Million Dollar Shoppers
Chapter fifteen
áINE
"What's wrong?" Ellie demands. "You dropped your phone into your purse like it's a hot potato and you're about to lose your seat in the party circle."
"I'm the mom. Shouldn't I be the one using children's party similes?" I tease, trying get my breath back after reading Kieran's last text.
"Maybe if I hadn't spent last weekend playing hot potato with Joy so she could, and I kid you not, train for her friend's upcoming birthday party." Ellie grabs a pair of Joy-sized bright yellow overalls from the rack beside the children's changing rooms.
All three girls want to try on every single outfit and get their aunt and mom's opinion, not to mention each other's. They're so excited about this trip.
When we arrived at the first store, Ellie brandished a black credit card and said, "The boss wants you all outfitted like the princesses he thinks you are. The only limit is how much you can fit in the new suitcases we're buying today."
The girls overrode my objections with squeals of delight and even my mom got a certain gleam in her eye when Ellie said, "You too, Mama Mo."
"Joy will love those." I indicate the yellow overalls.
"She sure will. Now spill. What's got you looking so discombobulated and blushing like a virgin on her wedding night?"
I choke on my own breath and start coughing. That simile way too on point.
Ellie hangs the overalls back on the rack and makes a quick grab for my purse. "I need to see what's thrown you so badly."
I squawk and try to yank it away from her, but Ellie isn't just good on computers. She's got all sorts of questionable skills she diligently learned in our teens. Like pickpocketing.
My phone is in her hand even though I've now got my purse tucked protectively against my chest.
Of course, she knows my passcode. This is Ellie, after all.
Her eyebrows rise into her hairline as she reads the open text thread.
"You played show-and-tell with the boss this morning? When? How did you avoid an audience of four interested roommates?"
"My children aren't roommates."
"Tomato, tomahto." Ellie waves her hand dismissively. "Where? When? And how, friend? That's what I want to know."
"In the kitchen. Before everyone else was awake." Which answers her last two questions.
Ellie's smile drops off her face. "I thought this relationship thing was fake. You let him stay the night with you? That is not fake."
"He didn't spend the night," I deny, disgruntled at her accusation. I know very well this fake relationship doesn't feel fake at all. "He came over with coffee and pastries this morning. You saw them."
"And between here's the coffee and Joy bouncing into the kitchen all wide-eyed, you two got it on?" Ellie doesn't sound any less shocked. "You?"
"Yes, me," I grumble. "I have sex."
Ellie looks unconvinced. "You might have three kids but if I hadn’t been there for every single birth, I wouldn’t believe it. You’re practically a virgin."
"Besides, we didn't get it on. He uh…" My words peter off, my voice box going on strike.
"Just tell me this: who was doing the showing and who was doing the telling?"
"I showed him my boobs and he told me they're gorgeous." My cheeks are on fire, but if I can't talk about this with Ellie, who can I talk to?
My mom? I don't think so.
Ellie smiles. "I was worried about this arranged marriage thing, but if you're willing to flash him in the kitchen with the kids asleep down the hall, there's more going on here than following the underboss's orders."
"Yeah. There's protecting my daughters and mom from said underboss," I hiss.
"You've got a great rack," Ellie says, ignoring my last salvo. "I'm not surprised Wr—uh…Kieran thinks your boobs are pretty."
Gorgeous. But whose keeping track?
Me. I'm keeping track because that word in his deep voice? Makes me wet just remembering.
Needing to change the subject before a change of panties is required, I ask, "You know everything, right?"
A guarded expression comes into my sister-by-another-mister's eyes. "Yes. You know I can't talk to you about mob business though."
"Is that why you didn't tell me you're working for them?" Knowing she kept this a secret for so long hurts.
Almost as much as the pain I've had from keeping my own secrets even longer.
"Pretty much. I mean, if you didn't know about Troy, I didn't want you finding out either."
"You thought you telling me you worked for Kieran would lead to me finding out my husband was a rat?" That's a pretty long stretch of logic, even for my unconventional thinking friend.
"I don't just work for Kieran. I'm a member of the mob. That's a lifetime commitment, if you were wondering and marrying Kieran means you'll never be out of it either."
"Didn't marrying Troy do that?" I ask.
"Nope. As long as you didn't know about him, the mob would have left you alone. It was Kenneth telling you stuff he shouldn't that put you in the underboss's crosshairs."
I shiver. "It's a scary place to be."
"Wraith won't let anything happen to you."
"I'm really starting to believe that."
Sadie comes out of the dressing room wearing a pair of balloon pants and short sleeve midi tee. She's got high-tops partially unlaced on her feet that I've never seen before.
"They have a shoe department here?" More to the point, Sadie found it but I didn't.
"Get that look off your face and tell your daughter she looks fly," Ellies orders sotto voce.
"That looks great!" My smile for my daughter is genuine, even if the mom guilt is hitting me hard.
"Yeah?" She chews her bottom lip and looks at her backside in the mirror over her shoulder. "You don't think they'd look better on somebody taller?"
Which is her roundabout way of asking if I think they make her look fat. I hate our fat phobic culture and the anti real bodies messaging on social media.
"They couldn't look better on anyone else because they look perfect on you." I know my daughter won't believe my words.
I'm her mom. So, my opinion doesn't count. But she still needs to hear. She needs my voice in her head combatting all the others.
"Your mom's right," Ellie chimes in. "The whole outfit is fly. Wraith is going to have to keep his eye on the boys at the park."
Disneyland. If there's a kid who doesn't want to go, I don't know them.
