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Molly graciously ignores my foul language in favor of bouncing herself off the bed, landing on the floor next to me with a dull thud.
“Deal.”
As soon as Grace disappears down the hall, I dig my phone out of my back pocket and turn it on. Watching the screen light up and do its thing, I try to remember how it works, planning out the set of steps I’ll need to follow to actually use the fucking thing.
It takes some trial and error but eventually, I figure it out, pressing my thumb against the little green button to place a call.
“Hey, Asshole,” Conner says quietly, answering on the third ring. Even though it’s his standard greeting, the edge sharpening his hushed tone tells me he’s more than a little angry with me.
Shit. I really don’t have time for this. Sighing into the phone, I fight off the urge to just hang it up. “Okay—I know you’re angry, but—”
“Henley got drunk last night.” It’s not anything I don’t already know but hearing it from Con tears me up. Henley doesn’t get drunk. She spent the first sixteen years of her life watching our father drink himself to death and she’s always been terrified of falling into that particular family trap. Not even the revelation that Jack O’Connell isn’t her biological father can change that.
“Con—”
There’s movement on the other end and I can imagine him gently slipping his arm from under Henley’s head to ease himself out of bed and away from her so he can berate me properly without waking her up. After a quiet click that must’ve been him closing the bedroom door behind him, Conner starts back up, louder this time. “After going to the center and dealing with your mess—again—she ended up at Patrick and Cari’s, and—”
“I know.” I interrupt him while rubbing my hand against the back of my neck. “I know—I’m here at their place, right now.”
“Yeah, Tess told me,” he says, his tone still disgruntled but edging toward concerned. “Everything okay? Do you need a ride or—”
“What? No,” I say impatiently, hating the way they’re always so quick to forgive me. “And yes, everything is fine, but Grace is here with Molly and—” I feel my jaw go tight and my teeth clench together because I’ve never felt so fucking worthless in my life. “She has something important to do today but there’s no one to watch Molly. I almost offered but there’s no way she’d leave her kid with me for an entire day. I mean, Jesus fuck—she’s desperate, not stupid.” Dropping my hand from the back of my head to the nape of my neck, I sigh. “Look—I don’t know where she’s going but she plans on taking Molly with her, and—”
“She can’t take Molly,” Conner tells me. “She has a 9AM appointment at Bay State to take their entrance exam and a one o’clock to speak with a financial advisor.”
I stopped wondering a long time ago how Conner knows things. Instead of asking, I wait for him to work the problem.
“Okay.” He mutters a curse word and sighs. “I’ll have someone there in an hour—but you’re gonna owe me. Whatever I ask for—no exceptions. Deal?”
When Conner Gilroy says no exceptions, you can pretty much guarantee that 1) he already knows what he’s going to ask you for and 2) whatever it is, you aren’t going to fucking like it.
“Yeah,” I tell him, letting out a long, heavy sigh. “We’ve got a deal.”