Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
What’s happened? When I lived here, I took care of things, I know I did. I blamed my mum’s depression over the loss of her husband. I cooked dinner and paid the bills, and I’ve lied to myself, thinking she’d taken care of things in my absence.
I was wrong.
“Come in,” she says. “Why didn’t you bring… Mary?” she asks, her eyes troubled. But before I can answer, she looks sharply at Tully. “No. You’re McCarthy Clan, aren’t you?”
It’s more of an accusation than an acknowledgment.
Tully smiles. “Aye, ma’am. Pleased to meet you. Name’s Tully.” He extends one of his large, rough hands, his eyes gentling. My heart does a little leap in my chest. I swoon so hard for him when he’s all the gentle giant.
Sigh.
“Tully, this is my mum, Alice Byrne.”
But she doesn’t take his hand. Instead, she lets her gaze rove over the ink on his biceps.
“I was once married to a man of the Clan, you know,” she says with a sniff.
“Aye.”
She tosses her head. Her hair’s longer than I’ve seen it in a while, her dye-job months old with gray showing at the roots. “He was a good man.”
He wasn’t. He was a fucking loser. But that’s not a debate we need to have today.
“Come, sit down,” she says, waving her hand to the living room. My cheeks flame with embarrassment to see the empty tins of food, soiled laundry, and paper plates all about the place. If I knew it was this bad, I never would’ve brought him here, no question.
Tully doesn’t even flinch, though, simply moves aside an old lacy skirt and sits on the loveseat as if he’s come to see the Queen. It makes it easier for me to do the same.
“Tea?” Mum asks.
I shake my head. “No, just come and visit. Tell us how you’ve been.”
She still eyes Tully apprehensively, but she comes for a chat.
I worry that she needs help. She repeats herself often, and she seems down on herself a lot more than I’ve ever noticed before.
“Are things going alright with you?”
“Of course! What do you mean?”
I squirm, not sure how to ask. “Are you having any issues paying your bills, or the like?” I ask quietly. I don’t want to embarrass her, but I need to know. My teacher’s salary is decent, for the McCarthy Clan takes care of their own.
At least, I thought they did.
Why don’t they take care of my mum?
She frowns, and tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m doing alright,” she says, unwilling to offer anything else.
“Tell me about the kittens, then?”
“Kittens?” she asks.
“There were little kittens on your front walk…”
“Oh, those. They’re just neighborhood strays.”
An uncomfortable beat passes between us, when she finally swings her angry gaze to Tully.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
His face registers mild surprise, but he takes it in stride.
“I’m sorry you feel that way. May I ask why?”
My heartbeat flutters again. God, he’s so handsome when he’s acting the part of the gentleman.
She scowls and shrugs. “I am not on friendly terms with the McCarthys. I don’t even like that my daughter teaches at your damn school.”
“Mum!”
Tully literally does not care.
“And why’s that?” he asks again, his eyes still dancing.
She turns her face away. “Because it was a McCarthy man who left me. And I was never the same.”
“Mum.” My voice is gentle. She nods, but doesn’t look my way. “He didn’t leave you, Mum.”
Her face clouds for a moment, before she finally nods. “Aye. That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Mum.”
Tully’s voice gentles. “Will you come back to the house with us? We’ve a Clan doctor I think you’d like.”
Her eyes flash at him, and she clutches her cardigan tighter around her body. “I don’t need a doctor.”
“Right, Mum, of course you don’t,” I say gently.
Tully looks slowly from me to her, then nods.
“The offer stands, ma’am.”
We talk for a while about what she’s been doing to keep herself busy. She tells us about her knitting and her reading, and how she watches the evening news with her tea. She’s been baking and cooking, as well.
As we chat, Tully and I do a little tidying up. I do the washing in the kitchen and he does the drying. He carries the dirty clothes to the washer upstairs, and we start some washing. He orders takeaway for dinner, and we eat in the newly-cleaned kitchen.
“Was awfully nice to see you,” Mum says, giving me a big hug at the door. I hug her back.
“And you, Mum,” I whisper in her ear. “I’ll be back soon.”
I’m quiet on the ride back to the McCarthy mansion. I’m grateful we took another car than Tiernan and Faidha, because I don’t feel like talking to anyone else right now. Thankfully, Tully seems to understand. He rests his hand on my knee and gives me a gentle squeeze, but doesn’t say anything more.