“Oh my god,” I cried, practically falling off my chair in my bid to get to him. “Seany!”
“E-fa,” he mumbled around the fingers he was sucking, before releasing himself from Edel and toddling towards me. His little hand covered in its usual slobber. “E-fa.”
“Oh, Seany-boo.” Scooping him up in my arms, I broke down there and then, as a wave of relief washed through me at the sight of his little curly head. “You have no idea how good it is to see you, baby boy.”
“O-ee sad,” he told me, touching my cheek with his hand. “O-ee miss E-fa.”
The fact that he was trying to speak and doing such a good job at articulating himself only made me cry harder. “Yeah, buddy,” I sniffled, burying my face in his neck and soaking in his familiar smell. “Aoife misses Joey, too.”
“That’s actually what I’m here to talk to you about,” Edel chimed in, taking the seat my mother was offering her. “Thank you.”
“Coffee?”
“I’d love a cup, thanks, Trish.”
“How are the others?” I asked, unable to keep the emotion out of my voice. “And Joe…” Blowing out a shaky breath, I climbed to my feet, taking Seany with me, and returned to my seat at the kitchen. “Is he…doing okay?”
“Thanks, Trish,” Edel said, accepting the mug of steaming coffee my mother handed her, before turning her attention back to me. “Darren, Shannon, Ollie, and Tadhg are doing remarkably well under the circumstances.” She smiled indulgently at the little guy on my lap. “And Seany here is the sweetest little soul.”
“And Joe?”
She shook her head sadly. “Not as well as the others.”
My heart plummeted.
“He’s in bad shape,” she added, and I tightened my hold on the small boy on my lap, feeling like I had a connection to my boyfriend for the first time in days. “He hasn’t spoken a word since the night of the fire.”
“Jesus,” my father muttered, scrubbing his face with his oil-stained hand. “Poor lad.”
“He hasn’t eaten a single bite either,” she offered, concern evident in both her voice and her features. “To be honest with you, I’m not sure he’s even slept. When he’s not vomiting, he’s staring lifelessly at the wall.”
“I need to see him,” I told her slowly, emphatically, fucking desperately, willing this woman to do the right thing for my boyfriend. “You don’t get it. Darren thinks he knows everything, but he doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t know a damn thing about his brother, but I do. I know Joey. I can help him. I can get through to him, if you just give me a chance.”
“I agree,” she surprised me by saying. “That’s why I’m here, love.”
My brows shot up in surprise. “You agree?”
Edel nodded. “I wanted to have you over that night. I thought it would be good for Joey to have you with him, but Darren had just lost his mother, too, and I didn’t have the heart to fight with him. He genuinely believed that he was doing the right thing for his brother. He was so adamant that he knew what was best.” She took a sip of coffee before setting the mug back down and saying, “But I have a feeling that the best thing for Joey is sitting in this kitchen.”
Her words.
God, her words meant so much to me in this moment.
They curled around my heart like a warm hug.
“You’ll take me to him?”
She offered me a sad smile and nodded. “You should have never been kept apart in the first place, love. It was an error of judgement on my part, and it will never happen again.”
I was on my feet before she finished her sentence. “I’m ready now.”
“No,” Dad blurted out. “I don’t want her to go.”
“Tony,” Mam sighed. “Please just—”
“I’m sorry, I know the lad’s in a bad way,” Dad argued, sounding genuinely torn. “And I would half my heart with him to make him better, I swear I would, but not at the expense of my daughter’s welfare.”
“Tony.“
“Aoife’s over five months pregnant. She needs to be here where she’s safe and not stressed out.”
“I’m going, Dad.”
“Aoife, no, please. Would you just think of yourself for a minute?”
“I’m going, Dad,” I repeated, setting Sean down on his feet. “And there’s nothing you, Darren, or anyone else can say to stop me.”
BACK TO ME, BACK TO YOU
AOIFE
Edel Kavanagh’s house was packed to the rafters with people when I stepped over the threshold an hour later with her and Sean.
Armed with an overnight bag filled with prenatal vitamins, spare clothes, and snacks, I followed after the woman who had taken mercy on my poor frazzled emotions, smiling and nodding at anyone who stopped to greet me. It wasn’t until we reached the sitting room and were greeted by Darren that I felt my hackles rise. He was sitting on the couch, tucked under the arm of who I presumed was his boyfriend Alex, as they spoke quietly to each other.
The minute his eyes landed on me; I felt the shift in the air.
The unwelcome feeling.
“Aoife.”
“Darren.”
“What did you do?” His attention flicked to Edel. “You know he doesn’t want to see her.”
Ouch.
I couldn’t hide how badly hearing that hurt me.
My sharp intake of breath was proof of that.
“Shannon has Johnny, and you have Alex,” Edel explained calmly, reaching out a hand to stroke my back reassuringly. “Joey has Aoife.”
“She’s not good for him right now.”
“I’ll show you something not good for you if you don’t shut up,” a little old lady ordered from her perch on an armchair by the fire. “The cheek of ya, laying down the law in this kind woman’s house.”
“But Nanny—”
“Don’t you but Nanny me,” she chastised, holding up a wrinkly finger. “You’re not too big for a clip around the ear, young man.”
I watched as she turned her attention to where I was standing and smiled. “Aoife.” Looking withered and worn from the knocks she had taken, but with kindness still shone from her eyes, she held out a hand to me. “It’s been too long.”
We’d only met a handful of times down through the years, but this woman meant a great deal to Joey, which meant that I held her in the highest regards.
“Hi, Nanny,” I replied, closing the space between us, attention flicking to her adorable, cloudy white perm. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Come here to me and let me see you,” she instructed, catching hold of my hand in both of hers and squeezing. “One of my grandson’s tell me that you’re in the family way with another one of my grandsons.”
Jesus Christ.
I cast a scathing look in Darren’s direction before reluctantly nodding. “Listen, Joey really wanted to tell you about the baby himself, but his parents didn’t want the younger children finding out, and then everything just sort of spiraled these past few months. I mean we’ve never openly announced it or anything—”