Page 22 of Aidan

I head to Aisling’s room next. She’s sitting at her desk drawing. I stand beside her and stare down over her shoulder. “Oh, that’s pretty. I love the colors you’re working with.”

She glances up. “Yellow, pink, and purple are my favorite.”

“Mine, too.”

She goes back to drawing the flower she’s working on and I sit on her bed staring at the mural on her walls and ceiling. It had taken me over a month to complete it. And that had been doing a little bit every day. It’s a piece I’m most proud of. When I’d set out to start on it, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be. Sketching on paper is a far cry from almost life-size on perpendicular surfaces and making sure everything was to scale and didn’t get distorted. Then there had been choosing the right paint. The end result had been perfect, though. And we’d be leaving it.

Some other family would be sleeping here if we do leave. I have to make Aidan promise they won’t change anything about this room. It has to be kept exactly the way it is. My heart aches at the thought of my hard work and Aisling’s adoration being destroyed.

“Socha, why are you crying?” Worry colors her tone.

I sniff back the tears and swipe my face. Aisling stands in front of me, her eyes big and wide and scared. I pull her onto my lap although she’s almost too big for this too. God, she’d been so little as a baby. Every time I’d held her, I worried I’d hurt her somehow. What can I even tell her?

“I’m just feeling a little sad that you’re getting so grown up. Before I know it, you’re going to be going off to uni and I’m going to miss you.”

“Then I won’t go. I’ll stay with you and Aidan forever and ever,” she says firmly.

Apparently even she thinks it’s a given that Aidan and I will be together.

“Will you be okay with him and me getting married and all of us moving to Dublin?” Does she actually understand what that means?

“Is Dublin very far away?”

I shake my head. “Not too far. A few hours.”

“Can we come back here to visit?” she asks.

“Of course. We can make a whole weekend of it if we decide we want to come back for a bit.”

She quirks her lips and sits quietly for a rule. “Okay. we can go.”

“I think you’re going to like Dublin. Plus, like Aidan said, you’ll get more brothers and another sister. That’s exciting, isn’t it?”

“Uh huh.” She nods rapidly.

I guess it’s all settled then. All there’s left to do is tell Aidan.

CHAPTER11

Aidan

The familiar scentof baking hits me as soon as I open the door. Nora is always making something or another, whether it’s for Da or Nathan and Lucia’s boys.

She spoils them every time they come over, which isn’t often enough for her or Da. He may only be their great-uncle, but they’re treated like grandchildren by both him and Nora. Hell, they’ve got the boys calling them grand-da and mhamó. Learning they’re going to be grandparents to three more kids might be enough to ease them into the idea that I’m getting married.

I stride down the hallway to Da’s office. The door’s open and I peek in. He sits behind his desk with his head bent over some paperwork. A pint of beer sits nearby and the faint scent of pipe tobacco lingers in the air. Although Cian supervises most things, Da still makes sure he also knows what’s going on. I knock and he raises his head.

“Finally decide to grace us with your presence, I see.” He arches an eyebrow and leans back in his chair. “You’ve been gone longer than usual.”

Despite the fact I’m thirty, he still manages to make me feel like a teenager waiting on punishment for getting into another fight at school. Not that Da truly punished us unless we rightly deserved it.

“I had to take care of some things.”

He waves me in. “Sit, so we can discuss this important thing you have to tell me after being absent for six days.”

Not once in five years has he ever asked me where I disappear to. I take a seat and mimic his pose. Might as well just throw it all out there.

“I’m getting married.”

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