Breakaway by Deirdre Martin Read Free Book Online

off as easily as you think. Don’t forget: I know you.”
    “Then you know I’m not a moron. Now can we change the subject?”

4

    “The drainpipe needs fixin’. And I don’t know what’s wrong with the telly.”
    Rory took a deep breath so he didn’t snap at his grandmother. His reception at the Oak was tepid compared to what he thought it was going to be. As always, Bettina was the one with the biggest balls, going after him about Jake. There was no gray with the lot of them: Erin and Jake were good, and he was bad. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t turn things around.
    His assessment of the night ended abruptly with a sharp, painful twist of his right ear.
    “Are you listening to me?” his gran snapped.
    “Yes, for chrissakes.” He rubbed his ear. She’d been doing this to him since he was a little boy. He’d hated it then, and he hated it now. “I promise I’ll get around to it this afternoon, all right?”
    “Why? What are you doing all day?”
    “I told you, remember? I’ve got to go into town to finalize things about the camp with Jackson Bell, and then I’m going to check out the PJ Leary Walking Tour.”
    “That’ll take all of two minutes.”
    Rory laughed. “Why do you say that?”
    “He’s not a native, is he? It’s not like you can say, ‘and here’s where he went to school,’ and ‘here’s where he wrote his first book.’ There’s nothing to see on the High Street. ‘Here’s where he took his first piss in the pub’? You’d do better just going up to his cottage and introducing yourself.”
    “Maybe,” Rory mumbled. He was a huge PJ Leary fan. All the Blades were. Their secret started when they were on the road: when curfew kicked in, they’d all hang out in Eric Mitchell’s room, where Eric would read the book aloud. Eric was great at putting on dramatic voices for each of the characters, maybe because he was married to an actress.
    “How did it go last night, if you don’t mind me asking?”
    “How do you think it went?”
    Rory 1, Ballycraigers 0.
    “Did you have a drink or did Bettina chase you out right away?”
    “Of course I had a drink.”
    “She was feeling merciful, I see.” She paused. “Liam have anything to say to you?”
    “Yeah, something about not coming near Erin. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
    “Don’t be arrogant, Rory. You know how much everyone loves Erin. I don’t think you quite know what you did to her. If it wasn’t for Sandra and Jake, the girl might have topped herself.”
    Rory was horrified. “Erin would never do anything like that.”
    His grandmother glared at him. “How would you know? People thought you’d never piss off on her, but you did, didn’t you? I was mortified:
my
grandson, breaking up with the supposed love of his life on the phone!”
    “What was I supposed to do!” Rory replied, guilt building inside him. “Fly back to Ireland to do it?”
    “A real man would’ve. But not you. A coward, you were.”
    She was right.
    “And a fool,” she continued, on a roll. “So now you’ve got a case of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till you lose it.’ I’ll be eager to see how that one goes. Now finish your tea and get workin’ on that telly before you waste your time in town.”
    *   *   *
    Never again. Erin was fuming as she got off the bus that ran between Ballycraig and Moneygall. Never again would she fold when her mother handed her a shopping list and, huffing and puffing as if breathing were a chore, told her, “My heart’s acting up again. I can’t handle the stress.” Next time, she’d point out that her mother had never had a heart problem in her life, despite smoking and not having eaten a piece of fruit or a veg since the seventies. “Strong as a bull,” her dad always said proudly.
More like full of bull,
Erin thought.
    She was done being an indentured servant. Erin had placed an ad in the
Galway Independent
for someone to replace her as housecleaner and jack of all