Chapter 13
Kennedy
“I’m home!” I announce loudly as I walk into my parents’ house.
It’s the middle of the week, but it’s the first time almost all of my siblings, my parents, and grandparents have been able to get together in months.
“Kennedy,” my grandmother greets, holding her arms out wide.
“Grandmother.” Pulling her into a hug, I inhale deeply.
She and my grandfather have spent the past couple of months in Europe, traveling for personal and business. Though he’s been retired for years, my grandfather continues to do some work for Townsend Industries.
“There’s my eldest granddaughter.” My grandfather welcomes me with the same energy as my grandmother.
“I’ve missed you,” I say, holding onto both of them. “Next time, take me with you to Europe.”
“Anytime,” Grandmother agrees.
I laugh, though I know she’s serious. All I have to do is say the word, and they’ll let me tag along on their globetrotting adventures.
“Like you’d ever give up time at that newspaper,” Kyle’s voice interrupts as he enters the living room space. “All you do is work.”
I snort and fold my arms. “There’s a saying about a pot meeting a kettle?” I say with a lifted eyebrow.
Kyle is a notorious workaholic. He used to eat, sleep, and breathe Townsend Industries.
“I’m a changed man.” As he says that, Riley walks into the room and he drapes an arm over her shoulder.
“Whatever.” I wave a dismissive hand in the air while I pull Riley into a hug. “Where’s my favorite niece?” I ask of Eve.
Riley points over her shoulder. “In the entertainment room with Stasi, of course.”
“Those two.” I laugh. My youngest sister, Anastasia, and Eve are extremely close despite their five-year age difference. I think Stasi looks at Eve as the younger sibling she always wished for growing up.
“Hey, you two,” I say, standing at the door of the huge entertainment room. As a kid and teen, I spent many hours watching the movie theater-sized screen.
“Kenny!” Stasi yells in her usual burst of high energy. Her arms are around my waist before I know it, making me laugh.
“Hey, Aunt Kennedy,” Eve greets me as she hugs me after Stasi.
“What are you two watching?” I ask.
They’ve paused the movie on the screen.
“Nothing. Eve’s helping me with my trigonometry homework.” Stasi groans. “I’m going to be a chef. I don’t understand why I have to take trigonometry to do that.”
Yes, even though Eve is only twelve and Stasi is seventeen and a senior in high school, she goes to Eve for help with her math homework. Eve is a certified genius and brilliant when it comes to numbers.
“Don’t take advantage of your niece’s big brain,” I tell Stasi. “You need to do your own work.”
“Oh no, Aunt Kennedy, I volunteered to help,” Eve defends.
“Seriously, I told her it was fine, but Eve loves this stuff,” Stasi adds with a shake of her head as if she can’t believe it.
Truthfully, I can’t either. Numbers have never been my thing.
“Besides, we’re almost done. I can’t keep looking at these equations for much longer. Not even for you, Eve,” Stasi tells Eve, making our niece laugh.
“Yeah, you’ll have to pull her away from the textbook,” Riley says as she comes up behind me. “For most people, a punishment would be a night with a trigonometry textbook. For her,” Riley juts her head in Eve’s direction, “it’s a freaking reward.”
We both laugh.
“Your parents just came downstairs,” my sister-in-law tells me.
“God only knows what they were up there doing,” I mumble so the girls won’t hear me.
Riley gives me a sly look and a grin.
“Come on, Eve,” Stasi says after slamming the book closed. “We need to go check on dinner anyway.” She looks my way with the biggest smile on her face. “Mom let me cook everything tonight. Not just the dessert.”
She sounds so proud of herself.
I cup my little sister’s face and kiss both of her cheeks. “I know it’ll taste amazing.”
Her face, a few shades lighter than mine, reddens from the compliment.
“Of course it will,” Riley adds. “Stasi made brownies for us last week, and oh my god!” She groans while shaking her head. “I’m not even a huge chocolate fan. My sweet tooth has been overactive lately, though.” Her gaze moves toward the ceiling briefly before looking back at me.
