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“What’s with the judgment, Patrick?” I snapped. “I asked you to help me because you’re the best of us at woodwork and you’ve always been the least judgmental of the lads. Or so I thought.”
“I’m not judging you, Gibs.” He chuckled, coming to sit down on the patio beside me. “Here.” Taking the hammer out of my hand, he retrieved a nail and set to work on the felt roof. “Let’s make sure your son’s hibernaculum is waterproof.”
I grinned. “Thanks, lad.”
“Question,” he said a little while later, when the felt roof had been neatly tacked into place. “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary with Liz?”
“Liz?” I turned to gape at him. “As in Viper Liz?”
He nodded.
“Hell no, I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary with her. In fact, I try my best not to notice her at all,” I replied, appalled that he would ask me such a question. “In case it skipped your attention, lad, that witch hates my guts.”
“Come on, Gibs,” he tried to reason. “Don’t call her that. She was your friend once.”
“Yeah, and look where it got me,” I shot back defensively. “Directly in the firing line of her poisonous tongue.”
“I’m not defending anything she’s done to you down through the years,” he said carefully. “Because she’s been well out of order.”
“But?” I bit out, just knowing there was a but to this bullshit.
“But I really feel like there’s a conversation that needs to happen between you both. One that’s long overdue.”
I simply stared, unblinking, unable to form any words to respond to this bullshit.
“Come on, Gibs,” he pushed. “Try to see where I’m coming from here.”
“I can’t,” I replied, placing Reggie inside his little house. “Probably because I’m blinded by the sheer height of betrayal!”
“She’s not a bad person,” he called after me when I stood up and moved for the door. “She’s just hurt.”
“We’re all hurt, lad,” I snapped, yanking the patio door open and storming inside. “Some of us don’t take it out on everyone else.”
“You know what they say Mark did to Caoimhe,” Feely said, following me inside a thankfully empty kitchen. “I know he’s not your brother, Gibs. I know that, okay. But she believes the rumors. She thinks he’s responsible and if you and Liz have a conversation about it, I think it might really help her to heal.”
“Thinks!” I snapped, slamming the fridge door closed. “Last time I checked, thinking something wasn’t the same as knowing something, Patrick!”
“Come on, Gibs,” he tried to plead. “We’ve all heard the rumors, lad.” Leaning against the island, he added, “Half the town thinks he raped her.”
“Apparently not the half that contain the Gards,” I shot back, bristling. “Because they cleared him after questioning!”
“It’s hard to prove a dead girl’s story.”
“Agreed,” I countered, feeling cold to the bone. “Especially when it’s complete bullshit.”
“So, you think Mark’s completely innocent in all of it?” he argued. “You don’t feel like he has any hand in Lizzie’s sister jumping off the bridge that night?”
“I didn’t say that,” I snapped, hating the tremor in my voice.
“Exactly,” he urged. “Because you know as well as she does that there’s something to this. Come on, Gibs, think about it, lad. There’s no smoke without fire…”
“No!” I roared back at him. “No, I won’t think about it, Patrick, because I don’t fucking want to, okay? Because I’m done with thinking about it. Done with being blamed for it. I’m just fucking done, okay!”
“Okay.” He held his hands up, brows furrowed. “Okay, Gibs, relax. I won’t bring it up again. Just take it down a notch, lad.”
“Thanks for helping build Reggie’s hibernaculum,” I replied flatly, moving for the back door.
“Wait, Gibs…”
