by Iris Blobel
Jeremy joined her in her laugh. “That sounds like Davo. Hey, Twinkles. I’ve got to go, but the thing you said at the airport. You know—”
“Hmm?” Hollie’s heart sunk down to her knees.
“Anyway, I’m sorry, I took it on and never replied properly.”
Hollie glanced around to find a seat, but Davo instantly grabbed her arm and pulled her up along towards the boarding gate.
“Anyway,” Jeremy paused. “I think I was just a bit surprised by it. Don’t get me wrong, I…I think I’m kind of at my wit's end here—”
Hollie, still following Davo, wore a slow smile of happiness. “That’s a new side of you.”
She could literally imagine him pacing up and down the hallway.
“Not funny. Anyway, there’s still a surprise when you come back, but, Hollie…I love you, too.”
They were both quiet.
Yes! Yes! Yes! she thought before she broke the silence. “Thanks for calling and letting me know, Jeremy. It means a lot to me.”
Suddenly, Davo took the phone off her.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Hollie protested.
Davo placed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Romeo. Sorry to interrupt, but we have a flight to catch,” he said. He listened for a minute and then smiled. “Yep, I’ll take good care of her…. Oh yes, there are some rippers of flight attendants. Catch you soon, mate.”
Davo pushed the off button and handed her the phone back as they stepped into the next airplane en route to Dublin.
She gave him a whack over the arm. “That wasn’t nice at all, Davo.”
“I know, but honestly, it was the only way to get you two off the phone. I’m sorry, but you did ignore all my previous attempts to get you to hang up.”
Turning her smile up a notch, she said quietly, “I just had to hear him say it.”
“I hope he did. It’s been troubling you all the way since we left.”
Hollie looked at him in surprise. “What?”
“The thing you wanted him to say.”
“How do you know?”
He gave her a wink. “Told you, I’m a big boy, and I do know my girls.”
“You are my guardian angel indeed,” she replied sweetly and quickly took her phone to send a text to Alex. He said it!
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hollie stared at the sliding door, but didn’t dare to move any closer.
So this is Dublin!
She had been glued to the window since the plane started descending. It didn’t appear all that different from Tasmania. There were fields upon fields of green paddocks, divided by hedges and rocks, sometimes in even squares and sometimes, it seemed, just randomly. She even spotted a few double-decker buses from way above. Overwhelmed by the thought that she was about to set foot on Irish soil, she hesitated.
“Hollie! What are you waiting for?” Davo was already outside, but his movement set off the sensor, and the door opened in front of her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Davo came back in, took her hand, and led her outside. “I’ll be there all the way. We’ll find whatever worries you. I promise!”
Grateful, she intertwined her fingers with his and slowly followed him outside—onto the streets of Dublin.
Hollie had known Davo—or David Richard, as his mother called him whenever he was in trouble—since her early kindergarten days. Though she’d never been as close to him as with Alex, he’d always been a part of her life. Whenever his circle of friends grew, hers grew as well. Davo had always been there for her, but she only realised as she walked through that door how much she had taken him for granted, how much he had always been there, and she never truly appreciated it. In a way she did, but more as a mate than an actual close friend. She turned to him, and her lips twitched into a smile as he walked ahead in his old casual track pants and his worn-out T-shirt, which he must have bought at the same concert as Ben—AC/DC.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Nope.” He grinned. “When you get to be my size you don’t feel the cold anymore.”
“You listen too much to other people. There’s nothing wrong with your size.”
Davo turned around and regarded her with raised eyebrows.
“Okay, a little bit, but not much.”
Hollie knew others, especially his mother, teased him about his size. He wasn’t obese or oversized, but he’d a beer belly. Not that it bothered her. That was the way he was and always had been. In fact, any smaller, and it wouldn’t have been the Davo anymore.
But everyone loved him. He was one of the kindest and most helpful people she’d ever met. He was always there when someone needed help. He always had people over at his place for a beer, or just some company. Everyone appreciated Davo, and everyone would probably miss him heaps over the next few weeks.
“Do you know where to go?”
“Yes, otherwise we’d be completely lost,” he said smugly.
Hollie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, rub it in.”
“We’ll just grab a taxi and head to Stephen and Linda’s place. They said it would only cost a few euros.”
****
Stephen and Linda Mahoney were Davo’s distant cousins, and as such, somehow related to Jeremy as well. They had recently visited Davo, Jeremy, and their families in Tasmania and were more than happy to offer their little room in the attic to Hollie and Davo.
They took a taxi and within a short time were on their way to the suburb of Kinsealy, which was indeed only a few minutes away. Dublin’s traffic in the outskirts was already busy early in the morning, but Hollie didn’t mind. She looked around and took in every little detail as if her life depended on it. She noticed straightaway that everything was bilingual, in Gaelic and English.
Funny how some countries love their traditions and others just seem to move on.
And she loved the big pots with their colourful flowers hanging everywhere. Are these fuchsias? She stared at the houses, all so similar yet so different, and she had a giggle at all the different brightly coloured doors.
“Can you believe it? They seem to have a pub at every little corner,” she said, more to herself than to Davo.
