Kennedy turned to face me with an easy smile and a confused expression. “Of course I am; why wouldn’t I be?”
I huffed softly and raised my eyebrows—like the answer to her question alone could have her panicking. “Well—”
“The question is, Liam, are you ready for this? I don’t have family here ready to embarrass me in front you. I’m hoping to get some juicy details about you tonight. Maybe your mom will even pull out baby pictures to show me. But don’t worry, since they probably won’t be playing twenty questions with Kira, I’m sure she’ll be on your side.” With that, she stepped out of the car laughing, and left me sitting there staring at where she’d just been, completely speechless.
I’d spent an entire day trying to figure out how to ask her and Kira to this dinner, and then had rehearsed the question a few dozen times before finally mentioning it casually, acting like it didn’t matter if they came or not. But given how she was acting right now, she knew exactly why this dinner was happening, and she seemed more than fine with it.
The girls waited by the front door of the house until I joined them and let us in. We’d barely made it past the entryway before Aunt Bree was in front of us.
“Hello, friends! I’m Bree, but you probably already knew that since I’m always snooping around the gym. Now—” She cut off quickly and looked between Kennedy and Kira a few times then up to me. “Which one?”
“This one,” I said, nodding toward the girl standing at my right.
“Right, right.”
“Aunt Bree—”
“No!” she said sharply, and held up a silencing finger at me. “You and I are not friends, you do not get to speak to me anymore. I’m going to busy myself with these two, and you can figure out how to beg me to forgive you.”
Uncle Konrad came up behind her and shrugged. “I told you she was mad. Can’t say I didn’t warn ya.”
Aunt Bree looked up at her husband and gave him her best glare. “You don’t talk to the enemy either unless you want to sleep on the dog’s bed for the second night in a row!” She grabbed both Kennedy’s and Kira’s hands and began walking away while still looking at them. “Now I have time to—wait, which one of you is the girl again?”
“Me, I’m Kennedy,” Kennedy said at the same time as Kira said, “She’s the girlfriend.”
I could just barely make out Kennedy’s grumbled “I’m not his girlfriend” before Aunt Bree had them seated on the couch with her on the coffee table so she could face them both.
As I looked at my uncle Konrad, my eyes narrowed. “Couldn’t you have at least told her to take it easy on them?”
“Why do you think she said I’d be sleeping on the dog bed for the second night?”
My lips pulled up at the corners, and I nodded once. “Figures. Thanks for trying.”
He grunted and slapped a hand on my shoulder as we began walking into the living room. “Don’t forget, your mom is still pissed. I’d be more worried about her than your aunt. You should probably get to her before the twins get away from Bree.”
Uncle Konrad had been right. Mom was beyond pissed, but it was hard to feel bad when she barely came up to my chest and was trying to talk down to me. I hadn’t been able to handle being scolded without laughing since I was twelve. She started getting even madder when my neutral expression began breaking and my mouth kept twitching, so I finally picked her up in a big hug for a few seconds, then set her down. And like every time I’d ever done it before, she melted and her anger was gone by the time she was on her feet again.
“Okay, okay. Let’s go talk to them,” she said as she walked away from me. I followed her out of the kitchen and into the living room until she was standing close to where Aunt Bree was sitting. “Oh my word, we just need to make you two wear name tags all the time. This is so confusing.”
The girls laughed and Kennedy said, “I’ll make it as easy as I can for you. Kira has a scar just above her top lip.”
My head jerked back for a second, then I was leaning forward to find the faint scar. “Why haven’t I ever been told that?”
Kennedy’s eyebrows rose, and I knew she was enjoying the fact that she’d helped my family and not me. “You’ve never had trouble figuring us out except for that very first meeting. There was never any reason to tell you.”
“Still would have been helpful,” I mumbled at the same time as my mom finally saw the scar.
“Oh, you can barely even see it! But I guess it will have to do. How did you get it, sweet girl?”