“I’ll make some more if you want,” Stasi offers. “You too, Ken. Anything for my big sisters.” She hugs both me and Riley before breaking away. “Come on, Eve. You can finish explaining that trig problem to me while I teach you how I spatchcocked tonight’s chicken.”
“Those two,” Riley says sweetly as she watches them head up the hallway to the kitchen.
“They’re adorable,” I add.
“Hey, Mommy,” I greet as we enter the living room.
She pulls me into a hug, followed by my father’s strong arms. I inhale his familiar scent. The one that always made me feel safe and protected as a kid.
“Hi, Daddy,” I say into his shoulder.
“Baby,” he says, still holding me in a hug. He looks down at me. “When are you moving back home?”
I roll my eyes because this is the question he always asks when I come home for a visit, which is frequent. I live only about twenty minutes away in the city.
“I thought you couldn’t wait for all of us to move out,” I tease. “So you can have more alone time with Mom.”
His lips dip into a frown, but I know it just means he’s thinking.
“You wouldn’t move back into the main house.” He juts his head toward the back of the house. “I’ll build you a place out back. Right next to Stasi’s.”
He says it’s a viable solution.
“No, thank you,” I say.
His frown deepens. “I’ll get you to move back home eventually,” he says with authority.
I stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Speaking of …” I pull away from his hug and look around the living room. “Where’s Kyle?”
“Right here,” my twin responds from behind me.
“I need to ask you two something.” I look between my brother and father. Both of their gazes are so intense staring down at me. Their resemblance is uncanny sometimes. The only difference is my brother is noticeably younger, and his skin is a few shades darker than my father’s from our biracial heritage. Yet, they could be twins.
“My job,” I say, starting with a question I’ve needed to ask them for weeks. I pause and look between them to see if their expressions change.
Aside from curious looks, they remain the same.
“Did either of you have anything to do with my getting hired at The Regal?”
My father’s forehead wrinkles as he folds his arms. “Why are you asking this again?”
“That’s not a no.”
“You want an answer, you’ll give one first,” he insists.
I push out a breath, knowing he won’t answer until I do. That’s how my father works.
“I need to know … for me,” I answer honestly. “Because this is mine, and I want to ensure that I wasn’t hired because of some closed-door favor by one of your business associates.”
Kyle clears his throat. “Even if that were the case, would that be terrible?”
My shoulders slump. “Yes!” I insist louder than I mean to. “Would getting the job as COO because you’re the boss’ son be such a bad thing?” I add in a mocking tone.
His eyes narrow on me. “I earned that promotion,” he defends, arms folding like our father’s.
“Exactly.” I thrust my hands outward. “You know what it’s like to work for something, and to think someone pulled strings to get to where you are now doesn’t feel so good, does it?”
His expression turns contrite. “I get it,” he concedes. “I didn’t have anything to do with your job. I swear.”
I turn to my father, who, surprisingly, is wearing a rare smile.
“I didn’t pull any favors,” he finally says.
“Are you sure? Not even a ‘my daughter would like that open position at your newspaper’ in passing?”
“Not even.”
I push out a breath, feeling relieved.
My dad places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. Unmistakable pride shines in his hazel eyes.
“I’m so damn proud of you.” He looks over at Kyle. “Of both of you. Of all of my kids.” Then he looks across the room, and that look he always gets when he stares at my mom covers his face. “Your mother’s mostly responsible for how well you all turned out.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, old man,” Kyle teases, gripping his shoulder.
Dad gives him a sharp look. One that’s been known to freeze heads of corporations in their seats. Kyle, though, laughs it off.
“I’ll show you old.”
“Are you threatening my son?” my mother asks as she moves to my father’s side.
“Yes,” he answers, not bothering to look ashamed. He wraps an arm around my mother’s shoulders. “He called me old. Ungrateful ass. I think we fed him too well growing up.”
My mom laughs.
“You’re not allowed to hurt my baby boy tonight,” she replies. “Especially since he’s the only one of our sons who can be here in person.”
