They gave their dad a hug, and turned to run inside. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the possible meltdown, and looked to Paddy, Ryan and Sean. “Okay,” I said. “Might as well get this over with.”
With their wishes of luck doing nothing to boost my confidence, I followed Hailey and Sarah into the house, where I found them in the kitchen with Emma and the Kinney and Kinney-to-be women. At the sight of me, my sisters-in-law quickly announced that they needed to go outside and check on their men, as though they couldn’t be left unattended. I’m sure there was actually some truth to that, and I laughed, keeping my eyes on Emma.
Sarah’s arms were around Padraig’s neck when she asked, “When are we going?”
I leaned my forearms against the counter top. “Soon,” I said, “but your mom and I wanted to talk to ya about somethin’.”
Emma wrapped her arm around Hailey’s shoulders. “Actually, I had a question for you guys. Come with me.”
Watching her skeptically, I followed behind the girls, chasing after Emma as she walked from the kitchen and down the hall to her office. She turned on the light, walked to her drafting table and held up a framed collage of pictures. The girls walked closer to look at them, and when I peered over their heads at what they were looking at, I saw all the pictures from over the past month. All of those candid shots she’d been taking. All of the pictures I took of her on my mobile—how she got them, I’d have to ask her later. Pictures of the girls with me, of the Kinney family, of us all together, of Jared with the three of them before me.
“Look, Malachy,” Sarah said, pointing. “There’s one of Padraig too!”
I nodded, laying a hand over her shoulder and squeezing gently. “So there is.”
Smiling, Hailey shrugged. “It’s nice, Mom, but what’s your question?”
“Well,” Emma began, taking a deep breath, and looking up at me, “I was wondering, how would you guys feel about expanding our family?”
“Like, what do you mean?” Hailey asked, shifting her eyes between her mother and me. Putting the pieces together in the way she often did.
“I mean, all of the other people in these pictures,” Emma said, pointing to pictures of my brothers, Helen and Collin, Meghan, the babies and Padraig. Me. “What do you think about adding them to our family?”
Hailey looked up to me, her eyes hopeful. “Does that mean you’re not leaving? You’re really going to stay?”
Slowly, I nodded. “Whether ya like it or not, you’re kinda stuck with me.”
She smiled, shrugging one shoulder. “I guess that’s cool,” she responded, playing at nonchalance.
“Does that mean Padraig is my dog now?” Sarah asked, and I eyed her with a warning.
“I dunno about that,” I teased with a hard edge to my voice. “Pad and I go way back.”
“But,” Emma added, “Padraig also lives here now, so he’ll be here whenever you are. Malachy too.”
Sarah grinned. “Cool.”
Hailey pointed to a picture in the frame, and it was one I recognized. I smiled with pride, remembering the doctor visit earlier in the week and enjoying the excited gallop of my heart, but I looked to Emma uneasily.
“What’s this?” Hailey asked, looking back to her mother. “Is this one of us?”
“Is that a baby picture?” Sarah asked her sister, looking closer.
“It’s a sonogram,” Hailey corrected, still looking at her mom.
“That’s going to be the next member of our family,” Emma said, and if she was nervous at all, she wasn’t letting on. But me, well … I was afraid I was going to throw up.
Hailey’s mouth fell open. “Who’s having a baby?”
With a catching smile, Emma told her, “Well … I am. With Malachy.”
“I told ya you’re kinda stuck with me,” I said to the older girl, and while I might’ve been expecting a hormonal outburst I wasn’t sure how to deal with, I was even less prepared for her spinning on her heel to throw her arms around me. I looked to Emma for backup as I wrapped the girl in a hug, but she just smiled, sighing as the tears welled in her eyes.
“What’s this for?” I asked Hailey, and she shrugged, closing her eyes.
“I kinda hoped this would happen,” she whispered into my ear, her voice choked with emotion.
I laughed, keeping my eyes on Emma. “Oh yeah?”
“Well, duh,” she said, sniffling. “You make Mom happy.”
❧
“So, while we’re out, what should I be getting you for Christmas?” Emma asked me, pulling her coat on as the girls ran out to wait for her in the car. “Anything specific?”
