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couch
in Jack’s clothes, looking through a box of belongings from his father’s
bedroom. The contents were a random assortment of books and knick-knacks. She
handed him an opened bottle of beer and sat down in Jack’s go-to chair, an old
Lazy Boy recliner with a worn footrest. She took a sip of Guinness as he threw
a book back in the box.
    “At least he had good taste in beer. Irish down to his
bone,” Liam said, taking a drink “So, he left you the house, huh?”
    “Yeah, I guess so. I didn’t expect it at all. I thought
maybe he had some long lost cousin or someone he forgot to mention. I figured
there had to be someone he’d leave everything to,” she said.
    He raised his eyebrows, not convinced.
    “Honestly. I didn’t weasel my way in here and con him into
anything,” she said defensively. “I worked for three hundred and twenty dollars
a week for the last two years. That’s eight dollars an hour. I had free room
and board and food while I finished my nursing degree. It was a good deal, and
I didn’t expect anything else from him.”
    “You couldn’t find a better job anywhere else?”
    “Not with the same flexibility and benefits. He needed more
care at the end, but I still made it work. Plus, he needed me. He interviewed
twenty people before me. TWENTY. He even had another girl living with him for a
week until he kicked her out,” she said, the anger in her voice edging her
forward in the chair. “I moved in the same day he interviewed me and never left.
I graduated a couple months ago and could have left him for a great paying job
at the hospital, but I didn’t.”
    “I got it. You’re the devoted type, willing to put up with a
lot of crap,” he said, nodding his head in approval. “I just wanted to make
sure he wasn’t being swindled, that’s all. I guess you deserve the house.”
    “Damn right,” she said, sitting back in her chair.
    Liam laughed before he took another swig. The chuckle was
low and incredibly sexy.
    Not sexy, just a laugh, she told herself.
    “So what was he like?” he asked.
    “He had a great sense of humor,” she started, thinking back
to all his witty remarks and jokes. Like the one about Pete and Repeat in the
boat. She could still hear his voice Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete
fell out, who was left? Repeat, of course, she would say every time, which
prompted his joke again. It always ended in laughter, no matter how many times
he said it. “And he was kind and loyal to me. He was the one who made me go
back and finish my RN degree. I didn’t want to leave him, but he
always told me he would be fine. I finished just before he started going
downhill.”
    “Did he have any friends or anything?”
    “Not really, he was a loner. Kept to himself most of the
time. I think I was the closest thing to a friend he’d had in a long time.”
    “You know how he got this place? Did he grow up here?”
    “I don’t know, never said.” Charla shook her head. “We
didn’t talk much about our pasts. We both preferred it that way. He said he was
a woodworker back in the day and that he missed Helen, but that’s about it.”
    “Hmm.” Liam took another swig of beer.
    “Did he mention your brothers’ names in the letter?” she
asked.
    “Just their first names, Ronan and Brody. They’re younger
than me, but that’s all I have to go on.”
    “I know it’s probably hard to believe, but Jack wasn’t that
bad of a guy. I can’t see him leaving you all unless he had a reason,” she
said. “Doesn’t seem like something he would do.”
    “Well, he did.”
    “It had to be for a good reason. Jack didn’t seem like the
dead-beat type who wouldn’t take responsibility for his family. He talked about
Helen and asked for her at least twice every single day for the last year. She
was the love of his life. He was alone for the rest of his life after she
died.”
    “What happened to her?”
    “She died over twenty years ago, but I don’t know what
happened. He