Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
I was also inordinately pleased that nobody approached him at the party and that he hadn’t tried to talk to anyone either. My crush had grown to the point I’d become possessive of him, and that couldn’t be good. A part of me I wasn’t proud of liked that Rhys didn’t realise how appealing he was and that those girls were too blind to see it because, that way, I got to keep him all to myself.
The following morning I’d just gotten back from a walk on the beach and went straight to the kitchen for some coffee. The house was empty. Aunt Jo was out at her tennis lesson, Uncle Padraig was at work, Nuala was at the hairdresser, and I had no clue where the brothers and Rhys were.
Grabbing my e-reader, I decided to spend some time with my latest book as I brought my coffee into the living room and settled into a plush armchair. A little while later, a housekeeper let herself in, but she went upstairs first. It was strange to stay in a house with a maid. I’d noticed a bunch of my dirty clothes had been washed and put away when I got home the other day. I mean, I could certainly appreciate the convenience, but there was also a twinge of discomfort. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the sort of person who could just let someone else clean up after me even if I was paying them. But that was my own personal issue. Greta, the housekeeper, always seemed in a cheerful mood, so I suspected my aunt and uncle were good clients.
The hum of the vacuum pulled me out of the story, and I glanced around the room. I was about to relocate to the bench at the end of the garden when my gaze caught on a collection of family photos displayed on one of the shelves. There were lots of Nuala and the boys, a few of the whole family, and then others of relatives I didn’t know, presumably from their mom’s side of the family.
One showed Aunt Jo when she was in her twenties with three other women. I immediately suspected they were her sisters because they all had the same brown eyes and similar features. I wondered what it might be like to have so many sisters, all close in age, the four of you growing up together. Being an only child, I’d always been fascinated by what it was like to have siblings.
I heard someone come in the front door, and then Nuala appeared a minute later, her long hair freshly trimmed and blow dried.
“You look great,” I exclaimed when I saw her.
She fluffed her hair and grinned. “Thanks, Charli. My stylist, Shona, is a genius. Have you had lunch yet? I was going to defrost some more of Chef Moira’s chili soup.”
“Sure, I could go for some soup,” I answered, and she seemed to note where my attention was focused.
“Mam is great at keeping all the family pictures together,” Nuala said fondly. “I love the old ones the best.”
“Right?” I agreed. “It’s like we’re all too skilled at posing nowadays. There was something beautifully unpretentious about people in old photos.”
“Like they weren’t expecting the picture to be taken,” Nuala added, coming to stand next to me. “So the result is something much more natural.” There was a pause, and I realised I was holding the picture of Aunt Jo and her sisters.
“Gosh, I haven’t looked at that one in forever. Mam is so young in it, and my aunts, wow, I forgot how gorgeous they all were.”
“A good looking family,” I agreed. “You look just like them. Did she have any brothers?”
“No, only sisters. Granddad John always wanted a boy, but it wasn’t to be,” Nuala said then pointed to the tallest sister. “That’s my aunt Faye. She and her husband moved to Australia and started a family there. We visit them and my little cousins every couple years, and sometimes they come here. The one with the darker blonde hair is my Aunt Julia. She lives nearby and works in finance. And the one on the far left is Nadine. She passed away before I was born,” Nuala finished sadly.
“Really? What happened to her?”
A shadow fell over Nuala’s features when she replied, “It’s so awful. Mam never told me the full story for years. When I was a kid, all I knew was that she was sick, but it turned out she struggled with mental illness and took her own life when she was only twenty-three.”
“Oh my goodness. That’s horrible.”
Nuala nodded, her mouth shaping into a sad line. “She had schizophrenia. It kind of freaks me out because it can be hereditary, but I try not to think about it too much. I go with Mam and Aunt Julia to visit her grave sometimes. Even though it’s been years, I can tell it still hurts them, what happened to her. I can’t imagine anything happening to Tristan or Derek. That would destroy me.”