Chapter 8
Aoife
“S tay here,” I ordered as I put the car in park.
“But we’re here,” Ronan whined.
“We’ll be right back,” Cian told him, turning to look at him.
“Why does Cian get to go?” Ronan snapped.
There was only three and a half years between the two of them, but there may as well have been twenty when you factored in their personalities and levels of responsibility.
I always wondered if Ronan would finally see it once he was an adult or if he’d always just remember that Cian got to do all the things he wasn’t allowed to.
I hoped that someday he’d realize that he got the better side of that deal, being encouraged to stay young while Cian had to grow up way too fast.
“Hopefully the good luck holds,” Cian said as we climbed out of the car.
Aunt Ashley was already standing outside her motorhome, hands on her hips.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Aunt Ashley called, hurrying toward us. “Is your mom with you?”
I shook my head slowly as we all converged at the hood of my car. I hadn’t thought this part through.
“She’s dead,” Cian said flatly.
“What?” Aunt Ashley’s head jerked back like she’d been slapped.
“Jesus, Cian,” I hissed.
Yeah, our mom had been a shit show. Yeah, we had mixed feelings about her being gone—mostly fear—but a lot of grief, too.
But Mom was Aunt Ashley’s sister and siblings were different.
Our grandparents were gone, so Mom and Aunt Ashley were the only two people in the world who knew their shared history.
They had a bond that went back almost forty years.
I couldn’t imagine losing one of my siblings—they were a part of me.
At the very least, our aunt deserved to have the news broken to her with a bit more sensitivity.
“There was a car accident,” I said quietly, keeping my back to the windshield of my car so Ronan couldn’t eavesdrop.
“What happened?” Aunt Ashley asked, her entire body seeming to shrink a little.
“We’re not sure—” I replied slowly.
“But she was hammered,” Cian cut in unhelpfully. “So, I’m guessing that had a lot to do with it.”
Aunt Ashley grimaced like she was in physical pain, her eyes closing as she shook her head slowly from side to side. “Dammit, Mandy.”
I elbowed Cian in the side.
“Ronan and Aisling don’t know yet,” I said, glancing at the faces staring at me through the car window. “I thought we should wait until we got here before we told them.”
“Come on up to the house,” Aunt Ashley replied, pulling me in for a tight hug.
She reached for Cian. “God, you’re huge.”
“Four years’ll do that,” he mumbled, but he hugged her back.
“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled back. “Thank God you guys got here when you did. You caught me on my way out of town.”
“Where were you going?” Cian asked as she rounded my car.
“Month-long road trip,” Aunt Ashley replied. “National parks.”
She threw open Saoirse’s door and leaned in to hug her. We couldn’t hear what the kids were saying inside, but whatever it was kept Aunt Ashley bent halfway into the car for a few minutes.
“Is she loaded?” Cian asked me quietly. “Nice RV, month-long vacation, huge ass property…”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. I couldn’t remember anything about Aunt Ashley having a lot of money. “She just doesn’t have kids. Expenses are probably low.”
Cian laughed under his breath.
“Ronan’s going to ride with me up to the house,” Aunt Ashley announced as Ronan threw open his door.
The way she said it, like it hadn’t even occurred to her to ask me if it was okay, made me bristle. Cian’s shoulder brushing against mine was the only thing that kept my mouth shut as Ro went racing toward the RV.
“We’ll meet you there,” I agreed.
It was disorienting following her back to the house because the road was so narrow there was nowhere for her to turn the RV around.
She reversed all the way back to the house and I was torn between being impressed with her driving skills and nauseous from driving toward a massive RV that gave the illusion that it was coming right for us.
Aisling and Saoirse spent the time quietly discussing everything from the color of Aunt Ashley’s hair to wondering if she had a swimming pool.
The house wasn’t huge or small, but somewhere in the middle, and it sat in the center of a large clearing.
Behind it and to the left was some kind of outbuilding with a fence all the way around it.
There were a million potted plants on the large front deck and a tall carport thing attached to the garage that must’ve been where she kept her motorhome, but she didn’t bother to use it and parked in the driveway when we arrived.
“It’s nice,” Saoirse said quietly as we climbed out of the car.
“You good?” I asked Aisling, helping her out of her booster seat.
“Yeah,” she replied distractedly, her eyes darting around the property. We were surrounded by massive trees that kept everything a little shaded and secluded. I had to admit, Aunt Ashley’s home seemed like an oasis.
“Come on in, guys,” she called, leading us up the front porch steps.
We trudged in behind her into a cool house that smelled like vanilla. It was spotlessly clean and airy.
