Karen snorted. “He’s as bad. He got it into his headthat he’d be able to replace the tiles around the bath and borrowed one of those tile cutters from some guy he knows from work.” She rolled her eyes and sniggered. “You should have heard the cursing and spluttering coming from the bathroom.”
“So, did he finish it?” Jenny asked, unable to keep from smiling herself. Despite his engineer’s brain, Shane wasn’t known for his handyman skills.
“Not at all. I made him get a professional in to tidy up after him. Cost a fortune, but you couldn’t leave it like it was, one wall dark blue and the other yellow. It looked like a GAA flag.”
Jenny shook her head fondly. “The two of you are so well matched, you know.”
“Yeah, shame about his family …” Karen muttered darkly.
“What do you mean? I thought you and Mrs Quinn got on OK.”
“No, Nellie’s all rightsometimes– it’s the brother I can’t tolerate. Remember the one who helped with the mortgage finance?”
Jenny nodded.
“Well, he’s been acting the prat about that ever since. Shane is sorry he asked.”
“I don’t understand. I thought heofferedto help,” Jenny said, frowning.
“So did I. But seems Nelliewas the one who suggested he offer us a leg-up. I think she made Jack feel guilty about having two properties and earing all this money, and here’spoor old Shane starting out with nothing.” She signalled to a passing waiter for a pot of tea. “He was home a while back and we went up to visit. I wanted to thank him in person for his kindness.” She rolled her eyes. “Big mistake.”
“What happened?”
“He kept making sly digs about Shane’s job. Said straight out he’d blown it with Germany and insinuated that the job he has now isn’t good enough, even suggesting we might have trouble paying the mortgage. We went to the pub and he was watching Shane like a hawk every time he bought a pint. You’d swear we were out on the razz every night of the week, and didn’t give a hoot about mortgage repayments.”
“That’s awful. Poor Shane.”
“Well if I had my way, I’d tell Jack to stuff his bloody guarantee. But we have the house now so feck him …” She trailed off and spooned sugar into her tea.
“Have you made any plans for your wedding then?” Jenny asked, changing the topic. “Or would Jack disapprove?”
“Ah, I’ll see what happens after Tessa’s. Maybe that might get me in the mood.”
“I take it that you won’t be commissioning a famous dress designer for your big day,” Jenny said mischievously.
Karen laughed. “Not my style.” She glanced at the clock. “I think I might do a bit of shopping after this though. Might as well make the most of my day off.”
“I need to buy something to wear for Tessa’s weddingmyself,” Jenny said. “I can’t remember the last time I went clothes shopping.”
Karen knew that Jenny was still tight for cash after all the money she had lent to Roan, which had never been repaid. Not to mention the rent that had built up on their old flat, which she also had to settle before vacating.
She sighed heavily. Sod it, she might as well say something.
“Hey, I don’t know whether I should tell you or not but …” Karen took a deep breath. “Not sure if maybe Roan’s been in touch … ” She noticed Jenny flinch a little at the mention of his name. So she didn’t know then. Good, at least he’d left her in peace. “Seems he’s moving to the States.”
“Oh … I see,” Jenny replied, her voice strained. “How … how do you know that?”
“He bumped into Shane. You know how the two of them always seemed to get along so well?” Karen had to resist the urge to add that she couldn’t figure out how her fiancé found anything in common with that ass. “He and a few others from the Dublin office are transferring to the parent company in New York.”
“Andher?” Jenny asked in a small voice, still refusing to meet Karen’s gaze.
“No. He insisted to Shane that nothing was going on. Apparently she has a two-year-old son, so maybe Roan just didn’t want to play daddy.” Karen could have kicked herself when she noticed Jenny swallow hard. “Ah, Jen, I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to be callous.”
“It’s all right, it’s just … it still hurts to talk about him.” Her eyes glistened brightly.
She looked so sad, so broken. Despite her earlier protests about being fine, Karen could see that Jenny wasn’t fine at all, far from it.
“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you because I thought you should know. Believe me, if I had my way I’d have kept it from you until he was long gone, but just in case you wanted to –”
