“Imagine, Kyle married,” Ian said. “Whoever would have thought he’d ever bite the bullet?”
“Abigail always thought it might be in the cards for him.” Pops looked me over. “No matter how much I argued about it with her.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“Well, I never thought Killian would get married, either.”
Killian’s eyebrows rose. “Is that right? I didn’t realize it was such a shocker.”
“That you got married? Or that you married our sister?” Ian wanted to know.
Killian just shook his head. “You’re just jealous because I’m happy. Marriage isn’t as much of a prison as you guys think it is.”
“It’s not,” Pops said, growing sober. “I’ve enjoyed it myself. Both times.”
“Yeah? What’s the best part?” I asked.
“Not having to move from bed to bed, girl to girl. Not getting caught up in the drama of affairs. Having the same, reliable girl in your bed every night. Having the same girl to talk to about everything from the weather to politics to business and know that she’s listening and she really cares about what you have to say.”
Killian was nodding right along as Pops spoke.
“Coming home to your best friend every night,” he added.
Ian shook his head. “Not everyone marries their best friend.”
“No, but your wife can become your best friend if you married the right girl.”
Pops and Killian exchanged a glance. Clearly they both agreed. Ian shook his head.
“Is it really like that?”
They all three turned to look at me.
“A relationship changes as time passes,” Pops said. “At first, it’s hot. The sex is hot, everything is hot. And then it settles into something comfortable. And, if you’re lucky, the sex continues to be hot.”
Killian smiled in a way that made it pretty clear that Pops just described his marriage—information I really didn’t want to know about my sister—but Ian couldn’t accept that idea.
“Being with one woman every night for the rest of your life? Not my idea of fun.”
“That’s because you’ve never felt a connection to a woman,” Killian told him.
Ian just shook his head. “You guys are all married. You have to defend marriage.”
Pops looked at me. “What do you think, Kyle? You think we’re just defending marriage because we have to?”
“No. But if your wives were here, I think it would be possible.”
They laughed. Pops came over to me and slapped me on the shoulder.
“When do we get to meet your new bride?”
“I don’t know. Soon, I hope.”
Pops studied my face. “Tell us about her. How did you meet her? Why didn’t you bring her home before you married her?”
“Because he didn’t want us to talk him out of it,” Ian said.
Pops turned and waved his hand at him. “You’ve voiced your opinion. Now let it go.” Then he turned back to me. “I think it’s wonderful that you decided to take the plunge.”
There was pride in Pops’ voice, in the expression on his face as he studied me. I wanted to turn away because I didn’t deserve it. If he’d known how Amelia and I came to be married, he’d be ashamed of me.
“Tell us about her.”
I shrugged. “She’s from Oregon, a good, Catholic family. She likes Green Day and Twenty-One Pilots.” I shrugged again since I didn’t know what else to say. “She’s beautiful. Petite and dark haired, and she has these amazing blue eyes…”
Pops patted my shoulder. “Good. I’m happy for you, son.”
Killian and Ian were both staring at me as if my head had just spun around. I didn’t know what it was they thought they’d heard. What I’d said didn’t even do Amelia justice.
“We should get going.”
I turned and walked out, done with the whole scene.
And practically walked right into Pops’ wife, Cassidy, her daughter, Brianna, and my brother Kevin.
Fuck!
“Kyle!” Kevin slapped me on the same shoulder Pops had just been pounding. “I hear congratulations are in order!”
“I can’t believe you got married,” Cassidy said, moving in to kiss my cheek.
Pops, Killian, and Ian had followed me out of the office. They were standing back, loving the show. They knew how much it annoyed me to be the center of attention. They knew I hated being fawned over. Yet, they found it increasingly amusing to watch the scene unfold.
“Tell us about her,” Brianna insisted. “What’s she like?”
I shook my head, at a loss for what to say. Again.
Cassidy slipped her arm through mine and led the way into the sitting room.
“Is she at your place? Do you think she’d mind if we went over and introduced ourselves?”
“It’s been a long day. She’s pretty worn out.”
“Just for a little while?”
Cassidy was determined. I’d only known her for a little over a year, but I knew that when she got an idea, it was nearly impossible to talk her down.
“Just let me warn her first, okay?”
You’d think I’d just told them they could go on a shopping spree at their favorite store or something.
Poor Amelia.
Chapter 12
Amelia
“They’re on their way over. They really wanted to meet you.”
I could hear the tension in Kyle’s voice. I didn’t know if it was because he was concerned for me, or if he was annoyed that his family was butting in. Or maybe he was afraid I wouldn’t live up to expectations.
I hoped it wasn’t that last one.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind the company.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I just…I wish you could be here.”
Kyle didn’t answer right away. He sighed. “I have to work. But I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ll be there when I can.”