Kira laughed and glanced at Kennedy. “I hid Kennedy’s stuffed bear when we were four, and she threw a Barbie car at me. She’s a little violent.”
“Oh, I’m the violent one? You chased me with a knife when we were ten. I was just trying to scare you, it’s not my fault I have bad aim and it ended up hitting you in the face.”
Kira’s laugh got louder and she shrugged unapologetically. “You deserved it, you—”
“Anyway,” Kennedy said, cutting off Kira. “That’s the easiest way to tell. We have different tattoos, but that usually doesn’t help people. Sorry, we’ve probably scared you all off now.”
Mom snorted. “Not even close. Liam tried to melt Kristi’s dolls in the oven, cut her hair off while she was sleeping, and put her in a headlock when she was three. Nothing can scare me after raising a boy.” She rolled her eyes and looked up at me, but gave me a little wink as she nodded toward the girls—and I knew right then that she already approved of Kennedy and Kira. “Well, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m—”
“Mom, they already know who you are.”
She smacked me in the stomach, her smile never faltering. “Like I was saying. I’m Harper, Liam’s mother, and I’m so happy you both agreed to come to dinner. Brandon and Kristi talk about you two so much, I couldn’t wait to get to spend more time with you.”
Kennedy gave me a soft smile before looking back up at my mom. “Well, we really appreciate this, thank you so much for having us. Liam’s told me a lot about you, it’ll be really nice to get to sit and talk with you instead of just saying hello and good-bye at the gym. Besides, I told Liam in the car that I’m really hoping to get some juicy stories about him while we’re here.”
Aunt Bree laughed and stood up from the table. “I like her. We can keep them both.” Walking up to me, she tilted her head back like Mom did when she was about to get mad at me, and poked me in the chest with each word she spoke. “And we’re still not friends! It better be an epic groveling I get from you!”
“I’m sure it will be,” I called after her as she walked into the kitchen with Mom not far behind her. Looking back at the girls, who had just stood up from the couch, I released a heavy breath. “So that’s Mom and Aunt Bree. I think they’re the worst you’ll get.”
“I like them,” Kira said as she turned to go to the kitchen.
Kennedy walked up to me until she was pressed against my chest. “I like them too. So,” she said huskily, and gave me an amused look. “You tried to melt your sister’s dolls in the oven, huh? I’m sure that’s somewhere in a book on the makings of a serial killer.”
I pinched her side and brushed a kiss across her cheek. “I was six, give me a break. Come on, let’s get the rest of this night over with.”
With a soft kiss to my lips, Kennedy slowly backed away from me. “Like I said, I’m not the one who’s going to be embarrassed tonight. I’m excited about what I’ll find out next.”
“Meeting your parents will be the sweetest payback I’ve ever received.”
“Who said I’d ever let you near my parents?” she asked teasingly. With a wink, she turned around and went to join my family in the kitchen, and for long moments all I could do was stand there and watch her as I realized Brian was right.
For the first time in my life, I knew I was falling in love. And it was with a girl who was terrified by the idea of relationships. But nothing about the challenge was scaring me at the moment.
12
Oc
tober 23
Kennedy
“ARE YOU READY for this?” I asked Kira, and was beyond happy to see her eyes immediately light up as she nodded her head.
“As long as you are.”
For a moment, my chest constricted with a years-old panic that was hard to break, but the feeling passed within seconds. “I’m ready.”
Grabbing the door to the tattoo parlor, I swung it open and followed Kira inside.
“Good afternoon, ladies, wha—” The man greeting us did a double take, and his mouth stretched into a wide grin as he raised his arms in the air. “Oh yeah! Twinsies! Double the fun for me. What can I do for you two today?”
I eyed the massive head of long, curly dark hair on the guy standing in front of us, and guessed, “Brian?”
His face immediately fell and he cocked his head to the side. “Trip. Such a trip. I don’t remember twins.”
I laughed and pointed to Kira, then at myself. “Kira and Kennedy. We’re friends of Liam’s.”
