Liam and Marie went off a little later, and Conall and Jen finished their last round.
“I think I’m going to head on up myself.” Conall told her, “How about you?”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “I should probably give Ronnie a call first, though.” Her current boyfriend had already lasted for four months.
“Sounds like that’s getting serious,” Conall said with a wistful little smile. “I hope he knows how lucky he is.” She pulled a face.
“Actually, he doesn’t, which is why I need to break it off. He can’t say I didn’t warn him either. I was quite happy to keep it casual, but he had to insist on us becoming exclusive. Nobody should do that if they’re planning to cheat. I hate being lied to.”
“I think we all do,” Conall told her, fists clenching reflexively in sympathetic outrage. “Are you sure he is cheating, though?”
“Oh yes, his latest must be a bit thick, as well as being only twenty. She’s been plastering Facebook with photos of them together since last night.”
“Good riddance then! Do you want me to come back when you’re done? You could vent a bit if you think it would make you feel better. Christ! I wish you’d said something earlier. You looked like you were having such a good time today… that must have been difficult.”
“No, it wasn’t, and I was. I always have a great time with you guys. Besides, I refuse to waste my energy getting upset over something that’s actually a bit of a relief if I’m entirely honest with myself. I’d been having my doubts about him for a while now. At least now I know that I wasn’t just imagining things and sabotaging our chances. Will you stay while I make the call, though, please? I’ll handle it better with you watching me. Otherwise, I might just embarrass myself.”
“Sure, whatever you need, Jen.” He sat down by her and held her hand throughout the whole, ugly conversation.
Her Ronnie, or ex-Ronnie, soon showed his true colours. He sounded like a really spiteful little prick once he realised he couldn’t sweet-talk his way out of the mess he’d made. Conall gritted his teeth and just sat emanating supportiveness and admiration as forcefully as he could until the bastard finally hung up. Even then, he didn’t say anything, but merely pulled her into a platonic, supportive embrace. What could he say, after all? That she deserved better? She already knew that. After a few minutes, she sat up and patted his cheek, looking perfectly composed again.
“Thanks, Conall, you’re such a rock. I expect you’re wondering what I ever saw in him, but he was always really nice, until just now. Would you mind not mentioning this to the others? I’ll let them know next week if that’s alright. I don’t want to spoil anybody’s last day tomorrow.”
“Sure, whatever you like.” He walked her up to her room and bent to kiss her forehead tenderly. “Goodnight, Jen. Sleep well.”
“You too.” He felt a twinge of guilt at the little flicker of selfish delight he felt, beneath his anger at the Ronnies of the world and his sympathy for poor Jen and her lousy luck with men. ‘She’s single again!’ that flicker signalled excitedly, and Conall stifled it ruthlessly as he headed for his own room.
Unlike Jen, he wasn’t looking for anything permanent, and kids were totally out of the question. On that subject, he was entirely in agreement with his cousin. This was no kind of a world to drag an innocent little baby into, and they’d both made sure that neither of them ever could. A local anaesthetic and fifteen minutes later, the problem had been permanently dealt with, snip, snip. His bruised, swollen testicles hadn’t thanked him for it for a few days, but that seemed like a negligible price to pay for the peace of mind it had brought him. Imagine dying, knowing that you were leaving a helpless little son or daughter to face life without you. The very idea of it was unthinkable.
He was still awake half an hour later when Jen lightly tapped on his door before slipping in.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked and lifted up the covers invitingly so she could crawl in and curl up.
There was no question of anything happening between them, not tonight, and the thought didn’t even enter his head. They could have been kids again, seeking a comforting presence in perfect innocence. Lovers came, and lovers went, but friendships as deep and true as the ones shared by the people beneath that roof tonight were forged to last a lifetime.
Sleep found them both quickly and easily after that, and no noises from other parts of the well-insulated, rambling house managed to seep through the walls to disturb their peaceful, contented rest. Shay was a great respecter of everyone’s right to some privacy.
A Message from the Author
Thank you, dear reader, for reading this book from beginning to end. I greatly appreciate you coming along with me for this adventure.
If you enjoyed the book and wish to read more, you could do me no greater favour than to take a minute to leave a review. Even the shortest sentence can help other readers discover this tale, and every new reader helps enable me to write more stories.
In addition, if you wish to receive the earliest knowledge of new books and other news, it would help for you to not only follow me as an author on Amazon, but sign up for my mailing list. It will give you far more up to date information than Amazon will.
Or you can connect with me through my Facebook author’s group.
Thank you!
