Chapter Two
“Ballet slippers,” Kieran growled under his breath and slid an old casserole dish from the oven.
The buttery scent of mashed potatoes layered over ground beef and veggies might have been enough to lift his mood if the new hire’s words weren’t still ringing in his ears.
I don’t want to dance in my first promo video all alone, she’d said.
He didn’t care how hot she’d looked dancing around in those tiny shorts on Hit It and how just as affected he’d been seeing her wrapped up in a hip-hugging skirt and silky blouse.
He’d root for the Cubs before he’d ever consider dancing for some ridiculous app.
A pale hand squeezed his forearm, the palms smooth from being coated in massage oils all day and still smelling of lavender. “Are we going to sit down and eat, or would you like to stare at your cottage pie a little longer?”
Kieran lifted his head and shot his sister a half-hearted glare.
Maeve still wore her work uniform: a purple polo with a lotus blossom on the logo, nondescript black athletic pants and black slip-on sneakers.
The auburn flyaways framing her face were a testament to how rough her day had been.
Usually, she picked up Saoirse at the gym after work, but her appointments had been shuffled throughout the day to take on those of another massage therapist who’d called in sick.
Rather than answer her, he closed the oven door and carried dinner to the table.
It was a worn old thing, but it was solid.
Since he’d rescued it from a musty thrift shop, his younger family members had left their marks on it.
Coffee rings from Maeve’s late-night studying sessions.
Stray flecks of color from Shauna’s art he hadn’t had the time or energy to remove then but were now immortalized as tattoos in the wood grain.
Countless hours of Danny toiling over middle school math homework until he raised his grades, his answers carved into the wood from not putting a folder under his paper.
A sealed crack on one of the legs from when Saoirse turned his dining room into her very own Slip ’N Slide with a large bottle of olive oil.
There were more memories ingrained in that table than Kieran could remember of his own childhood.
And we’re better for it.
“Dinner’s ready!” Maeve called.
Saoirse was the first to arrive, even after doubling back to turn off the television at her mother’s gentle reminder. Maeve settled in after she finished arranging the flatware. Danny skulked in last, bleary-eyed and scowling.
“Cottage pie? Can’t we have normal dinners like everyone else?” He snatched his cup off the table, taking a long drink.
Kieran kept his mouth shut as he served. Normal was relative, and Danny only wanted to get a rise out of him. Complain, lash out, sulk. He could count on his younger brother to act every bit the sullen teen he’d grown to be at fifteen.
“Come on, Danny. It was Daideo’s favorite,” Maeve soothed. She tapped Saoirse’s plate, and Saoirse’s bottom lip quivered.
Their grandfather had died when Kieran was a few years younger than Danny, taking with him the last scraps of parental affection Kieran had ever known.
But Daideo lived on in the way Kieran protected his siblings and his niece.
No matter how many years or miles separated them, the Sullivan kids would always have a home.
Saoirse wiggled out of her seat next to Maeve and scooted onto his lap.
“Saoirse, let Uncle Kier eat.”
He waved Maeve off. “It’s fine. Pass her plate here.”
Sure enough, his niece was happy to eat once she had extra attention and all the meat and veggies scraped away from her portion.
He’d have mashed potatoes in his lap by the end of dinner, but at least she was eating.
Maeve tossed him a grateful smile over a hunk of soda bread and relaxed in her chair.
“Kiki?” Saoirse tilted her head back as she looked at him, her mouth still full of potatoes. “I liked that lady.”
As Kieran’s stomach dropped, Maeve perked up. “Lady? You mean Rachel, sweetling?”
He tickled Saoirse’s ribs, willing her to forget, but the little sprite squealed out a loud “no.”
Maeve’s dark blue eyes settled on him, a mischievous smile stretching her lips. “Who’s the lady, Kier?”
Maybe if he shoveled beef and veggies into his mouth, he could get out of answering.
Maeve’s brows lifted in challenge.
“Probably some busted boomer,” Danny crooned from around his water. “Kieran couldn’t pull a hot piece of ass if his life depended on it.”
Kieran shot Danny a withering glare. “Watch your mouth.” He tipped his chin toward Saoirse. “And we don’t talk about women that way.”
His brother scowled and resumed stabbing at his meal. The fork tines scraped against the plain white ceramic.
Kieran’s molars were liable to crack one of these days.
