The Emerald Isle Read Online Free PDF

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11:30. Meet Taylor at work—go to passport office
.

A s the unsmiling woman at the passport office took our applications, birth certificates, and personal checks, she told us it would take at least twenty-eight business days for our passports to be processed and issued. Taylor and I went next to his office and checked the Internet for flight schedules and fares. Allowing twenty-eight business days pushed our departure date well into August.
    We decided—without asking Maddie, I might add—to leave New York on Monday, August 16. The travel agent reminded us that mid-August was the end of the tourist season. Three seats together would be difficult to arrange if we delayed the least bit, so Taylor went ahead and made reservations on British Airways. He charged three round-trip tickets and told the travel agent to leave the return dates open. I looked away, knowing that he and Maddie would return after their honeymoon, leaving me free to choose my own return date. Taylor did say I could return with them, but I assured him I wanted to come home as soon as possible after the wedding. “After all,” I informed him, holding my head high, “I have someone waiting for me: Barkley.”
    That evening, as we met at our usual table at the delicatessen, I studied Maddie’s face as Taylor explained the arrangements he’d made. “Kathy will fly over with us,” he said, squeezing her hand so that her engagement diamond caught the light and sent bright sparkles flying across the ceiling. “That way we’ll all be together when we meetyour parents. I thought it appropriate, since she brought us together in the first place.”
    Maddie gave him a wintry smile. “How thoughtful of you.”
    “It’ll be convenient, too, since your folks will only have to drive once to the airport. You said Shannon was quite a distance from the farm.”
    The cheek muscles in Maddie’s dainty face tightened, turning her smile from a social grace to a grimace of necessity. “You’re very considerate, Taylor.”
    Uh-oh.
I lowered my eyes and sipped my soda. Trouble in paradise. If she didn’t let Taylor have it here, Maddie would certainly vent her feelings once they left me. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe he would begin to see that this marriage just wasn’t going to work. Better to know it now than to fly all the way to Ireland and discover he was about to marry the wrong girl.
    A plan began to form in my brain, a scheme born of desperation and an honest desire to keep a friend from disaster. We’d be thrown together in Ireland from August through October, three people in a relationship designed only for two. Friction was as inevitable as death and taxes, so I might as well use these opportunities to demonstrate that opposites should not always attract.
    I met Maddie’s gaze head-on. “Taylor is thoughtful and considerate.” My lips curved in a smile, but my tone was dead serious. “He will always be thoughtful because he values his friends.”
    There. Let her know what she’s getting into. Taylor, poor misguided male, would think I was merely defending him, but Maddie would hear my unspoken message:
I am important to Taylor, and I plan on staying important. Deal with it
.
    Maddie’s answering smile looked like a wrinkle with teeth in it. “I know Taylor is thoughtful.” A definite gleam of resentment entered her eyes. “That’s just one of the things I love about him—and that’s why
I’m
marrying him.”
    I resisted the urge to wince, then looked at Taylor.
    Totally oblivious, he squeezed Maddie’s hand again and kept hiseyes on the menu. “Shall we have the crab salad tonight, love? Or would you rather try the chicken?”

    The month of July flew by in a sweaty haze. As Barkley and I sat on the floor eating ice cubes in my sweltering apartment, I thought about my life’s impending disaster and consoled myself with one thought—Ireland boasts of balmy summer weather. My heart might break and my soul might suffer torments,