Soon they were all standing around the packed kitchen island while Alice pressed glasses into her hands and Jeremiah’s.
“Meatball anyone?” Dad asked hopefully. “As an appetizer?” Without waiting for an answer, he lifted one to his mouth with a toothpick and munched hungrily.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Jeremiah answered, which earned him additional back slaps from Dad.
“Tell us every single detail about the things that have been happening to you,” Margaret demanded.
“Yes!” the rest echoed.
Jeremiah recounted the highs and lows for them.
The O’Sullivans watched him as if he were the opening night of a long-awaited movie. In fact, this gathering had been arranged last-minute just for him. None of her siblings had brought their children or grandchildren, so the group’s attention was fixed solely on her oldest son.
She’d always considered her two sons superior to her siblings’ children. Frankly, it felt fitting for everyone’s fascination to be centered on Jeremiah. Well-deserved for him. And, by association, well-earned for her as his mother.
The only way in which her sons lagged behind their cousins? Their lack of children. Even Alice who, Lord help them all, had a video game addict for a son and a daughter obsessed with Hello Kitty had been presented with a granddaughter.
The moment Jeremiah finished speaking, Dad declared, “Let’s eat!”
“Where are the lemon squares?” Mom asked.
“Relegated to another decade,” Fiona answered. “I don’t believe we’ve had lemon squares for dessert since 1978.”
“Be sure to serve me one later.” Mom beamed. “I wouldn’t want to miss a lemon square.”
They filled their plates and took seats at the titanic dining room table, which wasn’t being asked to perform miracles today. Compared to the size and scale of their usual gatherings, this group of nine felt downright intimate. It was merely difficult, as opposed to impossible, to squeeze in a word.
“I wanted everyone to know that I’m going to be starting a new job on Monday,” fifty-one-year-old baby Mike informed the group.
Mom, who couldn’t remember that Mike had started and lost too many jobs to count, gasped with delight and clapped.
“Best wishes, Mike,” Alice said earnestly.
The rest of them manufactured pleasant expressions.
“I hope you didn’t dream about failing an exam,” Elizabeth said to Mike. “If you dreamed about failing an exam, this job will be a dead end.”
“No, I dreamed about jaguars swimming, actually.”
“That means you need to purify your soul.”
“Suzy told Heidi who told me,” Margaret cut in, peering across the aging centerpiece of dried flowers at Fiona, “that she saw you at a coffee shop with Burke Ainsley two days ago. What’s going on between you and Burke?”
“We’re friends.”
“I heard his wife wasn’t at the coffee shop.”
“Unfortunately, his wife passed away. He was living in Boston and just recently returned to Groomsport.”
“Suzy told Heidi who told me he’s a handsome man.”
Burkewashandsome. However, Fiona shrugged noncommittally, accustomed to parrying her sister’s attempts at prying. The O’Sullivans at this table all had stable marriages and conventional children. She and Isobel were the only two who’d furnished the others with vivid drama.
“Anyone want seconds?” Dad asked before she’d eaten a third of her food.
“Sweetie,” Mom said to Fiona out of the blue, “I’m sorry about your divorce.”
Fiona’s divorce had occurred eighteen years ago. “Thank you,” she said solemnly.