She watched the children in their uniforms gathering at bus stops, and people rushing across the road. Staring up into the skies, she saw smaller planes descending into the Dublin airport. A touch of excitement grew in her.
Linda opened the door as soon as the taxi had stopped, as if she had been waiting for their arrival.
She came towards Davo and gave him a hug. “David! How wonderful to see you again.” And then turned to Hollie. “You must be Hollie. How are you? Come on in, before the sky opens up again. It’s been raining all week, but the sun is supposed to make an appearance over the next few days.”
They took their luggage and went inside the house. Hollie went in last, put her suitcase down, and looked around. Gazing motionlessly like a small child, she took everything in. It wasn’t at all like any houses she had ever been to. She followed Linda upstairs into the attic, where her host had prepared a room for them both.
“I hope David has told you you’re sharing a room. It’s all we can offer at the moment, but it’s quite roomy up here. Steve will bring one of these room dividers tonight, so it should do all right for you.”
“This is great, Linda. Don’t worry about it. Davo and I have been camping a few times, so this should be okay.”
“Your bathroom is over here.” Linda stepped outside the room and pointed around the corner. “David might have to watch his head a little bit when he steps into the shower,” she explained, pointing into the bathroom. “It’s a bit of an awkward corner, and we’ve had a few dinted heads already.”
Hollie and Davo inspected the bathroom. Hollie liked it, and she was about to thank Linda again when she heard the bump. A flash of amusement crossed her face, her laughter warm and generous.
“I know now what you mean,” Davo said, rubbing his hand over his head to ease t
he pain.
“I'll leave you be and let you settle. Let me know if you need some breakfast. I’ll be around for another hour and have to go to work, but I will be back early afternoon and can tell you how to get around Dublin best, as well as places to go. I reckon Steve has also organised a car from Grandpa Mahoney, but I’m not sure.”
“Oh, Linda, this is great. Thank you so much, but don’t worry about us too much. We want to be as little trouble as possible—”
“We'll take the car, though, if Steve is able to get it,” Davo interrupted Hollie.
“It’s only an old one.” Linda smiled apologetically.
“Hey, anything’s better than being dependent on trains and buses.”
“Okay. Anyway, I’d better go. I’ll be preparing some breakfast just in case you feel like a small bite. Help yourself and make yourselves at home.”
As soon as Linda went downstairs, Hollie turned to Davo.
“I can’t believe how hospitable your cousins are. This is great.”
“Not bad, eh?” Davo nodded.
“I hope we can somehow find an appropriate way to say thanks. I wouldn’t like to be a burden…financially, I mean…you know.”
“Don’t worry about it. I think they’re just happy to help out. Auntie Sarah told me Linda and Steve stayed with them in Hobart for a while and then used Jez’s apartment in Sydney for over a month.”
“Auntie Sarah?”
“Jez’s mum.”
Hollie gazed at him with eyes wide open. “What do you mean Jeremy’s apartment?”
“The one in Sydney.”
With a sigh of dismay, she wrapped her arms around herself and stared wordlessly at Davo.
“Jez’s got a small apartment in Sydney for when he’s over there on business. Great place. Near the beach and such. Didn’t you know?”
“No, I didn’t,” Hollie said in an unnaturally quiet voice. She stood, took the suitcase, and placed it on her bed. Her gaze wandered around the room to check out where to stack her clothes for the next few weeks. She asked Davo, with her back turned on him, “Jeremy’s in Sydney a bit, isn’t he?”
Davo, busy unpacking his bag as well, didn’t seem to notice the melancholy in her voice, but then turned around to face her. “Yes, he is. I believe he’s being headhunted by a big company, which is watching his progress in Launceston at the moment.”
Hollie didn’t have a clue what that meant. “Headhunted?”
“You know. They want him as an executive in their company in Sydney, but they’re sort of watching him to see how he’s handling the job in Launceston.”
She sat down. “Great!” she said wryly.
But, again, he seemed to miss the sarcasm. “I know. It’d be a great move.”
Hollie rolled her eyes and threw a towel at her friend. “For someone who apparently is so intuitive, you’re currently off-line, it seems.”
He cleared his throat. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
She stood and took her towel. “I think I need a nice shower.”
Davo pulled on the other side of the towel. “I’m sure there’s a reason why he didn’t tell you. Perhaps you might have been a bit preoccupied with your travel.”
Staring at her feet, she bit the inside of her cheek before agreeing. “That’d probably be it.” Too confused about all the things that had happened and were said, or in fact only hesitantly said during the previous twenty-four hours, she headed into the bathroom. Her head was spinning. Until she had told Jeremy she loved him, she thought she was holding back in their relationship, but now she wasn’t so sure. It had hurt when he remained silent after her confession. Now there was salt added to the wound, as she found out he was holding back about other things as well. Might there be any more secrets?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Linda greeted them as they both made their way downstairs into the kitchen. “Hello, you two. I’m about to leave. Help yourself. Tea and coffee are over there, bread here—”
After Linda’s quick tour through the kitchen, Hollie’s head grew dizzy after just a few seconds with way too much information, when all she wanted was a cup of tea.
Hollie tried desperately not to yawn. “Thanks, Linda,” she said politely. “You’re very generous.”