“Ah! Little Chachi’s girlfriend and her equally hot sister! Welcome, welcome!”
I decided to let the “girlfriend” slide this time. “We want small matching tattoos, nothing crazy today. Shouldn’t take long; do you have time?”
“Do I have time for you? Of course I do, you’re practically family already. Dudes, Riss is gonna hate me for meeting you before she gets to.”
“Riss?” Kira whispered to me.
“His wife,” I whispered back, and held up the bag I was holding toward Brian. “Liam said you like tacos.”
“Oh, sweet sustenance. Where have you been all my life?” he asked as he gently took the bag from my hand—like it was precious and would break if he moved any faster. “Liam tell you that Riss starves me?”
My mouth curved up when I eyed his beer gut. “You look like you’re doing okay to me.”
Brian’s face lost all emotion, but his eyes look horrified. “No. Dude number one, you don’t understand. She’s on a plant-food-only kick. She. Starves. Me.”
“Eww.”
He looked at Kira and nodded. “Tell me about it, dude number two. Okay. Now that I’ve gotten my payment, what matchy-matchy do you want today, and where do you want it?”
Kira immediately pulled out her phone to show Brian the tattoo and talk placement with him.
It had been five months since our quick and unexpected move to California, and while there were still things we hated about this place—like the fact that we were still in motherfucking California—I’d been right all those months ago. This move had been good for both Kira and me.
In the last three months, Kira had slowly but surely gotten better, and gotten over the whole Zane thing. It didn’t take long for her to admit just how messed up their relationship had been—once she stopped torturing herself by stalking Zane’s social media accounts. It was after that that she’d been able to realize the reason she’d tried so hard to continue to make it work between Zane and her was that she’d wanted a perfect marriage like our parents have, but wanted to be able to say that she’d married her high school sweetheart on top of it. I could understand that to an extent. It was hard not to want the kind of marriage our parents had, but Kira’s would have been anything but perfect with Zane, so I was glad she was moving on from that dream and him. And to be honest, I think the guys at the gym had a lot to do with it too. There were a handful of men who talked specifically to her whenever they came in, and although she had yet to give it over, she’d been asked for her number more times than I could count.
As for me? I was doing better all the time in dealing with my past and the fears that came with it. I knew what had happened to me had happened for a reason, just like I knew I needed to let the past stay in the past without letting it keep me there; but letting go had been harder than I’d ever imagined. It wasn’t until Kira had brought it up last week that I’d realized how little of a hold it still had on me. And it was because of the progress of us both that we were meeting Brian today.
Kira and I didn’t get matching tattoos often. Our tastes were too different, just like our polar opposite personalities. But our deep love for art on our bodies was something we’d always shared with Dad, and every now and then something in our lives called for “matchy-matchy,” as Brian had called it. This was definitely one of those times.
Because of the relationships that had been life consuming and life altering for both of us, we were getting “free hearts” tattoos to show how we felt like we’d finally been released from the past. A tattoo of a small red heart with free in black inked across it, as if the word had been stamped on top.
After Kira was done and Brian was set up again, I was lying next to him with the outline on my left collarbone, and the familiar buzzing started up. Nothing was more soothing to me than the buzzing of these machines, and I couldn’t help but smile as I waited for the process to start.
“You in love with my boy yet?”
And there went my smile.
A short laugh bubbled past my lips, and my eyebrows pulled down as I looked over at Brian. “Uh, what?”
“Have you finally figured out you’re in love with him?”
“No,” I responded, slowly drawing out the word. “Why?”
“Because it’s gonna happen,” Brian said, like the fact that I didn’t already know this was blowing his mind.
After a few minutes passed with him focused only on what he was doing, he moved his head so it was directly above my face. “He loves you, you know.”
“Really?” When Brian nodded, I laughed again—but this time there was no humor behind it. “Liam Taylor loves me,” I stated blankly. “I think you might be high, Brian.”
