Page 2 of On The Rocks

“This’ll cost us,” Donny muttered from beside me.

“You and T get your asses back to the bar,” I ordered. “Put the food out ready, and get the drinks lined up.”

Donny’s eyes swept over the crowd, buzzing with the promise of free booze and grub. “These vultures look thirsty.”

“Donovan O’Shea, shut your big mouth,” Mam hissed. “People want to pay their respects.”

He leaned forward and gave Mam a peck on her cheek. “Yeah, and they also want free booze.”

Aislynn rolled her red-rimmed eyes. “Can’t you eejits for once just do as Mammy asks?”

Tadhg snorted humorously.

“We run a bar,” Mam threw back. “If we can’t feed and water people after they’ve stood out in the cold watching yourathairget buried, we’re no hosts to speak of. Your da will strike you both down where you stand”—she did the sign of the cross with her finger from forehead to chest, then shoulder to shoulder—“God rest his soul.”

I jerked my chin at my brothers. “Do as Mam says and get back to the bar. The entire town will be turning up for Da’s wake; we don’t want ‘em to find the doors locked.”

Donovan’s worried gaze rested on Ma. “You sure you don’t want us to stay with you?”

She reached up and touched his face. “I’d feel better if my boys looked after the bar. It would put my mind at rest.”

“On it, Ma,” Tadhg murmured, leaning down and kissing Ma’s cheek.

Donny gave her a one-armed hug, then clapped my shoulder before following T, who was already making his way to the car.

Ma’s gaze followed them, and she sighed. “They’re little bastards, but I love them.”

I took her hand and squeezed gently. “We’re all little bastards, Ma, but we’re gonna see you right.”

She glanced up at me, her eyes shimmering with tears. “I’ll miss him.”

“Me too, Mam,” I croaked. “Things won’t be the same.”

“We’ll be okay, right?” she asked, her tone almost pleading. “We’ve got the bar, and your da would have looked after us, wouldn’t he?”

My gut settled.

If I was sure about one thing in this life, it was that my aul fella would always look after us. He was a good husband and father. He loved his family and always worked hard to give us what we needed. Since I was a boy, my da had drummed it into me that family came first; then, after I committed to a wife, she came first. He proved it every day of his life by loving my ma the way he did.

My gaze drifted toward the church. “We better go say our thanks to the people for coming.”

Ma sniffed. “I hate this.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “We just need to get today over and done.” My hand dropped from her shoulder, and I crooked my elbow. “C’mon. Let’s make Da proud.”

Mam slipped her hand through my arm, straightening her shoulders, and together, we began to walk toward the church, where all our friends and neighbors waited.

Hambleton was a small, semi-rural town in southern Wyoming, situated just north of the Colorado border, adjacent to the Utah state line. It was a community with old-fashioned values, where you could leave your doors unlocked, and your shit wouldn’t get thieved.

Da moved us here from New York when T was still a baby. He wanted a slower pace of life and to raise us in a place where we weren’t in danger of getting shot in a drive-by or recruited by a gang—ironically, the gang being his cousins—our second cousins—who were Irish Mob.

My aul fella’s ancestors were part of an old New York street gang, who were rivals to the Bowery Boys back in the 1830s. Over time, some of those gangs evolved into organized crime syndicates. Although my da was connected through blood, he always kept his distance.

The day we left New York, I finally saw Da relax for the first time. He had enough capital to open the bar and never looked back. Although he was never part of the New York ‘family business,’ he was always in danger of being pulled in against his will, so leaving it behind was a relief.

Our bar was successful. Although we’d never be millionaires, we did okay and led a good life. My brothers left town as soon as they turned eighteen: Donovan to join the Army and Tadhg to race stock cars. Donny was back now and in negotiations to buy the gym in town, whereas T was only home for the funeral. My sister, Aislynn, the youngest of us, was living in Colorado,where she’d graduated with honors and was interning for an architectural firm in Boulder.

All my siblings flew the nest, but I’d stayed to learn everything about the bar from Da and eventually took over when he retired. My life was here, and it had been a charmed one until a week ago.

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