“Thank God,” River gustily sighed. “Think of all the fun hiking gear we get to buy for you, Row.”
“She won’t need much in the beginning, Aunt River. Slow your roll.” Everyone chuckled at River’s enthusiasm. The men joined them, discussing whether Mom needed her own sat phone.
Overstepping O’Faolain business as usual.
It would look silly to outsiders that everyone was so excited that her mom agreed to start hiking. It could have been anything, like country and western dance classes. It was simply that since the loss of her father, their family had been suffering, especially her mom.
No one had admitted just how concerned they were that her mom wouldn’t or couldn’t snap out of her depression. Choosing to do a new activity was the best sign that she hadn’t given up on life yet.
“First things first,” Mom started, getting everyone’s attention. “I would like Raven to take me to cut my hair like hers. I love it, and I want something different too.”
“Well, I want to cut mine, then. You guys aren’t leaving me out,” River pouted.
Bébhinn could only smile. She’d called that one. And after this evening, maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about her brothers and cousins trying to run her life now that her mom was coming around… She was embracing bits of her feisty personality, which was a huge step in the right direction.
Daniel walked up behind her shoulder just as she let out a satisfied breath and said, “I still think it’s bullshit that you’re letting Bébhinn go on a solo hike.”
Clearly, she’d counted her blessings too fast.
three
BÉBHINN
“I seriously cannotbelieveyou’re spending the entirety of your break shitting in the woods. It’ll be like Naked and Afraid but without dicks to break the monotony of foraging and walking,” Mags complained, while lounging on their sectional couch.
Margaret Morrow, or Mags to family and friends, daughter of Aileen and Charles, was gorgeous with layered waves of brunette hair, petite frame, a bullshit policy set at zero, and a cutting wit that left many a person dazed.
Mags was one of Bébhinn’s best friends, along with Gray MacGregor and Blair Barr. Gray was leggy, blonde, and gorgeous like her mother Josephine, with an air of stoicism like her father, Thomas MacGregor. Blair was the image of her mother, Catriona, tiny with long, bright red curls and a fiery temper to match. Her father, Coll Barr, had his hands full with those two.
It was inevitable that they’d become best friends since their mothers were. She and her friends made a pact that they would all go to Trinity so they could live together. The four lived inthe historic Merrion Square, a short walk to the famous St. Stephen’s Green and only a few minutes from Trinity.
Their historic brick townhouse was a stunner and just so happened to be attached to Daniel, Jonathan, and Ciar Murphy’s townhouse. Her dad spent an ungodly amount of money to snag the properties, unwilling to consider any other arrangement. Hugh O’Faolain wanted his daughter and grandsons close, and their friends could like it or love it. Turns out, they loved it. Who wouldn’t?
The three Sasquatches living next door should be sauntering in any minute, with girls on their arms fawning over every word their dates uttered. Bébhinn learned years ago to ignore her cousin’s revolving door of randos. Her roommates were never short on comments, though.
Blair Barr, the youngest of her friends—and the smartest—rolled her eyes and simulated gagging at Mags’s comment about shitting in the woods. They all burst into laughter. The friends did, anyway. Bébhinn was getting better, but she couldn’t bring herself to outright hilarity.
Not yet. Not when she still picked her phone up multiple times a day to text her dad. It was getting better.Shewas getting better, which was how she found herself finally agreeing to a house party before she left for Wales.
While Bébhinn and her friends lazed in the living room, sipping everything from margaritas to wine to her own shot of Three Wolves neat, several of their school friends were milling about. The kitchen’s center island boasted trays of hors d’oeuvres, with the sideboard holding a full bar.
She and Blair would have been satisfied ordering pizza, but Gray was obsessed with all things hospitality—she already had a few clients, thanks to her talent and her mother’s contacts from O’Connor Hospitality—and Mags was too artistic to allow pizza boxes to mar the design flow.
Like her mother and aunts, Bébhinn loved all things interior design and worked part-time at their business, Triskelion Territory Designs. One would think her passion would also make her cringe over throwing a party with a kitchen full of cardboard pizza boxes covering every inch of space. Maybe it was that her mom and dad grew up in Oklahoma in the States that made her more laid back.
Blair only cared about plants. Décor didn’t mean shit to her unless she was finding the perfect spot for her hundreds of green babies.
There was an excited vibe tonight, and it had nothing to do with the bougie spread. Spring break meant they were only two months away from summer break.
Gray gave her a contemplative look. “I know you’re dead set on this Welsh hike, and that Snowdonia Park is less than five hours away, but still, Bébhinn… I don’t know. I feel like it’s still too soon to go off on your own.” Gray sat forward, long, silky, honey-colored waves sliding over her shoulders to touch the top of her thighs.
Bébhinn glanced at her other friends, who had also sat forward with identical serious looks on their faces. She at least thought these three had finally let go of trying to talk her out of it. Clearly not.
“Go, Bé, for hell’s sake, but hire a guide. Have them stay well out of your way but be there in case of an emergency,” Mags said sans any snark.
“That sounds exactly like something Coll Barr would say,” Bébhinn shot back through her teeth, looking directly at Blair, Coll’s daughter.
Blair pursed her lips and stood, her body tight and angry. Signing, because she was born deaf, she said, “None of us are over your father’s passing, so we know damn good and well that you aren’t. It isn’t a time to be alone.”
