Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
“Tell me you see how insane this is,” he said.
“Tell me you see that I have no other choice,” I replied, staring into his eyes.
He was silent for a long time before his eyes closed and his chin dropped to his chest in defeat. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Give me an hour. I’ll go pack some shit and—”
My head jerked back in surprise. “What? No. What?”
“You’re not going without me.”
“You’re not going,” I argued.
“I am.”
“You have a life here!”
“So do you.”
“I have to go.” I threw my arms out in frustration. “You don’t!”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Richie, you have a job! A career! You can’t just bail. You’ve been working so hard. Plus, your parents.”
“I’ll be back in an hour,” he replied stubbornly. Stepping forward, he cupped my cheeks in his hands and pulled my face to his. “I love you.” The kiss was wild and desperate and wet.
The moment he walked out the front door, I was racing up the stairs with Aisling’s bottle of pain reliever in my hand.
“Hey, girlies,” I called, walking into the room. Ailing looked miserable on her bed, a coloring book in her lap.
“Hey, E,” Saoirse called from her bed.
“I brought some medicine.” I sat on the edge of Aisling’s bed. “Let’s see if this helps a little.”
Saoirse sat up in bed and watched me, and I wondered if I looked as crazy as I felt.
“The doctor sent me some medicine,” Aisling said, taking the chewable tablets from my hand. “Did you get it?”
“No, we’ll go get it in a little bit, though.” I stood and looked at Saoirse. “Help me real quick?”
“Sure.” The word was drawn out and suspicious.
She followed me to my room, and Cian was already there, sitting on the end of my bed, his elbows to his knees.
“What’s going on?” Saoirse asked nervously.
“Mom’s dead, Sersh,” I said quietly, not making her wait. “Me and Richie saw the car accident on our way home.”
“You’re sure?” she asked. When I nodded, it was like she slowly melted to the ground, her legs going out beneath her.
“Shit,” I blurted, reaching for her.
“I’m fine,” she cried quietly, pressing her forehead against my shoulder.
“Shoulda told Sersh to sit,” Cian said dryly from the bed.
“Not helpful,” I shot back.
“Saoirse, we’re leaving,” he announced, ignoring me. “Remember that call Mom had with Ashley earlier, confirming that we’d be leaving when Aoife got off work?”
They looked at each other. Saoirse nodded. “Yeah,” she rasped. “Road trip for your birthday.”
“The two of you are a little scary,” I mumbled, kissing the top of Saoirse’s head. “Go get packed, yeah? We need to hurry.”
Saoirse left the room, but Cian stayed as I started pulling clothes out of my dresser. I didn’t have a lot of them, but I had to be strategic because I only had so much room in the car.
“You gonna try to bail before Richie gets back?” Cian asked.
I looked at him in surprise.
“You guys weren’t exactly quiet.”
“He’s got responsibilities here, bud,” I said, stuffing a pair of sandals in my bag. “He can’t uproot everything to follow us to another state.”
“Don’t you think he should choose?”
“He’s a good guy,” I replied, pausing to look at him. “Do you think his conscience would let us drive across the state by ourselves? His life is here. It’s not fair to let him go, okay?”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I’m packed. Want me to get Ronan’s shit together?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
He started across the bedroom.
“Wait!” I tossed him my full bag. “Take that downstairs and grab the file of important papers out of Mom’s closet, yeah?”
“The blue one?”
“That’s the one. Make sure it has everyone’s birth certificates and social security cards. Leave Mom’s in the closet but bring Dad’s.”
“Got it.”
When I got back to Ailing and Saoirse’s room, Aisling had fallen asleep.
“Don’t forget her Barbies and Funky Frog,” Saoirse said as she stuffed clothes into her bag. “Can I bring books?” She was close to tears, staring at her bookshelf.
For as long as she’d been in love with reading, we hadn’t had a whole lot of extra cash. Every year I brought her to the library’s end-of-the-year sale and every garage sale we saw that had books for sale. She’d spent hours upon hours searching for specific books and assembling her collection. Sometimes it took her a year or more to find the book she wanted.
“Five,” I choked out. “Your favorites, yeah? We might come back at some point.”
I packed up Aisling’s clothes and stuffed her Barbies in around them. “Don’t forget an extra pair of shoes and a jacket, Sersh,” I reminded her as I carried Aisling’s bag over to Saoirse’s bed. “I’m going to run down and find Ronan and start packing up.”
“Are we telling them?” Saoirse asked quietly, glancing at Aisling.
“Not yet. For now, it’s just a surprise trip to see Aunt Ashley.”