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one

“Liam—?”

“Hey, Greg, I think we ran out of pop-“ Liam freezes at the end of the hallway, staring at me with an empty bowl in his hands. “-corn.”

I glare at him. “Why are you here?”

“Why are you here?” he asks, more confused than angry. Then a smirk creeps up his lips. “Did you follow me?” WHAT?

I’m about to speak, tell him that he shoud fvck off because never in his wildest dreams would I ever follow him, but Theo beats me to it. And he should’ve, really. I don’t want to tear off his innocence.

“Uncle Niall,” Theo says, grinning still, “this is Liam. Liam, this is Uncle Niall.”

Liam smiles at him. “He sure is.”

“Why don’t you go play with your friends, bud, and we’ll hang out later, yeah?” I say gently as I put him down.

“Be quick, okay?” He whispers it as if it’s a secret nobody else should know.

I smile. “Of course.”

He hurries off, knuckle-bumping with Liam, and then disappears into the living room where the supposed party is being held. My glare hardens at him. “I did not follow you! Greg, why is he here?” I look at him like he’s conspired against me, my guts coiling.

He frowns. “So you know each other?”

“Enough to realize that Uncle Niall here is extremely, uhm, feisty,” Liam supplies, smirking lightly as he approaches us. “And he’s also fluent at English, Gaelic, French, and cussing. You have a wonderful brother, Greg.” He doesn’t look at my brother as he talks. As he stops right in front ot us. His eyes are on me.

I want to cuss at him again and then maybe whack him in the head, but we’re at a children’s party, so I resort to saying, “I’ve had a bad day, Liam.” My jaw clenches. And so do my fists.

“But how—?” Greg looks baffled, his lips pursed and brows drawn in, creasing the skin between them.

“We just met earlier,” Liam says. Shrugs. Like somehow ruining somebody’s already crappy day, and then asking them out, and then meeting that same somebody at your friend’s son’s party are all so common and normal and natural. Like it happens all the time. “But technically we haven’t. Not really. So hi, I’m Liam.” He holds out his hand, smiling politely.

Wow, he can be polite?

Sarcasm intended.

But I really don’t want to cause myself, and my brother, any more hussle so I just take his hand and, “I’m—“

“Niall.” I whip my head over his shoulder, and my smile is true all of a sudden.

“Cara.” I let go of Liam’s hand and walk past him to give my brother’s wife a small hug. I’ve missed her so much too. Of all my boyfriend’s girlfriends, she was the nicest. She never ever made made Greg send me out of the room so they could make out and never excluded me whenever the three of us were out together. She was, and is, the coolest, basically.

“I didn’t know you were coming today,” she says when we let go. Shoots my brother a sharp look, though there’s a wispy smile crooking her lips.

Greg looks mildly surprised, as if to say, why is it that every time something happens in this house it’s always me to blame? Instead his words are: “What? I didn’t do anything.”

“He didn’t, honest,” I add, though what I really want to do is snicker. “It was a surprise.”

She smiles down at me. And then at Liam. And then at me again. “So I’m guessing you’ve met my cousin, huh?”