“The kind of question a person asks after they’ve eaten a three-course dinner and two desserts,” Eden said, flopping down onto the sectional next to me.
“That’s the beauty of being with Connor and Killian. We get to eat their dessert.” My brothers were both health nuts. Lean protein, grains, plenty of vegetables, and no refined sugar. Killian had been that way for years, ever since he’d started training to become an MMA fighter when he was still in his teens. For Connor, healthy eating had become a way of life after he’d gotten clean and sober. Ava, Eden, and I had yet to embrace their healthy eating lifestyle.
As the kernels popped in the microwave, Eden sighed loudly and elbowed me in the ribs. “You’ll have to shoehorn me into my dress tomorrow.”
“Lube your body with coconut oil and it will slide right in,” I said.
Ava laughed. Eden gave me a look. “You have a dirty mind.”
“I was thinking about cars.”
“Sure, you were,” Ava said, setting the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table in front of us.
In actuality, I was staring out the floor to ceiling windows at the midtown Manhattan skyline, thinking about Deacon. Annoyingly, I hadn’t been able to think of anythingbutDeacon all day. He’d done that on purpose. He wanted me to think about him and wonder why he hadn’t made a move on me. Maybe it was his cunning ploy. If so, it worked. When I’d woken up this morning, his side of the bed was empty and cold, and I’d been disappointed for reasons I couldn’t understand.
His side of the bed? Oh my God. I gave myself a mental facepalm.
Eden pointed the remote at the TV and pressed play on the movie we’d decided to watch—Bridesmaids. It didn’t really matter what we watched. I knew from previous experience that we would end up talking through the movie and miss most of it anyway.
“Last night I dreamt that I tripped on my dress and face-planted while I was walking down the aisle,” Eden said, stuffing a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
“Last time you did that, look what happened…” Ava produced a pack of Twizzlers out of thin air and waved it under my nose. I helped myself to a few strawberry twists and passed the pack to Eden. “Your knight in shining armor came to the rescue.”
“He wasn’t exactly Prince Charming when we met,” Eden said.
“He was an asshole. But he smartened up. Eventually. What a bonehead.” Ava frowned and shook her head. She and Eden laughed at the memory.
“Tell me the story,” I urged, chomping on my strawberry licorice. “From the beginning.”
Eden’s face brightened, and she launched into the story of how she and Killian met and fell in love. I’d heard bits and pieces of it but never the whole thing.
“Six months after my douchebag boyfriend cheated on me with my supposedly best friend and got her pregnant, I moved to Brooklyn. My friend Hailey tipped me off about a bartending job at Trinity Bar. Killian was standing out front, talking on his cell, a perma-scowl on his face. And I was across the street, basically gawking because hello, Killian is hot.” She laughed. “Anyway, I decided to be brave and cross the street to ask him for a job. But I tripped in a pothole and twisted my ankle. Killian, being Killian, picked me up and carried me into the bar. Then he played nurse.”
I could totally picture it and would expect nothing less from Killian.
“I got the job, but he went out of his way to be a total asshole. Even so, I saw past his tough exterior, you know? Sometimes he let me see his vulnerable side and I lived for those moments. Eventually, I learned more about his past. How his father abused him. And Connor…he was fresh out of rehab and had taken off to Miami, but Killian and Ava didn’t know where he was for five months. It was a tough time for everyone. When Connor came back, everything was good for a while. Until the night those four thugs came to the house. Killian was at work, so it was just me and Connor.”
Ava shuddered at the memory.
“You know that story, right?” Eden asked me.
“Yeah. I know that part.” I knew that those guys had carved the word SNITCH into Connor’s chest. I knew they’d beat him to a pulp and were going to kill him. I also knew that Eden had been bound at the wrists and ankles, kicked, punched, and had a gun held to her head. She’d had a concussion and Connor had to have his broken jaw repaired with titanium plates and screws. Killian and their dad, Seamus had come to the rescue. Then NYPD had turned up. Killian had shot and killed one man. Seamus had killed two before he got shot in the head. And Deacon had killed the fourth man, saving Killian’s life. That was the Cliff Notes version.
None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for my father setting up Connor.
“If it weren’t for Deacon, Killian wouldn’t be here,” Eden said.
Ava side-eyed me. “Please tell me he’s not as perfect as he seems. He must have some flaws, right? I mean, he can’t be that hot and a superhero and a sex god and—”
“How do you know he’s a sex god?” I interjected. I couldn’t dispute that he was hot and probably a superhero but a sex god? How would she know that? And why would she think I knew him so well that I could identify his flaws?
Ava shrugged. “I went to high school with him. I was only a freshman when Killian and Deacon were seniors. But let’s just say that he was never short of female attention.”
I bet he wasn’t. I ignored the stab of jealousy. Why should I care? We had both agreed that we weren’t looking for a relationship. Why had I let him sleep in my bed?
“What happened after that night?” I prompted Eden, wanting to return to the story of her and Killian and not think about my mixed-up feelings for Deacon.
“Killian tried to push me away, thinking he didn’t deserve me. He felt guilty for getting me involved, but I set him straight. No man of mine is going to just walk away without me putting up a fight.”