“How about a green card? Can ya manage that at the shops?” I asked with a grin.
“Ya know,” Sean said from the couch, “you two could just get married.”
I shrugged, looking down at her. “Well, it’s an idea.”
Emma grinned, tipping her head back to look up to my eyes. “I think it’s a good idea. My mom would certainly be a lot happier if I wasn’t having a baby out of wedlock.”
“I’m just destined to be the last one married,” Sean grumbled his jealousy to Ryan and Patrick.
“Okay, so maybe I’ll buy a wedding dress while I’m out, but what do you want for Christmas?” she asked, wrapping her arms around me.
I tried to remember the last time someone had asked me that question. Mam and my first father hadn’t given me Christmas presents since I was a child, long before they passed, and who else was there?
Now, I’d been asked several times by Collin and Helen, and they didn’t care how old I was. My brothers had also asked me a number of times, and Emma was even more relentless about it.
But what I couldn’t do, was think of anything to ask for.
Just two months ago, I came to America as an orphan with a dog. In that time, I’d gained parents, brothers, sisters-in-law and a slew of nieces and a nephew. I’d fallen in love and managed to find myself a home, the love of my life, two stepdaughters, and a baby on the way.
“Well?” she asked. “They’re waiting for me out there.”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “Nothin’.”
“Nothing?”
“What more could I want?” I asked, glancing into the living room at my brothers, watching TV on the couch with Padraig. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into me. “I have everythin’ I’ve ever wanted already, right here.”
EPILOGUE |
MUTTS & TATTOOS
MALACHY
“Who’s the gobshite with Meg?” I sidled up next to Paddy, noting his white-knuckled fist, curled around his pint.
He grunted, scowling. “Some kid she goes to school with, I think.”
“She invited him?”
My arms crossed over my chest, and my eyes narrowed as the shaggy-haired teenager placed his hand at the small of my niece’s back. Paddy’s demeanor went from protective to caveman in a matter of seconds, taking a step forward to break up the obvious pairing. But I stopped him with a hand against his chest.
“I’ll handle this,” I assured him.
“Don’t handle it unless you’re gonna hand that little shite’s arse to him,” he grumbled, continuing to scowl.
“Don’t worry,” I said with a nod and headed over, walking through my wedding reception with intention.
Standing to the side of the River Canyon park gazebo, Meghan was giggling airily and smiling coyly, batting her lashes and biting her lip, until she caught a glimpse of me. Taking a step back from the perverted offender, her cheeks blossomed in pink as she swallowed.
“Hey, Uncle Mal,” she greeted me in a small voice, looking from me to her friend.
Over six months and I still couldn’t hear the title without grinning, as I did then too. “What’re ya doin’ over here?” I inquired innocently, feigning surprise when I turned to face the other kid. “And who might ya be? I don’t recall addin’ ya to the guest list.”
Meghan famously rolled her eyes, throwin
g her head back as she did. With a groan, she said, “Uncle Mal, this is Mutt.”
Well, that was the last name on the planet I expected to hear. “Mutt?” I turned to the kid with the shaggy-brown hair. “You’re feckin’ kiddin’ me, right?”
Taken aback, he screwed his face with condescending attitude. “Uh, it’s my name.”
“Is it short for somethin’?” Properly confused, I gripped the back of my neck and squeezed, eyeing him with uncertainty.
“Uncle Mal,” Meg groaned again, pleading with me through sparkling blue eyes.
“What? I’m just—”
“Did Daddy tell you to come over here?” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down to her feet, pouting. “He’s so ridiculous. He can never just leave me alone.”
“He’s your da,” I told her, raising my brows and smiling with sympathy. “But no, I came over on me own, because I don’t recall invitin’ our friend, Mutt, over here. So, I was wonderin’ how ya found yourself to be at me weddin’?” I turned to Mutt expectantly.
“I live right over there,” he said, pointing off in the distance.
“Ah, so ya crashed me weddin’ day.” I nodded, cocking my head. “Good to know.”
Meghan’s eyes widened as I turned to walk back toward her father. She reached out to grab my arm and I looked back to her, smirking and looking forward to hearing what she had to say.
