“Let me take this for you.” Matt shifted Lauren to the other side of his lap. “Patrick’s got a thing for Andy.”
“You knew?” Shannon shrieked, wagging her finger at Matt before turning her attention to Lauren. “And you too? Patrick, you told me it was privileged! What the fuck? They’ve known?”
“Only for a few days,” Matt said.
“Who here didn’t know any of this until right now?” Sam asked. Erin and Nick raised their hands, and he laughed humorlessly. “Huh. Guess I know where I rank.”
They broke into small discussions of Andy and me, and when and what they knew. A bullhorn would have helped.
“Goddamn it, people, I have something to tell you!”
“Are you asking her to marry you?” Riley asked.
I liked that idea. A lot. I never shook the image of Andy in a wedding gown. When I was delirious with insomnia, I saw her walking toward me in that white lace.
“Oh my God, another wedding to plan!” Shannon squealed.
Lauren put her hand on Shannon’s arm. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Is she pregnant?” Riley asked.
I shook my head. I liked that idea, too. Not right now, not for a while, but maybe someday. A day when Andy wasn’t walking away from me. My gut churned at the memory of her taillights fading into the night.
I reached into the box and held up a blue book with ‘Riley Augustin’ scrolled across the cover. That shut everyone up. “Ready to hear what I have to say?”
“Where did you get that?” Riley stood, the happy flush draining from his face, his eyes hooded as he retrieved the photo album. “Tell me where you got this.”
“Wellesley. Andy found a hidden door in Angus’s hall closet. It took twenty-nine other levers to open, but she found a door and there’s an entire universe between the walls. It’s all there. All of it. Everything.”
Returning to the box, I distributed the items I grabbed yesterday. A pile of handkerchiefs to Matt. Mom’s jewelry box to Shannon, and her last journal to Erin. The Irish knit scarf that still smelled faintly of her perfume to Sam.
As my siblings reverently ran their hands over the goods I distributed, I stared into the empty box and realized I didn’t save anything for myself.
We passed around Riley’s baby book, admiring our stunningly dated haircuts and clothes while attempting to count the rolls of fat on Riley’s legs. Shannon’s feathered hair and white fringed leather jacket won the night. Sam wrapped Mom’s scarf around his neck and only grudgingly agreed to share it with the group. Mom’s journals made their way to Shannon and her jewelry to Erin, but even the discovery of the century wasn’t melting that ice.
“This doesn’t make him less of an asshole,” Sam said, the scarf wrapped tightly around his neck again. “This isn’t the time or place for an Angus-hate tirade, and we should be happy that we have something of Mom’s, but if anything, this a new level of assholedom, even for Angus. Really got the last laugh, didn’t he?”
“I’ll give you that,” Riley replied. “It’s right up there with hiding a body under the floorboards, and please tell me you didn’t find any bodies in the bowels of the house?”
“Look at you with the Poe references,” Erin laughed. “You’re like a real boy now.”
Riley rolled his eyes. “How have you not fallen into a volcano yet?”
“When you say between the walls, you mean…what?” Matt asked.
“I mean there are fire-safe cabinets between the walls of every room on the second floor, and a little staircase behind the fireplaces. That’s why the plans didn’t make sense.”
“Yep,” Matt replied. “I get that, but how’s that shit being supported? It’s not like he shifted load-bearing walls.”
“I dunno, Matt, but it isn’t coming down tonight,” I sighed. “It was dusty as hell but Andy and I didn’t notice any major structural issues.”
“Can we go back to all that?” Sam asked. “All of this is incredible and Andy deserves a raise for getting to the bottom of Angus’s last fuck you, but perhaps you could get the rest of us,” he gestured to Erin and Nick, “up to speed on your impending nuptials? I noticed you didn’t deny it.”
With a groan, I dropped to the stone bench alongside the fireplace. “Short version? We’ve been seeing each other since February. March if you don’t count the bathrooms. But I was a dickhead and she’s not talking to me, and she’s probably leaving at the end of her apprenticeship. And I’m in love with her.”
“How has no one noticed this until just now?” Erin asked.
I shook my head and studied my siblings. “No one except Lauren.”
