Chapter Twenty-Eight
KIERAN’S UNCLE LOOKED the same as he always had.
Garrett had a slighter frame than his brother, wasn’t as tall or as bulky as Grant had always been.
But they shared the same strawberry blonde curls that now held more white than red.
Garrett’s lined face held a kindness, a softness that rivaled Grant’s stubborn steadiness.
As Kieran entered the hospital waiting room, Garrett rose from a chair in the corner, crossing the space to pull Kieran into a tight hug.
“I’ve missed you, boy.” His uncle might look gentle, weak even, but the strength with which he held onto his nephew spoke of a deep-seated connection that wouldn’t be broken easily.
Kieran couldn’t remember exactly when they’d last seen each other. The winter before, maybe, when they’d gone out for dinner together? Kenna had been home for the holidays, and Kieran hadn’t seen that side of the family in months.
Had it really been that long? Had the spat between the brothers grown so rooted in their family that half a year could pass without seeing one another?
“I’ve missed you too.” Kieran hugged him back fiercely. He still didn’t know what had caused the rift, whether it was justified or whether it was simply a spat ruled by stubborn indifference.
“You just missed the Mills,” Kenna said from where she was seated.
She had a Highlights for Children magazine open in her lap, and seemed to be reading every word of it.
She didn’t look up as she continued. “They brought your mom some flowers, said they couldn’t stay but hoped that everything goes well. ”
Sammie was in town? Kieran hadn’t known she or her brother would be there.
It made sense, with all the repairs that were still needed for the old house.
Repairs he’d promised to help with. After everything, Kieran still wanted to help, regardless of how it all might play out.
Sammie was a friend before anything else, and Kieran couldn’t stand the idea of letting a friend down when they needed him.
He sank into the seat next to his cousin. “Where is Mom?”
“Went to get some coffee,” Garrett said, taking the seat across from Kieran. “Wanted to stretch her legs a bit.”
“Were you here when they took him back?” Kieran had tried to be there in time, but with only a handful of practices before his team flew out to Los Angeles, Kieran hadn’t been able to cut out early. Not again, not after he’d spent the summer leaving his team in the lurch over and over.
“We were.” Garrett nodded, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. Kieran couldn’t quite read his uncle’s expression, some mixture of trepidation and turmoil pinching his features. “I talked with Grant before they kicked us all out.”
Oh. That was quite the development.
“It went well, I take it?” Kieran didn’t want to pry, but he was just as much of a nosy bitch as his cousin, apparently.
Garrett shrugged, but Kieran watched from the corner of his eye as Kenna put down her magazine, giving the conversation between them her full attention.
“He hasn’t been that willing to talk with me in years,” Garrett finally said.
His shoulders slumped, maybe with relief, maybe with defeat.
Kieran still couldn’t tell. “But he was scared. I’ve always been able to tell when he was scared, ever since we were kids.
Grant had the same look in his eyes that he had the day we accidentally let Pops’ prize-winning hens out of their pins. ”
“Good god,” Kenna said. “Sometimes I forget just how midwestern this family can be.”
“And sometimes I forget that my daughter is a brat.” Garrett gave her an eye roll that was identical to the one she so often sported. Kenna only shrugged, a small smile tilting her lips as she returned her attention to the magazine in her lap.
“He didn’t kick you out of the room,” Kieran said. “That’s a good sign, yeah?”
Garrett’s stare dropped to his hands as he deflated. “Not willing to get my hopes up again that this time he’ll want to talk things out.”
Kieran felt the same frustration well up in his chest that he had felt every time the brothers’ feud was brought into the light of day. “He’s going to be laid up for a while after this, doubt he’ll have the energy to physically kick you out of the room anymore.”
Garrett frowned. “I can’t make him listen. I’ve tried, for close to a year now. He’s not interested, not after all the bad blood between us. I can forgive him for the part he played it this… this rift, but he isn’t willing to extend me that same courtesy.”
Kieran’s brows pinched together. “So you’re just going to give up?” He was so sick of this. The whole family was. Whatever falling out had occurred between the brothers had bled into all of their lives.
