Page 65 of Hot Irish Halloween

It was like she’d never been there.

What was a bit of a shock to the system was finding Deirdre and Bran sitting in their car in front of his house.

“Surprise, Jackie! We decided to come back instead of hiding out till Spring in Italia,” she said with flair. Deirdre jumped out of the car. “Aw, it’s my big eejit and my little love.” She meant him and Trixie, who grinned up at her quizzically as if asking, “Who are you?”

Same Mam. Same brown eyes and soft brown hair, with a smile and healthy pink cheeks under her Mediterranean tan.

“I know we didn’t announce we were coming, but would Penny happen to be up and dressed for company? We want to finally meet her. But if another time is best, we’ll wait,” Deirdre said, still hopeful.

“What’s the craic, Jack?” Bran greeted him, putting out his hand for a shake while still behind the wheel. “Where’s yer wan?”

“She’s out early,” Jack said. His voice sounded like it came from a different person. Not him. Not like a man who’d just lost fucking everything.

“Aw, okay.” Dierdre’s lip puffed out, and then she brightened. “Next time, with a proper plan. It’s in the car with Miss Trixie then. We’ll give you a ring later. I’m just so ready to get home and sleep in my own bed.”

A small worm of panic that he’d thought had died wriggled anew when Dierdre took Trixie’s leash from him.

“But what about her things? I’ve got her bed, her crate, and food. You can’t take her home without anything there waiting for her,” Jack said slowly, his brow creasing.

“We’ve got all that. All we need is to drop by the market on the way home.”

“We appreciate you keeping her for us,” Bran said. “You’re finally gonna get your life back like you keep saying in those emails.” He rolled his eyes at that, then grinned.

“But she’s on a specific diet. You can’t just give her anything,” Jack argued. Why was his chest hammering like this, like he’d just run a sprint? “And it’s been a while since she’s seen you. It won’t be good for her if you just take her all of a sudden like this.”

The worm was now a snake. It coiled in his gut, hugging his organs, squeezing his lungs. He was finding it harder to breathe.

Dierdre tugged on the leash, frowning at him. “What’s the matter with you? You seem off.”

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe,breathe…

“I’m grand,” he bit out. Something wild was crashing around in his chest, something about to tear out of him. He tried to control the strain in his voice. “I just don’t think you should take her like this. Not fast like this, no warning.”

His mother exhaled. “Jack, we’ve had a long trip. We just want to get home. We’ll bring her around on the weekend.”

“Don’t take her. Just — justwait—"

“We need to go, Jackie.”

Dierdre finally got the leash away from him and went to load Trixie into the backseat of the car. She got in on the passenger’s side, and with a wave, they were gone.

Back inside the house, Jack looked around. He felt sick. He stood rooted for a good few minutes, willing the sickness to back down, ordering himself not to let it out. Trixie’s spare leash hung on its peg, swinging uselessly. Whatever it was inside him reared up huge and ugly at the sight of it.

Jack picked up the chunky vase Penny had bought to hold flowers whenever he came home with them. Heaved it against the far wall with a full-throated scream that ripped out of him,with all the wild fury and anguish roiling inside him. Fucking tearing him apart.

He sank to the floor, wracked with deep sobs that wrenched his chest. They broke him on their way out. He couldn’t get up if he tried.

The glass of Penny’s vase was down there with him. It had shattered into a thousand pieces. Maybe a million.

23

YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME AGAIN

PENNY

The flight from Dublin Airport to JFK was exhausting. Penny landed on American soil for the first time in roughly three years with a yawn. It should have been momentous, but she was too wiped to care. On top of that, she was dehydrated from the cabin pressure and the excessive tears that had silently leaked from her eyes the whole way across the Atlantic.

“Penny!”

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