Promise Me

“No Ronan, I’m not,” she said. “It’s been a rough week and then I close my eyes and I keep seeing you with all these tubes and wires coming out of you and I keep wondering why? I haven’t slept well since you were ICU.”

I hung my head towards the table. “I screwed up Rhett.”

“You definitely did. I held your Mom’s hand Ro for the first forty-eight hours, praying that you would make it. I have to admit you still look like hell.”

“Thanks.” I wasn’t back to full strength. I was still a little pale. I had lost weight but I was getting better.

Tegan cleared his throat. “I guess everyone is forgetting that I too spent several days in the hospital for something equally stupid. Shawn saved my ass.”

I turned my head and looked at Shawn standing next to Bronagh. “We stopped on a county road because he wasn’t breathing,” Shawn explained. “I did CPR on him in the back of a truck.”

“What?” Ryan tilted her head to the side. “When did this happen?”

“Before your Mom and I got married. We tried to get back together, broke up again. I wasn’t handling it too well.” Dad clapped Tegan on the back then gave his shoulder a squeeze. My Uncle Noah sat down. So did Shawn. We carried him out of one truck and put him in another. “Scarlett was pregnant at the time with her first. A long time ago.”

I was quiet. They had secrets that they hid from us. “What happened?” I asked.

“I drank too much one night. I wanted to hide from the pain I was feeling at losing Rhett again. It didn’t work out too well. I almost died. I had so much to drink that night I had alcohol poisoning.”

“Is that why you don’t drink now Daddy?” Ryan asked.

“It is. I never wanted to be that out of control again.” He glanced across the table at me. “Ronan, you most likely need to give it all up because alcohol will lead to you wanting the drugs, I’m afraid.”

I didn’t think so. I dropped my eyes to the table. “Still didn’t check out one of those groups I gave you?” Shawn asked.

“I didn’t,” I agreed. I didn’t need it. I hadn’t done anything including alcohol for four weeks. I wasn’t sleeping well because I was wound tight. A car door shut and we all turned expecting to see Skylar and Charlie. It was just Charlie.

“Where’s Skylar?” Rhett shouted.

“Throwing up,” Charlie said.

“What?”

I glanced behind me again at nineteen-year-old Charlie O’Halloran. Petite like her other sisters. Aine was the tallest. Ryan the shortest. The other two in between. All four beautiful girls with blonde hair and blue eyes like their dad, Tegan.

“She’s a wreck. She wasn’t going to come so I had to tell her that it was surprise graduation party for her and she got all nervous and threw up.”

Rhett scrubbed her hands across her face tiredly. “Teg, we might as well tell everyone so the shock isn’t quite so shocking. Then maybe it will be easier on Sky.”

He snorted. She looked at him. Then she sighed. “Skylar is pregnant.”

I heard my mom gasp. “She’s five months pregnant to be exact. She’s got this pie in the sky idea that she’ll be just fine as a single mother. Says it was somebody she met on campus. A one-night stand.”

“I don’t think you have to give out all the details Rhett,” Tegan said in a low voice.

“These people are family Tegan.”

He rolled his eyes. Liam looked at Harley, “Welcome to a Moore Sunday family dinner,” he told her.

**

The guest of honor finally showed up after a phone call from both Ryan and Aine. The sisters met her in the driveway. Aine was about to pop with only two weeks left to go until her due date. She carried this baby longer than she did Grace who came early.

It was an amazing thing to feel my niece or nephew inside her. She let me place my hand on her belly and feel it kick. I hadn’t taken much interest in the first pregnancy only the kid that came out afterwards. I loved Grace. I loved them all. Not enough to not fuck up my life.

I turned as Skylar walked around the car with her sisters on either side of her. She ditched the hoodie that hid her pregnancy when I saw her last. She was wearing shorts low below her belly and a cute, snug fitting top. She was wearing sunglasses that shielded her eyes. I knew why. She was hiding her emotions. Somebody hurt her. I watched Ryan and felt like maybe she knew prior to today. Aine definitely was surprised by Skylar’s news.

Each of my brothers hugged her in greeting. She seemed to be avoiding me and I wasn’t sure why. I finally rose from the picnic table and went to her. Maybe it was still the awkwardness of what I had done to myself. Everyone seemed strange around me at times. Staring at me. Reassuring themselves that I was all right.