‘You’ve looked after us so well, Tammy,’ Finn said. ‘And Shay’s been looking after you.’
Tammy looked like she wanted to believe, like she was desperate to, but something was holding her back. Eventually, she said: ‘But how?’
*
Well, Shay Healy, this is it. Time for you to convince the woman you’ve loved since you were a boy that you’re not just an angry asshole. Time to make yourself vulnerable for once in your no good, feckin’ life.
The Bora Bora Bungalow was wonderful. Shay was less into the idea of Disney World than his brothers. To him, Disney stuff had always felt a bit naff. He always thought that the company took special things — Polynesian bungalows, safari hotels, European castles — and rebuilt them out of plastic. He’d always thought that Disney just meantfake.
But this place wasn’t fake. It was made of wood and glass, and it was, quite frankly beautiful. OK, they weren’t actually on a Polynesian island. But it sure felt that way.
While Finn and Conor unpacked and got the place ready, Shay took his chance to speak to Tammy. He ushered her to the couch and sat down with her.
It was the first time they’d been alone since she’d examined him after he cut his finger. Thankfully, so far, things were going much better than that previous time. And, as an added bonus, she hadn’t immediately slapped him and called him a traitorous wretch.
‘First, I want to apologize.’ He shifted uneasily in his chair. He’d never been good at expressing himself. ‘I know I’ve been… distant.’
‘Understatement of the century,’ Tammy said. She had her arms crossed, which wasn’t exactly friendly body language. But, at least, he thought again to himself, she’s not actually attacking me.
‘There’s so much I’ve wanted to say to you for so long,’ he said, failing to keep the emotion out of his voice.
‘I’m listening.’
Where to start?
‘OK. So. A long time ago, when we were kids, your dad called me into his office. I’ll never forget it. He was wearing a tweed suit—’
‘Makes a change.’
Shay laughed nervously. ‘Anyway. He sat me down, looked me in the eye, and said, “Shay Healy, I believe you’re corrupting my daughter.” Now, of course, me being a kid, I had to get him to explain whatcorruptingmeant. He told me that boys weren’t on the menu for you. Not when you were going to go on to become a successful doctor. “Tamsin is going to go on to accomplish great things.” He went on to explain he didn’t want us getting in the way of that.’
‘I had no idea,’ Tammy said, a look of confused wonder on her face.
‘It didn’t stop there. He told me that we — meaning the three of us — were from a bad seed. Told me that we were trouble. He’d seen the bruises on my ma. Wanted to know who was behind them, implying that he thought it could be me, Conor, or Finn. Immediately, I knew it must have been my dad. It was like a bolt from the blue, though. I had no idea he was hitting her. When I explained calmly to your father—’
‘You shouted, didn’t you?’ interrupted Tammy.
‘Screamed my feckin’ arse off. I told him in no uncertain terms that I’d never hurt Ma. His response? “Maybe not. But you’ll end up like your drug-addict father one day, mark my words.” Then, he opened up this little case under the table and he pulled out ten thousand dollars.’
Tammy’s eyes widened in shock.
‘He told us to leave and never come back. To take our ma away from our father and start a new life somewhere. I believe he did actually care for my ma, in his own, twisted way. Of course, he then told me that if weeverwent near you again, that not only would he ruin our lives, he’d also ruinyourlife. He also made it pretty clear that if I mentioned any part of this conversation to you, your medical career would be DOA.’
Tammy’s expression changed. Her lip was trembling, and her pretty eyes were flushed with tears. ‘I didn’t know,’ she said. ‘When you all left, I just thought…’
‘We’d abandoned you?’It was Finn. He stood in the doorway with his other brother. Shay had been so lost in the story, lost in Tammy’s eyes, that he hadn’t noticed the two of them come in.
‘That you’d abandoned me,’ echoed Tammy.
‘Tell her the rest, Shay,’ Conor said, his voice cracking in his throat.
Shay breathed in deep. Fuck. This was it.‘I lied to my brothers. Running off wasn’t enough. I had to make sure that neither of them ever wanted to go back to you. So I told them you weren’t into them. That you’d been talking behind their backs for months.’
‘What did you say?’ Tammy asked.
‘That I wasn’t buff enough,’ Finn said.
‘And that I wasn’t brainy enough,’ Conor admitted.