“Don’t tell Daddy. Please. He’ll arrest—”
Sean and Lindsey walked by, holding drinks and plates of food. “Who’s Paddy arrestin’?” Sean asked, turning his gaze from Meg to me. When his eyes met Mutt’s, his smile faded. “And who the feck are you?”
“This is Mutt,” I growled. “He’s got eyes for Meghan.”
“Babe, take this,” he said, shoving his plate and drink at his fiancée. She sighed and rolled her eyes, balancing everything in her arms as she turned toward their table. Sean’s arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at Mutt. “Where did ya come from?”
“I live right over—”
“Don’t answer him,” Meghan grumbled, grabbing his arm. “You guys are being ridiculous. Just go away, okay? Tell Daddy I’m—”
“Ya know who should be over here?” Sean turned to me, his eyes wide and lit with a brilliant idea I picked up on immediately.
“I do!” I turned around, scanning the small crowd of family and friends, until my eyes fell on the only man in the place with dyed black hair. “Ryan!”
He looked up, holding Axel in his arms, and I gestured for him to come over. He handed the baby off to his wife and sauntered toward us, hands stuffed in the pockets of his pants. “What are ya feckers doin’ over here?”
“Just chattin’ up Meg’s new friend,” Sean mentioned casually, gesturing toward Mutt, who was now looking as though he wished he could disappear on command. “This is Mutt.”
“Mutt, huh?” Ryan reached out a hand to touch the sleeve of Mutt’s t-shirt. “Ya came to a fancy wedding wearin’ a t-shirt?” He scoffed, shaking his head as he turned to Meghan. “You could do better, Meg. This kid lacks class.”
Mutt took a step away from Ryan’s inked hand. “I didn’t know it—”
“What’s that? Ya didn’t know it was a wedding?” Ryan raised his eyebrows and spread his arms wide. “What the hell does this look like to ya? The feckin’ farmer’s market?”
I snorted as an arm threaded through the crook of my elbow. I turned my head to find myself facing my bride. The pretty Emma Bryan-Shevlin, food-slash-lifestyle blogger. Her flowing white—excuse me, off-white gown dusted the ground beneath her feet. The short sleeves laid low on her lean arms, exposing her shoulders. Her long, brown hair was woven in a plait, that cascaded over one shoulder and was adorned with tiny flowers.
Feckin’ hell. She wasn’t just pretty. She was gorgeous, ethereal, and I hoped to one day feel like I deserved this and the baby in her belly.
“Hello, m’darlin’,” I greeted her, suddenly forgetting I was surrounded by two of my brothers, my niece and some little shite named Mutt wearing a t-shirt at our wedding.
“Hey,” she said, expressing all of her love in her smile, “have you eaten anything yet?”
Shaking my head, I turned to find the rest of the wedding guests with plates of food in front of them. “I guess I should probably eat somethin’,” I muttered, thinking out loud. Then, I looked back to her. “How ‘bout you? Ya want me to get ya somethin’?”
With a shake of her head, she smiled. “No, I’m okay. This little lady in here doesn’t want me to hold onto anything today.” She laid a hand over her stomach, and although she let go of a forlorn sigh, she still beamed with happiness and pride.
I quirked my mouth sympathetically. It hadn’t been an easy pregnancy, not that I had a whole lot of prior experience. But from what Emma told me, being pregnant with Hailey and Sarah was more or less easy and involved very little sickness and exhaustion.
Roisin, though? That girl had consistently given her mother hell after the first six weeks of quiet. Emma was exhausted, on four different medications to handle the nausea and persistent vomiting and had been ordered by the doctor to take it easy until the baby was born.
Still, even with all of that, I couldn’t stop her from marrying me. Even though I’d suggested holding off until after Roisin was born.
“Ya should try to eat somethin’,” I persisted.
“We still have Helen’s chicken soup at the house,” she reminded me. “I can heat that up later, when we get home.”
Ryan grunted, reminding me that we weren’t alone. “Oh, great. If anything’s gonna make ya puke, it’s Mam’s soup.”
Meghan giggled at that, unraveling her arms just a bit from around herself, and that’s when I remembered Mutt. Still standing there and afraid to move away from us, even as he backed up inch by inch, laughing uncomfortably at Ryan’s comment about his mother’s cooking.
