Page 216 of Ryan
“Something that seriously fucks her.”
“And not in the way that you’re thinking,” my father adds.
My whole family are so at ease with my life and my bullshit. I’m twenty-eight years old and I have to run to a teenage boy for help with women.
“What should I do then? Turn up at your house? Bring her flowers, maybe?”
“Don’t be stupid. Flowers? Are you kidding? She’d shove them down your throat.”
That’s how I imagine it’ll go.
“It needs to be something…”
“Something that makes her realise that you’re serious,” Riley says. “Something that comes from the heart, Ryan.”
“Does he even have one?” Nick butts in, as my mother slaps him forcefully around the head.
Fuck. For once, everyone’s on my side.
“Think, O’Connor, think!” Evan presses me.
Think, think…Think.
Maybe something…a few things…
“There we go, he got there eventually,” Nick says.
I take a deep breath, lift my head and announce determinedly: “I’ll need a hand.”
Ian and Nick glance at each other in agreement – but this time, they’re not hiding anything from me. They’re not trying to protect me, to keep me out.
For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I’m on the outside looking in. I feel like I’m part of them, of the whole family. Of everything.
Ian stands up and solemnly says: “You didn’t even have to ask.”
