Where Rainbows End (50 page)

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Authors: Cecelia Ahern

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BOOK: Where Rainbows End

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We spent all day together again today and my stomach is doing somer-love, rosie

427

saults at the thought of seeing him again tonight. I now no what all my friends were talking about when they tried to describe this feeling. It’s so good it’s indescribable. Dad kept teasing me for walking around with a silly grin on my face all day.

Toby asked me to move back to Dublin, Mum! Not to live with him of course but just so that we could be closer. And do you no what? I think I’m going to. Why the hell not? I’ll throw caution to the wind and leap into the darkness and all those clichés and we’ll see where I land. Because if I don’t follow this feeling right now who nos where I will be twenty years on from now.

How crazy does all this seem? What a 24 hours it’s been!

from:

Rosie

to:

Katie

subject:

Yes!

Oh it’s not crazy at all Katie! It’s really not crazy at all! Enjoy it, love.

Enjoy every second of it.

from:

Katie

to:

Alex

subject:

In love!

So Mum was right Alex! You
can
fall in love with your best friend! Who new?! I’ve packed everything up and I’m heading home to Dublin with my heart filled with love and hope and my head filled with dreams! Mum told me about the silence she experienced years ago. She kept telling me when I felt that silence with someone, it meant they were “the one.” I was beginning to think she made it up but she didn’t! This magical silence exists!

You have an instant message from: ALEX

Alex:

Phil she felt the silence too.

Phil:

Who, what, where, when?

428

Cecelia Ahern

Alex:

Rosie. She felt that silence too all those years ago.

Phil:

Oh the dreaded silence thing is back to haunt us, is it? I haven’t heard you talk about that for years.

Alex:

I knew I wasn’t imagining it Phil!

Phil:

Well then, what are you doing talking to me? Get off the Internet you fool and pick up the phone. Or the pen.

Alex has logged off

My dear Rosie,

Unbeknownst to you I took this chance before many, many years ago.

You never received that letter and I’m glad because my feelings since then have changed dramatically. They have intensified with every passing day.

I’ll get straight to the point because if I don’t say what I have to say now, I fear it will never be said. And I
need
to say it.

Today I love you more than ever; tomorrow I will love you even more. I
need
you more than ever; I
want
you more than ever. I’m a man of fifty years of age coming to you, feeling like a teenager in love, asking you to give me a chance and love me back.

Rosie Dunne I love you with all my heart, I have always loved you even when I was seven years old and lied about falling asleep on Santa watch, when I was ten years old and didn’t invite you to my birthday party, when I was eighteen and had to move away, even on my wedding days, on your wedding day, on christenings, birthdays, and when we fought. I loved you through it all. Make me the happiest man on this earth by being with me.

Please reply to me.

All my love,

Alex

epilogue
k

Rosie read the letter for what seemed like the millionth time in her life, folded it into four neat squares, and slid it back into the envelope. Her eyes panned across her collection of letters, greeting cards, e-mail printouts, chat room printouts, faxes, and scribbled notes from her school days. There were hundreds of them spread across the floor, each telling its own tale of triumph or sadness, each letter representing a phase in her life.

She had kept them all.

She sat on the sheepskin rug in front of her fire in her bedroom in Connemara and continued to take in the array of words spread out before her.

Her life in ink. She had spent the entire night reading back over them and her back ached from stooping and her eyes stung. Stung from the tiredness and tears.

People she had loved had so vividly come alive in her head during those hours as she read their fears, emotions, and thoughts that had once been so real, but that were now gone from her life. Friends that had come and gone, workmates, schoolmates, lovers, and family members. She had relived her life all over again that night in a matter of hours.

Without her even noticing, the sun had risen, the seagulls were dancing around the sky calling with excitement as their meals were thrown around by the angry sea. The waves crashed against the rocks threatening to come further. Gray clouds hung like smoke rings outside her window.

430

Cecelia Ahern

The bell from the front desk downstairs rang loudly. Rosie tutted and glanced at her watch. 6:15.

A guest had arrived.

She rose to her feet slowly, wincing at the pain of being crouched in the same position for hours. She held on to her bedpost and pulled herself up onto her feet. She slowly straightened her back.

The bell rang again.

Her knees cracked.

“Ouch, coming!” she called out, trying to hide the irritation in her voice.

She had been so stupid to stay up all night reading those letters, today was a busy day and she couldn’t afford to be tired. She had five guests leaving and four more arriving not long after them. Their bedrooms needed to be cleaned, their sheets washed and replaced for the next arrivals, and she hadn’t even started making breakfast yet.

She carefully tiptoed between the mess of letters scattered around the rug, trying not to step on the important papers she had saved all her life.

The bell rang again.

She rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath. She was not in the mood for impatient guests today. Not when she hadn’t had a second’s sleep.

“Just a
minute
,” she called cheerfully, holding on to the banister and rushing down the stairs. She felt her toe hit against the luggage that had stupidly been placed by the end stair. She felt herself falling forward and then a hand grab her firmly by the arm to steady her.

“I’m
so
sorry,” the man apologized and Rosie’s head shot up. She took in the man that stood before her, nearly six feet in height with dark hair that had grayed along the sides. His skin was tired and wrinkled around the eyes and mouth. His eyes looked tired, as would anybody’s who had just spent four hours in a car to Connemara after a five-hour flight. But those eyes sparkled and they glistened as the moisture inside them began to well up.

Rosie’s eyes replied and filled up also. The grip on her arm tightened.

It was him. Finally it was him. The man who had written the final letter she had read that morning, begging her for an answer.

love, rosie

431

Of course after she had received it, it hadn’t taken her long to reply at all.

And as the magical silence once again embraced them, after almost fifty years, all they could do was look at each other. And smile.

Acknowledgments

Here I go again everyone!

There are so many special people who have been instrumental in making this happen for me.

A huge thank you to my editor Peternelle van Arsdale, Will Schwalbe, to Bob Miller, Ellen Archer, Beth Dickey, and the fantastic team at Hyperion for their constant support and belief in me.

Thank you:

Marianne Gunn O’Connor, super-agent and friend.

Mom, Dad, Georgina, Nicky, and Keano for your love, support, advice, laughter, friendship (and licks on the face!). We all make a great team!

David, for taking every step of this incredible journey with me. I share it all with you.

After the year that I’ve had, everyone near and dear to me deserves an even bigger thank you than ever. I’m lucky to be surrounded by such a huge support group, so special thanks to:

Fairy godmother Sarah, Olive, Enda, Rita and all the Kellys, all the Ahern family, Susana, Paula pea, Sarah-Jayne, Adrienne, Roel, Ryano & Sniff, Neil

& Breda and the Keoghans, Jimmy & Rose, Lucy, Elaine & Joe, Gail, Eadaoin, Margaret, Gerald & Clodagh, Daithi & Brenda, Shane & Gillian, the Byrne family, Gallaghers Paul & Helen, Drew Reed, Vicki Satlow. My 434

Acknowledgments

grandparents Olive, Raphael, Julia, and Con, who must be pressing magical buttons way, way up there.

Thank you God, I owe you (more than) one.

To everyone who has welcomed my books into their hearts. You’ve all put a smile on my face and a lump in my throat so I thank you with all my heart.

And finally, thank you Rosie Dunne, for nagging me all night, every night until your story was told.

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