Page 94 of Alfie: Part Two

“Fuck,” Alfie whispered. “How important can this damn meeting be?”

Perhaps not very important to him, but I had a feeling it would involve me quite a bit. Shan had called me last night to say we needed to meet up this morning to discuss the “message” the Sons were sending Philly’s underworld.

Every time they sent a message, news media became like rabid dogs for a week or two, depending on the magnitude.

“I’m gonna take a shower.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Care to join me?”

He actually whined. “Don’t make me choose.”

I chuckled silently. The decision had been made. We could circle back to sex later, maybe tonight.

I disentangled myself from Alfie, knowing I’d have to wake him up once I came out of the bathroom again.

An hour or so later, we were guzzling coffee in the car as I drove us toward Finn’s business by the docks.

Alfie yawned.

I took another sip of my coffee. “Should I get a new car?”

He knitted his brows together. “I don’t think there are anyshouldswhen you drive a Mercedes that’s less than a year old.”

Maybe not, but it could be fun. Alfie was always going to drive an SUV, which was great for family road trips, but I preferred sedans.

“Do you wanna talk about your mother?” he asked.

“What’s there to talk about?” I was coming to terms with the fact that I’d done my grumbling about it. We’d had a slow breakup of sorts, and I’d spent weeks unsure of how to feel as well as how to move forward. And yesterday had brought me closure.

“I dunno.” Alfie shrugged. “So, Shan must’ve been there when she stopped by, right?”

Technically. Kind of, toward the end.

“Yeah. She’s not a fan.”

He laughed through his nose. “I woulda loved to see that.”

I checked the rearview before I switched lanes, and I passed a few cars.

Hopefully, Shan had time to meet up soon. I really did need to check those listings in Killarney, where the O’Sheas originally came from. And where the entire inner circle gathered every Christmas.

“By the way, I gotta stop by the old house today,” Alfie said. “I ain’t installing a fuckin’ lockbox, so I gotta let the cleaning service in.”

Right, that was scheduled at one, I was fairly sure. Fuck, I had forgotten about that.

“So we’ll do lunch after, and then we can pick up the children,” I replied. “We have some catalogues to look through for the contractor. They’re in the trunk.”

I wanted us to move in to our new house as soon as possible, so it’d be nice if we could have every decision settled by February. One wall needed to come down, we wanted a new kitchen, new bathrooms too, and we had to decide on wallpaper.

“Let’s eat at the pub, then,” he suggested. “It’s never crowded for lunch.”

Perfect.

We could discuss Colby at lunch too. Alfie had admitted he’d basically coerced the boy into showing him the video of Giulia, so he wanted to make it up to him.

On that note, I wanted to talk to Alfie about the living arrangements at the new house too. I understood a teenager like Colby might prefer the guest apartment above the garage, but it felt like he’d be on the outskirts of our family in that case.

That was the opposite of what I wanted. He should have a room on the second floor just like Ellie and Trip. Besides, teenagers were supposed to suffer and have very little to no privacy.

We arrived at Finn’s office a while later, and I climbed out of the car and buttoned my suit jacket. Then my coat too. I wasn’t a fan of it, but since my favorite coat hadn’t survived half an hour at the safehouse, I’d had to dig out an older one.

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