Kissing Maggie Silver

Dedication

For Ellen

This one’s for you

Acknowledgements

Thanks must go to Lesley Fleming for reading the manuscript of
Kissing Maggie Silver
several times and making her usual invaluable comments, Michelle Lee for designing the perfect cover, Roxanne Nolan for her scrupulous editing and helpful suggestions, and Jude Pittman and Jamie Hill at Books We Love for their continuing advice and support. Without them, my writing life would be considerably more challenging. 

Chapter One

The noise blasted Ruairi’s ears the moment he pushed open the swing doors. He recoiled instinctively. Too many people! Too much music! Even too much food! He looked at the laden tables and his stomach protested. After six months working in what had to be one of the most peaceful places on the planet he was finding it more difficult than usual to readjust to the demands of civilization. All he wanted to do was to back out of the room and leave.

Leaving wasn’t an option, however.
So, ignoring his momentary discomfort, he turned to the small, gray-haired woman who was standing beside him.

* * *

“Can you see anyone you know?” he asked.

“Over there!” She pointed, and then set off at speed across the room, adding her own voice to the hubbub.

He gave a smile of satisfaction as he watched her greet and hug her friends. It was time his mother started to enjoy herself again. She had been alone for too many months since his father died.

* * *

“Ruairi O’Connor!
I don’t believe it! I thought you were in the middle of Africa or somewhere. Don’t tell me my parents invited
you
as well as the rest of the world?”

Ruairi grinned at the man standing stocky and square in front of him.
“Not exactly. But they invited Mum and she isn’t up to travelling by herself.”

“So you’ve crashed the party?”

“I guess!” Ruairi stuck out his hand and then changed his mind and pulled the shorter man into a bear hug. “It’s been too long Mark.”

“Tell me about it!” Mark
Silver hugged him back. Then he broke away and frowned. “Look, it’s fantastic to see you again but I can’t stop to talk now. I’m under orders to keep things running smoothly. You’ll stick around though won’t you, so we can catch up?”

Without waiting for an answer he nodded towards a large group of people on the opposite side of the room.
“Good! Now grab a drink and then come over and say hello to the rest of the family.”

Dodging small children
and chattering guests, Ruairi followed him, and within moments he was being welcomed with open arms into the bosom of the Silver family.

“I can’t believe it’s been ten years since you visited us,” Cathy Silver, Mark’s mother, still pretty despite her sixty
-plus years, shook her head in mock reproof as she smiled up at him.

He gave her a contrite grin.
“Sorry Cathy, but you know me…ever the rolling stone.”

“Yes, well at least you’re here now.
We were so pleased when you phoned to tell us you were bringing your mother over from Ireland. She would never have come on her own.”

“I know,” his smile faded as he acknowledged the truth of her words.
Since his father’s death eight months earlier his mother had spent far too much time alone in the cottage they had moved to when he retired; a cottage that was more than a mile away from its nearest neighbor and, because she couldn’t drive, a long and inconvenient bus ride to the local market town.

After the funeral she’d accepted he had to return to his job in New Zealand and told him she would be fine. And every time he
’d telephoned she had sounded fine. That was why he had been so shocked by her appearance when he finally made it back to Southern Ireland. Somehow, despite all she had been through, he’d expected her to be the same. He hadn’t anticipated her extra wrinkles and the dark circles under her eyes. Too wrapped up in his career it had been much easier to believe what she told him when he called rather than spend time thinking about how she was actually coping.

When he saw how she had aged and how everything seemed to be an effort, he was consumed with guilt. And it was that guilt that had prompted him to book two return airfares to England the minute he’d seen the
ruby wedding anniversary invitation pinned to her kitchen notice board. He hoped the grief that had overwhelmed her would loosen its hold a little if she spent time with old friends. Isolated for too long, she had lost her natural joy de vivre and become a shadow of the mother he had known all his life, and he was determined to do something about it.

He hadn’t discussed it with her.
He’d just pulled a couple of suitcases down from the loft, dumped them onto her bed, and told her to pack. When she’d remonstrated he had been blunt.

“You can’t let Cathy and John down Mum.
They go way back, and besides they took the trouble to fly over for the funeral and then stay on for a few days after Dad died.”

Not subtle, or even kind, but it had been effective.
She had packed without complaint after that, even allowing him to lock up the cottage and deposit the keys with her nearest neighbor without a word of protest. She hadn’t spoken much on the journey to the airport, nor while they waited to board, but once they were on the plane some of her animation returned, and by the time they booked into their hotel she was closer to her old self.

