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Ma doesn’t hesitate, she’s on Nora instantly, wrapping her arms around her, as Nora lets her hand drop from the boy’s fingers and she wraps her free arm around Ma, quiet sobs coming from her.
“Shush child, no tears and no apologies. You don’t have anything you need to be sorry for. You did as my son asked, you kept yourself and his babies safe and for that we’re grateful. Now, dry your tears and introduce me to my grandbabies, then we can sit and have breakfast and catch up.” Ma grips Nora’s shoulders holding her at arm’s length giving her a moment to pull herself together.
She takes a minute to look around at my brothers and I then gives a small smile to Niamh. There are only us here, we made the decision to do this without our women here. We love our women, but we didn’t want to overwhelm her. We wanted to give Nora a minute to get used to us before introducing her to the others, not that she’ll have much time. Ma is planning on a big family meal tomorrow night providing Nora agrees.
She kneels placing the little girl on the floor, who stumbles slightly as she tightens her grip on Nora’s arm. Nora scrunches her nose at her and then smiles at them both. “Hey babies, these people are your daddy’s family.” She points to each of us and tells her children who we are, we each soften our expressions giving them a smile, so we don’t frighten them.
“I’d like you to meet your grandchildren, and your niece and nephew, Rory Jr and Shannon Aoife.” I hear Ma inhale, “wait… you named them after my children?”
Nora nods, a hint of fear. “When I told Rory I was pregnant, the only thing he asked was that if it was a girl her middle name would be Aoife. When I found out I was having twins and one was a boy I knew I wanted to name him after his Da, it didn’t feel right naming him anything else. I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you before doing it.”
“Hey!” I take a step toward Nora, wanting to put her at ease, “I think I speak for everyone here when I say, naming them is not something you should apologise for. We love their names, and we’re glad that you chose them.” I pull her up and into my arms, holding her to my chest, her arms circle my waist gripping me tightly, I feel her body shake with gentle sobs. Then I feel a hand tapping my leg. Pulling away from Nora, I look down to see Rory Jr, as he reaches for Nora’s hand, he gives me an angry expression as he tries to pull her away from me. I chuckle then get down to his level, “hey buddy, I’m your uncle Killian, do you wanna meet the others?” He shakes his head, but Shannon takes a wobbly step forward, then runs her hand along my jaw feeling my short beard.
I wait, giving her a minute to take in my features, then holding out my hand to her. “Hey beautiful, would you like to come and meet your uncles and your aunt?” She smiles and nods, then takes hold of my hand. I stand slowly leading her over to my brothers, her head tips back and confusion mares her face as she takes in Ronan, he reaches out for her hand and with his help she climbs onto his knee. Rory Jr stumbles and falls then picks himself up as he rushes to her side, watching every move Ronan makes with his sister, I love how protective the kid seems of her and his Ma, he’s definitely an O’Farrell.
“I’m your uncle Ronan, your Da was my twin.” I’m not sure she fully understands him, but she watches him. Her fingers gently tracing his forehead, nose, cheeks, mouth and chin. She tilts her head then looks to her brother and smiles before she snuggles into Ronan and sucks her thumb.
An hour or so later, we’ve had breakfast, Shannon has moved from Ronan’s knee and is now sitting with Finn, Rory Jr. hasn’t left his mother’s side, his eyes constantly tracking his sister’s movements, while trying to watch us at the same time. The kid sure is suspicious for only being fourteen months old.
“Nora, I know you’ve probably got somewhere to stay, but I would love it if you and the babies would stay with me even for just a little while.”
“Wh… what?” Nora looks surprised by Ma’s suggestion. Ma had declared she wanted them to move in the moment she found out about them. We’ve already got rooms ready for them all in the hope that she’ll agree. It makes sense, we still have people out there after us and having Nora at Ma’s means that we won’t have to stretch our security any thinner than they already are.
“Mary…”
“Hear me out sweetheart, I don’t know what your plans are, if you want to stay in the States or if you want to go back to Ireland, but I would like you to stay for a while to give me us a chance to get to know you, a chance to get to know your children. You’re our family Nora. And I have this huge house to myself, I have the space, and I can help you with Shannon and Rory Jr please, just think about it. Stay for tonight, I’ve planned a dinner for tonight so you can meet the woman, and my other grandchildren.”
