‘Why don’t you speak to your sister?’ Victoria asks.
‘It’s not as though I’mnottalking to her, but every time I answer her calls, she wants me to come home. Wants to talk about Dad.’ My throat bobs with emotion. ‘I can’t do it, you know? He did what he did, and I did what I did. We all have our crosses to bear. Talking about it won’t fix it. It just forces you to relive it, over and over.’
Before Victoria can answer, the lantern lights on either side of the front door flick on.
Andrea appears in the doorway dressed in a floral nightdress that reaches her knees, her blonde tousled hair matted on one side. Roger appears at her side wearing an expression of worry, a shotgun resting against his shoulder.
I hurriedly step out of the car before he feels the need to use it. ‘Andie, it’s me, Archie.’ I raise my hand to wave, like it’s normal for me to land on her doorstep in the early hours of the morning.
‘Archie? Oh, my God! I saw the news earlier. Thank God you’ve finally come home.’
She leaps out of the doorway, over two cement steps and straight into my arms, burying her nose in my neck.
Did the past sixteen years even happen? Because it feels like I’ve never been away. I pat her hair awkwardly as she cries into my chest. ‘I’m sorry. I should have come sooner.’ Until this moment, it never occurred to me how much my absence hurt her. All I cared about was getting away fromhim.
‘You’re damn right you should have done,’ she scolds, stepping back. ‘Now, this must be Victoria Sexton, Ireland’s answer to the Kardashians, although way classier.’
‘Oh, God, I’m nothing like them! You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the press.’ Victoria steps forwards, extending a hand. Andie ignores it and sweeps her into one of her maternal hugs.
‘And what about the part where you’re having an illicit relationship with my brother, who is shock, horror, more than ten years older than you?’ Andie’s eyes widen mockingly.
Victoria looks at me and I shrug. ‘That part’s true.’ Even with all the shit, knowing Ryan is probably sending Pierce over with instructions to assassinate me, introducing my sister to the woman I want to marry still manages to bring a smile to my lips.
‘You do know there’s a warrant out for your arrest?’ Roger steps forwards, the gun now hanging by his side. He grabs my hand and shakes it firmly.
‘I’ll take care of it. I just didn’t fancy doing it from a dingy Scottish cell. There was a scuffle, but…’
‘A scuffle where you broke that guy’s nose in his own kitchen?’ Roger arches a thick, bushy eyebrow.
‘He put his hands on Victoria. He won’t press charges, because if he does, she will press charges of her own. He’s just causing trouble,’ I say.
‘It will all blow over,’ Victoria assures us. ‘I’m no stranger to a scandal in the press. In a few days, they’ll be talking about someone else. But for now…’ She bites her lower lip.
I finish the sentence for her. ‘We need to lie low.’
‘Well, come on in. What are you waiting for?’ Andie’s arms open wide in a welcoming gesture, ushering Victoria up the steps and into the hallway.
Roger hangs back, resting a palm on top of mine. ‘You should probably knowhe’shere.’
I should have guessed the old bastard’s too stubborn to die. ‘Where?’
‘In Jason’s old room.’ He nods towards an upstairs. ‘He’s not very mobile these days, and his medication seems to knock him out most of the time. A nurse comes twice a day and Andie takes his meals up to him, so you don’t have to see him until you’re ready. Or if you’re ready.’
Will I ever be ready?
‘And Jason?’
‘He signed up to the army.’ Roger’s chest puffs with pride. ‘He wanted to be a hero, like his uncle Archie.’
‘I’m no hero.’
‘Of course, because everyone carries an injured comrade seven kilometres across the desert with a broken leg.’
‘And then led him to his death a year later.’ My fingers instinctively go to the St. Christopher round my neck.
Roger grabs my shoulder, twisting me to face him. Crickets chirp all around us. Victoria and Andie are probably wondering where we are.
‘Look at me now, boy.’ Roger’s only twenty years older than me, but I’ll always be a boy to him, just like Victoria will always be a girl to Ryan. ‘It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t plant that landmine.’
