She just couldn’t wait to talk to him about her great new idea. In spite of his coolness on the phone the other day she was looking forward to seeing him. She saw a Ryanair jet land and guessed it was Luke’s. Her impatience dissipated as she sat watching planes taking off and landing. She loved the air of hustle and bustle, the buzz of arrivals and departures and the roar of the jets. Dublin was a lovely airport to land at, she thought proudly, as she gazed out at the tapestry of green and gold fields and the purple-blue haze of the Dublin mountains in the distance. Five minutes later, she sat drinking a cup of coffee in the lounge bar overlooking the apron and runways. She took five copies of the magazine and paid for them at the cash desk.

The accompanying interview was very nicely done and Devlin was more than pleased. He’d done a great job and the place looked a million dollars. Her eyes widened with pleasure as she saw the pictures the photographer had taken of the complex. In Hughes & Hughes, Devlin hastily thumbed through the magazine. She’d buy a couple of copies and give them to Arthur, to keep for when they were arranging publicity.

As she took the escalator up to Departures, she remembered that Woman’s Way magazine had an article about City Girl that she hadn’t yet seen. She could take another look at the figures for her meeting with Arthur Kelly, the Belfast businessman whom she was seeing later in the day. It would be at least a half an hour before he cleared customs. Once more she checked the monitors and saw that Luke’s flight would not be in for another twenty minutes. She had left home extra early so that she could greet Luke off the plane instead of waiting for him in the foyer of the Airport Hotel – and now the damned plane was delayed. Devlin sat in the Arrivals Hall of Dublin Airport, visibly impatient. What readers are saying about Patricia Scanlan's storytelling: įull of warmth, wit and wisdom, City Girl is a brilliant family drama from a trailblazing author in women's fiction. And with big life changes on the horizon, the three friends will need each other more than ever. Through good times and bad, the bond they share has always been a refuge. Their staunch three-way friendship is born while sharing a house in Dublin and, as they each battle through changing times and turbulent love lives, soon becomes the only certainty they have. A beautiful blonde, a quiet brown-eyed girl and a redhead looking for adventure: meet Devlin, Caroline and Maggie. Whatever life holds, friends come first.ĭublin, late-1980s.

**THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, UPDATED FOR A NEW GENERATION**

City Girl by Patricia Scanlan