“What? Schmoozing?”
I snorted. “You mean licking ass.”
Aela pulled a face. “Really, Dec?”
“Tell the boy how it is. He wants to get into the world of politics, he needs to get used to the taste of shit.”
Seamus groaned. “Ew.”
“Yeah. Ew.” I wasn’t about to treat him like he was five. He wanted to be treated like a man, so I would.
Even if that meant talking about things she didn’t approve of.
I shot her a look, saw her disapproval, and smiled at her, before I asked my son, “Do you know what a PAC is?”
He blinked. “Isn’t it, like, where you get a group of people together and they donate money for your campaigns and stuff? To get you into seats of power?”
“Yeah. When you meet your grandda, you talk to him about it.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “It interests him.” He’d been planning this for years, and didn’t he just have the luck of the Irish that Shay was going to fall into his lap?
If he played his cards right, of course.
I’d need to warn him… Wasn’t that going to be a barrel of laughs?
Aela returned to her to-do list, I went back to my emails, and Shay carried on grumbling at some political show he was watching on YouTube. I didn’t even know kids watched that stuff, but you lived and learned.
When, twenty minutes later, I got an email from Da, I got to my feet and said, “I’m going out today—”
“It’s too soon,” was Aela’s immediate reply, and her concern was the best balm imaginable to the tears in my soul.
“No. I’m fine. I won’t push it. I just have to see a few people.”
She frowned at me, and silently, I knew she was asking me if I was ready for it. I replied with a nod and a soft smile. “I can’t keep the front door locked forever,” was all I said, and I did it softly so Shay wouldn’t overhear and misinterpret my meaning.
Biting her lip, Aela mumbled, “I don’t want to open it.”
“I know. It’s been really nice, hasn’t it? But my folks care, babe. Despite whatever mistakes they make along the way, they really do give a damn. They might be good for him.”
“Can you imagine how he’ll respond to your father?” She shook her head. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“I think it’ll be quite funny.” I grinned at her. “You’re forgetting he’ll be on his best behavior.”
Her eyes rounded. “You really think?”
“I really think.” Casting a look at my grumpy kid, seeing his attention was elsewhere, I stared straight at her, telling her silently what I wanted to do to her. What she made me feel.
When her cheeks started burning, I grinned again, happy that the message had been received. “I’ll see you later.”
She bit her lip. “If you’re going out, then don’t be worried if, when you get back, we’re not here.”
Tension hit me. “There’s a war, Aela. You can’t just go—”
“Shay needs to get back to school, Dec,” she retorted immediately. “He can’t stay around here forever. He needs space. He needs a normal routine. He’s getting antsy because he’s bored. He’s not used to having so much free time on his hands.”
“I thought he’d like it.”