we could ever do is forget about her. And believe me, it gets
easier every day to bring up the memories.”
I nodded. It was still hard. At first I was in shock, then
angry. Anytime I thought about her, I was mad. Furious that
she was taken from me. So I tried desperately to get her out of
my mind. But no matter how much homework and cooking I
did, she was always there. And then it became comforting to me.
Because even though she wasn’t physically there, she
would always be with me.
“You know what I think we should do?” Gran asked.
“Go get ice cream at Murphy’s?”
She laughed the same laugh as Mom. “Well, of course, but
I also think that every night at dinner, we should share a
favorite memory of your mother. Would you like that?”
Four years ago, I would’ve hated it. Four months ago, I
would’ve felt uncomfortable about it. But now, here, I was
finally ready to celebrate my mother’s life with others.
“I’d like that.” I paused. “And I think Mom would really
like it as well.”
She gave me a little squeeze. “Yes, she would.”
We continued walking, both of us inside our own thoughts.
Although I was pretty sure I knew what occupied our minds.
There was almost a lightness to me once we started our rit—
ual. Every night we’d tell a story, usually a funny one. Gran
and Gramps would break out their old photo albums and I’d
be amazed at how similar I looked to Teen Mom.
It had taken me a long time to open up to Levi about Mom.
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But now I found it easier to talk about her. I’d even mentioned
her a few times to Liam.
“She sounds brilliant,” Liam said as he drove us around
the peninsula.
“She was.” I took in the breathtaking views. It didn’t matter that I’d been there for over a month; I still hadn’t gotten
used to the sheer magnitude of the beauty.
“By the way, you should’ve come last night.” Liam glanced
at me. “It was great crack.”
I was stunned into silence.
He started laughing. “Oh, relax, Yank, it’s C-R-A-I-C.
Craic means good fun, conversation, atmosphere. Did ya think we were doing drugs?”
“No, of course not.” Although I totally had.
“Here we are.” Liam pulled off to the side of the road.
We were surrounded by lush green hills. And down below, we
could make out the tiny town of Dingle.
“It’s gorgeous.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Liam led me to another
rocky hill, which had a small waterfall flowing into it. “What
do you think?”
I started to carefully climb up the rocks. “It’s amazing.
Thank you so much.”
“Well, I plan on you giving me the ultimate American tour
when I come to the States.”
I turned around to say something to him when my foot
missed the rock. Before I knew it, I was ankle deep in mud.
“No!” I pulled my foot out, but it was too late. My entire
canvas shoe was covered.
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Liam jumped up to help me back down. “Well, that won’t
do.” He bent down and removed my shoe. I was horrified by
my clumsiness. He went over to a shallow puddle of water
and started cleaning off the mud. I could do nothing but
stand there with my one foot off the ground, hoping I wouldn’t
fall over from my lack of balance.
The shoe was considerably cleaner, yet it was soaking wet.
We both stared at my dripping, dirty shoe, before Liam
shrugged and took both his shoes off. “You know the saying,
when in Dingle . . .”
I laughed and removed my other shoe. We explored the
rest of the area in bare feet. He reached out his hand to me
on a particularly steep climb.
“Thanks, Levi.”
Liam gave me a questioning look. “Levi?”
“Huh?”
“You said ‘Thanks, Levi.’ Who’s Levi?”
“Oh, I did? That’s odd.” What was odd was that I hadn’t yet mentioned Levi to Liam or vice versa. “Levi’s a friend
from home.”
Liam raised his eyebrows. “A friend, huh?”
“Yes, aren’t guys and girls allowed to be friends in Ireland?”
“It depends on if you want to be friends with a girl.” He
came over and put his hand on my waist. “Or if you want
something more. So what do you want?”
I held my breath. I didn’t know what he was asking exactly.
Did I want something more with him or something more with
Levi? I clearly didn’t know the answer to either.
Part of me thought a little vacation romance might be nice,
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but I still hadn’t fully figured out what to do with Levi. We’d
been talking more and more each week I was there. But it
didn’t change the reason I was currently thousands of miles
away from him. From home.
“Excuse me.” A recognizable accent broke me from my
thoughts. We looked down to see a middle-aged American
couple. “Would you take our picture?”
“Of course.” I hopped down and snapped their photo, grateful for the interruption.