“Maybe we’ll come see you before the holidays, kid.” His words were for Kellan alone.
“You know…” Kenna’s voice turned sharp in a way Kieran knew spelled trouble. “He never told us what happened.” It was as though static suddenly charged the air, the way Kieran watched the rest of his family sit up straighter at her words. “Whatever it was the two of you let pull this family apart.”
Red flooded Grant’s pale cheeks. Kenna held his stare. She never had been one to back down. Kieran felt a swell of pride as she sat there, chill as could be after calling out his father in a way he often found himself wishing he could.
“Does it matter?”
Kellan’s soft voice popped the bubble that was threatening to choke them all. Sincere to a fault sometimes, and Kieran loved him for it. “Does it matter what it was? Dad misses you.”
A muscle in Grant’s jaw flexed, but Kieran knew he wouldn’t snap at Kellan. Not at the baby of the family, the one all of them had a soft spot for. A long moment passed before Grant composed himself enough to finally respond. “He’s got a funny way of showing it. The phone line goes both ways. I’m still waiting for the apology he owes me.”
Grant pushed back from the table, dropping his napkin over a half-finished slice of pizza. “I need to go lock up the malt house.” As if there were any sort of threat. What was the worst that could happen? A wandering soul might decide to take a plunge in the barley?
A familiar frustration filled Kieran, mixed in with the shame that his cousins had been more blunt with his father than he’d ever worked up the courage to be.
Grant left the room, an uncomfortable silence falling over all of them. Kieran hated that Sammie had to bear witness to this dark, ridiculous side of his family. He wished he could leave as well, that he could tug Sammie away from this thing that filled him with so much shame. But then she spoke, her voice low, her words steady. Confident.
“I don’t know what all of that meant.” Her eyes were downcast as she poked at the pizza crust left on her plate. “But I wish every day I could say more things to Granny. Things I should have told her a long time before she died.” She finally looked up, her hands tangled in her lap. She met each of their gazes in turn before shrugging. “It’s pretty terrible, living with the what ifs.”
Kieran reached below the table, gently snatching up one of her hands before she could start anxiously picking. He didn’t know what she was talking about, what specific unspoken words were running through her head, left to wither on a tear-stained grave.
“You’re right.” Meredith’s words were solemn and heavy as she pushed her chair back from the table and began to gather up empty dishes with Kellan. “Grant will see that one day. I have faith in the man I married.” She looked at her niece and nephew, and Kieran’s heart clenched as he watched tears shine in her gaze. “He loves your dad, and misses him every day. Those men are both stubborn to a fault, something all of you came by honestly.” She looked at Kieran as well, raising a brow at him in turn. And then her eyes fell on Sammie as she sighed deeply.
“I’m sorry you had to sit through that,” she continued. “Family drama should stay in the family, but since it seems you’ll be sticking around a bit more, I’m afraid I have to warn you that there’s a pettiness here you haven’t had to witness before.”
“Everybody has drama.” Sammie offered up a smile that made Kieran want to tug her closer. This was easy, this part of the new thing between them. Sammie and her brother had always been close with his family, so having Sammie there with him didn’t feel like something new and scary. It felt comfortable to Kieran, a foundation that had been laid for them years ago.
“We can help,” Kieran said, untangling his fingers from Sammie’s before they both pushed up from their chairs. Kenna rose as well, gathering up the few pieces left of the pizza Meredith had made for them onto a plate to save for someone’s future late night snack or cold breakfast.
“No need,” Meredith said, heading toward the kitchen. Kellan nodded in agreement with another of his bright smiles.
“I promised Aunt Mere I would tell her about my competition plans for this year,” he said. “I’ve got the dishes, don’t worry about it.”
It was suddenly just Kieran, Sammie, and Kenna left in the dining room. Kenna cocked her head toward the back door, and Kieran nodded. His hand found Sammie’s again, pulling heralong as they walked into the backyard, the sound of cicadas a dull hum in the warm summer air.
“Sorry,” Kenna said, tugging her blonde waves into a low ponytail before leaning her forearms against the patio railing. Chewy came bolting across the yard. He stood on his back legs, pushing his wet snout against Kenna’s arm until she finally conceded and gave him a good scratch behind the ears.
“Not your fault Dad still has his head up his ass about uncle Garrett.” Kieran stopped next to her, letting go of Sammie to lean back against the railing, crossing his arms over his chest as a deep sigh left him.
“I didn’t know they still weren’t speaking,” Sammie said tentatively, taking a seat in one of the chairs set up around a small fire pit. “I haven’t seen Garrett since I was a kid.” She paused, brows pinching together. “I can’t imagine going so long without talking to Attie.”
“Atticus wouldn’t let it happen.” Kieran laughed. “He can hardly cope with you not being there for away games. If you stopped talking to him he’d burn the city down trying to make it right.”
Sammie smiled, a small, soft thing that pushed her eyes into pretty crescents. Kieran found it harder than ever to pull his gaze away from her. He turned to his cousin.
“You good?”
Kenna’s stare didn’t stray from the dark trees that lined the backyard, one of her hands still ruffling Chewy’s fur as he sat next to her, tail beating a rhythm against the ground.
“What if Aunt Mere is wrong?” she asked. “What if they don’t make up and fix things?”
Kieran wanted to tell her not to worry about it, wanted to reassure her, but her questions echoed his own doubts. Kenna finally turned her head toward him, pinning Kieran in place.
“You don’t want the farm,” she continued. “But your parents think you’re going to take it over. It’s all Meredith could talk about before you two got here. And Grant is wrong. Dad says he has reached out, has tried to mend things, but he’s been shut down every time. He wants to help, he has systems in place with his own business that could help Grant to run this place without it breaking him. But you still seem to be the only solution that your parents see.”
It felt like a slap. Not just having it all laid out so plainly in the way that Kenna always did best, but learning that Grant had turned away from his brother’s efforts to reconcile. Learning that there were other options, ones that didn’t involve Kieran giving up the career he loved to help his family.
“Garrett’s tried to reconnect with dad?”
