Unforgotten (Forgiven)

thigh from my grasp and left the table. The front door banged a minute later, and Luke let out a long breath. “Well that didn’t last long.”
Mia glared. “Don’t blame him. You’re just as bad.”
“I know.”
“Why, though? It was just dinner. No one asked you to discuss your dead dad, or—”
“Mia.” I broke in before her frustration made her tongue too loose. “Just let them be, eh? Maybe it was too soon.”
“Too soon for a simple conversation?”
Luke snorted. “Have you ever had a simple conversation with my brother?”
“I’ve never had a simple conversation with you, which is why I think this is all your fault.”
Luke stood and walked out of the room in the opposite direction to Billy. He wasn’t the type to flounce around, but his soft tread on the stairs was deafening.
I helped myself to Mia’s plate. Apparently I was the only one eating tonight, which was a crying shame. Luke was rubbish at everything tonight had needed to be, but the boy could cook.
Mia sighed as I made short work of the chicken and potatoes on her plate. “Are you going to eat theirs too?”
“Maybe,” I said around a mouthful. “But I’d feel bad if they came back, so probably not.”
“Well, I don’t know about Billy, but I can tell you right now, Luke won’t come down until it’s time for him to make the kitchen look like no one lives here.”
“You said that was cute.”
“It is.”
“You know it’s a Daley thing, right? Billy does it at work. Every time I need a tool, he’s already put it away, and he’s even more neurotic about folding plastic sheets.”
Mia smiled, faint but true. “You make it sound like you’ve worked together for year, not barely a fortnight.”
I ate more chicken and pondered the theory, and all I could come up with was the fact that this dinner would’ve been hard work even before Billy had come back. I loved Luke like a brother, but casual conversation wasn’t his strong point at the best of times. He was all or nothing, just like Mia, though their execution was night and day, ice and fire, and any other Game of Thrones reference I could think of that ended in bloody heartache.
“Will you go talk to him for me?” Mia asked.
“Who? Luke?”
“Unless you were planning on chasing the other brother down?”
I hadn’t been, but as I pushed my second empty plate away, I realised that I wanted to. That after two weeks of knowing he was safe in my house, imagining Billy roaming the streets of Rushmere in a foul mood terrified me. Good job you gave him a key then, eh? I hauled myself to my feet and abandoned Mia with the dirty dishes. Experience told me I’d find Luke sulking over the business accounts in the spare room, but he was in the room he shared with Mia, rummaging under the bed.
He heard me coming and glanced up. “Are you leaving?”
“What? And quit this buzzing shindig early?” I crouched beside him. “Nah. I got sent upstairs to check on you.”
“Nice.” Luke dragged a wicker box from under the bed. He opened it, revealing hundreds of loose photographs. “These were my dad’s. My mum hated having her picture taken, so she junked his camera after he died.”
“And no one thought to use their iPhone ever since?” I could believe it from the Daley family. Besides, Luke had left for the Navy shortly after, if my memory served me right. “Christ, is that Billy?”
“No. That’s me. This is Billy.” Luke held up the faded snap, and then another next to it.
“You look like twins.”
“I know. We don’t anymore, but perhaps we’re more alike than I ever realised.”
Luke spread more pictures on the carpet. I felt like an imposter gawping at them, but I couldn’t help it. The Daley boys had grown from des enfants mignons into men who stopped traffic, but despite their difference now, the hurt in their eyes was the same. No longer innocent boys, they were troubled men, and I didn’t know how to help them.
I picked up a picture of Billy. “How old was he here?”
Luke squinted at the snap. “Fifteen, maybe? It was probably right before he turned into a dick.”
“You think he’d say the same about you?”
“I’m sure he’d say worse, but as far as he’s concerned, I was all right until I left. He doesn’t get that I did it for him.”
I was well versed in this period of Daley family history. How Luke had joined the Navy in secret after his father’s death, leaving his grieving family and Mia behind. His logic that he had to provide for them to keep Billy in school had always made sense to me, even though I’d witnessed firsthand how much it had hurt my sister, but I’d never given much thought to Billy. Perhaps I should’ve, given my own heartache when Mia had abandoned me to give herself a chance to get over Luke.
Luke sighed, breaking my musings apart. “How’s he getting on? And I mean really, not the bullshit text updates you send me.”
“I send you those because you ask for them. If you ever called, I’d elaborate, but I’m not game for typing an essay out with my thumbs. You want me to get RSI?”
“An essay, huh? That bad?”
“Not at all. He’s great.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “He’s a pain in the arse. Don’t deny it.”
“I’m not denying anything. Why would I do that? If he was giving me grief, I’d tell you, so he could be your problem instead of mine.”
“You’d lie to me all day long if you thought it would make my life easier. That’s your jam, Gus, taking the weight for everyone else.”
“Says you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth. He works hard, and I hardly know he’s there at home.”
“Because he’s out on the piss all night?”
I shook my head. “Because he stays in his room and talks to his cat, at least he does