Being able to leave the state and take my girls is just one more thing to thank Kieran for.
"Why do you call him Wraith?" Sadie asks her aunt as mom, Neeve and Joy come out of the fitting rooms too.
Mom isn't trying anything on in there, of course. But it's just our policy never to let the girls go into places like bathrooms and changing rooms alone. And not because we're afraid of trans women showing up.
There are plenty of predatory adult men to worry about. And teenage boys too apparently.
I'm still so angry about what happened to Sadie, I have to work hard to hide the rage when I look at her. She's such a sweet girl. So innocent.
But she'll never look at boys or men the same way again. The part of her innocence that believes she's safe in a place that's supposed to be safe, that people who are supposed to be decent actually are? That's gone.
I was a lot older when I found that out. Six years ago, to be exact. Until then, I still thought most people were basically good.
Sometimes, I still do.
But those little jerks attacking Sadie reminded me kids can be just as evil as adults if they aren't taught any better.
We ooh and ahh over Joy and Neeve before Ellie answers Sadie's question about Kieran. "He's like a ghost when he wants to be."
"He said that but why do you call him Wraith, Aunt Ellie?"
Ellie nods like now she understands the question. "Because that's what everyone at work calls him."
"Why does mom call him Kieran?" Sadie pushes.
I answer before Ellie can open her mouth. "Because I'm not dating a ghost. I'm dating a man."
That puts a smile on my daughter's face. "Oh."
She likes that I see Kieran differently than her adopted aunt does. It helps her to believe in this fake relationship we're selling. She was worried he had a nickname I didn't know.
Then it hits me. She heard me get mad at him about how he told me his name was Kieran. Does she believe our narrative? Or is she feeling better about it because her beloved aunt so clearly approves?
"Do you think he wants us to call him Wraith?" Neeve asks, her brows scrunched.
"I'm pretty sure my boss wants you to call him dad, but until then, stick with Kieran. Like with your mom, he'll always be a real live man you can rely on in your life, not a ghost."
"Can't you rely on him?" my mom asks.
Ellie loses her perpetual look of cynicism and meets mom's eyes first, but then pauses to make sure me and the girls are listening. "Wraith is one of the few people I know I can absolutely trust to have my back. He keeps his word and he'll put his life on the line for the people who rely on him."
As much as those words warm my heart, they sends a frisson of fear through me too. Whatever his job, the man I'm going to marry in a matter of days will always put himself on the front lines with his people.
Considering he's some kind of leader in the Irish mob, those front lines are every bit as dangerous as a war zone.
Troy didn't die because he risked his life to protect his brothers, he died because he betrayed them.
My brother died because he was a man like Kieran. A leader who stood with his men on the front lines.
Ellie claps her hands together. "Let's find some hoodies and cardies to go with those outfits. Anaheim might be in Southern Cali, but it can get chilly at night right now. You're going to need layers and a lightweight jacket for the evenings."
"They all have spring jackets already." Mostly thicker hoodies, but that's what they like to wear.
"Wraith gave his orders." Ellie gives me the look that says arguing will do no good. "He wants you all outfitted with everything you need for the trip."
"Like travel size flat iron?" Neeve asks with quiet hope. "I could keep it in my gym locker at school when we get back."
This girl.
She breaks my heart sometimes.
"I would have gotten you one if you'd asked, honey." The preteen years are tough.
The transition from little girl to teenager is confusing and hard to navigate. For her and me. Some days she still wants to play with her animal hospital. Others, she wants to experiment with my makeup.
The girls won't be wearing makeup out of the house until they're thirteen, and then only light foundation powder and lip gloss, but that doesn't stop them from wanting to experiment at home.
I was the same. Only I experimented with Ellie's mom's makeup. Mine never wore any except lipstick.
"I don't really need it," Neeve says.
And I determine right then to add a stop at Ulta onto our list of stores to visit today.
Exhausted from shopping, I plop down onto the first chair I reach at the table the hostess leads us to at the restaurant we chose for lunch. "Ugh. If you girls get sick of being my sidekicks, I'm pretty sure you could get jobs on Million Dollar Shoppers."
We all have new luggage for our trip and enough new clothes, shoes and accessories to fill it. Even me.
Ellie and the girls took care of that. When I refused to try things on, my bestie bought them anyway.
Cute dresses that show too much leg and tops that will show my cleavage while clinging to my breasts.
When I tried to balk at them, Ellie mouthed the words pretty boobs at me and I was too hot and embarrassed to stop her tossing the shirts on the counter for the sales clerk to ring up.
"We're not old enough to get jobs." Neeve pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and looks at me like she's trying to decide if I'm joking, or not.
"Speak for yourself young lady. I'm plenty old enough to be employed," mom says with a wink. "If I didn't have you hooligans to look after, I might be one of those personal shoppers. Spending someone else's money sounds like a grand way to while away my days."
She should know. For the past four hours, we've all been spending Kieran's money. And I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
Telling my girls no was beyond my mom guilt capacity though.
"Oh, no. She's got that look on her face again," Ellie says conspiratorially to the rest of the table.
Sadie looks at me and rolls her eyes. "Stop it, mom. Whatever you're feeling guilty about is not a thing."
"No. It is not," mom says, all humor gone from her blue eyes. "If your man wants to make your life a little better, let him. You're no gold-digger and if Kieran Lleshi is half the man I think he is, he knows it too."
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's not worried I'm marrying him for his money. Keeping my family safe is a much bigger priority than sizing up his bank account.
"What the hell are you doing here when my wife needs you at home?"