Page 101 of Dearly Betrayed

“I’m still sorry about that, Fallie.”

“No need to be.”

“Yeah, well, anyway. Things are good here too.”

“Seems to have settled okay.”

“It took some convincing and a lot of hard work, but I’ve got nearly all the family on my side. A few aren’t happy about it, but they’re going along at least.”

“I’m proud of you, Chim. Papa would’ve been proud too.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. But hey, there’s a new baby, alright? That’s pretty amazing. You’re a mother now.”

“Guess it’s your turn to settle down, huh?”

“Ah, well, you know me.” He grins and shrugs. “Won’t ever happen.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I leave him and go to make sure Jayson’s not in a fistfight with a cousin. I find him cornered by the uncles, answering questions about American football to their bemused expressions, as if it’s the most insane thing they’d ever heard of.

“Just call it fuckin’ rugby,” Uncle Nollaig says.

“But it’s not fuckin’ rugby, it’s somethin’ else,” Uncle Donal counters.

“Fuck you both, it should be called handball or some shite,” Uncle Owen cuts in, which devolves into the usual bickering.

I lead Jayson away, locate my child, extract her from an unwilling gaggle of cousins, and take my whole family out back. We sit in chairs in the relative quiet, only a few other male cousins smoking cigarettes and talking about local politics, but we’re ignored.

“It’s a lot, I know,” I say, kissing Jayson’s cheek. “You’re doing great.”

“It’s not that different from my own family, or at least the way it used to be when we all lived in the Sunrise.”

“Yeah, true, except this house is a lot smaller than the casino.”

“Fair point.”

“I’m happy you’re here.”

“I’m happy I’m here too.”

I kiss him again. I wish it could linger, but now’s not the time. Neve fusses, and I tell the boy cousins I’m going to feed my daughter and they’d better not act like little bitch babies about a girl’s titty doing what God made it to do, and they all fuck off like I knew they would. Jayson laughs.

“It’s like a magic power. The ability to make men uncomfortable.”

“A woman’s gift,” I say with a wistful sigh as Neve feeds. “I love you, you know that?”

“I love you too. And your family’s okay. At least the ones that don’t hate me.”

“The others will come around, or maybe they won’t, but hey, what’s family without at least a few blood feuds?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Do you mind if we stay for a few nights? I want to visit with people individually.”

“We can stay as long as you like.”

“Really?”

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