"I love you too," she admitted softly. "I never believed in fate before, Ryan, but I sure as hell believe in fate now. Only something like fate could have brought us together. It would appear that we are perfect for each other."
They lay silently and quietly together on the rug before the fire for some minutes, and Ashley thought afterward that perhaps they even dozed off for a short time. Finally he said, "We'd better go upstairs, baby. I'm falling asleep with all that terrific exercise." They didn't bother to dress, because they knew that no one was about. Lina would be fast sleep in a guest room, and the Byrneses were at the other end of the house completely. Gathering their clothing, they hurried up the wide staircase, down the broad upstairs hall, and into their own bedroom suite, where they fell into bed, exhausted from their passion.
Ryan awoke earlier than the woman by his side. After showering and dressing, he kissed his sleeping wife and went downstairs to the kitchen to put on the coffee. To his surprise his mother joined him almost immediately. She had obviously been out walking.
"You're up," he said to her. "Good morning. Juice? We have orange, pineapple, and tomato."
"Pineapple," Lina said. "I can have orange any day."
He poured it for her, handing her the glass.
"You are happy," she said. It was a statement, not a question.
"I owe you one, mamma mia," he said. "I love her."
"You might not have," Lina reminded him.
"Ashley says it's fate," Ryan told his mother.
Angelina Mulcahy smiled. "She believes in fate?"
"She didn't, she says, until now," Ryan answered.
"Fate is what brought your father and me together," she told him.
"You were happy," he said.
"We were content," Angelina Mulcahy said candidly. "And no matter that he was Irish and I was Italian; we had much in common. A religion, a work ethic. But I never loved Finbar Mulcahy. I was fond of him, yes. But I never loved him."
"But you had seven kids!" Ryan exclaimed.
"We both liked sex," she said bluntly. "I know that isn't something a mother should say to her son, but that's the. truth of it. Your father and I enjoyed a healthy sexual relationship. That was another thing we had in common. That and we wanted a family. We never meant to have seven kids, but your father wanted a son, and I kept having girls. And then after you were born we tried for another boy and got Francesca. That's when we decided the pope be damned, and your dad started using condoms until I got through the change. Do you know how lucky you are, Ryan? You actually have fallen in love. It's a blessing, mio figlio."
"I never knew just how much until now, Ma," he told her. "Want some breakfast? I make pretty good scrambled eggs. I learned from an expert."
Angelina smiled. "Where is Ashley?"
"I'm letting her sleep," he said. "Eggs?"
His mother laughed. "Yes, please," she said. Then she grew serious. "Tell me, Ryan, does she love you? And will you give me grandchildren?"
"She loves me," he responded, "and she says as soon as she gets these two new shops open and going, she'll throw away her birth control pills. Haven't you got enough grandchildren, Ma?" he teased her.
"I have grandchildren," Angelina said. "But no Mulcahy grandchildren."
"Ashley wants kids. Don't worry about it," he told her.
"The couple? They don't work on Sundays?" Lina wanted to know.
"Sundays and Wednesdays are their days off," Ryan said as he took eggs from the fridge and began breaking them into a bowl. "Hey, how long has it been since you and I had breakfast together, Ma?"
She smiled. "Give me the bacon, Ryan, and I'll start to fry it up."
Together mother and son fixed breakfast: scrambled eggs and perfectly cooked crisp bacon to be served with a plate of Mrs. B.'s mini cranberry-apple muffins that had been left in the pantry for them. When it was just about ready Lina filled a plate and gave it to Ryan.
"Take Ashley some breakfast before we eat. You have obviously worn her out."
"She can keep up with me." He grinned.
"Much too much information," Lina told her son.
"After what you told me?" he said, laughing.
"I told you nothing that you did not already know, Ryan. If your father and I had not liked sex, you and your six sisters would not be here. You were not, after all, delivered by the stork, now, were you?"
He picked up the plate she handed him, along with a cup of coffee laced with half-and-half. "I won't be long," he said with a grin.
"If you are I will know what you are doing, won't I?" Lina teased.
Laughing, Ryan hurried up the back staircase to take his wife her breakfast. Both his wife and mother were to be reckoned with. He was glad that they were friends.
Chapter 9
They were happy together. Ryan was working out a system of cameras that would allow his whole office and workshops to be viewed from his computer at home. He had decided to go into town only once a month for a day. If there was an emergency he would, of course, be available. And he was always available for clients. He had hired Bill away from the car service that had brought his family out to Egret Pointe in mid-October. And he had traded his sports car for a Town Car tricked out with every device he might need. Bill, a bachelor, was offered an apartment above the garages, where a chauffeur used to live when the house had employed a full staff. It even had its own small kitchen, but Bill could eat with the Byrneses, which he preferred to do most nights. He had the weekends off, as Ryan didn't need him then.
Ashley had brought her new employees out to Egret Pointe, and with Nina's help was training them. Lacy Nothings on the Upper East Side and in its suburban mall location would be ready to open on time. On the thirtieth of October, Suzette and Mrs. Babcock, along with their new staffs, departed Egret Pointe. Their stores would be ready for business on November first. Ashley was relieved to have everything going so smoothly. The new catalog, shot in August and mailed in late September, was already bringing in more early orders than she had anticipated.
She and Ryan had taken to eating together in the den now. The porch was closed up for the winter, and the formal dining room was just too big for a single couple. Byrnes set up a table in the den's bay window, where they could watch the moon come up over the bay while they ate in the evening.
"I have to go to Venice next week," Ryan told her one night.
"For how long?" Ashley asked him.
"Just a few days. An old friend, the Contessa di Viscontini, has found a wonderful seventeenth-century wardrobe in a small town over the Austrian border. It's alleged to have belonged to a doge who was her ancestor. She's had it brought to her villa in Venice, but she wants R &R to restore it and make any repairs that are necessary. I don't trust anyone else to oversee the packing of this piece. If it's authentic then it's too valuable to leave in clumsy hands. So I'll go to Venice and see to it myself," Ryan said.
"I'll go with you," Ashley suggested. "The new stores are open as of last weekend, and Nina can handle the shop here, with Brandy coming in Saturday and after school. We haven't had a real honeymoon. I can't think of a more romantic place to have one than in Venice, and I've got the time now. Once the Christmas rush begins I'll be too busy, and as I recall I did promise to throw away my birth control pills once the new stores were up and running. What if I get pregnant? I can't take a honeymoon then."
"November isn't the prettiest month to go to Venice," he said.
"Venice will still be Venice no matter the weather. The Piazza San Marco and the Campanile will still be there whatever time of year it is," Ashley reasoned.