“C’mon. Char. We’re here.”
I cracked open one eye and tried to invest as much of my burning hatred into my glare as possible. “Here, where?”
“My parents’ house,” Liam said in an over-exaggerated voice. “Just a quick warning. Grandma Dorothy isn’t doing so well, so she moved in with them a couple months ago.”
Thatcleared the cobwebs from my brain. I sat up straight, nearly knocking heads with Liam, who dodged back just in time to avoid the collision. The fear for his grandma, who was as much my own, erased most of the awkwardness from earlier. At least for now. “What do you mean, she’s not doing so well? Why didn’t you tell me?”.
A shadow of emotion crossed his face, but it was gone too quickly for me to decipher. “Her dementia got worse. The doctors recommended she either go to a nursing home or we get her full-time care. Mom didn’t want to put her in a nursing home yet, so they hired a service to help take care of her here.”
I pushed a hand through the flyaway hair that had come loose sometime during my nap. Grandma Dorothy had been as much a part of my adolescence as Liam’s, considering how much time we spent together after my mother left and my father got sick. My aunt’s house wasn’t exactly a refuge, even though she raised me after my dad died, so I treated Liam’s place as a sanctuary. Thankfully, his family took pity on my gangly self and fed me regularly. They even came to graduation with one of those cheesy poster board signs with my name on it.
“Did your parents not want you to tell me?” I asked, my voice so low I wasn’t sure if he could hear me or not.
He did a double take. “What? No. It wasn’t like that at all.” He paused before continuing. “She called before everything with fuck-stain and I didn’t get the chance to tell you.”
“Fuck-stain?” I didn’t want to touch that one, so I said. “What did your dad say?”
Liam scowled. “The same thing he always says. That I should come back to work for the family. That going to school is only going to put me into debt. The family could use me at home to help with chores and take care of her. The usual.”
“I wish you would have told me. I wouldn’t have said yes to coming if I knew things were still bad between you two.”
He gave me the same look he used to when I was being particularly boneheaded. “Don’t you dare say that. I didn’t just do it for you. If grandma is as bad as Mom said then I want to be here to spend time with her and I knew you would, too. So get your ass out of the car before I drag you out.”
I wanted to protest. I even opened my mouth to start, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized Liam was right. Without looking up, I said, “I didn’t mean to--”
Liam nudged my chin up with his hand. “You don't have to apologize, Char. Trust me. I wasn’t kidding about dragging you out. I may even throw you over my shoulder if I have too, which may give grandma a heart attack,” he added with his customary wicked grin.
I smacked him on the arm, grateful for the broken tension. If he was going to ignore the kiss, then I was, too. It’s the only way things will go back to the way they used to be. “Let’s get inside before I have to murder you on your front lawn and your mom has to clean up the mess.”
“Remember that time we TP’d the street and she made us take it all down?”
We shared a laugh as we started walking up to the front door. “I thought we were never going to get that shit out of the branches. We were up there for hours.”
“It was your idea to do my house,” he argued. “I knew it was gonna come back and bite us in the ass.”
“You liar! You’re the one who said they’d never suspect us!”
By the time we reached the front steps we were both giggling, and I smiled for the first time since the night before. The heaviness was still present, waiting for the moment when I let my guard down and it could take over, but for now, I had Liam to distract me and if he was good at anything, it was distraction.
“Suspect you for what?” came a voice that sucked the laughter right from our lungs.
“How much I missed you,” I said as I opened the creaky screen door to get a better look at her. I had to force the words passed the lump in my throat. “Hi, Mrs. Dorothy. It’s so good to see you.”
Grandma Dorothy stood behind the screen door. I wish I could say she looked the same, but the ravages of time were more evident than ever. I swore she was a good three inches shorter, her spine curved and requiring her to stoop over. The thin curls she religiously colored a soft brown every eight weeks had thinned and lost their bounce. My heart squeezed. How had I let so much time pass since the last time I visited? I knew the answer, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. I’d gotten so used to leaving people before they could leave me, I was doing the same thing with Grandma Dorothy that I’d done to Andrew. And neither of them deserved it.
After a quick look at Liam for reassurance, I wrapped my arms around her frail body for a hug. The familiar scent of peony body spray filled my nose and instantly caused the tension inside me to loosen.Home, it said. Finally.
I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it until Dorothy said, “Well, get inside. You’re letting all the cool air out.”
I giggled and released her to let Liam inside. He stooped down to give her a kiss on her papery cheek. He was so much taller than her that she had to lean her head way back to see him. The sight of them together pulled at me in a softer, sweeter way than kissing him had. My breath caught in my throat and Liam glanced at me, his eyebrows drawing together. I shook my head.
Grandma Dorothy interrupted the moment and I was thankful until I heard her words. “Willy, is that you? My, you’ve grown two feet if you’ve grown an inch.”
The two of us froze and stared at each other with wide eyes. Liam was named after his father. William Walsh, Sr., who everyone called Willy. They’d shortened William to Liam to differentiate the two.
I watched as Liam’s throat bobbed and his eyes softened as he stooped down to her level. “No, Grandma. It’s me, Liam.”
Dorothy shook her head and beckoned us to follow down the hall. “I know that, silly goose. Let’s go find your mother so we can tell her my two favorite people are home.”
