Nora laughs. “Guess it wasn’t polite to laugh at that, but Hughie’s father was the one who got me hooked on heroin. He died a few years back when a drug deal went bad. He always had a way of getting messed up with the wrong people. But even if he was alive, he wouldn’t have wanted to know Hughie. Never did before.” Nora pauses, taking a deep labored breath before looking at Niall. “Knowing you, you’ve drafted the documents already?”
Niall grabs his backpack off the ground, zips it open, and hands a stack of documents to Nora. Her eyes graze over them quickly. “I don’t think I need to read these. Do you have a pen?”
***
When we left that room, it was the last time we would see Nora. The infection went south the next day. The doctors had said this, combined with Nora’s body fighting the liver cancer, was too much for her to handle after the years of abuse her body endured. Nora died three days after signing the parental rights over to us.
Niall and I were, and still are, torn on telling Hughie the truth of what happened. We know we need to at some point, but it might be something to address when he’s a bit older. Or, at least, not at his birthday party.
I am almost knocked over by the force of Hughie’s hug. Hughie has tears streaming down his face, dripping onto my shoulder.
I see Irene staring at us from across the room, where something unfamiliar meets my eyes. A smile and, shockingly, a tear running down her cheek. So, she does have a heart after all.
“Did you figure out the ring on your own?” Hughie asks, pulling away.
“I, erm…what are you talking about?”
“Oh no!” A shocked expression crosses Hughie’s face. “I spoiled it, didn’t I? I thought maybe you had gone and just figured it out yourself, even though Uncle Danny and I were going to the jewelers tomorrow.”
“WHAT.” Niall looks at me.
“Listen. The kid had a ring sizing paper and I just said it’d be easier if we went and confirmed the size by an actual shop.”
Niall covers his face with his palm. “This is not how I anticipated this going.”
I tousle Niall’s hair. “If it’s any consolation, I’ll say yes. Whenever you want to actually propose.”
Niall’s face relaxes. “Really?” Then looks at Hughie. “And you. I literally told you not to say anything.”
“You can’t get mad at me. It’s my birthday. It’s in the rules.”
Leo comes from behind the bar and brings over a tray of, what I can only assume are, whiskey shots. “A toast to the new dads!”
“Sláinte!”
44
The next day we are back in the same place, but the room is set up quite differently. The tables have been moved to the back of the room, replaced by rows of folding chairs facing the bar top.
Stacks of books lined the sides of the bar, with a space in-between for Niall and I to stand. To the right of the bar is a cardboard portrait of Michael, with a quote from the book on the bottom.
In the end, it was his love that burned the brightest. Breaking the moon in half.
It’s ten minutes until we open, and twenty-five before the event begins, when we noticed the line forming outside the book pub.
“Holy shit,” I say, glancing around the door. The line is wrapping around the side of the building.
“I’ve never seen something like this at nine o’clock in the morning. Certainly not in Temple Bar.”
I take Niall’s hand in mine, looking down to notice the matching bands on our hands. After the party yesterday, Leo and Anders took Hughie out for ice cream while Niall and I went to the jewelers. We fell in love with a pair of braided silver bands that were showcased in the window.
We decided to buy them right then and there as our engagement bands. We would get them engraved with something on the inside of the band, right before the wedding, to signify them going from engagement bands to wedding bands.
I had told him, when shopping for the bands, that it didn’t need to be some grand gesture, that there isn’t a set process or expectation for who proposes when it’s two guys. That I was fine agreeing on the bands and making it official without the hoopla.
When we had come home to find Leo and Hughie playing one of his new games on the couch, I wasn’t expecting the screech that came out of Hughie, pointing at our hands. “This is the best day ever!”
“It’s time,” Niall says, moving towards the door and unlocking it. The people start shuffling in, filling the seats in and slowly the space surrounding them. “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken in front of a group even half this size before.”
