AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He heard his father talking to someone and assumed his office was down the hall to his right. Shane turned away and glanced at a large flat screen television that took up a good portion of the wall opposite to where he stood. He was impressed. It looked to be at least seventy inches.
That was when he noticed the top of a honey blond head. Eden.
Shit. What did he say to a sister he hadn’t seen in years?
Shane had no idea how long he stared at the back of his sister’s head but he sure as hell nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his father’s voice a few inches behind him.
“Shane.”
The blond head shot up and he found himself staring into eyes that were a whole hell of a lot like his own. It set him back a bit. He’d forgotten how much their eyes were alike. It was like looking in a mirror.
“Hey, kid,” he said softly, a hesitant smile on his face as he gazed at his sister.
Eyebrows rose. Eyebrows rose really high and the blond head moved as Eden twisted all the way around and slid off the sofa. Long, coltish legs poured into black skinny jeans took a few steps and then stopped. Her feet were bare, but the bright orange paint on her toes looked as if they could light a darkened room they were so bright. Neon bright.
A tight T-shirt clung to a body (nothing like the one he remembered) and it was black also with Metallica in crimson across her chest. Long hair hung, nearly to her waist—he remembered a small pixie cut.
“Do I look like a kid?”
Christ, her voice had changed too or at least, the belligerent tone wasn’t something that he remembered. But then what did he remember exactly? She was a young kid, who, back then hadn’t interested him all that much.
“No,” he answered quietly. “You look all grown up.”
“Well, she’s not grown up,” James interrupted. His father’s face was hard as he glared at his daughter. “And she shouldn’t be wearing all that paint on her face.”
Oddly enough, on this point Shane agreed with James Gallagher, one hundred percent.
Eden rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She strolled by them and disappeared upstairs leaving the two men alone.
Shane was more than a little unsettled by his almost non-reunion with a sister who obviously didn’t care much whether he was in her life or not.
For a moment the two men stared at each other and in silence. His father looked tired. Old.
“It was nice of you to accept Celia’s dinner invitation.”
Shane nodded, but didn’t answer. His father’s eyes looked watered down and faded and for a moment he didn’t know what to say or do.
“It seems important to her.” James ran a hand through his hair, thick and wavy like Shane’s but shorter and peppered with grey. His father was still a handsome man, but the world was hanging on him. He was a shadow of the man in Shane’s mind and it was unsettling to realize that his father, the man who had always seemed invincible, was made of flesh and blood just like the rest of them.
“She’s dealing with a lot,” James sa
id carefully.
“Yeah, she told me.”
His father nodded and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his charcoal dress pants. His lilac colored tie was loose and the top buttons of his white dress shirt were undone.
Bobbi cleared her throat from the stairs and the two men glanced up at the same time. Her eyes rested on Shane briefly, but he felt the touch. The gentle reminder that she was there for him and in that moment he knew that as long as Bobbi was with him, he would get through a night with a family he barely knew.
He thought that maybe he could get through anything.
She smiled. “Hello Mr. Gallagher.”
His father, for his part, attempted a smile but it came across more or less like a slight grimace and he knew what his father was thinking. Shane and Bobbi. Bad news. Trouble with a capital T. Back in town and already hooking up with the sins of his past.
“Please, call me James.”
She nodded, a slight dip to her head. “Celia wanted me to get you. Dinner is ready.”
