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Fifty-Five
Finn
Strolling into the yard,I cast a quick glance around and found where Aidan Sr. and Lena were sitting.
I was going to ignore them, but Jake shrieked, “Grammy!”
“Little traitor,” I muttered under my breath, but seeing I had their attention, I walked over there.
Lena, who’d been sitting with Senior’s arm over her shoulder, sat up with a happy cry, her arms outstretched. I plunked Jake on her lap and shot them both a look.
Senior looked sick. Conor told me he was drinking too much, and I could see it for myself. He was starting to look that odd yellow color—jaundice. Thin and weedy too.
Lena wasn’t doing much better. Though her neck wasn’t scratched red, so she wasn’t doing too badly and was clearly taking her meds.
I tried not to feel guilty, but it was their actions that’d brought us to this tipping point, not mine.
It had been two months since we’d gone to the compound for dinner. Two months since our lives had changed. Two months of silence from the ECD, the Sparrows too.
I was under no illusion that we were in the eye of the hurricane right now.
I wasn’t looking forward to coming out of it.
“You okay with watching him?”
Lena cooed, “Of course,” as she bounced Jake on her knee “You go and enjoy being with your brothers.”
The words had me swallowing, and I tipped my head at Aidan.
As I walked away, I heard her say, “Leave the boy be.”
She never pressured me, whereas Aidan glowered at me as if his displeasure would be enough to make me toe the line.
A part of me wondered if she’d ever told him about going to Conor to handle Michael… and another part questioned if marriages were always so rife with secrets or if that was just how mob life worked.
I didn’t want that for Aoife and me.
I wanted open honesty between us; that was why I’d told her when I’d gotten my vasectomy. That was why I was being candid with her about my grief.
Maybe it was harder being transparent, but it was worth it when she looked at me the way she had in the car.
As I moved away from the arbor that was entwined with the goddamn peonies Aidan had driven me crazy over for the past six weeks, I heard Victoria’s softly lilting voice say, “Shay, are you reneging on our deal?”
I arched a brow at that then heard Shay mutter, “No. I don’t renege. I’m an O’Donnelly.”
She sniffed. “Then teach me how to kiss!”
My shoulders straightened in surprise.
“You lost our bet,” she argued. “I played it better.”
“You didn’t. I was unlucky. Mom’s nesting or she wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Or maybe you’re just a crappy actor. You need to improve on that if you’re going to be president.”
My lips twitched at her sass.
To be honest, I hadn’t heard more than a couple dozen words out of Victoria and thought she was a shrinking violet. I was pleased to know that I was wrong.
