but I think we both knew we weren’t suited to each other for the long run. But the dates with him helped because they got me out of the apartment, got me living again. Then Dad had a massive heart attack a year after Mom died and…it set me back for a little while. Of course, all that shit with Sam didn’t help either.”
Padraig was quiet for a few minutes. Then he asked the question she’d been expecting. “Why didn’t I know any of this, Em?” he asked, genuinely curious. “About your parents, your brother?”
“Because for a long time, it hurt to talk about them. I miss them every day. And also, because you—” She stopped herself before offering the other reason.
Not that it mattered.
Sometimes it felt like Padraig could read her mind. “Because I was grieving too.”
She nodded slowly. “You’ve never really talked to me…about her.”
“You’re right. I haven’t. I…” He looked down at her rocks again. “I’d like to. If you wouldn’t mind listening.”
She reached out and took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’m a sucker for a good love story.”
4
Padraig leaned back and looked at the clock, suddenly aware they’d been talking for close to three hours. They’d polished off a large supreme pizza while he’d drunk five Coronas and she’d finished her bottle of wine.
Once he’d started, it was as if the floodgate had opened and he found himself telling Emmy things he’d never told anyone about Mia. About how she could cook wonderful meals but burned every single thing she ever tried to bake. How she’d become addicted to The Young and the Restless after she was too sick to work. The way he’d felt as he held her in his arms when they stood together at Sacre Coeur, how he’d wanted to freeze time, right there in that moment, forever.
“So you seriously told your dad you were marrying Mia after talking to her just one night?” Emmy asked.
Padraig nodded. “Yeah. Needless to say, he was very confused.”
“I don’t know,” she mused. “I’ve seen your dad with your mom. He’s very protective, devoted. Your mom told me once that she was married before your dad, that her ex-husband was a violent man.”
Padraig scowled, the idea of his mother’s ex always prompting that response. “He was an abusive asshole. Put her in the hospital the night she tried to leave him. Then he actually kidnapped her.”
“And your dad risked his life to save her.”
Padraig and Colm had been adults the first time they’d heard the horrifying story of their mother’s abduction and the rescue attempt staged by their dad, Ewan, and Aaron. “He did.”
“You and your dad seem to have very similar personalities, always there to protect, to help, to defend. I have a feeling he understood your need to marry Mia, even if he didn’t agree right away.”
Padraig considered that, then thought she was probably right. “I was alone with her the night she died. My parents, Pop Pop, and Colm had been there off and on throughout the day. We knew it was just a matter of time, and they’d wanted to stay close. But as it got later and later, I insisted that they go home.”
Emmy reached out and took his hand. He squeezed it gently, touched by her comforting gesture.
“It was the middle of the night and her breathing…well…there’s this sound…”
“Death rattle,” Emmy whispered. “I heard it…with my mom.”
Padraig shifted closer to her on the couch, wrapping his free arm around her shoulders while retaining his grip on her other hand. “Her breathing was the only sound in the apartment. I crawled into the hospital bed with her, lying on the edge, facing her. I was holding her hand,” he continued, looking at their linked fingers. “Running my thumb over the top, back and forth. I whispered that I loved her. I’d said it to her countless times that day, hoping, praying she could hear me. But that time…I told her it was okay for her to go.” He mimicked the stroking motion on Emmy’s hand. “There was a light on in the hallway, so while the room was dim, I could still see her face. She’d been asleep the entire day, but I felt her hand stir and when I looked, her eyes were open. She smiled at me—just one small, sweet, perfect smile—then she closed her eyes again. And then…it was quiet. Absolutely silent.”
Emmy tried to discreetly wipe away the tears in her eyes. Padraig pulled her close,