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“I am. Tomorrow. For a funeral.”
She sighed. “I’m so tired of death.”
“You should go on that cruise you were talking about at Thanksgiving.”
“Maybe I will.” She angled her head to the side. “What did Paddy want to talk to you about?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I’m sure.”
“Liam, his son—”
“I know who he is, Conor,” she clucked.
“Someone’s blackmailing him to throw a match.”
She blinked. “Funny how your father never got into that racket. I never understood why he didn’t. I used to watch my brothers gambling on the horses and thought it was a fool’s game.”
“We have bookies,” I countered.
Ma hitched a shoulder. “Shay’s been talking to me about his plans for the future.”
I leaned against the door and folded my arms across my chest, well aware that Savannah and Star were arguing in the driveway about TikTok so were occupied for the moment. “He’s still having nightmares?”
“Of course he is. It helps, him talking to me. Aela might not like it, but I failed as a mother and I won’t as a grandmother.”
“You didn’t fail us,” I rasped uneasily.
“I did. I let Aidan whip you into shape because that was all I knew. That was what my da did, what my grandfather did. But I should have been the instrument of change. I should—” She swallowed. “Less of that. The past is done. I can’t change what I did but I can make sure I’m better with the next generation.
"As for Shay, he’s told me his father’s been speaking to him about his grades, making noise about him applying for Harvard?”
I shrugged. “So?”
“So… you think I’m deaf to what Seamus has been spouting? About wanting to be a politician?”
“Where are you going with this, Ma?”
She shrugged but patted my chest. “Food and sports—no truer way to get to an American’s heart.”
My brow puckered as she leaned up and I automatically ducked down to let her kiss my cheek.
“Just something to think about, son. You drive safely back to the city, hmm?”
Still frowning, I stated, “I’ll look into getting you that apartment when I’m back from the UK. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me.”
As she drifted away to the kitchen, something about her seemed so frail, so alone that it hit me on the raw. Then, Paddy appeared. He said something I didn’t catch and it made her chuckle, and she seemed a touch less alone. A little less sad.
After decades of marriage to my father, I figured that was the least she deserved.
Even if my brothers didn't.
22
STAR