She smiles as she says it, but her voice has a hint of sadness. My two younger brothers, Andreas and Thiers, also twins, aren’t here. At only nineteen, Andreas lives in California and is an up-and-coming actor in Hollywood. Thiers is in his second year in the military.
My heartstrings tug because I miss my little brothers.
“Andreas called about an hour ago,” my mom says. “We were upstairs on the phone with him.”
I nod.
“Dinner’s ready,” Stasi screams from the dining area.
My mother quickly scolds her for yelling across the entire house.
A smile crests on my lips because it reminds me of my mom scolding me or Kyle when we were younger.
As I start to follow my family to the dining area, my cell phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out to see Dae’s name on the screen. Since our last date, we’ve talked or texted on the phone daily.
Our conversations are usually short, but I can’t ignore the butterflies I get in my stomach whenever I see his name on my phone screen.
“Hello?” I answer before thinking better of it. I pause at the little entryway right before the dining room. The rest of my family piles in and around the table.
“Hello, little warrior.”
A shudder runs through me. I’ve never been one for pet names in my past relationships. But this isn’t just a generic pet name like ‘baby’ or ‘sweetie.’ It has meaning and reasoning behind it.
I remember him explaining why he calls me that and I could swear that there was a flash of something I recognized.
Like I knew him from somewhere in my past.
That night after our date, while sitting in my reading nook, unable to work any longer, I wracked my brain trying to pull out a memory of ever meeting Dae Kim before.
I failed.
He and I never met, even when I first joined the Black Opal. I then thought about my previous trip to South Korea. It’s been over a decade since I was there with my family, but no memories of ever meeting him arise.
I would remember.
“Are you home from dinner with your family?” Dae asks, breaking into my thoughts.
“We’re just getting ready to eat,” I tell him. “I was a little late.”
“Why?”
“Work. What else?” I joke.
“Are you working too hard? You need to take care of yourself. Don’t tell me this is the first thing you’re eating today.” There’s a concern mixed with mild scolding.
“No,” I say defensively. “I had a bran muffin for breakfast,” I mumble.
“A muffin,” he repeats as if to make sure I hear how ridiculous it sounds.
“Did you miss the part where I said it was a bran muffin? Those are the healthiest types of muffins.”
He snorts. “A muffin is nothing more than a cupcake by a different name.”
I laugh.
“You need to go eat then.” He sounds hesitant.
I, too, hesitate to disconnect the call.
“Kennedy,” my mother calls from the dining room.
“Go enjoy dinner with your family. And eat,” he insists.
“I don’t like being told what to do,” I say darkly.
“When it comes to taking care of you, get used to it, little warrior. I’ll call you tomorrow,” he says before hanging up.
Did he say get used to it? What is that supposed to mean? More importantly, why did excitement rush down my spine when he said it?
“Wow, I know what that smile means,” Riley says, startling me.
I blink and blink again, wiping away the smile I didn’t know was on my face. “What?”
“Who has you smiling like that?”
With a shake of my head, I answer, “No one. Nothing.” I clear my throat.
“So you were talking to yourself just now?”
“Yes. No. Work. I just got a tip for the investigation I’m working on.”
For the first time, I wish my brother hadn’t married a woman as astute as Riley. She narrows her eyes at me.
“I love my job,” she says, surprising me. “I mean, love it. Thoroughly.”
“Okay.”
“But never have I smiled at my phone like that over anything work related.” She wraps her arm in mine. “I have, however, smiled like that over a man.” She holds up her left hand, showing her wedding ring.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She bursts out laughing because she knows I’m full of it.
“Keep it to yourself for now. I’m sure you don’t want to expose whoever has you smiling like that to your overbearing brother and father just yet,” she guesses correctly.
Her use of the word ‘yet’ reminds me of Dae’s insistence that I get used to his care.
“Dinner’s probably getting cold,” I say, tugging her toward the dining room.
I divert her attention to dinner and whatever our family discusses over dinner. Too bad my attention can’t be diverted as quickly. Despite not wanting to, I can’t help but anticipate the next time I get to hear Dae’s voice.
The brevity of our phone conversation left me wanting.