out of the blue / n.h

Chapter 49

The next morning, I wake up with a weigh arm securely holding me tight into Niall’s hot body. He’s shirtless but the comforters covers his body and mine making me a little bit hot. I turn to Niall’s side who is still sleeping and wiggle out of his grip. It’s Sunday and I should be home to my mom to attend church. I quickly change into new t-shirt of Niall’s and there’s a knock on the door. I open the door slightly to reveal Lizzie.

“Hi, dear. If you are ready, breakfast is dowstairs.” She beams.

“Thank you, Liz.” I grin at her then close the door to go to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth with a pair of new ones that is in the cabinet. As I finish, I run through the stairs to see Marcus preparing for the breakfast and Bobby sipping on his tea. He looks up from the newspaper to me with a slight smile. I shoot a smile back to him as I do to Marcus.

 “Morning, Bob.” I greet him as I sit on the counter.

"Morning, Lenny.” He replies with my nickname. That’s weird, I think I hadn’t mentioned any of my nickname to him. “I’m actually heading to the church in a hour and a half, you can join me if you want.” He offers.

“Yeah?” I eat the cookies in front of me and pour myself a milk.

“Yeah, well, do you want to come? You should ask Niall too.” Bobby states, flickering his eyes to the newspaper.

 “Well, then, should I wake him?” I stand on my feet.

"No, I mean yes, later. I need to talk to you about something.” He informs, looking directly at Marcus and tilts his head to gesture Marcus to excuse himself. Marcus leaves the room, escaping to the stairs.

"What is it?” I furrow my brows.

“Your dad, Christian Richards, right?” He assures.

“Yeah, did mom told you?” I answer in the most cool way.

“No, I—“ He gulps, placing the newspaper down. “Lenny, I’m a friend of him a long, long time ago.”

I let my lips slightly parted, my eyes lock on his blue eyes and I feel myself shaking. The cold veins are running down my hands as I try to be calm. “What?”

“I’m a fr—“

“No, I heard that part. I mean,” I turn my body away so I don’t have to face Bobby. “How come?” My voice is inaudible and I can barely hear it.

“Well, your dad had been running a business trip a year before he found out his cancer. Then, he made a deal with a mayor in Mullingar about the business he was about to presentate, I was beyond thrilled and I decided to run the business with him. We talked a lot few things about business and all. He’s a really great guy, Lenny. He told me about you and Mary. He told me how much he loved you guys. Then, after he found out he has a cancer, he called me and asked me if he could stay in my place in Ireland. Well, since I lived alone back then, and he needed a company, I allowed him to stay. Well, Niall was staying at my house like for 2 weeks. By the way, he forced me to run the business since he was able to help me. And then we ran this business and to be honest, the sweat and struggle is not a waste, it was worth so much. We were so excited about it and then when we were about to succeed,” His smile fades.“he’s gone.” He looks down, avoiding to make a contact.“He’s my bestfriend. I promised him to take care of you guys so I flew myself here and also my business, to make it up for him. I gave your mom a job, and to be honest, your mom do a fantastic job.” He exhales, his eyes are glossy and so are mine. “Your dad’s grave is back in Ireland. He wanted it. He was in love with Ireland.” He chuckles as a stream of tear runs through his cheek. I shift my eyes at the ground and let a tear falls down my cheek, my lips are still parted open.

“Did my mom know about this?” I sob.

“Everybody knew,” He exhales. “except you.”

"Wow.” I shake my head. “I don’t know what to say.” I wipe the tears away from my face. Bobby stands up and pulls me into his arms. “Thanks for telling me.” I whimper.

“It’s okay, and well, my mission has accomplished. Niall will take good care of you, dear.” Bobby strokes my hair and pulls out. “Well, you should be ready for church now, shouldn’t ya?” He asks with his thick accent like Niall’s. He looks like Niall but I guess that her mom looks more like Niall.

I chuckle. “Well, I should wake Niall, then.” I wipe the remaining tears that still floating on my eyes.