Finding Ellie (Complete)

Chapter 7

“She didn’t even get to finish her meal.” He heard Carrick saying to Colm.

            Great, another thing to feel like a total jackass about, Aidan thought. He slammed his way to his office and managed to kick a chair out of his way before he heard the chatter start up again. He was so sure he had been right he hadn’t even considered any other reason why she would be traveling alone.

            “Not now, Fiona,” he barked, when he heard the shuffling at the door behind him. He gritted his teeth when a hand snaked over his shoulder and down his arm. Damn it, not now.

            “I’m so sorry she made you angry.” Brenna’s silky voice tickled his ear as she pressed her body close to his.

            Aidan shrugged off her hand and moved behind his desk, deliberately putting it between them. Brenna’s eyes narrowed slightly but she quickly plastered a smile on her face. Her dress, a tad too tight and certainly too short with her bosom barely contained and her long slender legs lengthened by those too high heels.

            “I’m done for the night, why don’t we get out of here. I can take your mind off of her.”

            “Go home Brenna, I have a lot of paper work to go through.” He pretended to rifle through some files in front of him. After she left with an exaggerated sigh he covered his eyes with his hand. He had really made a mess of things. How could this woman keep wreaking havoc on his senses? What was it about her that scared him and attracted him all at once?

***

To say that he was surprised when Fiona came rushing into the office a short time later to tell him the dishwasher was doing “that thing” again was an understatement. There was only half an hour left until closing time, why couldn’t she have waited until then? The pub was mostly empty with only a few stragglers remaining. Aidan went straight to the dishwasher and started checking around. It didn’t take him long to see there was nothing wrong with the damn thing and it was working perfectly fine.

            “It’s a real shame.” Colm, who was being uncharacteristically loud, was now saying to Carrick. “I don’t quite understand why the little, American girl is so dead set on doing all the typical, tourist stuff.”

            If she were to hear them her cheeks would flush in anger as they always did when Aidan called her the same. He almost corrected them… almost. Instead, he bent his head and made a show of “fixing” something while keeping an ear to the conversation.

            “If she were to see the real Ireland I just know she would fall in love with it,” Carrick spoke slowly to make sure Aidan heard every word. “I imagine she’d even stay if she did.”

            The men stifled their laughter when they heard a loud BANG followed by a curse. Aidan stood up from under the counter rubbing his head. They were distracting him that was all. He certainly hadn’t found the idea of Ellie staying in Ireland compelling.

            “Well now, if I were forty years younger I would take her to see what my Ireland is to me,” Colm added, loudly looking pointedly at Aidan.

            Aidan threw his hands up in the air when Carrick now turned his head to stare at him.

            “What would you have me do? I essentially humiliated her in front of the whole village I doubt she’ll even entertain the idea of talking to me.”

            “Aidan my boy,” Carrick crooned “Our Ellie is nothing if not fair.”

            Colm was nodding his head beside him. “It may take time, and some work, but she will listen. Now, whether or not she’ll forgive is up to you.”

***

Mrs. Callaghan was still awake when Ellie finally reached the B & B, almost as though the innkeeper had been waiting for her. Little did Ellie know was the older woman was waiting for her, especially after the call she had just received from Patricia Brady who had received a call from her husband, Colm. Mrs. Callaghan had half a mind to get herself down to the pub and give Aidan a good wrap over the head with a rolling pin. As satisfying as that would have been she stayed where she was and waited, with chamomile tea in hand, for Ellie to get home. It wasn’t long before she heard the door banging and the explicit words concerning Aidan’s masculinity being muttered under Ellie’s breath.

            “Come, dear,” Mrs. Callaghan waved Ellie through the kitchen door. “Sit and have some tea, it will calm you right up.”

            “I can’t believe him,” Ellie said, as soon as she was sitting down, never stopping to think why Mrs. Callaghan had been ready and waiting for her. “Do you know what he told me?”

            Mrs. Callaghan opened her mouth but Ellie continued, “I’ll tell you what he told me, the jackass.”

            Mrs. Callaghan was surprised when Ellie quite suddenly burst into tears as opposed to telling her what the jackass had said. She sat herself beside the crying mess and rubbed circles on Ellie’s back as she would have done for any of her own children or grandchildren.

            “There now, it’ll be all right.”

            “I’m sorry,” Ellie hiccupped as the crying slowed. She gave Mrs. Callaghan a watery smile “Do you know why I came here? To Ireland I mean.”

            Mrs. Callaghan, who thought it best to say nothing, simply shook her head. She had some inkling as to why but had never voiced her thoughts to anyone. Not even to her gossip circle.

