Chapter Four
Dinner was a melting pot of cuisines. Burgers and hot dogs for the traditionalists and little picky eaters like Saoirse, Sebastián’s lamb and chicken pinchitos and a tinfoil pan of his dad’s mouthwatering paella, Maeve’s colcannon with tart cabbage folded into buttery potatoes, Patricia’s baked yet still somehow gooey macaroni and cheese, and Rachel’s mango pudding for dessert—Kieran could’ve eaten the whole container.
At some point after dessert, they’d settled around the fire ring in Adirondack and camping chairs, and Saoirse had clambered onto his lap shortly after.
Now she snuggled against his chest, her mango-sweet breath puffing against his neck in a steady, whistling tempo.
Across the fire, Maeve and Sebastián were engaged in a heated debate about what he had no idea, but he liked seeing the warmth in Maeve’s cheeks and the brightness in her eyes—even if it was Sebastián coaxing out both.
Well, he wasn’t going to get Maeve’s attention anytime soon, and by the looks of an already empty cider bottle on the grass beside her and an almost full one in her hand, she’d already settled in for a night of catching up. The little girl in his arms needed quiet and a softer bed.
Kieran let the screen door whisper shut and took Saoirse to his room, passing Danny’s closed door along the way. From the sounds of it, the kid was blasting his way through some horde and speaking in a low murmur with his friends on mic. Luckily his room was on the other side of the house.
The light blinked to life on his nightstand, and Kieran tucked Saoirse into his bed.
She looked so small against the king-size mattress.
Like a tiny sleeping beauty with the thin, delicate curls of her red hair fanning out on the navy pillowcase.
The curls she’d inherited from her father, but her coloring was all Maeve.
It was all they had left of their mother, Charlotte Sullivan.
Walking on tiptoe, he escaped without waking her and settled in the kitchen.
Food needed to be divvied into take-home boxes, and there were grilling utensils to wash.
There was peace in completing mindless tasks.
Messes could always be cleaned. He fell into a steady rhythm.
Take-home boxes? Packed. Utensils? Spotless and put away.
Counters and sink? Wiped down with lemon-scented disinfectant.
“Figured I’d find you in here.”
Kieran lifted his head. Sebastián minded the screen door as he snuck inside.
The sky was still bright with early-summer sunlight, even though it was approaching eight.
What was Sebastián doing in here when he had a whole audience for his ridiculous storytelling?
“I’m surprised you’re not still pestering my sister. ”
“Your sister keeps trying to tell me being a Hit It model isn’t a real job.”
Kieran tucked a laugh behind a huff. “Because it’s not.
” Sure, it could be, but Sebastián didn’t have the following nor the time to make a full career out of it.
Plus, there wasn’t much job security. “Until the monetary value of your videos and your personal page can pay your bills for a year, it’s not a real job. ”
Sebastián knew he was right, but all the same he puffed up like a blowfish. “I may not have the popularity of That Gym Guy, but my followers skyrocketed overnight.”
Kieran smirked. “Did you open a Just for Fans?”
A dish towel caught him in the face.
“Why? You looking to subscribe?” Sebastián laughed. He shook his head and leaned against the island. “No, Lily’s been tagging my profile in her PR videos for the gym. You should make one and claim your title.”
Kieran hung the towel on the oven handle and grabbed a bottle of Jameson from above the refrigerator. He poured them neat into two red cups—less cleanup later. “What title?”
His friend’s eyes could’ve rolled across the island if they’d popped out any further.
“What do you mean, Sullivan? Your title. You’re fucking internet famous, cabrón.
” He whipped out his phone, muttering in Spanish under his breath, and shoved it under Kieran’s nose.
The self-defense video he and Lily had filmed was on the right side of the screen, set to a sensual song with a heavy beat.
The video itself had been clipped and slowed down to feature when he’d spun her and caught her in his arms, his hand on her throat.
Even remembering the moment was enough to give him a chub.
Clearing his throat, Kieran shifted his weight and checked the other side of the video.
A woman on the left side looked like she might be having heatstroke.
He squinted at the account name and caption.
@AuthorKelleRae: May have found the inspiration for my next book. #ThatGymGuy could break my neck, and I’d say “Please, sir, can I have some more?” @SouthSideMMA where can I get one? #zaddystatus #bookit #authorit #kinkit #reaction
That Gym Guy. Was that supposed to be him? And furthermore, “What the hell is a zaddy?”