“You don’t understand.” His uncle’s words were heated, his tone a match to the one Kieran often heard from his father. “None of you know how deep it all runs, how many things have been said in anger—”
“Does it matter?” Kenna didn’t look up from her magazine.
“You had a fight, you both said shit that you didn’t mean.
None of us know what happened, what it was all about, but at the end of the day does it matter?
Are you willing to give up on something that’s so important to you just because it’s hard to fix? ”
Her words speared through Kieran, even though they were directed toward her father. Both men went silent, mulling over the truth she had just thrown between them.
“She’s right,” Kieran finally said. Kenna had put into words exactly what Kieran’s mind had been running laps around, circling and circling the same immovable conclusion. “You two love each other. If you want to fix it, keep trying.”
As though the revelation had summoned her, Kieran’s mother entered the waiting room, styrofoam coffee cup in hand.
Meredith’s eyes landed on him immediately, her expression blank.
The lines around her eyes, the corners of her mouth, they all looked deeper than ever, as though the stress of the last several weeks had carved deep gouges in her very soul.
Kieran watched her cross the room, smiling softly at another waiting family as she passed, taking the seat next to Garrett without meeting Kieran’s gaze again.
She didn’t offer him a greeting, and Kieran worried that anything he said now would only exacerbate the situation between them.
It wasn’t the time, not when she was probably more worried about her husband than any of them could fathom.
Their small group sat together in silence. Others came and went as the hours passed, as they all waited to hear from Grant’s doctor. None of them moved save for Kenna, who finished her magazine only to cross the room and grab another issue that looked as though it might be a couple decades old.
Kieran would wait to talk to his mother. He would wait until they knew his father was in the clear, when the weight of the surgery was lifted from all of them.
Growing bored with staring at his hands in silence, Kieran pulled out his phone.
The thought of losing himself in the endless social media scroll had never been less appealing to him, so he pulled up his photo album.
Not the password protected one, not in a room full of people.
But even the main album was peppered with shots from the last month.
He scrolled to one in particular. Sammie was making a face after Kieran had told her to pose, her arms up as she stretched.
She was wearing the same cropped shirt that was currently holding space in his dresser.
The waistband of her sweatpants cut into her hips as she sat cross-legged on his bed, her nose scrunched up as she stuck her tongue out at the camera.
A message notification pulled his attention from the picture.
Kenna: wow
Kenna: didn’t realize you were that down bad
Kieran cast a sidelong glance at his cousin. She was still pretending to read her magazine.
Kieran: Yeah
Kenna: woooooow
Kenna: not even trying to hide it
Kieran: There’s no point.
Kenna: your plan will work
Kenna: just gotta be a little less goofus and a little more gallant
Kieran had just finished reading her message when Kenna leaned over, holding the magazine up for him to see.
She pointed at the boys on the page, raising a knowing brow.
The character of Goofus was hiding from a friend, clearly upset, but unwilling to face his friend head on.
Gallant, on the other hand, simply asked his friend for time to cool down before finally talking through their disagreement.
“A little on the nose, don’t you think?” Kieran mumbled. Kenna chuckled.
“I don’t know any other way to be.” She leaned close, so that their shoulders were pressed together. A comforting pressure, one that Kieran let himself lean into.
A doctor entered the room, asking to speak with Meredith. The way tension melted from her shoulders as they spoke in hushed tones by the doorway told Kieran everything he needed to know about how his father’s surgery had gone.
And even though his mother wasn’t speaking to him, even though he hadn’t yet found the courage to start up that conversation, even though it felt like everything Kieran wanted was still balanced precariously on a cliff’s edge… for the first time in days, Kieran felt as though it would all be okay.
All he had to do was find the right time to say everything he needed to say. To his parents, and to the woman he’d realized he wasn’t willing to let slip away from him.
Not this time.
“So.” Atticus kicked off the ground with his good foot, pushing himself into the air, his gaze locked on Sammie as he swung back and forth. “What did you make me drive all the way down here to tell me?”