“Fair warning,” she said with a laugh as she turned on a couple of lamps. “It doesn’t usually look like this. I was headed out of town, and since I have someone coming in to stay and take care of things, I didn’t want to leave it messy.”
“Why were you headed out of town?” Ronan asked curiously, leaning down to look at photos that were neatly lined up on a little table against the wall. “Hey, that’s me!”
“You’re all up there somewhere,” Aunt Ashley replied with a small smile.
“She didn’t know we were coming, Ro,” I said, reaching out to run my hand over Aisling’s hair.
“What?” he asked in confusion, turning to look at me. “You said we were coming for Cian’s birthday. Why didn’t you tell her?”
“Today, right?” Aunt Ashley said, her eyes on Cian. “Your card’s in the mail, bud. I sent it a couple days ago.”
Cian just shrugged.
“Mom was in an accident, guys,” I said gently, pulling Aisling against me. “She died.”
“No, she didn’t,” Ronan replied instantly.
Aisling was quiet.
“Me and Richie saw the accident, Ro,” I said, trying not to fall into an argument with Ronan. “She’s gone.”
“Oh, Aoife,” Aunt Ashley whispered sadly.
“How do you know?” Ronan shot back.
“I just do.”
“She might be hurt,” he snapped, glaring at me. “What if she’s in the hospital, and no one is going to visit her because we came here?”
“She’s not hurt, buddy. She died.”
“You don’t—”
“Have I ever lied to you, Ronan?” I asked.
He just continued to glare.
“If I thought Mom was just hurt, I never would have left town,” I added.
“Do you think she’s with Dad?” Aisling asked, leaning her head against my side.
“Yeah, baby,” I replied, my throat clogging with tears. “I think she is.”
Silent tears were rolling down Saoirse’s face, and Cian threw his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side.
“You did the right thing, coming here,” Aunt Ashley said, watching us. “I mean, a phone call would’ve worked, too.”
“Yeah, about that…” I let the word trail off, looking pointedly at my younger siblings.
“Anyone thirsty?” Aunt Ashley said, immediately interpreting my unspoken words. “There’s a refrigerator on the back porch full of drinks. Why don’t you go grab some?”
“You have a fridge outside?” Ronan asked snottily.
“I have a lot of parties,” Aunt Ashley replied, wiggling her eyebrows.
I gave Aisling a little push. “Go get something,” I said quietly.
Ash and Ro went out the back door, letting it swing closed behind them. Saoirse stared at me mutinously. She wasn’t about to be left out again.
“What’s going on?” Aunt Ashley asked as soon as the kids were out of earshot.
“It’s a long story,” I started, looking at the back door.
“Not that long,” Cian corrected. “As soon as they knew Mom was dead, the four of us would get shipped off to different foster homes, so we bailed. Congratulations, you’ve just inherited five kids.”
“Jesus, Cian, shut up for two seconds,” I snapped, scowling at him.
“Why do you think they’d send you to foster homes? Aoife is eighteen,” Aunt Ashley replied calmly.
“We were already dealing with social services,” I replied. “The social worker made it clear that leaving me in charge wasn’t an option and that was when Mom was alive.”
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Aunt Ashley said dismissively.
“What’s taking them so long?” I asked, looking at the back door suspiciously.
“I’ve got a couple of alpacas in the backfield,” Aunt Ashley replied. “I figured it would distract them for a few minutes.”
“Hopefully Ronan isn’t chasing them or something,” Saoirse muttered.
“They’d kick his ass,” Aunt Ashley replied, unbothered. She took a deep breath. “Well, you’re here now. We’ll figure this shit out.”
“Thank you,” I replied, taking what felt like the first deep breath I’d had since we’d driven past my mom’s car accident.
“I’m not sure what we’ll need to do,” she said, reaching out to squeeze my arm. “I’m sure there’s channels to go through and all that, but no one’s going into foster care, alright?”
The kids were subdued when they came back inside with their sodas a few minutes later. None of us had much to say as Aunt Ashley showed us to her guest room and left to call her house sitter while we made trips to the car to get our stuff.
“If you pile up some of the blankets,” I said, pointing next to the bed. “A couple of us can sleep on the floor and the others can take the bed.”
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Ronan said quietly, tossing his pillow down.
“This isn’t gonna work long term,” Cian said quietly to me.
“We’ll figure it out as we go,” I replied, not willing to look at the bigger picture yet. I’d been awake for more than twenty-four hours, and now that I knew we were safe, things were beginning to sway a little on my feet.
“Sersh, you’re in charge,” Cian said, looking at our sister. “Aoife needs to sleep.”