Canon

‘C’mon.’ Niall mutters while standing to his feet. He makes sure to pause at the door in order to collect himself as he reaches for the doorknob. He sniffles once more and uses the back of his arm to wipe his face. ‘We’re leaving this goddamn place with or without her.’ I grab a hold of his clammy hand and slip my fingers between his. Just as Niall leads the way into the dark hallway, Greg emerges without Bobby.

‘Stubborn old man, isn’t he?’ Greg forces out a nervous laugh. Beyond the door, glass was still shattering. I hate to be the person that has to clean that up. All I could picture were the tiny, nearly invisible shards of glass hiding in the carpet for the next year. ‘Lizette, it’s good to see you again especially considering the circumstances and all that. How have you been?’

‘Ignore him.’ Niall gently pulls me as I open my mouth to respond to Greg. I offer him a sympathetic smile while we head to the living room. Niall definitely wasn’t budging with his brother. I was starting to think he’d never forgive him.

‘Is everyone good?’ Maura inquires, clearly genuinely concerned by the deafening silence.

‘No.’ Niall immediately snaps, ‘but then again, I told you this would happen. You were blinded by trying to come in here and ease your guilty conscience. Now look at this fucking mess.’

‘Niall.’ I frown seeing how upset Maura was. I could see her hands shaking from where I stood. Denise was quietly tucked away in the corner of the room, sitting on the floor. Greg sits down in front of her and the two of them talk in hushed tones. He says something that makes her laugh and she wraps her arms around his neck.

‘Whatever, I’m leaving. Are you coming?’ Niall doesn’t wait for an answer before taking long strides out towards his car. Maura silently slides into the black Mustang while pulling her sleek, large iPhone from her purse. Niall throws his head against the smooth leather material as the car roars with life. ‘What a waste of time.’

I purse my lips, watching the Horan house grow smaller and smaller in the distance. Oddly enough, I felt more at peace the further we got away from the house. ‘Would you want to get dinner in an hour or so? I’m leaving soon and I don’t want anyone to have any sort of sour feeling.’ Maura finally speaks up once we were outside her hotel, ‘It’s not like we got to eat that amazing smelling pizza or anything. It’ll be my treat.’

Niall eyes me through the rearview mirror and I give him a quick nod in return. ‘Sure.’

‘Alright, I’ll just shower and try to check in at home, then I’ll call you.’

‘Okay.’

‘Bye bye.’ I wave to Maura as she walks into the fancy hotel that awaited her.

I climb to the front and fasten my seat belt, just to be closer to him. He didn’t ask and he wasn’t showing it, but I think he needed it too. For years, Niall had this dream of his parents being in the same room again and it turned out to be a nightmare. He pulls out a loose cigarette and cups his hand to light it. ‘Do you mind?’ He pauses in his motion to look over at me, the cigarette hanging from his mouth.

‘No.’ I shake my head, glancing back towards my own window. Niall had cut his smoking back lately. I’m guessing it was the nerves. He lowers the window before blowing a large puff of smoke from it. I open my mouth to end the silence when my phone chimes in my purse. ‘It’s my dad.’ I answer sensing Niall’s stare, ‘I have to watch Elijah tonight.’

‘Wait, what about dinner? Should I just cancel?’

‘No.’ I nearly blurt, ‘Have dinner with your mom.’

‘Lizette.’ He frowns, ‘You saw what just happened. I’m just so elated to sit there for an hour with her by myself.’

‘I love you so much but you’re borderline whining. She’s trying and I think that you owe it to yourself to meet her halfway, at least while she’s here for you. Your mom wants to have dinner with you – it’s not the end of the world.’

‘I am not whining.’ Niall furrows his eyebrows, slightly offended. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’

‘I said borderline and I also said that I love you.’ I smile, leaning up to kiss his pouting lips. ‘Call me later and let me know how it goes. Please, be nice – no snarky comments.’

‘I think you know how I can’t say no when you look at me like that. Those eyes of yours are very powerful over me.’ Niall stifles out a laugh, pressing his lips to mine once again.

‘Which is precisely why I look at you like that. Be good.’

‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’ I repeat while getting out of his car. Niall waits for me to get into the house before driving away, ‘I’m home.’ I announce after kicking my shoes off.

‘There you are.’ My dad calls while tightening his black tie, ‘Sorry to crash in on your night but the sitter had some family emergency and we have this benefit downtown so you’ll need to watch your brother. We should be back around midnight.’

‘Okay.’ I lift Elijah from his playpen, ‘just you and me, little guy.’

‘Liz, feed him then put him down for bed no later than nine. He’ll probably wake up, just give him another bottle and lay him in his crib.’ My mom comes from the back in some long, black dress. ‘I have the bottles already ready in the fridge. Heat them up for a bit and test it on your arm.’

‘You guys do know that I’ve watched my little brother before, right?’ I taunt not taking my eyes off of Elijah, ‘You act like I’m new to this.’

