Aisling Chapter 2

Four weeks. I found it hard to believe I’d been here four weeks already. In some ways, it seemed shorter. Maybe it was due to how busy I’d been. During the day, most days I spent hours at the winery, meeting and working with our employees or talking to people who came to our tasting rooms. When I wasn’t doing those, I was in other meetings and talking to prospective clients interested in having Maeve’s Cellars’ wines sold in their establishments. Those ranged from restaurants and wine bars to actual higher end wine stores and merchants. We were making a more significant mark on the wine scene, and it wasn’t just in California. Our wines were winning awards and this kind of recognition brought more interest in doing business with us. I was incredibly proud of what the staff and I had accomplished since I took over five years ago.

In addition to my work, I’d been spending several nights a week out. Sometimes, they were dinners and charity events where the O’Sheeran name brought attention and donors, in addition to what we personally donated to the causes we believed in. If they weren’t those kinds of nights, I would go to dinner with friends or out with Christopher Brynes, the one I was trying to decide if we would be able to tolerate each other enough to be married.

Christopher, or Chris as I called him, had been a part of my life for as long as I was able to remember. Although his family and mine were considered technically enemies, in reality, we weren’t. My family was much cleaner than his these days, which was a significant consideration for me. Would I be able to be a part of his family’s dealings? I wasn’t sure. Admittedly, his family was nothing like the Doyles. That family’s various businesses consisted of so many things I hated: prostitution, drugs, and gun smuggling. If Chris wanted this marriage, would he be willing to make changes in his family’s business dealings? He was the oldest, and he’d taken over as head of the family like Darragh had ours. It would take hard work, but it was possible. I could help him do it.

I hadn’t asked him if he would consider us joining our families. I wasn’t broaching it unless I was positive I’d be able to do it. From a desirability standpoint, Chris was a very attractive man. Some might call him a bit pretty, but he was still manly and fit. Chris had no difficulty finding women. It was his ability to get them and how many he’d been with over the years, which was one of the factors that made me hesitate. I didn’t want to tie myself to someone who would cheat on me and expect me to live with it. Even if we didn’t love each other, fidelity was a must.

Sexually, I thought I’d have no trouble having sex with him. He was very sexually appealing. Intellectually, he was an intelligent guy, and he and I had many interesting conversations over the years once you got him past the flirting stage. When I called him to say I was in California and asked if he would like to have dinner, he jumped at the chance. For the past four weeks, we’d been seeing each other a few times a week, and not all were at social or charity events. He hung out with me at the house, or I went to his.

We hadn’t slept together, but he’d kissed me the last few times, and it was kinda intense and enjoyable. So why hadn’t I pulled the trigger and asked him if he had ever considered a marriage of convenience? And if he had, what about us? I didn’t want to admit the reason, but I knew why. It was because of him, Alistair. The man I loved and had no hope of having.

I was pathetic. I’d formed a crush on Alistair when I was fourteen and he was twenty-seven. He was home on leave, and I lucked out and saw him. My heart had gone crazy. From that day forward, I listened for any word of him and prayed for him to come home safe and sound. When I was sixteen, I got my wish. I wanted to cry the day I saw him at our outdoor pool with my brothers and cousins. He was even better than I remembered. I hoped he’d see I was no longer a little girl. He hadn’t. Alistair continued to treat me like he always had, as a younger sister or cousin. I hated it.

I held out hope because I was underage, he was holding back, and when I was legal, he’d confess his feelings, and we’d go on to marry and have a family. Again, I was disappointed. At that point, I tried to move on and give my heart to someone else. I dated, and I had lovers, but none of them ever lasted. They weren’t him. As the years passed, I grew more and more depressed, especially when I saw the women he was with. I gave up hoping. It was the death of this hope and my inability to forget him which had me contemplating doing the one thing I never wanted to do and something my family would hate.

It was time to stop this nonsense. Tonight, when Chris and I got back to the house, I’d see if he wanted to stay the night. If we were compatible in bed, then I’d see what he thought of my idea. The worst he could say was no. I was anxious to see what he’d say.

???

Hours later after we’d gone to dinner, we were on our way back to my house. I found I was nervous about what might come when we got there. Creed and Chris’s bodyguard Scotty were riding in the car behind ours. I’d convinced Creed to let us be alone. I knew he wasn’t happy, but it wasn’t as if this had never been done before.

We weren’t far from the house, and we were laughing about the couple who came over to our table wanting to have their pictures taken with real-life mobsters—their words, not ours. I told them I wasn’t one, and Chris denied it even though technically he was one. They’d been disappointed and spent the rest of dinner staring at us and taking sly photos of us on their phones. People truly baffled me.

“Did you see her face when you caught her sneaking the first picture?” I asked him.

“Yeah, she looked so—” he was cut off by the loud honking of a horn and the squeal of brakes. I whipped around in my seat to look behind us since that seemed to be where the sound came from. I gasped. A car had come out of somewhere and blocked the road for Scotty and Creed. Their vehicle was stopped.

“Oh my God, stop!” I hollered.

“Why?” Chris yelled as he eased off the gas.

“Creed and Scotty were just stopped by another car. We have to go back. We need to stay close to them.”

“Fuck,” he muttered.

Abruptly, he spun the wheel, and we were turning around. I was so busy trying to see if either of the men was getting out of the car that I didn’t see the second car until its lights hit me in the eyes. I screamed, and automatically my hands went up in front of my face. “Chris, watch out!”

“Christ,” he yelled, then there was a tremendous jolt. The screech of metal on metal was deafening. I snapped back and forth in the seatbelt. Pain shot across my chest. Glass went flying and then I felt us rolling. I couldn’t seem to stop screaming. Please don’t let me die , I pleaded to God. Chris was swearing and grunting. The car had hit my side of his car. When we stopped moving, we were hanging upside down. Pain was throbbing throughout my whole body.

“Aisling, are you alright?” I heard him asking urgently. Hands were running down my arm and face. I opened my mouth to answer him but nothing came out. I panicked as my vision began to fade. I tried to move or speak but nothing happened. His anxious gaze met mine as darkness completely overtook me.