Page 14 of Beneath Pearly Irish Skies
If Keegan had signed up to meet women, he’d likely be disappointed. There were only three of them in the Tuesday night class. The other students were men: Eoghan, Liam, and Kade. She had no idea why Eoghan wanted to learn a new craft at his advanced age, but she admired him for it. Liam had told her he’d had a taste of it before on a trip overseas. Kade had said he thought it would be uplifting. Truthfully, though, she wondered if he wasn’t attending for a girl.Her.Who knew what kind of atmosphere they’d have with that group?
“Keegan’s twenty-seven,” Liam said, plucking a tall blade of grass and worrying it between his fingers. “To hear him tell it, he’s in the middle of a midlife crisis, what with not being married yet. You have only to look at the words he sprayed on his cows to see why the girls in Caisleán don’t go out with him.”
“He’s weird,” Ollie said.
“He’s a gas,” Liam said. “Funny. Or trying to be. I’m not feeling it.”
Megan wondered if Keegan was weird or simply misunderstood. She’d also felt the pressure to get married and have children. In fact, she would have had more of them, but the timing of Tyson’s short home leaves had never been right after Ollie. She hadn’t gotten pregnant again.
“Can I call Uncle Carrick and tell him, Mom?”
Megan looked at her watch. “No, we need to get you to school. It starts in ten minutes.”
“At least I can tell Mr. Fitzgerald,” Ollie said, because his teacher was none other than Carrick’s brother, Jamie. “But we don’t have to be in such a hurry. I’m always early.”
Even though she’d been on a lightening-up program with Ollie, she still made sure they arrived on time every day. Some lines she didn’t want to cross. Still, she she’d stopped being a smother mother. Ollie loved to play outside and soak up male attention from their friends and relatives, so she’d gotten out of his way. For the first time in a long time, she and her son were getting along.
Liam laughed. “My mom always had us there fifteen minutes early too. It’s the American side. Come on, Ollie. Let’s leave this sorry spray-painted lot and get you back in the car.”
“Where are you going today?” Ollie asked, racing over to him.
Liam scooped him up, making her son giggle. “I’m off to the corner store for some milk. Mum forgot to buy some when she went shopping yesterday. She’s out of sorts.”
He laughed. “Because she likes Mr. O’Dwyer, right?”
“Ollie!” Megan gasped.
“What?” Her son made a funny face. “She does. Boys make girls crazy. Aunt Angie says it all the time.”
Liam tilted his head to the side and grinned. “Girls make boys a little crazy too. Unless you do yoga and meditation.”
“Ugh!” Ollie called out. “I hate yoga and meditation. Uncle Carrick says you’re going to get stuck in one of those poses. What’s it again? Something with your dog?”
“It’s downward facing dog.” Liam tapped him on the nose when he caught him. “Not Carrick’s style, but I still love him. Megan, how’s the meditation going for you?”
She’d tried to quiet her mind last night after Ollie had gone to sleep, but her thoughts had strayed to Kade. He hadn’t brought up their conversation in the pottery room three days ago, acting as easygoing as always. She’d written in her journal instead. The pages could be summed up into one phrase: she didn’t know what to do.
Liam stopped his gentle roughhousing with Ollie. “You all right, Megan?”
“Mom burned our dinner last night,” Ollie responded. “It was so gross. Burnt spaghetti is the worst.”
“Not as bad as the monkey brains I had in Kenya,” Liam quipped, making her son gag.
“Liam, please tell me you did not eat that,” Megan said, turning away from the cows.
“I did, and it was disgusting.” Liam put his hands to his own throat like a little boy, gagging along with her son. “My older brother dared me. Ollie, hear this wisdom. Never let anyone dare you into doing something. It’s a mistake. Every time.”
“I won’t, Liam,” Ollie said, sniffing the air. “Someone is putting poop on the fields.”
Megan caught a whiff of bovine in the air herself, her face bunching from it. The Irish countryside was picture perfect for the eyes, but sometimes it was downright putrid for the nose.
“We call that slurry,” Liam said with a laugh. “Now, you have another Irish word. Off to school with you. Megan, do you need anything at the store?”
“We need milk too!” Ollie answered, opening the car door. “Ugh! I have to shut the door fast so the poop smell doesn’t get in the car. Bye, Liam.”
Liam’s shoulders were shaking as the door slammed. “He’s a trip, as Mum would say. I’ll drop the milk off on my way back. Anything else?”
Another journal?she almost asked. She’d written pages last night, much like she used to do in letters to Tyson, some of which she hadn’t had the courage to send. Her chest tightened.
