Page 68 of A Game So Reckless

“Let me guess,” I tease lightly, “Elio ate his entire plate with nary a complain because the beautiful goddess he married made it for him?”

Deirdre laughs again, louder this time, and I know I’m right. Good God, my cousin is so gone for her.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly put it like that,” she replies, still chuckling. “But pretty much.”

“Thought so,” I say. She pushes her feet out from beneath herself, preparing to stand, when I suddenly say, “Wait.”

She pauses, her ginger eyebrows raised in expectation.

I lick my lips, already feeling pathetic for what I’m about to ask her. But she’s the only Irish girl I know. The only one whose family had sustained contact with Darragh before I met him.

“What can you tell me about Darragh?”

Her nostrils flares as she inhales. She presses her lips together for a long moment before answering.

“I try not to think about him.”

Same, girl. Same.

She cocks her head. Her orange braid shifts behind her shoulder. “Why do you ask?”

“I just…” I wave my hand vaguely in the air between us. “Just wondering if all these boss types are the same. I never thought that Elio would marry anyone willingly, let alone marrying for love.”

“You want to know if… What? If Darragh would marry someone?”

She looks confused, and I can’t blame her. My face feels suddenly hotter, and it isn’t from the sun.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m asking.” I’m about to tell her to forget it when she responds.

“Darragh Gowan will never marry.”

I blink at her, surprised by the firm certainty of her reply.

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s one of his rules.”

“His rules?”

This is the first I’m hearing about this.

Deirdre nods.

“He has rules. One of them is that, while he does drink, he won’t touch a drug of any kind. Not even painkillers.”

I snort.

“Sounds like Elio.”

From what I heard, it took some major cajoling to get my cousin to even bother with a Tylenol when his ribs and kidney were all messed up back in the winter.

“No, it’s not the same as Elio,” Deirdre says seriously. “Elio refuses pain meds because of a mixture of pride and a feeling the pain grounds him. Darragh refuses because of his parents.”

I lean towards her without even realizing that I’m doing it.

I’ve never heard a thing about Darragh’s parents. My mouth is so dry. Like I’m parched for any bit of information I can get about him.

“They both had addiction issues. Back in Dublin,” Deirdre says gravely. “I don’t know all the details, of course, but I do know that his mother died from an overdose from whatever shit they were taking together. When his father sobered up and saw her, he hung himself. Darragh came home and found them both.”

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