“I have no intention of going back to Ireland, I want to stay here with you all, I want our children to grow up around you all. I would love to stay for a few days. I can’t wait to meet everyone else, but I have to admit I am grateful you planned the dinner for tomorrow night. The amount of travelling I’ve done the last few days with these two has taken its toll and we’re all a little exhausted.”
Chapter 2
I feel guilty that I was relieved when Killian had messaged me to say he was having a poker night with the guys. I know I’m being a bitch to him, but all we’ve done since my Dad came back into my life is argue. He’s never liked my Dad, and I get it. I know he’s not the greatest person in the world. But he’s still my Dad, I love him, and I’m sure in his own way he loves me. I have to believe that he does. I just wish Killian would give him a chance. But he knows the shit my dad pulled when I was growing up.
“Phil. Stop. We need that money; we need to buy food.” I hear Mom yelling at Dad again. It’s the same fight every week, Dad takes all of the wages leaving us with nothing. Mom manages to scrape something together for food, but we don’t get to eat every night.
“There’s fucking bread on the counter. You and the kid can eat that. I need this money.”
“Phil stop.” I hear my mother shout before I hear him slap her across the face. I race down the stairs and push in front of him rushing to my Mom. She’s holding her cheek, but she doesn’t look shocked by his actions this isn’t something new for her. He looks down at me and laughs. “What are you gonna do kid? You’re nine.” He pushes me then turns and walks out the door without giving us a second look.
I look up at Mom, she gives me a small smile then walks over to the bench her hand grabbing at the bread. “I’m sorry baby girl, looks like it’s gonna be toast for dinner tonight.”
I smile at her then take a seat at the dinner table. There’s no sense in trying to say anything to her. She won’t listen. I’ve begged her to leave him, but she says that she loves him, that he loves us. But I don’t understand how he can love us when he takes all the money, making Mom decide between heating the house or feeding us.
I look down at my phone ringing for the third time this morning, the first two times were Killian, letting out a breath I hit the answer button before it rings off, “Alex, hey what’s up?”
“You tell me, Kill is worried about you, he says that he hasn’t heard from you since the other night at Finn’s, what’s going on with you two?”
I close my eyes, trying to figure out how I can get out of telling her.
“Look, I’ll be around in two hours, and we can go to lunch.”
“Ah Alex, actually I’m really, busy to…”
“Don’t care, I’ll see you in two hours.” She hangs up before I have a chance to argue. Great, now I have a couple of hours to come up with something to get her off my back. I sigh, maybe I should just tell her the truth. We’re friends, and she won’t stop until I tell her.
I’ve given up on work, I’ve been staring out of my window across the city for the last thirty minutes just thinking about how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am. I’ve always loved helping people and helping them promote the things they do, which is why I learnt everything I could and became a PA and Marketing Manager. It hasn’t been easy, I spent the first few years working from a laptop in my shitty apartment or in coffee shops when I had meetings with potential clients. I was so excited when I’d finally begun to make enough money to rent my own office space, I’d spent weeks looking for somewhere that felt right, but it was Killian who found this place. Right near Central Park, when he suggested it, I thought he was crazy. I knew how expensive the places were around here and I didn’t think I could afford it, but he convinced me to just take a look. When I walked in, I knew it was perfect. The elevator opens right onto a decent-sized reception room, with a small kitchen off to the right and straight ahead from the elevator behind the reception desk are two offices, one on the right, the other on the left. When I walked into the one on the left, I knew I wanted it as my office, the views over Central Park were unreal. My face fell when I realised, I’d found the perfect place but couldn’t afford it.
Killian and the realtor told me I could though, they said that a lease had already been signed by another company who had to pull out last minute and the building owner just wanted the space rented out, so they were prepared to rent low. I’d fallen for it of course, but only a few months later I had seen an agreement on Killian’s desk, turns out he’d been paying the difference, all along. When I confronted him, his response had been to tell me that I deserved so much more than help with the rent on an office space.
