‘You OK?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she sniffed. ‘I think so.’ But then, she let out another, longer sob, and she let her head hang down.
‘Tam-Tam, did I hit you too hard?’ He let his hand rest on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.
‘No. It was p-perfect,’ she stammered. Her crying was getting louder now, full-throated.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘It’s… everything,’ she cried.
Finn came over, and together, the brothers embraced Tammy. They held her small body close to them, wrapping her up in their safety.
But she pushed them away.
‘It’s too much,’ she said. ‘I thought I could ignore my feelings but… you abandoned me.’
‘Tam-Ta—’ Conor started.
‘Not just you. My father too. And my mother.’ She cried big, snotty tears now. ‘Plus, Shay hates me. And I’m stuck in this weird place, letting the people who left me discipline me.’
Fuck. Conor looked at Finn. When they’d left Connecticut, all three brothers had made a pact. They couldn’t tell Tammy why they left. It would destroy her. It wasn’t just what Shay had said. It was so much more than that.
‘We don’t have to continue,’ Finn said, looking at Conor. ‘If you want us to, we’ll even leave Liberty. You shouldn’t have to be near us.’
Conor was shocked by Finn’s offer, but it made sense. Tammy deserved stability. If they had to be the ones to leave, then so be it. They’d done it before, and they could do it again.
‘No!’ Tammy shouted, surprising them. ‘Don’t leave me again. I couldn’t stand it.’
When Conor saw the sadness on her face, her eyes rimmed red, he couldn’t help himself: he hugged her.
‘I want to be near you,’ she said into his chest. ‘I just have to work through these feelings. I can’t be abandoned again. Please.’
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ Conor said.
‘Why did you leave me when we were kids?’ she sobbed.
Finn told her the truth, but it was far from the whole truth.
‘Because we thought we weren’t good enough for you,’ he said. ‘We thought you deserved better.’
Conor felt her body tremble gently as she sobbed in his arms.
‘Come on, little one,’ he said. ‘It’s been a long day. Why don’t you have a nap? We’ll sit next to you, even read you a story if you want.’
‘Promise you won’t go anywhere if I fall asleep?’
‘We promise,’ the brothers said together.
Tammy wriggled back into her panties, and the brothers carried her over to Finn’s bed.
‘This is too soft,’ she said.
Conor’s bed, on the other hand, was too hard. That just left Shay’s.
‘It’s just right,’ she said quietly, closing her eyes. Soon, the quiet sniffles she’d still been making stopped entirely, and their Little Girl was fast asleep.
*