He disconnected the call. It felt final in a weird sort of way. I found myself wondering what I’d done to upset him. This whole thing…I didn’t know enough about him to keep from upsetting him. And that was incredibly frustrating. Maybe his stepmother and half-sister could give me a little more insight.
I went upstairs and changed into a pair of jeans and a clean blouse. I was combing my hair when they rang the buzzer downstairs. I had to push a button on the security system to allow the elevator to bring them up from the garage, so I had a few seconds to stand there and allow the tension of this first meeting grow.
The doors slid open and a middle-aged woman with dark hair and blue eyes approached me, her hands outstretched.
“Amelia, I’m Cassidy, Brian’s wife.”
She pulled me in and gave me a hug. I was a little surprised that she would greet me so familiarly, but it was kind of nice. Then she turned and introduced me to her daughter—her flaming red hair so like Brian’s that it surprised me a little.
“This is Brianna.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” the girl said quite openly, her smile warm and welcoming.
“You, too.”
I led the way into the loft, gesturing for them to have a seat on the couch. We sat across from each other and stared at each other for a long moment. Neither of us really knew what to say.
“Kyle told us you’re from Oregon,” Brianna finally said. “What part?”
“Ashland.”
She smiled. “That’s a beautiful part of the state. I used to go up there with friends to camp for the weekend.”
I dragged my fingers through my hair as I nodded. “Yeah. It’s great there. Have you ever attended one of the art festivals?”
“Once. It was pretty crazy.”
I smiled. “That’s the world I grew up in. My mom took me to those festivals every year.”
“Was your mom an artist?”
“No. She was never that
creative. But she did like the atmosphere.”
“Bohemian.”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
Cassidy watched us talk, a small smile on her lips. “You said was. Has your mother passed?”
“No. As far as I know, she’s still around somewhere.”
Cassidy and Brianna exchanged a glance.
I slid to the edge of the couch. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“We’re fine,” Cassidy said.
Another few awkward moments passed. I found myself studying Cassidy. It was kind of strange how much she resembled my mom, especially how my mom looked six years ago. They both had dark hair, both had blue eyes. Both were about the same age, fit and healthy, women who clearly took pride in their personal appearance. I wondered if that was why…
“You worked in Vegas?”
“I did,” I said, answering Cassidy’s question. “I was a cocktail waitress.”
Brianna’s eyes widened a little. “That must have been an interesting job. Imagine the people you met there.”
“They always kept things interesting.”
“Is that where you met Kyle?”
“Yes. He was playing blackjack.”
Again Cassidy and Brianna exchanged glances. This time it wasn’t just interest, but something a little darker.
“What?”
Cassidy clasped her hands. “Kyle told Brian he’d stopped gambling.”
“He’s not good at it,” I said, remembering how much he lost the night I met him. “But he always pays his debts.”
“Oh, Kyle is a good man. An honorable man. But he has his vices just like anyone else.”
That brought to mind the way he looked at me when he held me in his arms, the way his hands felt on my skin. He certainly had his vices, and he was teaching me a thing or two about them.
I felt the blush move over my cheeks and hated my body for betraying me. I was just grateful Kyle wasn’t here to see me blow this first meeting with his family.
“How long have you and Mr. Callahan been married?”
Cassidy touched the wedding rings on her finger. “Just over a year. But we knew each other long ago, when he was still married to his first wife.”
“It’s really a sweet story, except for Abigail,” Brianna said. “Brian was separated from his wife and Mom was a college student. They had this torrid affair—”
“I wouldn’t call it torrid.”
“I would.” Brianna giggled. “It was exciting, from the way you tell it.”
“It was,” Cassidy agreed, a sort of dreamy look coming over her face.
“Then, a while back, Mom came back to town and ran into Brian. He offered her a job and one thing led to another and they got married.”
“That is impressive,” I said. “The two of you, you were still in love even after all those years?”
“We were. He swears that he never forgot about me…and I know I never forgot about him.”
Romantic. I wondered how often love stories were really like that. It seemed to me, no one really believed in love anymore.
Again an awkward silence fell. Then Cassidy suddenly stood and came to perch on the couch beside me.
“It’s hard fitting into a new family, isn’t it? I know that when Brian and I got married, it was an uphill battle to win the trust of his children. Stacy didn’t want to have anything to do with me. And now you…you and Kyle got married so suddenly, it must seem like you’re still trying to get to know him and now we’re here to judge you.”
That was exactly how it felt. Tears filled my eyes.
Cassidy touched my shoulder. “We’re not judging you. We just want to get to know you.”
I nodded.
“Kyle’s a good man. He’s been through a lot…Brian told me stories about his childhood that would give anyone nightmares. The woman who was his biological mother was cruel. An alcoholic, but an intelligent woman. A college literature professor.”
That surprised me a bit. I knew the woman had been cruel—and an alcoholic—but I didn’t know she was a college professor. My informant had simply told me she beat Kyle on a regular basis until she drank herself to death and left him to fend for himself.
