“His plane has landed.Granny McGowan rode in with him. She’s returning to spend time with Dean and Ronan,” LaSalle says as I go through my checklist for the groceries just delivered before they’re put away.
I want to make sure everything I wanted for Sammy’s return came in. I cleaned out his personal refrigerator and had to replace almost everything in there.
“Oh? He probably had a good time with her. I love that little lady and she’s always so patient with him. I believe he likes her too.”
“I would say. Ronan sent me a text saying she got into the car talking about gifting Sammy with property in Ireland.”
“Really? That’s nice of her.”
“It’s very gracious of her. The McGowans own tons of land in Ireland, but it’s usually reserved for family to pass down to family. This is a great honor to be bestowed with such a gift. I believe I was the last person who wasn’t a family member in any capacity to be gifted land by them.”
“You have land in Ireland?” I say and lift a brow.
“I do.”
“Why don’t I know about this? You plotting a hideout to run away from me or something?” I tease.
“To be honest, I forgot about it until just now. Cianán takes care of the maintenance and things. I never decided what to do with it.”
“Wait, what made him gift it to you in the first place? Your best friend isn’t related to them by blood. Although I love the way the Blacks and McGowans treat each other as blood.”
“It’s a long story. It had a lot to do with Ian Black himself. One word from him and Cianán began to treat me like a son.”
“I wish I could have met him. He always sounds like such an interesting man. It’s funny how I feel like I knew him and Ellen more than I did when I’ve learned more about each of them from letters and journals, not real life,” I muse.
“You would have loved him. The man was brilliant and commanded everything in the room around him, no matter where he was.”
“Um, sounds like he rubbed off on you,” I say as I move to wrap my arms around him.
“I was lucky to know him.”
“Mommy, Karen took the puzzle I was playing with,” Paulie comes running into the kitchen to whine.
“No, I didn’t. I had it first. Stop lying on me,” Karen calls out.
“Paulie,” I groan.
He turns the corner and sees his father and stops in his tracks. I want to burst out laughing as he starts to slowly back away. He knows he’s in trouble.
“Why shouldn’t we lie, Paulie?”
“Be … because if you lie about the little things, you can’t be trusted with the really important things and people won’t believe you when it’s important,” he says in almost a whisper.
“Do you think any of us should trust you with all the lies you tell?”
“No.”
“Then why do you keep lying?”
“Because … because. Because I wanted to play with that puzzle. It’s the only one I haven’t done yet.
“Karen just got to it before me, and I wanted Mom to make her give it to me. It’s mine to play with,” he says.
“Oh no. Little boy, come?—”
LaSalle places a hand on my arm as I get ready to snatch Paulie’s little butt up. I don’t do entitlement. There isn’t a toy in this house that this little boy has paid for to be talking about something being his.
“I’m going to place you in time-out: ten minutes for lying. When those ten minutes are done, you will apologize to Karen for fibbing on her. Then you will come to my office—where I work to buy toys for you and your siblings—and you will sit for another ten minutes as you write down that you, Paulie Locatelli, are a person who shares and doesn’t take things for granted.
