27. Wentworth
TWENTY-SEVEN
Wentworth
KAIT’S FATHER HAS STAGE FOUR LIVER CANCER. HE WAS diagnosed about a month before I called my brother, looking for a place to hide. After the doctor told him and started talking treatment, Tom Barrett said no thanks and went back to the business of being an asshole without bothering to tell his family. Six years later, he has a few months to live at best, which in my opinion, is more than he deserves.
If I had to guess, being told he was dying is the main reason he said yes to letting me rent Northpoint and agreeing to sign a lifelong NDA. Pieces of paper, no matter how binding, don’t matter when you’re staring death in the face. All that matters is making sure that your family is taken care of before you go. I suppose the fact that I came along and offered him a hundred grand a week for a hideout seemed like divine intervention until I left while he wasn’t looking and took his workhorse with me.
Me: he’s dying? Good. He can go to hell. Tell him I said fuck off and good riddance.
Staring at the text I’m about to send, I feel my guts grind together—anger and resentment so heavy, I can barely breathe. Because even though she still hasn’t told me why she left me, I’m sure her father had a hand in it. Instead of sending the text, I delete it before hitting the call button. Damien answered before the call even got through its first ring.
“Tom wants her to come home,” Damien says. I can hear nickering horses in the background. Hearing them reminds me of what Kait told me last night. That she misses her horse.
“Why?” I’m so angry I practically snarl it into the phone. “So he can blame her for the fact that he’s dying like he blamed her for everything else?”
To his credit, Damien doesn’t try to argue that his boss would never do something like that. Instead, he simply sighs. “I don’t know— that he won’t tell me,” he says quietly. “All he’ll say is that he needs Kait to come home and since I’m the one who is ultimately responsible for bringing you into their lives and you’re the reason she left, I’m the one who is responsible for bringing Kait home.”
“You aren’t responsible for anything that happened,” I tell him. “He is, because if he’d been even a halfway decent father to her, she never would’ve left.”
“That’s not true,” Damien says on a quiet laugh. “The two of you were as inevitable as the sunrise. If I’d been paying attention, I would’ve seen that, the second you two met. Kait would’ve left with you, no matter what.”
Yeah, Kait left with me. She even married me—but she didn’t stay with me.
Instead of saying it out loud, I swipe a rough hand over my face. “Still doesn’t make you responsible.”
Clearing his throat, my brother continues. “The why and the who really doesn’t matter anymore, does it? What matters now is that Tom needs her to come home.”
I want to tell him I don’t give a fuck what his boss needs because whatever it is, it’s more than he deserves. That Kait’s father isn’t going to get one more motherfucking chance to hurt her. That he’s punished her enough and I’ll be goddamned if he’ll ever get the privilege of laying eyes on her again.
But I can’t.
I can’t make that choice for her because it’s a choice she needs to make for herself. If Kait wants to go home and face her father, I can’t stop her.
“I’ll tell her.” I have to force the words out. “It’ll be up to Kait if she wants to come home or not.”
“Okay.” Clearly unsatisfied with the compromise we’ve fallen into, my brother sighs. “I guess that’ll have to do.”
AS USUAL, THERE’S A LINE IN FRONT OF BENNY’S. PEOPLE waiting to put their name in for a table. People waiting for a seat at the counter. People who’d rather wait outside on the rapidly warming sidewalk than subject themselves to Nora’s verbal abuse. Bypassing all of them, I pull the door open and walk into the crowded reception area stuffed with the same kind of weird mix we get at Gilroy’s—college students, finance bros, and crusty old-timers. When she sees me, Nora gives me a chin jerk while shooing the riffraff away from her hostess podium with a bony hand.
“Better be here lookin’ for Con,” she tells me, arching a grizzled white brow over her sharp, dark gaze. “That’s the only way you’re getting a table.”
“I am.” I give her a smile. I’d taken my time getting here in hopes that Con would give in and leave before I got here. I should’ve known better. “Is he still here?”
“I just said he was, didn’t I?” Nora’s gaze narrows and her brows slam down in a frown. “You’re stupider than you look.”
Taking it as a compliment, I give her a wink. “Can’t be handsome, rich, and smart—wouldn’t be fair to the rest of them.”
Nora cackles at me from her perch. “Tell that boy he better not try sneaking out of here without giving me a proper goodbye.” She’d tell you that she loves all her Gilroy boys equally but she’d be lying. Con is her favorite and everyone knows it. The fact that he’s getting married next weekend has sent her into an emotional tailspin.
“Yes, ma’am,” I say, giving her another wink before I skirt past her hostess stand and move toward the dining room. As promised, Con is sitting alone in the booth that stands empty, 24/7, unless at least one Gilroy is occupying it. He’s on his cell, talking quietly but starts to wrap it up when he sees me coming. By the time I’m sliding into the seat across from him, he’s off the phone and waiting for me.
