Chapter 8 #2
“Yeah, he’s great. He’s a big deal back home. Came here to record with Evan at the studio,” Shannon said of Kevin’s nephew, Evan McCarthy, who owned Island Breeze Records. “Hoping to break out in the US.”
“He’s sure got the talent, and with Evan on his side, he’ll get there.”
A few minutes later, Niall returned to his post on the deck. “Sending this one out to my buddy Shannon and all my fellow Irishmen.”
As Niall played the opening notes of “In the Rare Old Times,” a song made famous at home by The Dubliners, the pain in Shannon’s chest became so intense, he feared he might be having a heart attack.
The song had been one of Fiona’s favorites, and it brought back a tsunami of memories that, combined with his intake of whiskey, threatened to wreck him.
“Doc,” he whispered to Kevin. “I… I need a friend. Get me out of here, will you?”
To his credit, Kevin didn’t ask any questions. He signaled to Chelsea to let her know they were leaving.
“My tab…”
“I’ve got it. No worries.”
Shannon didn’t have the ability to argue. He’d square up with him later, when he could breathe again.
Kevin took him by the arm and escorted him out of the bar. Thankfully, Niall was engaged with his audience and didn’t see them leave. They went out the back way and followed a crushed-shell pathway to a nearby set of stairs. “Go on up,” Kevin said.
“What is this place?”
“My office.”
Shannon trudged up the stairs and stepped aside to let Kevin unlock the door at the top. He ushered Shannon into the dark space and turned on a light.
“Have a seat.”
Shannon landed in the first chair he encountered, dropping his head into his hands. How had it come to this? How had everything fallen apart again so suddenly, the same way it had once before?
“Drink this,” Kevin said, handing him a bottle of water.
Shannon opened the bottle and took a drink, letting the cool liquid soothe his parched throat.
Kevin sat in the seat across from him and appeared to wait for him to say something.
Shannon appreciated that Kevin didn’t push him, but let him know he was there if Shannon wanted to talk about it. He didn’t. Not really, but the pain inside him was unbearable enough that it compelled him to speak.
“I’ve royally fecked it up with Vic.”
“How so?”
“I kept something big from her the whole time we’ve been together.”
“What did you keep from her?”
Shannon kept his gaze trained on the floor, visions of Fiona alive and dead spiraling through his mind like a kaleidoscope of soaring highs and the most crushing of lows.
“Nine years ago,” he began haltingly, “my girlfriend, Fiona, was raped and murdered in our flat in Dublin. We’d been together since we were fifteen.”
Kevin’s deep sigh said it all. “Start at the beginning.”
Blaine walked baby Adeline from one end of the house to the other, patting her back and putting a gentle bounce in his step the way he’d seen Tiffany do earlier.
As she’d practically been asleep on her feet, he’d sent her to bed, assuring her he could handle baby duty for a couple of hours on his own.
He’d never in his life been so intimidated by a seven-pound being who held his heart firmly in the grasp of her tiny hand.
She looked up at him with big eyes that couldn’t make out much of anything yet, or so Tiffany had told him.
But she seemed to be studying him with wisdom well beyond her one day of life.
“I bet you’re going to be a genius. One of those exceptional kids who skips grades and graduates early from college.”
He laughed at his own silliness and continued to stare down at her, fascinated by every movement of her lips, every expression on her face.
Hell, everything she did fascinated him.
To think that he and Tiffany had created this new life together was among the most overwhelming things he’d encountered yet in his life.
Sitting on the sofa with his feet on the coffee table and the baby propped on his legs, he was thrilled by the squeeze of her hands around his index fingers.
“The first time I ever saw your mom, I knew she was going to change my life. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, until I met your sister, Ashleigh, and found out there were two beautiful girls to love.
And now there’re three of you. That makes me the luckiest guy who ever lived. You know that?”
Her lips made an adorable little bow, and then she blew out spit bubbles that made him laugh.
“You’ll go easy on your dear old dad, won’t you?
You should know from the beginning that I’m going to be kind of a pain about boys and all that nonsense.
I know what they want, and they aren’t getting it from my girls.
I’ll throw them in jail if they even look at you or your sister. ”
She did some more gurgling, perhaps in protest of his stance on boys.
“We might be getting a little ahead of ourselves talking about that now, but it’s probably best if you know my position on these things from the beginning.”