“Not today,” he boasted proudly, and sat back to mess with the ink before he started tattooing again.
I’d been joking, but his response had my forehead pinching. “Liam said you don’t do drugs . . .”
“No, ma’am, not for thirty years. No drinkage or druggage. Not since the night I almost lost my lady love when I was twenty-three. She gave me an ultimatum, and that was it for me. Doesn’t mean I don’t feel like I’m high most days. This job and my life give me all the high I need, dude number one. What else did LC tell you about me?”
“Your hair,” I replied immediately with a smile.
“Dude. The hair is me. I am my hair. I made this hair look cool way before Troy Polamalu started getting paid mad bucks for his.”
“Who?”
“Eh.” Brian leaned back and shrugged. “Football player who jacked my style. Retired when you were just a young’un. So, what else? Did LC tell you how dead sexy I am?”
“Oh yeah,” I mumbled sarcastically. “That was our very first conversation.”
“Damn straight it was. LC knows what’s up.”
I bit back a laugh and let another minute pass before I said, “He told me about his tattoo for Chase, and what you said after you finished it.”
“Was I high?” he asked teasingly, but the humor quickly died and he stopped tattooing and sat back. After a few beats of silence, I turned my head to find him staring at me with a look of shock. “He told you about the initials?”
“And the entire story behind it,” I confirmed with a nod.
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“Dude number one, LC doesn’t tell anyone that story.” Brian was silent again for a while, and with a laugh, he shook his head and got ready to keep going. “Christ. I knew my boy was in love with you. But, homie, he is in love with you.”
“You’re wro—”
“No, I’m not,” he said, cutting me off. “You in love with him yet?”
“Again, no, Brian.”
“That’s okay. I’ll ask again when I’m done to see if you’ve realized it yet.”
There was no stopping my smile over the next couple minutes as Brian finished up. Despite how crazy Brian seemed, I could easily understand why Liam and his family liked him so much. His weird personality was addic
ting.
“Dude number one,” Brian said when he finished. “You in love with my boy yet?”
I laughed in frustration and amusement, and shot him a look. “No, Brian!”
“ ’Kay, ’kay. I’ll check back with you tomorrow.”
“Do it, I can’t wait to give you the same answer.”
“Uh-huh. We’ll see.”
I rolled my eyes, but didn’t say anything else regarding the topic as he got me ready to go, and Kira and I paid.
“Come back to me, dudes!” he called out when we reached the door to leave, and pointed at me. “Tell my boy to come feed me!”
“Will do! Thanks again!”
“Strange one,” Kira said as we walked back to the car, and I nodded in agreement.
“Strange but fun.” I grabbed my phone to see the time. “Let’s make a coffee run and then get home. Liam will be over in an hour.”
Kira stopped walking and pointed back to the shop. “Oh, don’t you mean the love of your life?” she teased.
“Shut up,” I grumbled, and pushed her away.
WITH A QUICK knock, the front door opened and Liam came walking in half an hour after we’d gotten home. “You really need to lock your door,” he murmured, then pressed a quick kiss to my neck.
“We do lock the door, I just unlocked it about five minutes ago because I knew you’d be here soon.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, and Kira nodded and pointed at him as she finished off her coffee.
“I agree,” she said, and dropped the empty cup on the table. “With our family, leaving the door unlocked for anything is probably a big no-no. Can you imagine how Dad would react if he showed up and found it open?”
“Exactly,” Liam continued. “A detective’s daughter should know better.”
I glanced at Kira and pursed my lips. I knew she was talking about the Juarez threats, which had only continued and multiplied as a few of the members of the crew had been released from prison, but Liam didn’t know a thing about it, nor did I want him to know.
I didn’t feel the need to worry him about threats that I doubted would find their way to California, and knew telling him would only cause him to become overly protective. Kira and I already had that with Dad and Uncle Mason, and now we hadn’t seen them or Mom for almost half a year because of their paranoia.