Chapter 15
‘Sorry, Mam, Nan! I was talking with Enda and Mr Kenny.’ Grace burst into the kitchen, eager to see them. She nearly tripped over Napoleon, who was lurking by the door in the process.
‘Whoops, I didn’t see you there.’ She stooped to pick Shannon’s Persian up, cuddling him to her.
‘Ignore him if he tells you he’s hungry, Grace.’ Nora smiled up from the table, where she was sitting with her mother-in-law, sharing a pot of tea. There was no sign of Liam. ‘He’s after being fed not ten minutes ago, but he’ll try it on given half a chance, won’t he, Kitty?’
‘He will indeed. Three dinners he’s after having the day before yesterday.’ Kitty tutted.
‘Three! No wonder you’re getting podgy, Napoleon.’ Grace kissed the top of his disgruntled furry head. ‘How on earth did that happen?’
‘Three dinners without a word of lie,’ Kitty confirmed, pouring a cup of tea for Grace as Nora scraped her chair back and stood up, eager to hug her daughter. ‘And he played us, that’s how. I fed him first then went through to the bar to catch up on all the news from Eileen Carroll, and when your mam came home shortly after from the grocery shopping, she fed him.’
‘Only because he was carrying on like he was half starved,’ Nora justified. ‘And when I went to have a word with your father, Shannon arrived in from work and gave him his third dinner, thinking he was fading away with the performance he put on.’
Grace laughed and tickled behind Napoleon’s ear. ‘So you’re a kleptomaniac and a greedy boy.’ He wriggled in her arms, so she set him down on the ground and watched him trot out of the kitchen.
‘You can add smelly to that list, but then I suppose that’s par for the course when you’re trying to digest three dinners all at once.’ Nora shook her head before wrapping her arms around her daughter. ‘And as for the stealing, well, don’t get me started on that. Did you hear he was after dragging a mystery pair of knickers down the stairs the other day?’
Grace was almost afraid to ask, although she did snigger at the graveness of her mam’s tone as she hugged her back. She got a mouthful of the same chestnut hair as her three older sisters – Shannon, Imogen and Hannah took after their mam, while she and Ava ran down their dad and nan’s side – mumbling back, ‘No, I didn’t hear about that.’
Kitty got up from the table as well to wait for her hello hug. ‘We’ve no idea whose knickers they are either. ’Tis a mystery where he got them, because he doesn’t go outside except when someone goes out with him to the beer garden. We think a guest must have accidentally left them behind.’
‘How do you know they don’t belong to one of us girls?’ Grace asked as Nora patted her back before letting her go so she could greet her nan properly.
‘Because, as your father so eloquently put it,’ Kitty supplied, giving her a surprisingly firm squeeze for a woman so petite, ‘the underwear in question could be used as a sail in the yachting world cup.’ She quickly added her usual remarks about her granddaughter not eating properly and having lost weight, which Grace tuned out as she snorted at her father’s typical remark.
‘It’s not funny, Grace,’ Nora tutted, opening the oven door and filling the kitchen with a tummy-rumbling garlicky waft. ‘That looks good, Kitty. And I’m certain they don’t belong to any guests we’ve had staying, which means he’s been going visiting.’
‘Shannon won’t like him wandering,’ Grace said.
‘I’m more worried about the poor local woman who’s after having her knickers robbed. What must she be thinking?’ Kitty said, pulling a seat out at the table for Grace.
Grace sat down, her mouth watering at the delicious aroma. ‘Is it lasagne bubbling away in the oven there?’ Her nan’s lasagne was as good as any Italian mama’s, she thought loyally.
Kitty twinkled over at Grace. ‘It’s your favourite, isn’t it?’
Grace nodded.
‘And don’t we always cook your favourite when you girls come home?’
‘You do,’ Grace affirmed, and not one to miss an opportunity, she added, ‘Which is why you’ve also been baking shortbread. A little birdy told me.’
‘A little birdy with gingery hair and a sweet tooth, I’ve no doubt.’ Kitty beamed as she fetched the biscuit tin from the pantry.
‘She’ll spoil her dinner,’ Nora clucked.
‘I won’t, Mam – I’m starving,’ Grace reassured her, sipping her tea gratefully.
‘You heard the girl, Nora. She’s starving.’ Kitty put the open tin on the table, and all three women helped themselves.
‘Your dad announced he’s a bad head on him, and he’s gone upstairs for a lie-down,’ Nora announced, nibbling away on the buttery treat. ‘It’s not like him at all. I hope he’s not sickening for something. It’ll be down to Evan Kennedy if he is. He was in here the other night sneezing, coughing and carrying on. I told him to get on home to his bed and not to be passing his germs around the pub.’
