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Colm lifted his gaze to meet Tessa’s. “Did you know your flatmate had—”

“Yes, Granda, I knew!” Tessa said, exasperated. “But you can’t go rummaging through her room! That’s private!”

He waved her off. “It’s high time you were rid of that English girl. I never did like her. She had a fella’s name.”

Tessa heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Billie and I are still best friends, Granda. And she moved out over a year ago when she got engaged.”

“Tessa was about to introduce us to someone, Da,” Mary Ann said, placing a hand on Colm’s shoulder.

Tessa cleared her throat. “Aye, well. I hadn’t exactly planned on you all being here, but this is Skylar. Skylar, this is my ma, Mary Ann, my da, Jim, and my granda, Colm.”

Her family turned eyes on Skylar, who had pressed her lips together to keep from bursting into laughter. She took a breath and smiled.

“Are you Irish, Skylar?” Colm asked.

Skylar shook her head. “No, sir, I’m English.”

Colm huffed. “Christ, but this place is crawling with them.”

“Aye, it’s wall to wall English out there,” Mary Ann agreed.

“We are in England, love,” Jim reminded her.

“Siding with the colonizers, are you, Jim?” Colm barked.

“No, Colm, just reminding you we are on their land.”

“And they’ve been on ours for centuries. See if I care that they’re unhappy I’m here!”

“No one is unhappy that you’re here,” Skylar interjected.

“Speak for yourself,” Tessa muttered. “Skylar, I’m sorry, but could you give me some time with my family? I’ll text you later.”

“Understood,” Skylar said with a smile. “Looking forward to seeing you again, Tessa.”

With a wink, she left, and Tessa closed the door behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again to brace herself for her family once more.

“Well,” she began. “I can’t say I was expecting a family reunion.”

“We’re only trying to be here for you once we heard Jamie was back in town,” Mary Ann said gently.

“London’s a big city, Ma. It’s not as if we’re neighbors,” Tessa said. “I’m fine.”

“Still, it can’t be easy, love,” Jim said. “We know how much she meant to you.”

She debated telling them that Jamie was Niamh’s teammate, and that they had already seen each other. In this flat, too. But she didn’t want them any more worried than they were. Especially considering the concern on their faces as they stared at her.

“Skylar seems nice,” Jim continued. “Pretty, too.”

“Aye, she’s decent, but why does she have to be English?” Colm said. “Surely, there are nice, pretty Irish lesbians about. Catholic too, if you can swing it.”

Already, Tessa was trying to form a message to Skylar to even half explain what she’d witnessed in the flat, but it was difficult to describe her family with words. Perhaps Skylar was a mistake in the first place, and her family’s appearance had been divine intervention that stopped her from doing something she’dregret. As much as she wanted to put Jamie out of her mind, it wasn’t right to use someone else to do that.

“Aye, Granda, I’m sure there are Irish Catholic lesbians to be found somewhere,” she said. “Let me put the kettle on and we’ll all talk.”

“Already done,” Mary Ann said, leading the way back to the kitchen.

“I simply refuse to believe that their lesbians are better than our lesbians,” Colm went on as they all filed in behind her.