Although he was delighted, i
t had made him feel doubly bad about his neglect. If a change of scene was all it took, then he had better do something about it. Upgrading their rooms to a suite he told her they were having a holiday. She’d shaken her head doubtfully.

“You can’t do that.
What about your work? You must have a thousand things to do. Bringing me over for a long weekend is enough Ruairi. You have your own life to lead.”

If only!
Pushing away the thought that had recently started worming itself into his consciousness at the most inopportune moments, he assured her he had all the time in the world. Later, after she had retired for the night and left him sitting alone in front of the flat screen TV in their suite, he’d been forced to confront the fact that although, to all outward appearances, he had one of the most exciting jobs in the world, he didn’t actually have much of a personal life. Nor did he have anyone to share it with.

A decade of moving from country to country as he pursued his career as a wild life
photographer had given him a rootless existence that left little time for friends let alone an intimate relationship. There had been girls of course; more girls than he wanted to remember, but none of them had been special. They had just been someone to spend a week with, or a few months with, before he moved on to another country and another contract.

Now, absorbed into the noisy, affectionate warmth of the close-knit Silver family, he wondered if it was time for him to rethink his life and contemplate doing something else, something that didn’t keep him away from any possibility of a normal family life for months on end.

A melee of small children playing some sort of noisy game in the middle of the room interrupted his thoughts. If they were all part of the Silver family then it had grown a great deal in the past ten years. He turned back to Cathy.

“All yours?” he asked, pointing.

“Most of them. Peter has four, Mark and Andrew both have two, and there’s another one on the way.”

“And Maggie?” Ruairi had warm memories of the youngest member of the Silver
family. When he last saw her she’d been a skinny, redhead with pigtails and freckles. Considerably younger than her three brothers she had spent most of her time trailing after them, desperate to be included in their games.

“Ah Maggie!”
A shadow flitted across Cathy Silver’s face. Then the smile was back. “Right at this moment I think she’s concentrating on being the world’s best aunt!”

She gestured towards the laughing children. Ruairi followed her pointing finger as an older girl emerged from the huddle of bodies and made a break for the garden.
Barely glancing at her he searched for someone with a passing resemblance to the young Maggie he had last seen ten years earlier. Then it dawned on him. The slim figure who had just disappeared
was
Maggie. She was the girl with the cloud of pre-Raphaelite curls, curves in all the right places, and an extraordinary turn of speed.

“That’s Maggie!”

“Yep! She’s brushed up quite well considering, hasn’t she?” Mark was back at his side, his duties over for the time being. “She’s always in her element at parties like this. She uses them as an excuse to ignore the fact that she’s a grown up. I guess that’s why the children all love her to bits.”

* * *

“...and they all lived happily ever after.” Maggie finished the story with a flourish and then sat back and folded her arms. “Now vamoose the lot of you! Go on! It’s time to get some food.”

Her nieces and nephews grinned at her
, even the tiny ones. That was what they liked about Aunt Maggie. She didn’t try to be nice or anything soppy like that. She said it as it was, and right now she was telling them she’d had enough. They rushed off to grab paper plates and napkins without a backward glance.

“Well that’s thanks for you!” Her sister-in-law, hot and uncomfortable from the late stages of pregnancy, sank onto the bench beside her with a sigh of relief.

Maggie laughed. “I’m used to it. Teaching has shown me
that the words gratitude and children should never be used in the same sentence!”

“I don’t know how you do it,” June shook her head.
“You work with them all day long and yet you’re still up for playing with them whenever there’s a family gathering. You’re a marvel Maggie Silver and I wish I had half your energy.”

“Well it’s easy for me isn’t it? I get to give them back to their parents and go home for some peace and quiet
. Looking after them 24/7 is a different proposition altogether.”

“I guess,” June smiled at her and then grimaced. “Ouch! This one kicks every time I sit down.”

“Not long now,” Maggie said soothingly. “Is there anything I can get you? A glass of juice or something to eat?”

“No thanks. I’ve got to pay yet another visit to the restroom in a minute, something else I’m looking forward to waving goodbye to
along with the heartburn and backache. I just came over to check that you really don’t mind taking care of the children when I go into labor. It’s a big ask and I’m sorry if Mark sort of forced you into it by discussing it in front of your parents.”

“Don’t be
silly. Of course I don’t mind. And when has Mark ever forced me to do anything? Besides, I’ll enjoy having the children to myself for a day or two.”

“Oh Maggie, thank you! You’ve taken such
weight off my mind. I couldn’t believe it when I found out your parents were going to be away for most of August.”