Between Here and the Horizon(79)
Again, Sully looked at me, worry lines forming on his face. “Ahhh, I’m not sure. I guess I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Maybe Sully will stay, depending on a few things,” I told her.
“What few things?”
“Well, depending on if you guys all like each other and want to hang out, I suppose.”
“I like him,” she said. “And I like Connor, and I like you. I think we should spend all day together.”
“That’s very nice of you, Amie, but we’ll just play it by ear, though, okay?”
She accepted this with a tiny frown on her face, and didn’t push the matter further. “You can sit here,” she said, patting the table across from her. “Would you like some beers?”
Her offer surprised me since we didn’t have any beers, and I hadn’t had any in front of her. Ever. Maybe Ronan used to have a drink or two when he got home from work or something. “That’s all right, Amie. It’s ten fifteen in the morning. It’s a little early to be drinking beer,” Sully said, smiling.
“Daddy used to like drinking beers,” she replied. “Daddy had beer for breakfast all the time.”
Ronan used to drink beer for breakfast? Jeez. He’s lost his wife. He’d been f*cked up enough to take his own life. The fact that he was knocking back a beer or two before heading out to work was pretty sad, though.
Sully looked like he was about to snatch up his jacket in the hallway and bolt out of the place, never to return, so I grabbed him by the hand and sat down at the table, sealing the deal. No escaping now. Normally Connor would have been surly and snappy if he found himself in a situation he couldn’t control. He didn’t seem that way today, though. He seemed too stunned to be anything but silent.
“Why don’t Sully and I make a picture, too, and you guys can tell us what you think, huh?” I picked up a couple of the magazines in the middle of the table and offered one to Sully. He took it gratefully and began to cut out pictures with the tiny kiddie scissors I’d been using earlier, his hands far too big to wield them efficiently.
An hour later, Rose let herself into the house and came into the kitchen to find Connor and Amie laughing raucously at the picture we’d just completed. We’d turned Lady Gaga into a nun, and some famous-right-now model had been given a makeover, transformed into a vampire, complete with drawn-in fangs and evil laser eyes, courtesy of Sully. In the middle of the page, a huge picture of some English boy band member was riding a stallion that Amie insisted was a unicorn, and the rest of the band members’ heads had been cut from their own bodies and glued onto the bodies of cats.
Rose stood in the doorway and took in the scene, her arms filled with groceries, amusement written all over her face. “Looks like I’ve been missing all the fun, doesn’t it?” she said.
“Come and draw with us,” Amie squealed. “I made a Triceratops! Look!”
Rose dutifully looked at the mess of images Amie had stuck down on the paper and nodded, telling her what an excellent job she’d done. She then turned to me and said, “O? Think you could help me put these groceries away for a second?”
“Sure.”
Sully was so engrossed in his conversation with Connor, debating with him whether or not a skinny bikini clad woman from one of the fashion magazines we’d cut up was actually an alien, poorly disguised as a human, that he didn’t even look up when I left the table.
Rose dragged me into the pantry and pulled the door half closed behind us. “What the hell is going on?” she hissed. She was smiling, delighted, but at the same time she seemed concerned, too.
“He asked,” I said. “I didn’t drug him and bundle him into the trunk in order to get him over here, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I wasn’t thinking that at all. But now I am!”
“There’s nothing to be worried about, Rose, I promise. I explained about Sully to them, and both of them agreed that they wanted to see him. The whole morning’s gone really well, actually.”
“Hmm. I don’t know. I never thought he’d change his mind. He’s not the kind of guy to go back on something once he’s sworn to it once or twice.”
“I know. I know.”
“Do you think he’s gonna do what Ronan asked and take them, then?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t know.”
“All right, O. But god, just be careful, okay? Sully’s a good man, and he’s definitely mellowed since he met you, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he freaks out on you after this. Just watch for it, honey. I’d really hate to see you or the children get hurt.”
******
Sully stayed for the rest of the afternoon, and it was worrying. Worrying, because I spent the entire time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Amie was giggly and silly with Sully, playing with him and screaming at the top of her lungs when he chased her around the living room. Connor was quiet for a long time, but soon warmed up and joined in the fun. It was surreal. I kept getting hit with the strongest sense of déjà vu, back to the night before Ronan killed himself, when he was charging around the same living room, wearing that pirate patch.
Four o’clock rolled around, and Sully said he needed to leave. Amie looked like she was going to cry. “But I didn’t even get to ask for another skeleton,” she whispered.