Well, at least I know the one place I have to avoid like the plague.
‘Listen,’ said Conor, ‘I know this must be weird for you, turning up in the middle of nowhere and finding us three reprobates here, but Finn and I want to make you feel welcome.’
Tammy frowned. ‘You do?’
Finn nodded. ‘Course we do. You’re new here, and… well, let’s face it, it’s kind of an unusual place to live. Just about the only thing it’s got going for it at the moment is the community.’
Conor elbowed his brother. ‘She might know more about the… community… than we do.’ He narrowed his eyes at Tammy. ‘You know Haze well?’
The way Conor asked that made Tammy wonder if Conor was trying to find out if she and Haze were a thing. Haze was a good-looking guy and everything, but the thought of it made her stifle a giggle.
‘I don’t know Haze well at all,’ said Tammy. ‘I don’t know anybody here.’
Finn and Conor exchanged glances. ‘Then it looks like it’s down to us,’ Finn said. ‘Allow us to be your hosts.’
Tammy stifled another giggle. Were these guys for real? She had spent all her adult life so far feeling abandoned by them, upset that they’d run out of her life without so much as a goodbye. And yet here they were, ready to take her on a tour of the town, like the last decade had never happened.
It was tempting to snub the twins. To tell them that she didn’t need their charity. That she’d wait for someone who really cared about her to show her around.
But the fact is, the two of them looked like theydidcare. I mean, they were here, weren’t they?
‘Well,’ said Conor. ‘Whaddya say? Gotta warn you, if you take this tour with us, wewillinsist that you wear shoes.’
Tammy looked down at her stripy pink socks and laughed.
‘Funny kind of tour. Can’t believe I agreed to wear shoes for this.’
Tammy hadn’t been expecting a huge amount from Liberty, but it was still shocking just how run-down everything was. Wood cabins, missing chunks of cladding, struck with dry rot. Untended streets, choked with weeds and blighted with cracked paving stones. This place was a long way off whatever vision Haze had for it.
‘Looks like you’ve still got some serious cheek, Tamster,’ Finn said, eying her over the rim of his glasses.
Tammy did her best not to blush, but she felt some heat in her face. It was true — being around the Healy brothers again brought out a naughty streak that she kept hidden away for a long time. ‘Hey, I’m a good girl!’ she protested.
Conor snorted. ‘Sure you are,’ he said sarcastically. ‘Look, we’re not really giving you a tour of the buildings, or even the landscape, stunning though it is. The only thing that really matters about this place is the people who live here.’
‘I don’t think so much of them so far.’
‘Hey, watch yourself,’ Finn warned. ‘There are lots of Daddies here who are far less tolerant of that kind of lip than we are.’
‘Lip…?’
‘He’s saying,’ said Conor, ‘to be a good girl, or else. You don’t wa—’
‘Hey,’ interrupted Tammy, ‘what’s that noise?’
She could just make out a bunch of strange, clucking sounds on the breeze.
‘Ah,’ said Finn, ‘the tell-tale sound of our resident ornithologist.’
Tammy looked at Conor for an explanation.
‘Bird-brain,’ he offered.
They were standing near an actually quite pleasant-looking farmhouse, with a rope swing out on the porch and some well-kept fields surrounding it.
In the one next to them, there were a lot of very noisy, very lively chickens. Tammy had never seen a flock of hens quite like them. They didn’t all have a full set of feathers, but they looked so happy. They were all roaming happily around a lush green field, and Tammy swore that some of the noises they made sounded like laughter. In the middle of them all, there was a young woman, her hand deep inside a sack of corn.
‘Come on, ladies, there’s plenty for everyone!’ The woman crouched down, offering her cupped hands to the milling chickens. The birds crowded her, greedily picking away at their food.