Sam raised an eyebrow. “Feeling optimistic, are you?”
My sister’s face fell dramatically. “Do we have to?”
“We can’t stay with Reeti forever,” I said.
“But I like having you stay with me,” Reeti said. “I have the room. The place is too big for me by myself.”
“You don’t mind?”
“I do not. And my parents are thrilled. My mother thinks I’m safer with you there.”
“Well, if you’re sure... But only if I start paying rent.”
“I can pay, too,” Toni said.
“Honey, you can only use the trust to pay for your education.”
“Travel is educational.” I regarded her steadily. She flushed. “Fine. I’ll get a job. I can help Fee in the bakery.”
“Not without a work permit,” Sam said.
“That’s not fair. Dee had a job. For that professor.”
“The rules are a little different for students,” I said gently.
Toni rolled her eyes. “I should have known you’d make this all about school.”
“You have something against school?” Reeti asked.
“I just don’t think it’s necessary for everybody, that’s all. Look at Banksy.”
“Who is Banksy?”
“An artist,” I said slowly.Like our mother. Troubled, I looked at Toni.
She wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Not only artists. You didn’t go to school,” she said to Fiadh.
“Not to uni. But I got my certificate in baking and pastry.”
Sam rubbed his jaw with the back of his hand, his usual three-day beard edging on five. “Experience is the best teacher, Da said.”
“Yeah, but school gives you training, doesn’t it?”
“And credentials,” Reeti said.
“And faith in yourself,” I added.
“Fine, if you have the opportunity,” Sam said.
Fiadh snorted. “What’s stopping you now, then?”
“Besides you swanning off to Howth whenever you feel like it?”
She folded her arms. “I wouldn’t, would I, if you’d let me and Mam take more responsibility in the shop.”
“The shop’s on me,” Sam said. “It’s been all on me since Da died.”
“Because I was twelve, you stupid git, and Mam had her hands full with Jack and Aoife and the rest of us. But it’s been nine years, Sammy boy. We’ve moved on. Why the hell can’t you?”