“You’re more than welcome! I left a few brochures over there on the table, so you can have a read and check what you would like to do over the next few weeks. Just don’t hesitate to ask. We’re more than happy to help with suggestions. Unfortunately, we’re both particularly busy with work at the moment.”
Hollie nodded. “No problem. We understand.”
Davo grabbed one of the brochures. “Hey, Linda. Is there a pub around? Somewhere close. We might have an early tea so we can crash whenever we feel like it.”
“There’s one just a few blocks from here, which offers the basics.”
With his thumb up, he said. “I’m sure that’ll do, won’t it?”
As soon as Hollie heard the front door shut, she searched the kitchen for some tea bags. Letting out a long breath, she tugged a strand of hair behind her ear. “Anything for a nice cup of tea.”
The kitchen was small, and things were easy to find. Hollie looked around while waiting for the kettle to boil. She liked the old-fashioned kitchen, with orange cupboards, four old chairs that seemed close to falling apart, and a wooden table.
“Anything for a good breakfast,” Davo answered, still flicking through all the tourist information.
“I can’t believe you’re hungry. You had some breakfast on the plane.”
Davo rubbed his tummy. “Twice as big as yours, and in need of twice as much food. And may I remind you it was you who said it was crap food?”
Hollie just shook her head.
“That wasn’t breakfast anyway,” he said as he headed towards the fridge. “Some rubbery eggs and horrible sausages. Let’s find something decent in here.”
Hollie rolled her eyes while Davo almost crawled into the fridge in his quest to have something to eat.
“Cuppa?”
“What?”
“Would you like a cup of tea, Davo?”
“No, but some coffee, please.”
“Don’t know how to make coffee,” Hollie replied, quite blasé.
Davo moved his head out of the fridge and around the fridge door, which made Hollie laugh. He placed his hand on his hips. “Young lady, this is an essential talent of every girlfriend—making coffee. Don’t tell me Jez hasn’t complained, yet.”
With a smirk on her face, she said, “He has, so I bought some of the coffee-tea bags. They must be good, because he hasn’t said anything since.”
“Unbelievable.” He sighed and went back to his hunt for some food.
Hollie walked over to him, placed her hand on his shoulders and made an attempt to move him back. “For goodness sake, Davo, you’re wasting electricity and goodness knows what. Get me some eggs and some toms and I'll prepare you a nice omelette.”
“Toms?”
Hollie rolled her eyes. “Tomatoes! Any ham in there?”
“So you can’t make a coffee, but an omelette.”
“Dad doesn’t like coffee.”
The corner of his mouth curved into a smile. “I should’ve known.”
While Davo got the ingredients out of the fridge, Hollie searched for a frying pan, and within minutes she had a nice omelette prepared, of which she enjoyed a small bite as well.
“Anyway, what’s the plan for the next few days?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“So we’re flying halfway around the world, and you have no plan.”
Hollie poked her omelette with her fork without actually picking some up. “I don’t know,” she said with some frustration.
He placed his finger under her chin and moved her head up so he was able to see her face. “We’ll find her. I promise!”
Her frustration turned into a little smile.
“How about we have a sightseeing da
y to let your gut adjust to Ireland? Perhaps you’ll pick up on something while wandering around.”
“Sounds great! Thanks, Davo. I genuinely mean it.”
“Okay, now that’s sorted, how much do you know about Dublin?”
She choked back a chuckle. “Lonely Planet off by heart.”
He took another bit of the omelette. “That’s a girl!”
“There’s a ghost tour or U2 tours.”
That peaked his interest. “U2? What kind of tour is that?”
“Can’t remember. I guess not all that interesting, otherwise I would recall it.”
He scratched his head. “Ghost tour, eh?”
“Yes, something I definitely wanted to do. I did the ghost tour in Hobart a few years back. Creepy stuff. Almost peed my pants.” She sniggered.
“Almost peed your pants and you want to do it again?”
“Yes. Ghosts over here mightn’t be as scary.” And they both burst into laughter.
Scooping up another little bit of his omelette, Davo said, “You might find your girl there. Ever thought she might be a ghost imprinting into your dreams?”
She stared at him, stunned. “Are you serious?”
Davo washed down the omelette with a bit of coffee and mumbled what sounded like “yes” to Hollie.
She leaned back. A ghost! “Do you really think so?”
He shrugged. Another mumble. “Why not?”
A ghost? “I don’t think so. Ghosts can freak you out while you’re awake, but I’ve never heard about ghosts in dreams. Not that I know anything about that, though.”
“A ghost tour it is, then,” Davo said, and finished off his omelette.
****
The next few weeks flew by. Hollie and Davo chased one sightseeing tour after the other, from walking the streets of Dublin to touring along the coast and into the country, eating in different pubs, having a drink here and there—but no gut feeling, no feeling whatsoever, not even the slightest hunch for Hollie. She did enjoy the time in Ireland, though. She was in awe of all the things she had seen and learnt. She enjoyed her time tremendously with Davo and the laughs they were having. He was a great friend to have around, and also encouraged her to ask Jeremy about the apartment and the headhunters.
