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Mrs. Kavanagh smiled. “He called the house, too.”

“Yeah?” I arched a brow. “How many times?”

“Five.” Mrs. Kavanagh chuckled.

“He needs to relax,” I said. “A million phone calls every day isn’t good for anyone.”

“He’s just adjusting to the change,” she said, still smiling. “It’s hard for him being all the way up in Belfast and not seeing you guys every day. He’ll settle down eventually. He’s worried about you because he loves you. He cares.”

“I know,” I mumbled, and I did. I had some clarity now, something I didn’t have in the past. I could see my brother in a different light. I knew Darren loved us, and he showed us just how much by doing the right thing and letting us go to the Kavanaghs. He and Alex couldn’t raise the boys on their own; they both had careers and were too young to make that kind of commitment, and he admitted that.

“And your aunty Alice phoned,” Mrs. Kavanagh added. “Your nanny is settling in down in Beara. She wanted us to know that Nanny is fine, and you and Joey aren’t to worry about her.”

“Is she really fine?” I croaked out, thinking about how frail my great-grandmother looked the last day I saw her—the day after my parents’ funeral, when she climbed into a car filled with all of her possessions and left for her new home in Beara with her granddaughter. “Are you sure?”

“She’s old, she’s tired, and she’s grieving, Shannon,” Mrs. Kavanagh replied gently. “It’s time for her to unwind now. Have a bit of peace and quiet in her life. Your aunt is taking good care of her.”

“My Onny,” Sean announced then, holding a picture of two green circles up in his hands. “Sean and my Onny.”

“Wow!” Mrs. Kavanagh gushed as she stood up to inspect Sean’s picture. “This one is the best you’ve done.”

Sean beamed up at her. “My Onny.”

“Yes, love.” Mrs. Kavanagh chuckled, taking the picture from Sean’s sticky fingers and hanging it up on the fridge. “He’s your Johnny.”

Understatement of the century. Sean was obsessed with Johnny. Seriously, he followed him around everywhere, watching his every move. In the beginning, I was worried because I didn’t want Johnny to feel uncomfortable. I felt bad enough that we were in his personal space without my baby brother clinging to him like a monkey, but Johnny didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. In fact, he always made time for Sean. Every evening when he got home from the gym or training, he would sit on the couch with Sean and listen patiently as he babbled on about his day. Most of what Sean said made zero sense, but Johnny always listened to him anyway, responding with enthusiastic words of encouragement and smiles. Yeah, it was safe to say that my baby brother had attached himself to my boyfriend, and I was terrified of how he would react when Johnny left for France next week.

“Sean, love, will you go down to the office and get John?” Mrs. Kavanagh said then. “And tell him his dinner’s ready?”

Nodding eagerly, Sean bounded out of the kitchen with Sookie hot on his heels.

“Good boy,” Mrs. Kavanagh called after him before turning her smiling face back to me. “Now that we have a minute alone, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Instantly, I began to panic. “Uh, okay.” Setting my fork and knife down, I tucked my hair behind my ears and tried not to fidget. “Wh-what about?”Don’t send us away. Please god, don’t send us away…

“Relax, pet, there’s nothing wrong,” Mrs. Kavanagh soothed, taking the stool opposite mine. I blew out a ragged breath and felt my shoulders sag in relief. “I just wanted to have a little girls’ chat.”

“Okay.” I gave her my full attention, feeling more gratitude for this woman than I knew what to do with. “Of course.”

“So, the camping trip for Johnny’s birthday is next Wednesday,” she said, brown eyes warm and focused on mine.

“Um, yeah,” I replied, nodding.

“And you’ll all be sharing tents,” she continued. “Boys and girls… You and Johnny.”

I blushed as awareness dawned on me. Suddenly, I knewexactlywhere she was going with this. “I’ll be sleeping in Claire’s tent,” I lied, feeling heat creep up my neck. “It won’t be a problem.”

“I love you for trying to put me at ease,” Mrs. Kavanagh replied, grinning. “But I’d be a foolish woman to believe you.”

I reddened.

“I’m not mad at you, Shannon, love,” she hurried to say. “I’ve actually been in a situation very similar to yours.” Smiling, she reached over and took my hand. “I lived with John’s family for years before we married.”

My mouth fell open. “You did?”

“I did,” she confirmed. “I ran away from home when I was a little younger than you are now. John’s mother took me in. She put a roof over my head, fed and clothed me, and she gave me access to an education that sparked a successful career in fashion.” She gave my fingers a gentle squeeze before saying, “She gave me the second chance I desperately needed. She saw something in me, something I didn’t even see in myself at the time, and she nourished it. She was a wonderful woman, and when she was dying, I never hesitated about moving back to Cork to take care of her.”

Mrs. Kavanagh continued. “Johnny wasfuriousto leave Dublin and the city life behind him, but I knew I had to come back here. I wanted my son to grow up in the same place his father had. To be around the kind of goodness that just naturally seemed to ooze from his grandmother. I wanted to nourish those roots.” Smiling, she added, “That’s why we stayed in Cork, and because my son grew into the man he is today, I know I made the right decision.”

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