A Change of Heart (The Heartfelt Series) by Adrienne Vaughan Read Free Book Online

like it or not, you’re a huge hit, you’re the Thomas Bentley everyone wants, I know there’s all the other stuff in the movie and they know they could get any amount of good-looking guys to play the part - hey they could even get one who can act - but you’re the brand now, you’re the guarantee the next movie will do at least as well as the first. Sorry Ryan, but that’s the bald economical truth.” Larry walked over to his client. “You can’t walk out on this, whatever you think it says in your contract. You have to make the next movie, or there’ll be another kind of contract out on you, you see if I ain’t telling the truth,” Larry hissed.
    A loud crack, like gunshot, rang out. Larry lunged at Ryan pulling him to the floor, pushing his face against the carpet. Gasping for air, Ryan wriggled free.
    “Jesus, Larry, what’s wrong with you?” Ryan struggled up to the window, to watch Pat MacReady’s ancient taxi lurch out of Maguire’s car park and head back towards the ferry. “That was a car back-firing,” he told the trembling bundle, slumped beside the bed.

 
    Chapter Four A Hopeless Case
    As usual, Miss MacReady was first to break the news in Maguire’s Bar on a blustery October evening. She wriggled out of her full-length wax coat in the lobby, to reveal a tangerine fading to yellow silk dress, beaded with sparkles as she moved. She whisked a frothy feather boa out of her pocket and wound it around her as she sashayed towards the bar. The outfit perfectly matched the tequila sunrise she ordered. Miss MacReady always had cocktails on Mondays, one of her many personal and fervently upheld traditions.
     “Imagine our own lifeboat station at last. I can hardly believe it, it’s a triumph and all down to us not giving up on the fight to have the bridge reinstated, it seems they’ve finally decided we’re worth saving after all,” she declared.
     “How come?” asked Father Gregory, looking up from his Racing Post .
     “Well, it seems the team building the bridge has also won the contract for the lifeboat station, meaning they may as well stay here and complete both projects,” Miss MacReady sipped elegantly through a straw.
     “Ah, economies of scale,” the priest said, sagely.
     “Economies of the back-hander more like!” grumbled Sean Grogan, from his usual stool.
     “If it works in our favour for a change, I’m all for it,” Padar said, stomping noisily up from the cellar, bearing a crate of bottles.
     “We’ve always needed a lifeboat. I suppose with the rebuilding along the coast since the storm, it’s the perfect opportunity to at last give us something we’ve been promised for so long,” he said. It was Miss MacReady’s turn to nod.
     “And with the Euro-zone finances no better, let’s hope what little money people are making they’re keeping and spending in this country, holidaying here. I’ve seen a small rise in post office savings accounts, right enough,” Miss MacReady confirmed.
     “Anyone have enough money to buy a yacht?” Padar asked plaintively, referring to the forty-foot Moody , on the market since the summer.
     “Who knows? With the building lads here and some new people coming to manage the lifeboat station, you may be able to hang on to it, might not have to sell it at all.” Miss MacReady smiled encouragingly.
     “Sure, I could never sail that again,” he said quietly.
     Father Gregory caught his eye. Padar gave his head a little shake.
     “God rest her,” the priest said under his breath.
     The oak door swung open, as the building boys clattered into the bar, freshly showered and shaved from a long day on site.
    “What was on today’s agenda lads?” Miss MacReady asked, crossing her legs seductively.
    “Erecting the structure for the bridge. The pressure’s on if it’s to be up by next summer,” Shay Shaughnessy told her. “Hiring cranes is an expensive business. We only have a limited window to get the steelwork