’ agreed Abbey. ‘But I’m doing so much better than I was, and that’s worth more to me than anything.’

‘Was it totally weird?’ asked Solí. ‘Going into court. Seeing all those judges and stuff in wigs – I mean, wigs!’

‘They’re not obligatory,’ said Abbey. ‘The judge in our court didn’t have one. Not that I can remember much about it, because I was in a complete spin at the time. But you’re right, that whole part of it was weird. Other parts, like spending time with my mom, weren’t.’

‘She’s still at the monastery?’

‘Yes,’ replied Abbey. ‘Despite her minor wobble, I think she’ll stay there. Going to Ireland took her out of her comfort zone, but I honestly think that Los Montesinos is home for her.’

‘You always swore that you’d had enough travelling, and yet you ended up flitting across the Atlantic twice and you intend to do it again – both to visit Suzanne and to go to the Nailympics,’ Vanessa pointed out. ‘So she could change too.’

‘Possibly.’ Abbey grinned. ‘I’m not holding out for that, though. Anyway, right now I’m happy with my lot. At least I will be after you pour me another of those excellent mojitos.’

‘Coming right up,’ said Vanessa.

The three girls clinked their glasses together. Vanessa started to tell the other two about her new boss at the bank (all talk, no action), while Solí reminded them that they had to come to the exhibition of landscapes that the gallery was putting on soon, and which included three of Solí’s own works.

‘Of course we’re coming,’ said Abbey. ‘I think it’s great that they’re finally recognising your talent.’

‘One day we’ll include paintings by you,’ said Solí. ‘You need to build up a body of work.’

‘I’ll never be as good as you, but I’ve been experimenting.’ Abbey crossed the room and brought back a canvas to show her friend. ‘
Snow on Alcatraz
.’

‘Oh Abbey, it’s amazing!’ Solí looked at the almost monochrome painting, in which Abbey had depicted high drifts of snow against the starkness of the prison building. ‘It’s really unusual.’

‘I got the idea in Dublin,’ Abbey explained. ‘I want to pick out Californian landmarks and paint them in the snow.’