Then there was Paddy, coming to stand between Sean and me, hooking his arms around our shoulders. “Since these idiots obviously aren’t able to handle this shite themselves,” he began, staring his oldest daughter in the eye, “I gotta ask, who do ya think you are, inviting someone to your uncle’s wedding?”
Emma shook her head. “Patrick, it’s—” But he raised his hand and she nodded, respecting his parental right.
“Daddy, I didn’t invite him. He was just walking by and—”
Paddy turned to glare at Mutt. “Ah, so you’re trespassin’. I see.”
Mutt lifted one side of his upper lip, looking like a young and weaselly Elvis Presley. “Uh, no. It’s public property.”
“Uh, no,” Paddy mocked, “my brother and his wife rented the place for the day, so it’s theirs until midnight. You’re trespassin’, and I could write ya up for that, ya realize,” he reprimanded, unwrapping his arms from Sean’s and my necks to reach into his back pocket. He pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, and asked, “What’s your name?”
Mutt stared blankly at him as Meghan shouted, “You’re unbelievable!” She stomped her foot before walking away in a huff, abandoning the poor fecker. He watched her leave, his face drooping a little more with every step she took. He couldn’t find it in himself to answer, with the four of us looming over him like we really were members of the Irish mafia, and Paddy repeated the question.
“His name is, ehm, Mutt,” Ryan informed him.
“M-uh-T,” Paddy enunciated, scribbling it onto his pad of paper. “Do ya have a last name?” Mutt shook his head. “No? Ya don’t have a last name? It’s just Mutt?”
“That’s like Madonna, but so sad,” Ryan chimed in sympathetically. Sean grimaced with a nod.
“U-uh, my last name is Fischer,” Mutt stammered, and Paddy lowered his pad as he cocked a brow.
“Fischer?” he asked, and Mutt nodded incessantly. “As in, Mayor Fischer?”
He nodded again. “She’s my grandmother.”
“I see.” Paddy brought the pad back up, scribbling as his teeth s
ank into his lower lip, fighting back his grin. “Your grandmother and I just so happen to work very closely together, young man, and she won’t be happy to hear about this misdemeanor. I won’t arrest ya this time, but ya understand, if I catch ya breakin’ the law one more time, I’m gonna have to bring ya in.” Reaching again into his back pocket, he produced his wallet with his River Canyon Police Department badge clipped to it.
Mutt’s face fell with enough horror to convince me he was about to shite himself. “I’m sorry, sir,” he insisted. “I swear, it won’t happen again. Please, please don’t tell Grandma.”
“I won’t say anything this time, but it better not happen again,” Paddy warned, tearing off the piece of paper and handing it to the kid. “I’ll be keepin’ an eye on you, Mutt, even if ya never tell me what your name really is.”
With that, Mutt turned on his heel and ran out of the park, with our four sets of eyes watching his every step. Ryan was the first to start laughing.
“What’d ya write on that paper?”
“Oh, ya know, just that if he ever touches my daughter again, I have a jar with his hand’s name on it,” Paddy grumbled, swallowing hard and breathing angrily, but I think he realized how empty that threat was. He knew there wasn’t anything he could do to stop his daughter from growing up and moving along in life, and I think that beneath the anger, it made him sad. And afraid.
“Mutt’s mitt,” Sean chuckled, clapping Paddy on the back. “I approve.”
“Aye,” I agreed.
“Me too,” Ryan growled. “Who the fuck wants to be called Mutt anyway?”
Then, looking at the four of us, I realized that while Paddy might’ve been afraid of his daughter embarking on uncharted waters without him, nobody should’ve been more afraid than the boys knocking at her door.
And I felt assured that the same could be said for my own daughters.
❧
“Ready for your weddin’ present?” Ryan asked under the light in his kitchen.
I sat at his table during what we were affectionately calling the after party. My brothers, their spouses, Emma and I, were packed into his tiny apartment in their grandmother’s basement. Helen was gladly babysitting, while the group of us celebrated Emma’s and my union, with drinks and leftovers.
Hope to Fall (Kinney Brothers Book 4) Page 18