Page 3 of That Reilly Boy
“I know you’re a smart guy,” Aaron says. “If you weren’t, a bunch of very rich people wouldn’t trust you with their money, so I’m pretty sure you could have figured out how to hide your name and make an anonymous offer.”
He’s not wrong, but I never considered hiding behind a trust or a shell corporation’s name. I want her to know it’s me. I want her to have to surrender to the inevitability of a Reilly owning her house.
I’m saved from having to cough up some kind of plausible explanation by our mother entering the room. She’d popped home during her lunch break to see me, and I’d let her know about the offer. After a lot of yelling, she’d called my brother to come give his two cents, assuming he’d also be outraged.
Her cheeks are still flushed with annoyance at me. “I’m going back to work. Aaron, talk some sense into your brother.”
She’s gone before either of us can respond, the front door slamming like an angry exclamation point at the end of her words. We wait in silence for about twenty seconds and the door opens again.
She grabs her keys off the stand where she’d tossed them and then points at me. “I don’t want to hear any more about this nonsense.”
The door slams again and Aaron gives a low whistle. “This is going to be a fun visit. How long are you staying?”
“Until I close on that house.”
“I hope you brought everything you own because it’s not going to happen. And I’m glad we’re two streets over. As long as we keep the windows closed, we might not be able to hear the yelling.” He snorts. “I’m sure Hope’s going to get an earful at work.
Hope’s my sister-in-law, and one of the most popular orthodontists in the region. Our mother has been the office manager there for years, which was how Aaron and Hope met. Mom doesn’t have to work anymore—I’ve told her that repeatedly—but she refuses to let me pay her way. Plus, she says Hope needs her and since she hates gardening, she’d have nothing to do all day.
She also refused to let me buy her a new house. While it isn’t big or fancy, this is the home she made with her husband and where she raised her sons. She was staying and none of the photos of lovely homes for sale I emailed would budge her. I was able to talk her into letting me pack up all of her belongings, though, so she and her best friend could go on a long cruise while professionals totally renovated the house—inside and out.
Key to the renovation was an addition to the house that put a primary suite, complete with a killer bathroom, and the laundry room on the ground floor so my mom only has to use stairs if she wants to. Another piece of the renovation was selfish on my part, making a guest suite with a bedroom, sitting area and bathroom upstairs. I rarely come back to Sumac Falls—preferring my family visits me in Boston—but when I do, I want to be comfortable.
“Mom’s coming over for dinner tomorrow,” Aaron says. “Every Wednesday, actually, because there’s some show she and Hope watch together. Even though Mom will be in a mood, you should come. I know Hope and the kids would love to see you.”
Aaron’s six-year-old daughter, Daisy, and four-year-old Aaron Junior—who’s only ever been called AJ—are the greatest kids in the world, hands down. I’m biased, of course, but they’re definitely the best Reillys yet. If only I could talk their parents into moving anywhere but here, but Aaron wants to stay close to Mom, and she loves Sumac Falls. I don’t get it, but she’s definitely the parent I get my stubbornness from.
“You can bring the dog,” Aaron adds. “And speaking of the dog, why is she just sitting there like that?”
I turn to see Penelope Louise sitting a few feet away, her body turned away from me and her back rigid. “She’s punishing me for bringing her here.”
“She’s a dog.”
“She’s a Shih Tzu.” I don’t bother trying to get her attention. She’ll give me the cold shoulder until her desire for something she wants grows stronger than her desire to stay mad at me. “She doesn’t like changes in her routine.”
“I tried to pet her because she’s seen me enough times to know who I am, but I changed my mind. She has pretty fierce facial expressions for a dog.”
I laugh at Aaron’s understatement. “Penny hates everybody. Except me.”
She hears her name and twitches, almost turning before she remembers she’s mad at me. I usually have her favorite dog sitter—or the one she dislikes the least, anyway—stay with her in my Boston apartment when I have to travel. I’m not sure how long I’ll be in Sumac Falls, though, and—while it’s hard to judge by her current attitude—she doesn’t like being away from me.
The feeling is mutual.
“Well, your dog might like you, but when it comes to the Gambles, they hate all of us. Even you,” Aaron says. “Or maybe especially you, for some reason. There’s no way Gin even takes your call, never mind considers your offer.”
“Gin isn’t the only Gamble who lives there, though,” I point out, even though I’ve been away for seventeen years and Aaron never left Sumac Falls. It’s information he already has, but Aaron is focused on the woman who actually owns the house.
He’s forgetting Gin’s daughter.
I, on the other hand, have never forgotten Cara. When we were teenagers, she was so pretty, I could have happily stared at her for hours. I didn’t talk to her, of course. She was a Gamble and Gambles didn’t lower themselves to speak to Reillys. And Reillys liked it that way.
Most of us, anyway.
Then, one day coming out of study hall, I’d bumped into her. I’d spent so much time imagining her in my arms, my hand went straight to the small of her back before I realized what I was doing. She’d looked into my eyes and, in the space of a heartbeat, everything changed.
I lift my hand to my chest, my fingertips running over the tattoo hidden under my shirt. We only had one magical summer and a bit of autumn together before her father destroyed all of the hopes and dreams I’d had.
“Cara?” Aaron snorts. “She’s been stuck in that house with nobody but Gin since Marcus Gamble passed away like, what…five years ago? What makes you think she’ll break from the family pack?”