‘No company and stay at home, please.’ My dad is sure to comment wrapping a muscular arm around my mom.

‘Yes sir.’ I bounce Elijah on my lap causing him to burst out in a fit of giggles. ‘You’re so happy. Please, stay just like this forever.’ I couldn’t help but wonder how dinner was going right about now.

Niall’s Point of View

‘Hi! No Lizette?’ My mom questions as she settles beside me. She didn’t even try to mask her disappointment. At least that makes two of us. I needed Lizette here, she was my buffer. She constantly went out of her way to ease any tension in the room.

‘She had a thing with her family.’ I retort, biting at the inside of my cheek. ‘It was at the last minute otherwise she would’ve been here.’

‘I adore her but I do admit, it’s wonderful to have some alone time with my boy. I feel like we can finally talk, just the two of us.’

‘Uh huh.’ Was all I managed to get out. I pretended to be interested in the GPS on my phone. I knew exactly where the restaurant was but it kept me busy. Thankfully. Be nice. No snarky comments. Lizette’s words played over and over in my head.

‘So, tell me about her.’

‘About who?’ I take my eyes from the road to look over at her. I could physically feel my stomach drop like I was on some sort of rollercoaster. I was 110% sure that she was talking about Lizette but I needed to buy myself some time.

‘Lizette.’ She clarifies with a small grin, ‘I mean, I did hear you say that you love her on more than one occasion since I’ve been here. You’ve met the parents, spend all of your time together, you even brought her to Ireland with you. You’d say that you’re serious, right?’

‘Very.’ I nod, feeling at ease as I let my mind wander to Lizette. ‘She’s really, really special.’ I murmur coyly, ‘It doesn’t surprise me that you’ve already hit it off with her. That’s just who she is. She’s just likable. It’s like second nature to her.’

‘Are you in love?’ She singsongs, I could tell just how much she was loving this. I didn’t mind, Lizette was easy to brag about. Plus, this was better than the awkward conversation about what I’ve been up to since she’s been perfecting her new family in Mullingar. No snarky comments.

‘I am so in love her. I’d like to think that she’s in love with me too. She’s someone that I never want to disappoint and someone I want to be with for the rest of my life. Yeah, we’re young and all that but this is different. We’re in it for the long run.’ She doesn’t say anything immediately, I thought I was alone for a second. I could talk about Lizette for days on end without getting bored, ‘Sorry, she has the tendency of making me ramble.’

‘No, no.’ She muses while shaking her head several times, ‘don’t apologize. It’s so refreshing to hear a child talk about someone so highly. Love like that is pretty rare these days. I’m really happy for you. I’m happy for Greg too. Denise seems lovely.’ I bite back the snarky comment that was bound to fall out my mouth at the slightest mention of Greg. It was taking everything in me not to knock the shit out of him back at the house today. ‘Sorry. I know that you’re still hurting from what Greg did.’

‘Forget it.’ I shrug, directing my attention back to the GPS. We were nearly there. Thank God. I could kill time by staring at the menu for thirty minutes and thirty minutes of eating. Hell, who am I kidding? It takes me nowhere near thirty minutes to eat. Wait, forty minutes with the menu and twenty minutes eating. Still too long. Forty minutes with the menu, ten minutes in the bathroom, and ten minutes eating.

‘Mac told me that Jack got the dinosaur,’ She offers me a weak smile, ‘He seemed pretty happy opening the box up. I think it was great of you to get it back to good hands.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeh, Tara ensured Mac that she wouldn’t throw it out. She’d probably have trouble prying it from those tiny hands of his anyway. Jack and Sir Albert are pretty inseparable at this point.’

‘Sir Albert?’ I raise an eyebrow over at her while pulling into the parking lot.

‘Jack finally decided on a name for it. Sir Albert.’

Sir Albert. I hide the goofy smile forming on my face. The few weeks that I got to know Jack were some of the best honestly. I could talk on the phone with him for hours. Mostly just listening to him go on and on about his little dinosaur toys. When we finally would hang up, I would just sit there with this wide smile that I couldn’t shake for a solid hour. I’m pretty sure that Greg hasn’t once even reached out to him. Partially, I didn’t blame him. The last time he saw Jack, his face was all bloody – thanks to me. Jack deserves better from the Horan side of things. I would hate for him to get wrapped up in our dysfunctional shit. I hoped that he would distance himself as far away from the Horan’s as possible. Tara’s probably already done that by now though. I think back to Lizette’s suggestion. The fun uncle. I don’t think I had enough strength in me for that. Not just yet.

‘Where’d you just go?’ My mom questions, eyeing me nervously. I’m guessing that she had been waiting for a while. From the look on her face, she was already regretting bringing up Jack.

‘Nowhere.’ I kill the engine, not moving from my seat.

‘We’re still eating, right?’

‘Right behind you.’ I nod, slowly going to unfasten my seatbelt.

Here goes nothing.