Page 35 of Bumping into You

“Not unless you tell her, Trent,” Greg says. “Plus, this is only to help her, so there’s really no downside.”

“I’m not convinced it’s a good idea,” says Trent. “But I’ll go along with it, and if it comes back to bite you two in the butts, I hold the right to say ‘I told you so.’”

“Sounds good, man,” Greg says.

Trent nods then says, “This cruise keeps getting more and more interesting.” He claps me on the back. “It’s good to have you back, Niall.”

“I know,” I reply, “I wish it hadn’t been so long since we got together. I was so busy helping Mam her last year. It was hard to get away, and then after . . . well, it definitely won’t be so long between visits going forward,” I finish, plastering a smile on my face.

Mam’s cancer had caught me off guard. I guess that’s normal, because who expects to get cancer?

When I’d first heard the news that she’d been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, I didn’t hesitate. I’d known what I had to do. I immediately notified my landlord and moved back in with Mam.

Back into my childhood home.

It was a rough adjustment. Nothing in the house had changed since I’d moved out, so it was like taking a step back in time. But instead of games of basketball in the driveway with friends and riding my bike around the neighborhood until all hours of the night, my new reality was days on at the firehouse, taking Mam to her cancer treatments on my days off, and sleeping in the bed from my youth.

I got Mam a nurse who’d come stay with her on my working days. Between all her medical bills, doctor’s appointments, cancer treatments, and the nurse, the bills were overwhelming. Even though Mamhad her retirement money and I made a decent living, we still had to be tight with our money. I wanted to make sure it would last as long as she needed it to.

I’d thought Mam was starting to improve, but then one day, she woke up feeling worse. I took her to the hospital, and the next day she was gone.

Just like that, the only family I’d ever had was gone. Vanishedfrom the earth. Nothing more than a culmination of memories.

For the past twelve months since she passed, I’ve still been living in my childhood home. I don’t know what I want to do or where I want to go. I feel lost. I’ve been a shadow of myself since her passing. The memory of my promise to her only intensified as the year-long deadline loomed nearer and nearer.

Now, among these friends who I haven’t seen in way too long, I’m finally starting to feel like myself again. Add in Gwen, and I’m actually looking forward to spending time with someone, seeing where things could go.

How is it that one person, whose natural reaction to me is to glare and give me snarky comebacks, makes me feel like this? Like I’m going to be able to live up to the promise I made my mam.

It was way too easy for me to agree to her scheme this morning. I found myself craving more time with her. Craving those moments when her glare would ease up, and a slight smile would cross her face, lighting up everything around her.

“Sorry about your mom,” says Greg after pausing to allow me to be with my thoughts. “I can’t even imagine what you’ve gone through.”

“It’s fine now, really,” I reply, trying to brush off the feeling of melancholy settling within me.

Trent clasps my shoulder. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It’s all good,” I say, turning and facing the girls as they walk toward us.

“What’s not true?” asks Holly, before leaning into Greg and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah, what’s up with you? Miss us already?” says Margot, taking the seat opposite Trent.

“Nothing much,” I say, “just shooting the breeze.” I take a sip of my drink and smile at the group. Gwen catches my attention; her eyes bore into me, causing my pulse to race and my smile toshift from a simple smile to one of joy.

We head up to the Duke’s Diner for an early dinner and load up our plates before finding a table for all six of us toward the back of the ship. We watch people playing Putt-Putt golf and others on the basketball course. There’s nothing but blue ocean as far as the eye can see behind that.

Soon, we’re chatting away about our lives, families, and careers. “Trent,” says Holly, “tell us about your latest adventures of managing the marina.”

“Managing the crazy boaters is more like it,” says Trent. “The boats are fine; they don’t cause problems. However, the boat renters . . . now they’re a whole different kind of group. Dude, I tell you, it’s never a dull moment. And with all the new marketing Greg has been doing, we’re getting more and more people from all walks of life.”

Laughing, I say, “I’ll have to come visit sometime, and you’ll have to show me around.”

“That would be a ton of fun,” says Greg. “We could take out one of the double-decker pontoons we have.”

“That sounds grand.”

“It’s so much fun, isn’t it, Gwen?” adds Holly.

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