Page 26 of Almost Priest

Kelly opened the door and Finn walked in, appearing harassed as a little old woman with short orange hair and soft, but sharp wrinkled eyes the color of sea glass followed. The woman chattered in an accent so thickly Gaelic it first seemed she was not even speaking English. It took a moment for Sam to realize this was Mary O’Leahy, Maureen’s mother and Braydon’s grandmother, or Morai as he referred to her.

Finn looked at Braydon, rolled his eyes and shook his head as if the tirade he was suffering had been going on for hours. Braydon laughed into his coffee and moved to greet his grandmother.

“Mornin’, Morai.”

The tiny woman squealed in the middle of her diatribe and roughly pinched Braydon’s cheek.

Knowing he was hung over and that pinch must have felt more like a fork in the eye than an expression of affection, Sam smiled sympathetically at him. His grandmother pulled him down to her height and kissed him right on the lips.

“Me beautiful boy! Yer mum tells me yer here with us fer a few weeks, aye?”

“That’s right, Morai.”

In a louder than usual conspirator’s whisper she said, “And she tells me you’ve brought a lassie home with ye?”

Smiling he turned to Sam and said, “Morai, this is Samantha. Samantha, this is my grandmother, Mary O’Leahy.”

Sam stood and held out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. O’Leahy.”

She took her hand, but eyed Sam as if she were hiding something from the rest of them. Sam fought the urge to squirm under her scrutiny. Finally Braydon’s grandmother said, “Aye, she’ll do.” And then turned to help Maureen at the counter.

Braydon leaned in as if to reassure her, but was interrupted when Sheilagh blew in like a tornado followed by Luke’s much more subtle entrance.

The McCullough women were all a bit scary, Sam decided.

Sheilagh snatched an apple out of a basket and wiped it on her shoulder before taking a large snapping bite out of it. Juice dribbled down her chin and she caught it with her thumb as she climbed into a chair at the table and tucked her feet onto the seat. “Luke, you wanna go to the lake today? Pat and Ry are going.”

“So really,” Kelly butted in, “you’re planning on displaying your jiggly bits in a bikini for Tristan, is what you’re saying.”

Sheilagh lobbed her half eaten apple at him and Kelly laughed as he caught it with surprising reflexes then, as if he’d just been given a gift, he took an appreciative bite of the fruit.

Luke looked at Kelly. Sam wondered if Luke suffered from guilt for his secret affair with his sister’s crush.

“I think I’ll hang back today. I have some stuff to get done,” Luke said with transparent insincerity, yet no one seemed to question him.

Sheilagh shrugged as if his attendance were inconsequential. “How about you, Samantha? Wanna come to the lake?”

“Uh…” Sam fought the cold dread that swamped her belly at the thought of being near water. “Is it a beach?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, but I’ll have to just hang on the sand. I didn’t pack a suit.”

Of course she didn’t. Sam didn’t swim, so had no reason to own a suit.

“You can borrow one of mine,” Sheilagh offered.

It would probably fit, but Sam would rather avoid having to make excuses throughout the day when asked to swim. “You’re smaller than me.”

“Hardly. And besides, it’s a string bikini. You can adjust the hips and neck.”

Sam jumped when Braydon hugged her from behind. It was always awkward when he displayed affection in front of the others.

He pressed his face into her neck and whispered, “Come on Samantha, let’s do the lake today. You’d look great in a bikini and you know it.”

Although the others probably couldn’t hear his comment she blushed anyway. He smelled of coffee laced with whiskey which she knew was left over from the night before.

The kitchen door swung shut again. At the sight of Colin dressed in a formal button down and dress slacks she tensed. Suddenly very uncomfortable with Braydon’s position, she eased out of his embrace and stood.

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