            “I ran away, well, sort of,” Ellie fiddled with the buttons of her royal blue blouse. “I was married but my soon-to-be ex-husband decided it was in his best interest to see other women while we were married. Since I was an embarrassment to him, I stayed home while he was out entertaining clients for his firm with his new lady friends. He found someone better to show off.”

            “Ellie Sullivan don’t you dare!”

            “What?” Mrs. Callaghan’s sudden outburst startled Ellie.

            “This ex-husband of yours was nothing more than a no-good fool if he thought he could find someone better.” Mrs. Callaghan moved to the counter. She took down a small plate then opened a cookie jar and placed several of the lemon ones she knew Ellie preferred onto the plate before returning to the table. She motioned for Ellie to help herself. “I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and, my girl, there is a reason you wound up here.”

            “I believe that too.” Ellie reached for a cookie “I hadn’t felt like myself for so long that I didn’t know who I was anymore. I’d been so busy making sure someone else’s happiness came first before mine. When I decided I needed to go somewhere and finally be me, my best friend’s words kept coming back to me. She jokingly told me to run away and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

            “She’s a wise one that friend of yours.”

            Ellie thought about Poppy for a second, genuinely smiled. “She is and I’m lucky to have her. She’s gotten me through some tough times. She told me to do something Ellie would never do and I’m doing it. I’m here on my own aren’t I? And then there’s Aidan.”

            Mrs. Callaghan bobbed her head, encouraging Ellie to continue.

            “I was having such a great time talking to Colm and Carrick about my day then Aidan comes along and starts spewing out garbage.” Ellie’s face twisted in anger again. “I have no clue where it’s coming from but he was accusing me, in front of the entire pub might I add, of coming to Ireland in hopes of having an affair when I have a husband back home.”

            “Why does he think you have a husband?” Mrs. Callaghan wondered, aloud.

            Ellie simply held up her left hand in front of the other woman’s face. Mrs. Callaghan wasn’t sure what she was looking for until she saw it, a faint line where a ring used to be. Ah, there it was and how observant of Aidan to notice as well.

            “Darling, let me tell you a bit about Aidan that might help shed some light,” Mrs. Callaghan debated, for a few seconds only, just how much she should share. “Dunne’s Pub was passed down to Aidan by his father, Connor Dunne. Unfortunately, Connor passed away about ten years ago now. However, Aidan has had this attitude toward women for much longer than that. It was well known that Aidan’s mother, Coleen, had been running around on Connor for years. Having affair after affair with little concern of how it affected her marriage or her son. I’d even say the indiscretions started not long after they wed. Connor knew full well what Coleen was up to but he loved her so much and only wanted her happiness so he turned a blind eye to her philandering ways.”

            “That’s ridiculous!” Ellie’s brows furrowed. Why would someone stay in a loveless marriage like that? But then it hit her. Hadn’t she done the very same thing? If she were faced with the same situation now she would not stay but, back then, even if she knew in the back of her mind what was happening, she still tried to save a marriage she knew she would have kept on being miserable in. Why was that? She wondered.

            “That it is,” Mrs. Callaghan agreed. “The pub was not all that successful back then and Coleen resented that. I’m guessing she had expected the pub would bring great profits and provide her a certain lifestyle but that never happened. The money never did come rolling in. While she was going from one bed to another, Connor turned his attention to the bottle. Aidan could see what his mother’s unfaithful behavior was doing to his father who, before his death, was drinking quite heavily.”

            Now Ellie was starting to feel guilty for being so angry with Aidan. Then again, how could she have known all this? If he hadn’t been such a rude, assuming jerk and had actually spoken to her, he would have known some of her story and maybe she could have learned some of his. Ellie shook her head to clear her thoughts and to hear the rest of what Mrs. Callaghan had to say.

            “It seems Connor had predicted his impending death and had everything he owned left to Aidan should anything ever happen to him. He made sure it was all legal and made it very clear in his will and instructions for his estate.” Mrs. Callaghan sniffled remembering like it was yesterday. “It was as if he knew. A few short weeks later he got behind the wheel after a night of drinking. His car was found wrapped around a tree the next morning.”

            “How awful” Ellie couldn’t fathom staying in a marriage like that. Even worse for your own child to witness it and ultimately believe all women were like his mother.

            Mrs. Callaghan finally stood up and patted Ellie on the arm. When Ellie looked up the woman was smiling down at her.

            “Don’t be too hard on him. I think you, better than anyone, can understand what betrayal can do to a person. But he did hurt you and will need to apologize for being a… jackass.”

            Ellie laughed out loud at the sound of the old woman calling Aidan a jackass.

            “Thank you, I needed this talk.”

            “You’re welcome.” Mrs. Callaghan surprised Ellie by pulling her in for a comforting hug.