He pried his jaws apart and sucked in a calming breath before turning his attention back to his sister.
“She’s the new hire.” He scooped some of his mashed potatoes from his plate onto Saoirse’s and took her discarded pie filling for himself.
“Neal hired her to manage our social media and attract more people. Doubt she’ll last.”
“Well, she won’t with that attitude.” Maeve rolled her lips as she studied him. “You should invite her over sometime.”
No way in hell. The last thing Danny needed was an unfamiliar woman showing up on their doorstep. “I don’t fraternize with coworkers.”
Maeve wadded up her napkin and threw it at him. “Sebastián would whimper like a neglected puppy if he heard you saying that.”
Sebastián was also a dramatic pain in his ass who, unfortunately, was one of the best personal trainers South Side MMA had seen in years and, even more unfortunately, was his best friend. “Seb’s different,” he grunted.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you two were an old married couple.
” She sipped her water then swirled the ice.
“Neal’s always talking about how everyone working at the gym is family.
You should host a barbecue or something.
Ask Neal if Patricia will make her famous macaroni and cheese.
Invite everyone and their families. I’ll even help you set up. ”
“And I suppose you’ll only be staying for the mac and cheese?” he drawled.
Maeve’s wide cheekbones warmed with a tomato-red blush. “I’ll stay to clean up, too.”
Saoirse tugged on his sleeve. “Kiki? I finished.” She pointed at her plate, which had a stray pea and a small mound of picked-at mashed potatoes on it.
“Yes, you may be excused.” He eased her off his lap and pointed her to the restroom. “Go clean up.”
Danny didn’t bother to ask and stood without taking his plate.
Before he could disappear into his room, Kieran called back. “Clean up your mess or the Xbox is mine.”
With a growl of frustration, Danny dragged his feet back into the dining room, grabbed his plate, flatware and cup with a clatter and dumped them in the sink.
He didn’t rinse the plate, but that was another battle Kieran had no interest in fighting today.
He waited until Danny was back in his room before dropping his forehead into his palm.
“Still giving you attitude every day?” Maeve’s fork clinked against the plate, and her chair creaked.
“Yep.” Kieran leaned back in his chair, too, and sighed. “At least Shauna was silent with her attitude.” He threaded his fingers through the thick hair at his temple. “You know I found a gray hair this morning?”
Maeve chuckled. “He takes after you, you know. You were always mouthing off to Dad.”
To keep his attention off you and the kids. Kieran rolled tension from his neck and stood. He stacked the remaining plates, and Maeve collected the cups and flatware.
A comfortable silence fell between them as they hand-washed the dishes and packed away leftovers.
“So, what’s her name?” Maeve asked from the refrigerator.
He could still see her name at the top of the résumé in bold typeface.
“Lily Parker. She’s some local influencer or something.
” What else could he remember from the fifteen minutes he’d spent reviewing her application with Neal and the subsequent cyberstalking they’d done?
“She had a video pop off, of cliff-diving at Chapel Rock in the Upper Peninsula, and gained a bunch of followers. Young twenties. She has a business and marketing degree from a college in Joliet.”
The refrigerator closed with a sigh, and Maeve sidled up beside him. “Does she have long, dark brown hair?” Her phone came into view, and the Hit It app filled her screen. She opened the search.
“Yeah.” He unplugged the drain and focused on cleaning the sink. “You follow her or something?”
Maeve’s flyaways swayed like dandelion seeds in the wind.
“No, but I’ve been meaning to. She’s always on my What’s New feed.
Going on low-budget adventures around the lake is sort of her brand.
Hiking, swimming, snorkeling. She talks about other stuff, too.
Real stuff.” Her serious gaze flicked up toward him, but he didn’t understand the weight behind whatever she wanted him to understand.
She adjusted her phone screen for him to see, and on it appeared a video of Lily tilting her face to the sky while sitting on the bare stone of an overlook in some state park, and in the next she was throwing back shots with a beautiful, bronze-skinned brunette.
Maeve turned her screen off and shoved her phone back in her back pocket. “Just be careful.”
Kieran leveled her with the most bored stare he could muster. “Careful of what?”
“Beautiful women who show up out of nowhere with that look in their eyes.” Her auburn brows rose.
“And what look is that?”
“The one where she’s only a step ahead of her demons.”
A flair for the dramatic ran in the family. Kieran shook his head.