Blake’s still here. We’ll be there.
He then checked his email, deleted a bunch of them and phoned his sister.
She didn’t pick up.
She was probably still passed out.
He’d put on a shirt and go knock on the door later.
But for now, he searched his contacts, wondering if he even had the man’s number.
He did. He didn’t remember when he got it, but he had it.
So he called it.
Ned Sharp picked up on the second ring.
“How are you this morning, Dair?” he asked in greeting.
“Better than your daughter,” he told the man. “Calling to let ye know she’s safe and she’s with me.”
“I saw you all leaving together last night, but I appreciate the call. And thank you for looking after her. She delayed her celebration, but when the time was ripe, she committed to it.”
She certainly had.
A hesitation from Ned then, “I hate to bring her up, for reasons I’m sure are obvious, but I must. Do you know if Helena has been in contact with her?”
“I dinnae think Blake looked at her phone all night.”
“Again, I hesitate to discuss her, but I’m afraid you’re involved in one of her dramas now, and you should know, Helena is not good when she’s on her back foot.”
Was she good at any time?
“Noted.”
“Please find a way to share this information with your mother and sister.”
Bloody hell.
“I will,” he grunted.
“I’m very sorry, Dair.”
“She isn’t yours to apologize for.”
“I’m still sorry.”
Ned Sharp was a good man.
Dair didn’t know him all that well, but he’d always liked him.
He’d seemed solid, yet distant in the very rare circumstances when Dair had been around Ned when he was a kid. Christmas holidays, the few times he stiltedly shared them with his wife and daughters when they were in England and Dair’s family would come down on Boxing Day. Blake’s birthday, which was during the summer holidays, and Ned would fly out.
More when they were older. The girls’ graduations from high school. Alex’s college graduation. Dair’s ill-fated wedding (his mother had insisted on inviting Ned, probably partly because she liked him—mostly, Dair reckoned, because she knew Helena was sleeping with her husband, Helena was invited too, and Ned drove Helena around the bend). Also, Blake’s aborted one.
Though, it was only this visit where Dair witnessed true warmth and love shared between the three of them.
Shite happened for a reason.
