The O’Connells Books 10 - 12

Chapter 9-2

Iris’s face lit up when she talked to her kids, Raymond noticed. They’d only just found out that Charlotte was home asleep, Alison with her, as Marcus had been called out to handle some crisis. She was on the phone with Suzanne now, he thought. When he called Karen, it had gone right to voicemail. Luke, he knew, was in his bedroom, convincing Rosemary to stay, and Brady was in the kitchen, where Iris was, eating a sandwich and doing his best to ignore his father.

Well, he supposed biting the bullet, so to speak, was the only way to resolve the Brady problem, so he strode into the kitchen.

Iris was running water at the sink while talking on the phone. Raymond walked right over beside Brady, who was sitting at the island, and leaned over, taking in his son, who was pretending that sandwich he was eating held all the answers.

“How you been, son?” he said, then wondered how long he’d have to wait until Brady relented and looked his way. He counted in his head: One, two…

There it was. He flicked his eyes, so different from those of his siblings, over to him, and Raymond could see the one thing he knew he was trying to hide, the hurt Raymond seemed to leave in his wake among all his kids.

“Fine,” Brady said. “Excuse me.” He went to slide off the stool and walk away, so Raymond slid his hand over his arm and held it.

“Not so fast,” he said. “I want to talk to you.”

He realized Iris had turned the water off. She walked around the counter and pressed her hand to Brady’s shoulder, the phone still to her ear. “Go talk to your dad in the living room,” she said in a way that left no room for discussion.

So what did Brady do but slide off the stool and obey? Iris gave him one of those looks. She seemed to have a knack for talking to Brady in a way Raymond couldn’t. She gestured for him to go, so he followed his son into the living room, where he was now sitting on the sofa, slouched as if he were only there because he had been told to be. Which he was.

“I guess the only place to start is to say I’m sorry,” Raymond said.

Brady flicked his gaze up to him with not an ounce of give. “Great. Can I go now?”

How had he ever figured this was going to be easy? “No, Brady, you can’t. We need to talk. There was no other way. You had to believe I was dead, and so did Iris, and I’m so sorry for that, but it was the only way, or it would never end. The kind of people who were watching are always watching. You have no idea what that did to me, seeing you and Alison tied up like that, knowing very well that those men would never have let you live. It was a bad situation, and I’m sorry I put you through that.”

There, he’d said his piece.

But all Brady did was stare at him. “Luke explained everything to me, so I get it. If that’s what you’re wanting forgiveness for, then sure,” he said and stood up, and Raymond just took in the young arrogance looking down at him.

“No, sit down,” he said, then gestured, knowing how sharply it had come out. “It’s not okay. I need you to sit down and talk. Don’t confuse my apology for anything but that. You don’t get to dismiss me, Brady. I told you to sit down.” He jabbed his hand to the sofa and waited another second, then another, before Brady relented and sat. He could see that he was just a moment away from walking out, though. “You’re angry with me, and I get it…”

“Do you really, Dad?” Sarcasm dripped in his tone.

“I do, but I’m not about to walk on eggshells around you in this house. We’re a family…”

“You mean the secret family you had, the one you couldn’t be bothered to tell me about before sneaking us back into Livingston? You didn’t tell me I had brothers and sisters—and then there was Alison. You know how shitty I feel, how she feels? It’s so damn awkward now. My hands were on her… I didn’t know we were family. You lied to me. Then there’s my mom. What was she to you? You left your family, Iris, just abandoned them…” He stopped talking and let out a rude noise. “You know what, Dad? You’re forgiven, if that’s what you want to hear. I’m a big boy, and I’m getting along fine, but if it’s all the same to you, considering I doubt you’ll be here long, we can’t ever get back to the way it was. We’ll never be there again, ever.”

Okay, that was a start.

“You’re right,” Raymond said. “I’m a shithead and an asshole, but when I left Iris and my kids, I didn’t do it by choice. Did I love your mother, Nancy? No, I’m sorry. We didn’t have that type of relationship. I didn’t know about you until she was killed, but I can tell you that I love you very much. Iris is the love of my life. I never thought I’d have her again, and I never expected to have my other kids back in my life with you. I don’t expect you to understand everything, Brady, but there are things I did, complicated things…”

Brady leaned his head back and actually rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know all about the complications, Dad. Luke had a sit-down with me and explained, and then there’s Karen, who is always talking at me, trying to fix me, talking about you and me. I just don’t understand why she gives you a pass after you walked out the way you did. I wouldn’t be so understanding.”

Right, his son wasn’t about to make this easy for him at all.

“You can be angry at me, but don’t question Karen’s understanding,” Raymond said. “She’s my daughter, and you’re my son. I love each of you deeply, and yes, this is damn complicated, every aspect of this family, but make no mistake—we’re a family…”

“Until you’re gone again,” Brady snapped, cutting him off and standing.

Iris hesitated as she strode into the living room, and Brady gave everything to her with one look as if she were the parent instead of Raymond.

“I’m going out,” he said.

Iris just pulled in a breath and nodded. “Fine, but be back for dinner. Everyone’s coming over, and it looks like neither you nor Luke did much in the way of shopping.”

Brady shrugged. “If you want me to go to the store, I’ll go.”

Iris shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll figure out what we need. Just answer your phone and be back before dinner.”

Then his son was gone, and Iris took one step and another and stopped just in front of him.

“Well, that went well,” she said. “I could hear everything in the kitchen. Suzanne’s on her way over, but I’m thinking of driving to Marcus and Charlotte’s to just check in and see if there’s something I can do.”

The mother bear. That was just the way Iris was around her children.

“Since I can’t do anything here, how about I tag along?” Raymond said.

Iris stepped closer, holding out her hand, and he reached for it and held it, taking in the smile he loved to see on her face. “If you want,” she said.

He stood up and took in his son, who was pulling on his coat at the front door, a frown on his face, wearing sneakers. He wondered if, in the back of his mind, he’d thought Brady would be the easy one. Then Brady stepped out of the house and pulled the door closed, and he felt Iris’s hand on his shoulder and pulled his gaze back to her.

“Give him time,” she said, staring up at him, her expression serious. “He’ll come around.”

He glanced down at her. “I’m not so sure about that.”

All Iris did was rub her hand over his arm and look over to the door, then back to him. “Well, I am, because I went through that very same angry stage with every one of the kids—in a different way, of course. Every time, I thought we’d never get past it. But we did, and so will you and Brady. Now let’s go.”

She pulled her hand away, and he found himself watching this woman he loved, his wife, whom he’d left to raise their kids alone. He didn’t know why, but her saying that one thing eased some of the worry he hadn’t realized he’d been holding on to about Brady, about all his kids.