Page 49 of Beside Golden Irish Fields
“You’re up early,” she said, noticing the unwashed dishes in the sink and the remnants of dinner.
“You were out pretty late.”
She was so not up for this. “I got home at ten o’clock, Megan.”
“Ollie was asking about going to the pub to join you—and Liam,” Megan continued. “Angie, I saw some of the videos people posted on Bets’ Facebook page. My God, you had a bunch of naked men overrun your first class.Oldmen! How absolutely mortifying!”
Angie crossed to make herself tea. “It was a bit of craic, like the Irish say.”
Her sister stood and put her hands on her tiny waist, accentuating the weight she’d lost in the past few months. “Bets and the others wouldn’t have used water pistols if it had only been a bit of fun. She was so mad her face was red.”
Her head started to throb. “Megan, she was mad for other reasons, which is why she and the Lucky Charms ended up dancing on the bar in Gavin’s pub and giving as good as they got.”
Her sister sank into the chair and took a sip of her tea. “I saw that too. I thought they were going to drop their robes for a moment, and I was appalled. Thankfully better sense ruled, if you can call it that. I was happy to see you refused to participate. When Bets started calling your name in the video, I wasn’t sure what you’d do.”
She had to bite her lip to hold back her anger, some of which was still for herself. “Megan, I need to get painting. The light is really great right now.”
Her sister glanced out the window. The mist hovering over the fields was almost a pinkish gray. Angie had the sudden urge to be swallowed up in it so no one could find her.
“I don’t want to table this.” Megan crossed the room to her. “You’re changing, and not in a good way if you think public indecency isn’t a big deal. Ollie isn’t himself either. He’s growing angrier by the day. When I was putting him to bed last night, he shouted at me for babying him. He even threw his blanket at me.”
Angie rubbed the back of her neck. Her headache was gaining speed. “You brought it?”
Her sister nodded, her cheeks flushing.
She sighed. “Megan, I know you brought it out after Tyson died, but that’s his baby blanket. He hasn’t used it since the funeral.”
“I know what my son needs.” Megan fiddled with her robe’s sash. “It gives him comfort. He just doesn’t know it. But you’re missing the point. I needed you last night, and you weren’t here.”
There it was. Her sisterneededher.
She could hear Randall telling her how much he needed her at the beginning of their relationship. How he didn’t know how to do anything without her, meaning he didn’t want to try.
Maybe it wasn’t fair, but she was sick of it after eight months.
She fisted her hands to gather her strength. “Megan, I can’t always be here. I need to live my life too.”
Her sister turned a darker gray. “But I can’t do this alone. I can’t be both mom and dad to Ollie. My husband just died.”
No, your husband didn’t just die. He died eight months ago.But she couldn’t say that. “Megan, you took care of him alone when Tyson was gone.”
“But I wasn’t depressed then!”
She pressed her fingers to her temple. “We’ve talked about other ways to help you overcome depression, Megan. I don’t know what else to do. I’ve been trying to see your new breakfast routine as a win, plus the way you haven’t been lying around as much, but I need you to do more. Maybe you should have moved in with Mom and Dad instead of coming to Ireland.”
Her sister gasped. “But you know how Dad is. He wouldn’t be soft with me or Ollie right now. He’d tell us to buck up and move on. Not dishonor a fallen war hero by acting like crybabies. If it were only Mom… She’d take care of us and make us feel good. Mostly.”
Yes, she would. Angie knew the pattern all too well. She’d been doling out the same kind of caretaking her whole life. “Then you have a dilemma. I’m going to go and let you think, but regarding Ollie, I think it’s healthy that he threw that baby blanket aside. Megan, he’s eight—”
“He lost his father,” her sister said, staring at her accusingly.
“Yes, he lost his father. And you lost your husband. I ‘screwed’ up my life with Randall and Saul. It’s time to own our problems. Figure out a way to move past them. Maybe Dad’s partly right. If we don’t buck up, we’ll be crippled for the rest of our lives. I mean, do you really plan to live with me forever?”
Her sister’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know. I’m so lost, Angie.”
She couldn’t stand to see her pain any longer. She grabbed Megan in a hug. “I am too, but I’m digging my way out. There’s support here, Megan. I feel it. I’ve found it. In Bets and Liam and Carrick.”
Megan pressed back.“Carrick?”
