Until Harry(12)

I stared at my nanny for a moment, and then I flat out glared at her. “Are you – are you guilting me into coming home every Christmas by threatening that you could have a heart attack?”

She tried to guilt me with her old age before, when she wanted me to come home from New York, and when that didn’t work, she stopped speaking to me. It seemed she was upping the ante. I didn’t know whether to be furious or impressed.

My nanny looked to her nails and shrugged. “I wouldn’t say threatenin’ ye exactly. I’m just sayin’ if ye continue to stay away from your family and I have a heart attack and die, it would be your fault.”

She’s doing it again, I told myself. The whole convincing thing.

“Nanny!”

“I know it’s awful that it could happen,” she said, bobbing her head up and down in agreement.

The twisted old bat!

“I can’t believe you,” I crossly stated. “I don’t even know how to respond to something like that.”

My nanny devilishly smiled. “Say ye’ll come home every Christmas.”

I am related to a bloody con artist.

I huffed. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m dead serious,” she countered, all traces of humour fleeing from her face.

We had a ten-second stare-down before I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine!” I groaned in defeat. “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

“Every year?” she questioned.

I grunted. “Every. Year.”

“Ye promise?” she pressed.

I gritted my teeth. “I promise.”

She gleefully clapped her hands together. “I’m so happy ye decided this.”

Yeah. Decided.

“I feel like I’ve just been hustled,” I mumbled, and shook my head. “You’d convince the Devil that he was God.”

When I looked back up to my nanny, her lip was quirked. “What now?” I warily asked.

She shrugged. “Nothin’.”

It wasn’t “nothing”; she was grinning at me, and that meant something.

“Are you sure?” I pried.

My nanny nodded, but said nothing.

Bloody woman, I thought.

We both turned our heads and glanced at the kitchen door when my father, brothers and Kale walked in, talking about ordering takeaway from the local chippy because none of them felt like cooking. I didn’t realise how hungry I was until food was mentioned. I couldn’t even remember the last time I ate anything.

An hour and a half later and I was still sitting at the kitchen table, but now I had a belly full of chicken, chips and at least a litre bottle of Coke. I was so full I felt like I was going to burst. When we were finished, we all went into the sitting room and sat down so we could digest our food in comfort.

“So, when are you going back to New York?” Lochlan asked me after a few minutes of mindless chatter.

I noticed he said “New York” and not “home”.

I didn’t look at him, Layton or Kale as I said, “I don’t know yet, but not soon. I’m going to help Mum and Nanny with Harry’s house after we hear his will on Monday.”

I made a mental note that I needed to change my flights home and extend my stay at the Inn.

Lochlan said nothing.

Layton cleared his throat. “Well, that’s great.”

Yeah. Great.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

I felt Lochlan’s gaze back on me. “How long are you going to stay away when you go back this time? Ten years? Twenty? Or just come back when one of us dies?”

I didn’t even flinch at his jab.

“Loch,” Layton pressed, “don’t start with her – not tonight. She just got home, for fuck’s sake.”

I appreciated Layton shutting down Lochlan before he had a chance to have a go at me, but I looked up to my brother’s intense gaze, and instead of remaining silent, I said, “I’ll be back for the holidays.”

Lochlan blinked at my reply, clearly stunned speechless at my response. So were Kale and Layton, who looked at me with wide eyes and gaping mouths. They were shocked. I noticed, in Kale, it was the first real emotion I had seen him express since I arrived. The old Kale would usually tell me a story from the emotions constantly displayed on his face, but not this poker-faced Kale.

What happened to you? I wondered.

“Christmas?” Layton murmured after a moment, his eyes unblinking.

I shrugged, trying to downplay how much of a big deal they thought it was. I mean, it was a big deal, but I didn’t want them to act like it was.

“Yeah. Nanny made me promise to come home every year for Christmas.” I shook my head in annoyance. “She said missing me was pushing her in the direction of a heart attack, and if she died, it’d be my fault.”

Things were silent for a moment, and then male laughter filled the sitting room. I focused on Kale when he laughed, and I felt dejected when his laughter didn’t reach his eyes and seemed forced.

I pushed my observations aside and grunted. “It’s not funny; she placed the ultimate guilt trip on me. We’re burying Harry tomorrow, and she decides to throw this curve ball at me? The bloody vixen.”

The light-hearted laughter continued, and I fought off the smile that twitched at the corner of my mouth.