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Whether it was or wasn’t, Michelle was dead.
I just nodded, then kissed her forehead.
She wasn’t the only one who’d have to live with what she’d done that day.
***
Aoife
“Aidan will be home soon,”Lena told everyone as, from the head of the table, she began to pass around dishes in a circle.
As I spooned out potatoes, I cast a look around the boys. Everyone was faintly subdued, and that was probably because of Aidan’s scowl. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular—not even the source of his mood, my husband—but it was like a thundercloud was hovering over the table, and we were just waiting for the rumbles in the atmosphere to start.
“He’ll be miserable,” Conor predicted with a sigh. “You know what he’s like. He won’t even wear Ace bandages because he says he looks like a pus—weak,” he quickly corrected when Lena glowered at him. “How’s he going to cope with a cane?”
“We can’t think that way,” Lena chided him. “We have to make sure he knows it’s not forever.”
With my meal dished out, I started to eat. It tasted good but inside, I was nervous. The morning hadn’t started out like I’d imagined, and though I’d enjoyed it, I was still staggered by the ease in which I’d imagined myself as a mother. Combine it with the reason for Aidan’s bad mood, I just felt on edge.
It was nuts that I could remember, weeks before, when Magdalena had asked me when we’d be having kids. I’d felt like snapping at her boldness for asking me something so personal. Something I hadn’t figured I was ready for. But something had changed. What was that? Finn? Was he the reason why I could suddenly see myself having a family with him?
It wasn’t like the world had changed since we’d married, so did it mean my faith in him had?
“I’ve seen Aidan’s PT trainer. She’s even cuter than yours, Aoife,” Eoghan said, tongue-in-cheek as he prodded me from my thoughts. “I think he’ll manage to beupand about for her.”
The men snickered and Lena growled. “No talk like that at the table.”
Eoghan shrugged. “Didn’t say anything dirty, Ma.”
“The implication was there. She’s there to help him get back on his feet.”
“No better way for a man to get back on his feet than by—”
“Don’t even go there,” Aidan snapped at Eoghan, who grinned at me. Totally unaffected by his father’s temper. Conor was edgy because of it, but I realized Brennan and Declan were untouched by the storm brewing around us as well.
Were they just so used to it they didn’t care?
I shot Lena a look, saw she was scowling into her dish as she ate. “Do you have to do anything to the house?” I asked.
She glanced at me. “We’ll need to put a ramp in at the back. He’ll still be in a wheelchair for a few months until he can use his leg more.” Her head tilted to the side as she looked at me. “How are you?” She dropped her gaze to my belly.
“It’s fine. Getting there. Yoga is helping.”
“Can you do the splits?” Eoghan asked, mischief in his eyes.
“Whether she can or can’t is for me to know and for you to have a broken nose if you find out,” Finn told him curtly, a warning in his narrowed eyes as he pointed his fork at Eoghan.
“Now, brother, I’m just worrying after your wife’s flexibility. No shame in that.”
“No coveting allowed at the table,” Conor mocked, making me laugh.
I grinned at him. “Eoghan doesn’t covet me, Conor. He just wants to get into the practice himself. I can see him in head to toe Lycra, can’t you?”
“A leotard? Even better,” Conor crowed.
Eoghan curled his arm and tensed his bicep. “I’d snap Lycra.”
“Superman fits into Lycra, bud. If it can stretch around him, it can stretch around you.”
