Page 3 of Cosmo

Katie, their daughter, was not a normal happy-go-lucky child. She was mellow as could be until she got angry, then her Irish came through and she was a whole different kind of storm.

“No need for that. In fact, let’s go check on them. I hate when I can’t get up with them in the morning.”

Above the pub was where Murphy and his family lived, but also all the men that worked for him. On the east side, the second and third floors were their home, while the guys had rooms and common areas on the west side on those two floors.

It had been renovated from the small corner pub it had been when it was purchased by his grandfather and handed down to Mick, Connor Murphy’s father. The neighboring businesses closed and became available to buy, so he’d put himself into major debt to purchase and renovate the place that took up half a city block.

Moving through the hall to the bedrooms on the top floor, he and Eazy looked in on their five-year-old, Katie, first. Her thick blonde hair was spread out over the pink pillow while her lips were parted to let in and out the shallow breaths she took.

Her light blue eyes were closed, her round cheeks flushed with the warmth of the yellow and pink duvet that covered her. Murphy sometimes couldn’t believe how much he loved her. It was so…big.

Then they sneaked into Little Mick’s room where he lay in his bed, stars and rockets covering his blanket that was balled around his feet, as usual. Murphy covered him, knowing he’d stay that way only an hour, if that.

Little Mick ran hot, always. They thought he’d had a perpetual fever when he was a baby until his doctor figured out that their baby was just hot blooded.

Dark, curled hair like Eazy, and big brown eyes too. He and his sister had the same face, but completely different coloring. “He lost his teddy earlier.”

“Uh oh.”

Eazy laughed. “We found it. He went to bed an hour late though, so he’ll be cranky in the morning.”

“Goody.”

In their room, Murphy held Eazy under their black duvet and kissed his neck. “Training a new guy. The unease of letting him in on the secrets. It’s been a while. I don’t know how ready I am for this.”

“You say that every time, babe. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. I’ll help. The guys will help. Stop stressing.”

“You seem to think a few words from you will take away my worries.”

Turning over to face him, Eazy smiled sweetly, kissing Murphy’s nose. “Yeah. I sure do.”

“You’re a pain in the ass.”

“Youcould be, if you play your cards right.”

“Tease.”

In the morning, around ten, Murphy got out of bed and stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. His home was done in an industrial loft style that he and Eazy just loved.

Eazy had gone into interior decorating and had done the entire building himself. Except the pub, that is. The pub was much the same as their apartment, the old brick walls uncovered and presented as a part of the décor, dark woods and metal light fixtures all around the place.

The employees’ apartments, however, were experiments for Eazy. One common living room was mid-century modern in design, orange, purple and green colors highlighted.

The other was monochrome white furniture and fixtures with green plants and a splash of butter yellow to break up the monochrome with brick and old tongue-and-groove floors.

Each of the guys’ bedrooms were done in different styles too, the color of their nicknames playing center stage. It was fun and the guys all loved it, and it had helped Eazy to put together a beautiful portfolio.

The door that stood between the two halves of the upper floors opened and a familiar voice rang out, “Hey! Everyone decent?”

It was Gold Rush, AKA Thomas Marion, but everyone now called him Goldie. He was a brute of a man, six foot five, muscled, skin as dark as a moonless night and so handsome, half those gay men that flocked to the pub each weekend had given over their numbers to the guy.

He came into the kitchen, smiling, as usual. “Murph, hey. Eazy. Where are those kids?”

“Tally came to take them to run errands so she could get Little Mick new shoes and Katie some art supplies,” Eazy told him,then kissed Goldie’s cheek and handed him a big mug of coffee. “Where are the others?”

“All in bed, mostly. Mims had a hot date last night and didn’t get in until the wee hours.”

Mims was Mimosa, AKA Ali Bajwa, their resident computer expert and the one of them constantly looking for love in all the wrong places.

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