Maggie’s green eyes turned dark, the swirls reminding Kieran of something akin to funnel clouds. He swore the temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees, but she did what Michael said.
“And you,” Michael said, staring pointedly at Kieran as he grabbed an apple. “Stop feeling guilty. I can see it in your eyes.”
“She’s scared, Mick,” Kieran said, looking around the kitchen at all of the baked goods. The aroma alone was enough to make him consider spending an extra hour on the weight bags tonight, let alone the three plates of apple pie and vanilla ice cream she’d placed in front of him.
“I know,” Michael said on an exhale, his voice softening. He was arguably the most even-tempered and rational among all the Callaghan sons with the possible exception of Shane. Only his wife had the ability to smash through his implacable fa?ade with unerring precision. “And the fact that she is terrifies me. It’s why we have to do this. She’ll worry herself sick.”
Kieran nodded. He understood it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He might never forget the way Maggie looked at him. It actually hurt enough to have him absently rubbing at his chest.
“Don’t worry,” Michael said as if reading his thoughts. “She still loves you.”
Kieran sighed. “Yeah, I guess. Forgive and forget, right?”
Michael laughed and clamped his younger brother on the shoulder. “Don’t be an idiot. Maggie doesn’t forget. Ever.”
*
“Hey, mom, look!” Matt’s excited shout had Faith gripping the steering wheel hard and looking around for the source worthy of such an outcry. Only a few minutes ago the boy had appeared sound asleep. “The deer on the crossing signs! They have red noses, like Rudoph!”
A wave of relief washed over Faith O’Connell as she realized the cause of his outburst was not life-threatening. “You scared me half to death, Matt,” she chastised. “What’s rule number one?”
“Don’t startle the driver,” he exhaled wearily. “But mom – red noses! Is that cool or what? Hey, do they have reindeer in Pennsylvania?”
Faith smiled at her son’s barely contained excitement. She’d worried how the move would affect him, but so far he seemed to be taking it all in stride, treating it like it was some huge adventure. It did her heart good to see her mature, quiet, thirteen-almost-fourteen year old acting like a young boy again, even if she knew it was short lived.
“I don’t think so,” she said, appearing to give the matter serious thought. “But I do think they have great big deer that look just like them.”
“Cool,” Matt breathed, searching the acres of forested land on either side of the highway as if he expected to see one jump out at any moment. “Holy shit, mom!” he exclaimed only a few short minutes later. “You’re right! Look!”
“What did I tell you about cursing?!” she scolded, but even she found it difficult to bite back a colorful expletive when she spotted the fourteen-point buck grazing on the rocky incline off to the right, not even fifty yards from the seventy-mile an hour traffic on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. At least three does were visible on either side of him.
“Mom!?” he yelled again, causing her to wrench her eyes back to the road and slam on the brakes when the flow of traffic slowed significantly in front of them. What the hell? When did the speed limit suddenly drop down to fifty-five?
“Oh, wow,” Matt said, his eyes widening as he looked to the front. “It’s a tunnel! Right through the mountains! We’re going to drive through a mountain, mom! How freaking awesome is that!”
“Pretty freaking awesome,” she agreed with only slightly less enthusiasm, removing her sunglasses as the warning signs commanded and turning on her headlights. Faith gripped the steering wheel tighter, fighting against the instant claustrophobia of being in such an enclosed space. The man-made arch loomed up over them, the yellow lights casting an eerie glow over everything as they made their way through and the song on the radio changed from an upbeat tune into a buzz of static. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until they came out on the other side a scant one mile later.
“Wow.” Matt looked out the passenger side window down into the steep ravine, then up at the peaks that rose above them as they climbed steadily higher. Far below, small towns that once housed the local coal miners and their families looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
“So you’re liking Pennsylvania, huh?” Faith smiled, finding Matt’s good mood infectious.
“Oh yeah,” he grinned back. “At least, so far.”