Page 59 of Steadfast

“I can do that,” Aunt Ashley said. “Look in the pantry and pick a flavor.”

“I didn’t realize Aisling was named after you,” Saoirse said with a snort. “I’m an idiot.”

“She got the Irish version,” Aunt Ashley said with a grin at Aisling. “Much better than mine.”

“Yours is easier to spell,” Aisling said shyly.

“But it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well,” Aunt Ashley said, mimicking my dad’s accent. Butchering it, really, but the intention was pure.

“At least you were named after someone,” I said, tugging gently on Aisling’s ponytail. “I just got a name they liked.”

“You knew my dad, too?” Aisling asked.

“Of course,” Aunt Ashley said, bringing me the coffee she’d made. “We were good friends, once upon a time.”

“Really?” Cian asked, leaning his elbows on the counter.

“Oh yeah.” Aunt Ashley laughed. “The three of us all ran around together before your parents settled down together, and I moved out here.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said in surprise.

“I actually introduced your parents,” Aunt Ashley replied, nodding as she went to the pantry, coming back out with a bottle of soda water. “Your dad was handsome as all get out, but not my type.” She grinned. “He was exactly your mom’s type, though.”

“What were they like?” Ronan asked curiously, setting a bottle of syrup on the counter.

“Oh, beautiful,” Aunt Ashley said wistfully. “Loud. Fun. Aoife looks a lot like your mom did when we were young, but with your dad’s coloring. Your dad took one look at her, and that was it. Your mom wasn’t much better. They were pretty inseparable from the moment they met.”

“Like you and Richie,” Aisling said, looking up at me.

I just nodded. She had no idea what I’d done and wouldn’t have understood it if I told her.

“Why did you move out here?” Cian asked curiously.

“I came out to go to grad school,” Aunt Ashley said as she made the kids their Italian sodas. “I planned to go backeventually, but I loved it out here so much that I ended up staying.”

“Can I have a coffee?” Saoirse asked, moving into the kitchen.

Aunt Ashley looked at me to make sure it was okay.

Something inside me settled as I nodded.

CHAPTER 9

Aoife

“Thanks for comingwith me,” I said for the third time as I pushed the cart down the aisle.

“Stop saying that,” Cian mumbled. “I’m just glad to get out of that house.”

“It’s not that bad,” I argued, grabbing cereal off the shelf.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” he bitched.

“So, go outside.”

“And do what?” he joked. “Play with the chickens? Sounds like a party.”

We’d been at Aunt Ashley’s for a week already. The day after we got there, she started calling around to find my mom’s body, and since then, she’d been on the phone every day trying to figure out all the shit that needed to happen to get custody of us kids and settle my mom’s estate. It felt weird to think of it that way. The wordestatebrought to mind someone with a mansion and fancy cars, not a middle-class woman with five kids who couldn’t stay sober for more than a few hours at a time.

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