Wheeling Gull Isle they are one person

Wanting and needing were two entirely different things. Phox paused, wondering what good it would do to recount that day. He felt that, no matter what, he could not have "won" the situation. If he had left Towhee, she would have hated him, and he knew he could not suffer that again. Instead, he had let Niamh go, thinking that maybe she needed to blow off some steam before coming home and reconciling with her sister-in-law.

He took a deep, somewhat raspy breath, and began.

Niamh and my sister, Towhee, were best friends before I knew the former. I got along with Niamh right away, but we were both spoken for at the time. Fast-forward a year, and we'd both been widowed. To say our relationship had a rocky start would be the understatement of the year, maybe even the century. No matter how much we fought, we always found a way to make up with one another. I thought... I thought this was one of those times. Towhee and Niamh were fighting about... Phox paused, searching his memory for why they had been fighting, I don't even remember. Niamh wanted me to choose her over my sister and... I have let Towhee down before. I couldn't do it again. Niamh ran away, calling me a coward, and I guess she was right. Maybe I am a coward. But I miss the hell out of her, and I just want her back so we can raise our kids together.