Ireland is for Lovers

Chapter 5

On our way out of the city, we stopped for breakfast at this little diner he knows on the edge of town. I gotta tell ya, I consider myself to be a bit of a coffee-snob-- like, my diner makes a good cup of coffee, and I do love my Starbucks, but I've gotten some of the best coffee I've ever had in my life while in Ireland, and this place is no exception.

After breakfast, we finally hit the road for Sligo. As we were driving, and after a few radio station changes (turns out, Irish radio stations have the same bad habit that American ones do, of playing the same handful of songs over and over), he hands me his auxiliary cord, and says to put my music on. I glanced at him and said with a laugh, "I thought the driver picked the music....?"

"Not today Love, and not when the selection on the radio is shite...."

So I plugged my MP3 player in (yeah, I could keep music on my phone, but I prefer to keep it on a seperate device, on account of I have so much, and it takes up so much space), and I left it on 'shuffle'. When I turned it off before I got off the plane, it was in the middle of a Shawn Mendes song; the one that came up next, I felt, was pretty fitting for him and me: 'Alive', by Adelitas Way.

As the song played, naturally I started singing along with it a little.....

".....and I'll be hanging on every word you say to me, hanging on a feeling that I get, cause you make me....

Laugh a little louder, love a little harder.....

And I feel alive when I'm with you......

Every time, it's something new....

Never knew what love could feel like,

Until I walked away the first time....."

I turned to wink at him a couple of times as the song was playing, and he glanced at me long enough to give me that patented butterfly-releasing half-smile of his, and he reached over the center console, took my hand, and kept a firm grip on it for most of the drive.

We got to his parents' house a little after noon, despite it only being about a two-and-a-half-hour drive, and us leaving Dublin a little after 8, on account of getting held up by a couple of different flocks of sheep being escorted across the road by their respective owners.

As we pulled in his parents' driveway, he picks up the hand he's still holding, kisses my knuckles, and says to me, "Well.....ready to meet the Doyles.....again....?"

I smiled, huffed a laugh, and said, "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess....."

As we were getting our stuff out of the trunk, his mom, Emily, comes bursting out the front door to greet us, and very nearly knocks me over in an effort to hug me. His dad, Patrick, wasn't too far behind Emily, and gently chastised his wife for nearly knocking me over.

I just laughed and said, "Oh,she's alright....."

Pat just quietly shook my hand and said it was good to see me again.

Max looks a lot like his dad: they're both tall (although I think Patrick might be just a hair shorter), thin (Max has more of an athletic build,though), dark hair, and fair skin; however, Max got his mom's emerald-green eyes and her rather soft-spoken demeanor.

We went inside and put our bags in the rooms where we were going to be staying (his parents are pretty progressive on most things-- like the fact that I'm not Catholic; but they--his mom,mostly-- are still kind of old-school on some things--like, a man and woman who aren't married, shouldn't share a bed, so I wound up staying in Sophia's old room).

We joined Pat and Emily in the living room, and as we sat down together on their couch, Max casually put his arm around me.

Their house kind of looks like a mirrored, less-oppressive version of Harry Potter's aunt and uncle's house in Little Whinging.

Emily asked me how my flight over here was, and how I've been over the last few years, how the diner was doing (Max must've filled them in on that part), etc.

I told her the flight was long, but good; the diner was doing really well; and I've been doing really well, also.

As we were all chatting, Max asks his mom,"So what time is Sophia getting here?"

Sophia is his younger sister--5 years younger, to be exact, of whom he's very protective, which from where I'm sitting, is super adorable.

"Oh, she'll be here in time for dinner; she had to work, as well as take care of a couple of errands," she says, then turns to me and adds,"Did Killian tell you Sophia wants you and her to go out together whilst you're here?"

"He did. She called yesterday while we were getting ready to meet up with a couple of his friends for dinner...."

Then Pat asks me, "So, has my son been showing you a good time while you've been here?"

I looked at Max fondly before saying "Yes, sir. He's taken me to see the Book of Kells, and the gardens at Dublin Castle; and yesterday, we went to see the Hill of Tara."

Emily then asks how much longer I'm here for; I said another week, then it was back to Florida with me.

Right before dinner was ready, Sophia comes in the front door, and says, rather loudly, "Where is she?!?"

Max calls from the kitchen, "We're in here, Soph...."

She comes in, drops her purse just inside the kitchen door, and runs over to hug me. I just laugh and say "It's good to see you too, Sophia....."

Sophia looks a lot like Emily-- both are my height, on the petite-side, same dark hair and fair skin, but with Patrick's brown eyes.

As she breaks the hug, she says with a huge grin, "Tomorrow, I'm stealin' you from my brother so we can go shoppin', and have lunch with some of my friends......"

I give Max a look, to which he quietly puts his hands up as if to say 'That's up to you, Love....'

After dinner, Max and I took a walk around the neighbourhood. The sun was just beginning to set, and to my thin Florida blood, it was beginning to get a little cool. I let go of the hand I had been holding, and wrapped my arm around his waist and snuggled into his side.

As we were walking, I said to Max with a laugh, "I forgot just how lively your sister is....."

With a bit of an eye-roll, he says, "Yeah, annoyingly so sometimes, but I love her anyway.....most of the time; and I'll hurt anyone who hurts her......"

"I think it's adorable how protective you are of her; exactly how many of her potential boyfriends have you scared off in the last few years?"

He laughed, and said rather sheepishly, "A few......"

I laughed again, and just said, "You're a good big brother," as I reached up to kiss him.

Max and I came back from our walk, and went upstairs to watch a movie together. Towards the end of it, I caught myself nodding off a couple of times, so I started to get up to go to my room.

Rather than letting me up, Max wrapped his arms around me a little tighter, and whispered in my ear, "Stay...."

"I don't wanna be disrespectful to your parents...."

"They won't care, I promise"

"You sure about that? I know how your mom feels about that sort of thing"

"Stay anyway, and I'll talk to mum tomorrow"

"How about I go in the other room just for tonight, and you still talk to her tomorrow?"

He pouts a little, but he agrees and lets me up.