Grace was both relieved her dad wasn’t about and perturbed, knowing full well his headache was of her making. There was no time to dwell on that, though, as her mam drilled her on her life in London. She sipped her tea and made light work of two biscuits before her mam put the lid on the tin. She’d decided to tell the pair of them the truth about why her dad had a headache and had no sooner opened her mouth to do so when the door burst open, and Shannon, James, Imogen and Ryan boisterously tumbled in.
The Kelly kitchen was small, but somehow, there was always plenty of room. Grace was swept up in hugs with her sisters, chatting over the top of one another while James and Ryan were put to work setting the table. It was a given Imogen and Ryan would be staying for dinner, and Nora was already opening a bottle of red to go with their meal.
Grace was brought up to speed on Shannon and James’s renovations. They were thankful the cottage had fared well in the wild weather.
‘It’s just as well, because old Irish cottages are money pits,’ Shannon stated.
Grace saw Imogen’s eye roll and the nudge she gave Ryan. So, her elder sister and James weren’t the easiest customers, Grace deduced, unsurprised. What was that saying about not mixing friends with business? Well, the same could be said for family.
‘Clara Casey’s not got off so lightly,’ Ryan piped up. ‘The damage to her place is extensive. She’s asked me for a quote, and it’s going to cost a pretty penny to put things right.’
‘She’s been off work since the rain,’ James added. ‘Needs must, but we’re missing her at the practice.’
Shannon and Imogen made sympathetic noises.
‘Clara and Grace go way back,’ Shannon said. ‘I remember that phone call you made to me when you found out her little boy was sick.’
So did Grace. She’d never forget it.
She’d got straight on the phone to Shannon, because not only was she her oldest sister, she was also a nurse, interrupting her as she did her rounds by claiming it was an emergency before repeating the news Clara had texted her.
‘I don’t know what to say to her, Shan,’ she’d cried down the phone.
Shannon had wisely told her not to text her friend back but to go and see her. ‘It won’t be easy, but remember, it’s much harder for Clara, Alfie and the family. She needs to know her friends are there for her. It can be helpful to have someone who’s not as closely involved in what’s happening with Alfie as family are.’
Napoleon peeking around the doorway provided a welcome respite from the conversation going down that rabbit hole, because Shannon stopped talking to swoop him up and cover him in kisses. He glared over at James as though he was king for the day and James his lowly serf.
Grace turned to James with a grin. ‘So, how do you feel about competing with a furry fella for her affections?’
He grinned back. ‘I’m getting used to it.’
It was just as well he was a vet who loved animals, even cats with squashed-in faces like King Napoleon over there, Grace thought. ‘When does Harry arrive?’
James’s face lit up at the mention of his beloved Beagle, who he’d had to leave back in Boston at his brother’s while he got set up in Emerald Bay with Shannon. ‘I fly to Boston to arrange for the rest of my things to be shipped over and bring him back with me in four weeks.’
Grace didn’t need to ask if he was looking forward to reuniting with his dog, because it was written all over his face.
It was very romantic – James being prepared to give up his life in America to move to a tiny village in Ireland’s west country for Shannon. The grandmother he’d only met the previous year being here was an added pull, and there were fewer ties holding him to Boston given his mam’s recent sad passing.
Grace, having asked how the business was going, laughed as he told her about his nemesis, a hypochondriac, yappy chihuahua – called Princess Leia of all things – with nippy little teeth.
Grace liked James and Ryan, a local lad who’d been at school with Imogen, making them, in a roundabout way, childhood sweethearts who’d been slow to the party. Her sisters had done well with their partners, Ava included. Mind, between them, they’d kissed a few frogs before finding their princes. And though she’d found her prince, a Finnish model unfortunately had first dibs on him.
‘Shannon, go and check on your dad, would you? He’s away upstairs with a headache,’ Nora said to her eldest daughter, who’d set Napoleon down. The fluff ball was now fruitlessly trying to convince Imogen he was fading away and needed sustenance. He was picking on the wrong sister there, though, given Imogen’s cat allergy. Grace smirked, watching her sister backing away. If she’d wreaths of garlic bulbs and a crucifix to hand, she’d have been warding him off with those.
‘That’s not like him.’ Shannon frowned, abandoning the chair to head for the stairs.
‘Mam, where are those antihistamines?’ Imogen wailed. ‘Napoleon’s after stalking me.’
Nora sorted Imogen while Kitty flapped at Grace and the two lads to sit themselves down. Grace found herself sandwiched between Ryan and James, and she was all caught up on the cottage renovation by the time Shannon reappeared with a dishevelled Liam in tow. He didn’t meet Grace’s eye as he gruffly acknowledged his family sorting themselves out around the table. Still, she hoped his mood had improved now he’d had some quiet time to digest what she’d told him and put things into perspective. If he couldn’t put aside his petty grievance of old to help someone in the present, then Grace would have to face up to her father not being the man she’d thought he was. That didn’t bear thinking about.