Page 55 of Steadfast

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.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, dropping onto the bed. It was about a thousand times nicer than my bed at home, and this was only the guest room. Maybe Aunt Ashleywasloaded.

“I’m gonna pass out,” Cian said with a bark of laughter. “I stayed up so you wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel, remember?” He stretched out on the opposite side of the bed. “Damn.”

“Stay in here,” I ordered the kids lying down. “You won’t bother us.”

“Won’t even notice you,” Cian mumbled behind me.

We slept for hours. When I finally opened my eyes again, it was late afternoon. Aisling and Ronan were on the floor playing Barbies—though, he’d die before ever admitting it—and Saoirse was sitting on the floor next to them with her back against the wall, a book resting on her upturned knees.

“What time is it?” I rasped, leaning up on my elbow.

“It’s three,” Saoirse said.

“Shit.” I pushed myself up.

“Aunt Ashley ordered lunch,” she said. “We ate on the back porch but we came right back in here.”

“That’s fine, Sersh,” I said groggily.

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