A soft tap on the back door had Blaine collecting the baby and rising to let in his brother-in-law, Mac McCarthy.
“Did you get my text?” Mac asked.
“Nope. Haven’t been near my phone all day.”
“Ashleigh forgot Boo Boo Blankie when she was here earlier, and there’s a bit of a meltdown going on at my house. I told her I’d come get it.”
“Oh damn, thank you. She won’t sleep without Boo Boo.
Let me get it for you.” Blaine went up to Ashleigh’s room and retrieved the beloved blanket.
They’d had to buy a second one for when the original was in the wash.
“Are you going to have a blankie, too?” he asked Addie, who stared up at him with those big eyes.
He was convinced that she saw him clearly and knew exactly who he was.
All the times he’d talked to her through Tiff’s belly had paid off. She knew her daddy’s voice.
Blaine took the blanket downstairs and handed it over to Mac. “Thanks for coming to get it.”
“No need to thank me. We’re all looking forward to actually sleeping tonight.”
Knowing full well how Ashleigh was about that blanket, Blaine laughed. “At least someone will be sleeping tonight. Little Miss Addie is wide awake.”
“How’s she doing?” Mac asked, gazing down at her.
“She’s great. We’ve been having a nice little talk about boys and how I’ll throw them all in jail if they step out of line.”
Mac laughed so hard, he startled the baby. “Sorry.”
“Is it always like this?” Blaine asked his longtime friend who was now his brother-in-law, too.
“Like what?”
“So intense that you feel like your nerve endings are on fire or something.” He couldn’t describe the feelings that were all new to him.
“Nah. You get used to it after a while, and you settle into the new normal.”
“That’s good, because I don’t know if I could handle this much emotion on a daily basis.”
“When Maddie had Thomas, one of the ladies she worked with at the hotel gave her a pillow that said motherhood is like having your heart walking around outside your body. If you do it right, and you totally will, fatherhood is like that, too. It’s not just about you anymore.
It’s about something so much bigger than you’ll ever be. ”
“Yeah,” Blaine said, gazing down at the tiny face that had become the center of his universe in one momentous day. “That’s very true.”
“You got this.” Mac squeezed his shoulder. “And now I’m off to pacify your other little girl.”
“You’re the best uncle ever. Thanks for having Ash.”
“We love having her. She keeps Thomas and Hailey thoroughly entertained.”
“We’ll talk to you guys in the morning.”
“Try to sleep when she does,” Mac said. “That’ll be critical for the next couple of months.”
“Will do.” Blaine saw him out and locked the door behind him.
“What should we do now?” he asked Addie.
“Want to watch some Sports Center? Or maybe Cops is on and you can see how Daddy catches the bad guys. Not too many of them on Gansett Island, thankfully. It’s more about the fools who don’t know when to quit drinking around here. ”
“What’re you telling her?” Tiffany asked as she came downstairs wearing a silk gown that showed off her incredible pregnancy curves. She’d told him they didn’t get to keep the much bigger than usual breasts, so he’d enjoy them while he could.
“It’s between my daughter and me. No mommies allowed. And why aren’t you sleeping?”
Tiffany sat gingerly next to them on the sofa, grimacing from the pain. “Did I hear Mac down here?”
“You did. He came to get Boo Boo Blankie, which Ashleigh left here earlier.”
“Oh jeez. How did we let her forget that?”
“A few other things on our minds today.”
“How’s she doing?” Tiffany asked, leaning in for a closer look at the baby.
“She’s doing great. In fact, I think it’s possible she might be intellectually advanced.”
“And you can tell this how?” she asked dryly.
“She gurgles at all the right times, like she’s trying to talk to me.”
“I hate to tell you, but that probably means she has gas.”
“Don’t listen to Mommy. You don’t have gas. Daddy knows best, and he says you’re a genius.” He couldn’t stop staring at the baby. “Look at her. Have you ever seen anything more perfect than she is?”
“Only her sister at the same age. She looks just like Ashleigh did.”
“I know. I’ve seen the pictures. I’m going to have two daughters who look just like their hot babe mother. What did I ever do to deserve such a burden?”
Tiffany laughed. “You fell in love with the wrong woman.”
“No, baby,” he said, stealing a kiss. “I fell in love with the best woman in the whole wide world, and she’s made me so much happier than I ever knew I could be.”
Tiffany rested her head on his shoulder. “You’ve made her just as happy.”