Sebastián choked on a sip of his whiskey and sputtered. He pounded his chest.
Serves the fucker right.
“The better question,” Sebastián wheezed, “is when did you start fucking Lily Parker?”
Fucking Lily? If Kieran were a normal guy with a normal life, he wouldn’t have hesitated to see if she was interested. But his best friend knew better. “Since never. I don’t mix work and pleasure. I’m not risking my job for some woman who won’t last in hers.”
“Sullivan, are you blind? The gym’s on its way to being viral. Lily’s doing her job, and she’s doing it well. If she can keep this going, we might have to look for a bigger location.” He flipped to the gym’s profile to find the follower count.
Was that what Neal wanted? To expand? Kieran loved South Side MMA as it was. Intimate. Small. Easily protected. If the gym changed, he’d be expected to change with it. He swatted Sebastián’s phone away and stepped back from the island.
“What’s your actual problem with her, man? Did she turn you down or something?”
Quite the opposite. She’d risen to every challenge he’d set.
Always turning on her dainty little heel to smack him in the chest with that damn hair of hers.
There was no denying his attraction to her.
Who wouldn’t be attracted? It was so damn satisfying, watching the color rise from her neckline to her cheeks and light up her crystal-blue eyes and knowing it was him, not Sebastián, who made it happen.
But one thing always stopped him when he wanted to lean his head down and growl what he wanted in her ear, and it was currently yelling at a game upstairs.
Danny burst out of his room, stomped down the stairs and shouldered past Kieran into the kitchen. He yanked open the refrigerator door and grabbed the filtered water pitcher. “Stupid fucking kids always—”
“Hey, keep it down. Saoirse’s sleeping in my room.” Kieran caught the door before it could slam shut and send Saoirse’s coloring pages flying from their magnets.
Danny grunted. “Yeah, whatever. Aren’t you supposed to be hosting your stupid party?”
A smart-ass answer burned on Kieran’s tongue, but he held it back. Fighting fire with fire only ended in scorched earth. “Language,” he said instead to Danny’s retreating back.
“Never mind your problem.” Sebastián crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s his?”
“Maeve says he’s challenging me as a way to establish dominance.”
“And what do you say?”
Kieran refilled their cups with two fingers of whiskey. “He’s being a punk, but he’ll grow out of it like I did. No need to lose sleep over it.” He didn’t have any extra sleep to lose, not when Lily invaded his mind at every turn. He couldn’t escape her.
That was the silent truth of the matter—and the success she’d had in her first week proved it.
He’d been wrong. South Side MMA did need her, or at least someone like her.
He’d been the center of the gym for years, and he’d never caused as much of a stir as she had with a single self-defense lesson.
How could he hope to control his career when he couldn’t even keep a handle on his brother or keep up with a pretty face?
And to top it off, he couldn’t relieve his stress and fuck her seven ways to Sunday because of that same cock-blocking brother. The kid needed stability. Having women in and out of the house would only disrupt and complicate the Sullivan brothers’ lives.
“I don’t know how you do it.” Sebastián opened the screen door and waited for Kieran to step through.
As they strolled back to the fire ring, his gaze landed on Lily who was sandwiched between Maeve and Rachel, caught up in a lively discussion.
He drained his cup without a grimace. The whiskey burned its way down and settled warm in his gut.
The firelight played off Lily’s smile and a different sort of warmth spread through his body.
“A lot of patience, Seb. Patience and knowing, in the end, there’s nothing he can do to make me leave. ”
* * *
Though he’d agreed to the barbecue, Kieran’s social battery was all but drained when Neal and Patricia said their goodbyes and gathered their sleepy-eyed grandchildren.
Some of the tension in his shoulders eased when Melanie, Becks and the others trickled out as well.
Sebastián, Maeve, Rachel and Lily remained.
Sebastián changed the music to something with a little more flavor than the top hits.
Rachel and Maeve danced, falling into fits of laughter at the other’s tipsy attempts at dance moves through the decades.
Sebastián joined in when he wasn’t chatting up Lily, his hips moving as fast as his mouth.
Through it all, Lily remained seated in her Adirondack chair, her attention focused on the trio. She watched as if there was a plexiglass barrier between herself and them. She could observe them. She could laugh at their antics. But she couldn’t join them.
Why?