"Good lord yank I don't think you need to kiss the blarney stone" Keavy teased me.
"Why not?" I asked with a grin.
"Well if you manage to kiss the blarney stone you will be rewarded with the gift of the gab and good Lord you already talk enough" Keavy leaned in and kissed me, her eyes shining as she watched me. "Ah yank you know I love ya" she giggled and took her soft hand in mine and we walked towards the old stone Blarney Castle.
We had spent the last 4 days touring Ireland. We had gone to the Grange Stone, the largest gathering of rock circles in Ireland. We had visited Limerick, Armagh, and much to Howie's delight we had taken a tour of the Guinness Brewery. He had met a nice woman while we were touring Kerry and today he was with her on a bike tour. We were leaving in 2 days and Keavy and I were trying to squeeze as much as possible into the 2 days we had left together.
As I look back on my trip now, almost 4 years later I realise that every time she smiled, held my hand in hers, or called me yank, her nickname for me, that I fell in love with her just a lit bit more each time. Two of my favourite memories happened on the two final days of our first vacation together. They hold a significant part of our past with each other and represent our growing love.
~~**~~
"Keavy" I took her hand and stopped. I was speechless as I stared at the ruins of what must have been an extraordinary castle in its time. Its grey walls were covered with the dust and remenents of battles won and lost and the aging with time. The wall that wrapped around the ruined castle still stood tall and proud as if serving a reminder that it had served Ireland and the men it protected and had withstood the elements, still standing since it's erection in the 13th century.
"Alex, it is just one of the many castles we have here" she faced me and searched my face for an answer, an answer to why I was suddenly speechless as I gazed at the castle. "Yank" her hands touched my face.
"It's what I saw in my dreams, its what I always pictured I would be married in. Keavy don't you see?" I asked her.
"I don't Alex, what are you trying to tell me?" her soft eyes staring at me. Her voice barely audible above the crashing of the waves against the shore.
"This is a sign, a sign that we are meant to be together. We will be married here Keavy"
Keavy's face did not flash with confusion, did not show a sign of being uncomfortable as most people would have had someone they had only known a week just told them that they would be married. Instead she moved closer to me, her hands finding my waist and her head resting on my chest. We stood there, staring at our wedding chapel, dreaming of the day that we would make our silly little dream a reality.
~~**~~
"How is it that I am supposed to leave you, leave this magical place" I whispered. We were sitting on the tan sand that seemed to stretch for miles, the pinkish blue water that trickled onto the sand seemed like a water colour painting and the grassy slopes that served as a backdrop to our final night together, whistled in the breeze. Keavy had taken me to her favourite spot, a tiny strip of land called Slea Head in Kerry. She had packed a basket full of limerick ham, pickled and smoked over a low fire of oak shavings, straw and juniper berries, the potato scones melted in my mouth and the kippers and prawns that she bought fresh were a delicious reminder of what the glassy waters in Ireland could produce. I lay on the sand, one hand behind my head, the other lost in her long red curls. We lay there, both afraid to talk for fear that we would set off the emotions we had both been trying so hard to keep bottled.
"Yank" her beautiful Irish accent sounded like poetry in my ears. "I love you"
I was silent, letting the words that she had spoken find its way to my heart, to my memory bank where it would stay forever.
"I love you too Keavy"
"I want to go to the states with you, I want to live with you in America."
"Keavy, you would do that? You would leave all of this?" I asked
"For you? For you, yank, I would do anything." Keavy wiggled up to find
my
mouth and kissed me, sealing her promise with a kiss.
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