“So,” I say, deciding to take the offensive, I settle into my seat before draping an arm over the back of the booth. “What’s up? Why are we here?” I know why we’re here. We’re here because he saw Kait and I together last night and he wants to know what my intentions are. If I’m just looking for a fast fuck or if I’m interested in her for real. We did the same dance when Tess and I started seeing each other.
I like you, Went. You’re a friend—a real friend—and that makes you family but Tess has been through enough. So, if you hurt her, or even cause her the slightest bit of discomfort, I’ll fucking murder you and feed you to her cats.
While Con’s connection to Kait isn’t nearly as strong as his connection to Tess, I’m fairly certain that something along those lines is coming because Kait is family too and if there’s one thing Gilroys don’t fuck around about, it’s family.
“Tess called me last night on her way home from your shop,” he says, his tone calm and neutral. “She let me know that she left Kaitlyn behind so you could finish her tattoo.”
Before I can either confirm or deny, Tanya sidles up to the table, brandishing a coffee pot. “Avocado omelet?” she says while she turns over my coffee cup and fills it. I’m in here no less than three times a week and I always get the same thing.
“Not today,” I say, giving her a flat smile. “Just coffee.” I’m picking Noah up after this. That means enough pizza and ice cream to kill an elephant.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” she says, refilling Conner’s cup before she walks away.
As soon as Tanya’s gone, I look at Con. “Tess said that Henley had some big shopping trip planned with her mother today so she had to get home.” Reaching across the table, I pluck a couple of creamer cups from the dish and rip one open. “I wasn’t even done with Kait’s outline yet, so Tess asked me if I could take her home when I finished up.”
Con makes a neutral sound in the back of his throat. “And?”
Dumping the last of my creamer cups into my mug, I give it a stir. Trying to buy myself some time because rule number one about Conner Gilroy—he never asks questions that he doesn’t know the answers to.
And that motherfucker knows everything.
“And I did.” Setting my spoon down, I look up at him. “I finished her tattoo and took her home, as promised.” Leaning back into my seat with a sigh, I shake my head. “Look—you obviously played peeping tom last night so you already know what happened, so let’s skip the theatrics and get to the part where you tell me what this whole thing is really about.” When he doesn’t deny it, I know that I’m right—Conner spied on Kait and me last night through the center’s security feed. Last night, I found it amusing. Right now, it pisses me off. “Before we get down to brass tacks, can I tell you how fucking weird it is that you felt the need to spy on me with a woman who isn’t the woman you’re going to marry in a week?”
“Seven days, eight hours, twenty-two minutes and forty-one seconds, to be exact.” Con lifts his cup to take a drink, making it obvious he doesn’t give a shit if I think he’s weird or not. “How do you feel about her?”
“How do I feel about who?” It’s a stupid question. I know who but I’m fucking irritated, so I don’t feel like playing nice anymore.
“Kaitlyn.” For some reason, the way he says her name makes me want to reach across the table and choke him.
“I just met her, Con,” I say, lying through my teeth. “I don’t feel any way about her.”
Conner makes another noise in the back of his throat—this one is anything but neutral. “You kissed her. Asked her to have dinner with you tonight… but then she reminded you that you have a shift at the bar, so you switched it to Monday—so, you must feel some type of way about her.”
Something prickles across my scalp. Ryan was watching us from his doorway last night so I know he saw me kiss Kait but he was too far away to hear what was said. “How the fuck?—”
“Do me a favor—turn around and look at the booths behind you.”
For a second, I don’t move but when all he does is stare at me and wait for me to do as he asks, I turn around to look at the restaurant dining room behind me. “Okay, now what?”
“Pick a booth. Any booth you want.”
“Alright…” Playing along, I scan the dining room before settling on a booth near the hallway that leads to the bathrooms. “Man and woman. She’s wearing a purple sundress. He’s wearing a?—”
Without warning, Con starts talking behind me.
“I didn’t want to tell you, but I found a notice in Hunter’s diaper bag yesterday when I picked him up from daycare. They’re raising their rates again.”
“What the hell? Are you fucking serious? They just raised them a few months ago. How much this time?”
“A hundred a week ? —"
Turning around in my seat, I stare at Conner. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m reading their lips,” he tells me with a casual shrug. “Taught myself how when I was a kid. I’m very good at it.”
Before I can process what he’s telling me, Con crosses his arms over his chest and leans forward in his seat.
“ You seem to have forgotten what happens to me when you’re within fucking distance. If I let myself come up here, there’s no way in hell I don’t end up pounding on your door and there’s no way in hell you don’t let me in... and we both know what happens next because, as recent history has proved, hating you doesn’t make me want to fuck you any less ,” Conner says, repeating word for word, what I said to Kait in the elevator last night. “I guess I just answered my own question, didn’t I?” Giving me a shitty smirk, he settles back into his seat. “So, since I already know how you feel about her, why don’t you go ahead and tell me why?”