When you hear stories like that, you automatically assume the woman was unintelligent. A poor woman who couldn’t get a break. You don’t think of well-educated women who have the means to give themselves and their children a good life.
“He talks about Abigail like she was a saint.”
“She was a saint. She brought children home like some people bring home cats and dogs. Brian told me that there were long stretches when he would come home to find new children in his home once or twice a week. Most of the time it was a temporary solution, but several times it was more permanent. She fell in love with the kids she helped through her work—and that’s what made her such a good social worker.”
“She saved Kyle’s life.”
“She did. He was on his own for too long after his mother’s death. And then he was shuttled from foster home to foster home for more than two years when the state finally became aware of his situation and rescued him from it. But, sometimes, foster homes aren’t a rescue. There are some great foster parents out there, but there are also some where the child is worse off than he was at home.”
She was talking about a world that was far from my realm of understanding. I grew up in a world of privilege. But going through this mess with my dad and meeting Kyle, I was beginning to see that the world wasn’t all sweet-smelling roses.
“Our childhoods make us who we are as adults. Kyle and Ian and Kevin and Stacy could have let their bad childhoods turn them into bitter adults, but they didn’t. Abigail made sure of that. She made them feel loved and gave them a sense of self-worth. She helped them overcome their past.”
“I’m glad Kyle had someone like that,” I said most honestly.
Cassidy took my hand. “And now he has you.”
“I don’t know if I can live up to such a legacy.”
Cassidy smiled. “I thought the same thing. But they don’t need us to be Abigail. They just need us to love them.”
The awkwardness just suddenly melted away. We opened a bottle of wine and had a nice talk after that, about everything from being a part of the Callahan family to the best places to shop in Boston. It was nice. For the second time in two days, I felt almost like I had before my life imploded, before my dad lost everything. I felt like a happy newlywed gossiping with her new in-laws.
A big part of me wished that was really all this was.
Chapter 13
Kyle
I stood at the back of the warehouse, a gun in my hand as I waited for the trucks to arrive. This was probably the most dangerous part of my job. Following Jack around was probably the safest because no one was crazy enough to attack him while he was surrounded by his people. But this required me to be alone, to be in an incriminating location, to be vulnerable.
I didn’t like it.
I wondered how things were going with Amelia. I knew that Cassidy and Brianna could be overwhelming when they were together, but I was pretty sure Amelia could handle it. But, again, how much did I really know about her? We’d been married all of forty-eight hours. We’d known each other just a little more than forty-eight hours.
But I could always get a sense about people, and my sense told me that Amelia could hold her own with just about anyone.
I had a fucking headache. I reached up and brushed my hand against my forehead. It’d been plaguing me since the morning I woke up with Amelia in my bed, but it hadn’t been that bad until now. Because I was alone and could focus on it now, I supposed. I should have asked Ian for some aspirin. He always seemed to have some handy.
A horn honked somewhere on the other side of the building. That was the signal that the trucks had arrived.
I pushed the button that opened the towering doors behind me and watched as they came around the corner. The driver of the first truck lifted a hand to me
, waving through the windshield. And then all hell broke out.
A shot rang down from the roof of the building across the alley. Then another. I ducked down and ran to the truck, yanking open the driver’s side door and pushing the driver out of the way as I slammed my foot into the accelerator. We had to get these trucks out of the open.
“Thanks, man,” the driver said as I parked the truck in the center of the warehouse and climbed out to check on the two others that should have followed us in. One was roaring to a stop beside the first, but there was no sign of the third.
I ran back to the doors just in time to see a group of Italians swarm the third truck.
I fired and one of the Italians fell. But the others spotted me and fired back. I managed to move around to the side of the truck as bullets followed me. I got a few more shots off, but there were too many of them.
And then another vehicle burst into the alley. Pops and Killian.
They fired through the windows of the car, rushing the truck. I managed to jump back just as they slammed into the side of the truck, taking out three of the Italians even as they pushed the truck sideways by a good five or six feet. I climbed into the cab of the truck, pulled the driver—who appeared to have taken a bullet to the head—out of the way and drove quickly into the garage, dragging Pops’ car behind me a few feet before the screech of metal indicated that we’d separated.
The trucks secured, I ran back outside, closing the massive doors behind me. Pops and Killian were under fire, but Ian had come around the other side of the warehouse, so we pretty much had the Italians on the run.
Adrenaline was rushing through my body as I realized I was out of bullets with the click of my gun as I fired repeatedly at the back of the last Italian.
“What the hell?” Ian said breathlessly as he joined me by the garage doors. “What was that all about?”
“They wanted the guns.”
“They weren’t trying so hard to get the guns. It’s more like they wanted to create a distraction.”
“Why would they do that?”
Ian shrugged.
Pops and Killian joined us, studying the mess of the front end of the Chevy they’d just been sitting in.
KYLE: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 4) Page 9