Page 101 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
“By the way, Tim,” Robbie said, catching Billie’s eye. “Where’s your girlfriend?”
He jerked on the collar of his shirt as if someone were pulling it. “Do I look like I’m ready for you guys to make my life hell? No way I’m messing up what we’ve got going on with a family meet-up.”
Robbie wondered how serious things were between this nurse and his brother. He shot Billie another look. His brother nodded. Yeah, they were going to find out. Even if they had to drop by Tim’s retirement home on some pretext and meet this mysterious woman themselves.
“So, Lily,” Billie said, putting his arm around her shoulders, “I hear you got your promotion. Way to go.”
She turned absolutely radiant, making his brain short-circuit for a moment. “I hope to be starting in a few weeks now that we’ve arrested Branigan Kelly and a number of his associates.”
“Congrats!” Tim held up his hand for a high five.
Reagan raised hers immediately after he and Lily connected. “Me too! Congrats, Lily!”
“Thanks!” Her smile lit up his heart. “I can’t wait to get started.”
“Mom says you rock at catching bad guys and people who make mistakes.” Reagan slid out of his arms and turned to her. “Like our dad.”
Robbie’s throat caught. Tara had asked him and Lily what their professional opinion was about telling the girls that their father had been arrested and was likely going to jail. Sure, Scotty Flanagan had confessed, but he hadn’t known enough about the Kellys’ operation to receive immunity. Lily had suggested she tell them their father had made a mistake involving the law, and unfortunately, he was going to be facing the consequences.
Cassidy hadn’t really understood, but Reagan had nodded slowly and said she knew he’d made her mom really mad, so mad she’d told him he couldn’t live with them anymore or work at the nail salon, so it had to be bad. For the moment, the reasoning seemed to be working, but Robbie knew she’d have more questions as she got older. Whatever came, he’d promised Tara they would be there to help her answer them. Lily’s background with children was going to be a big help, thank God.
Lily leaned down until she was at Reagan’s eye level. “So does Robbie here, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Sometimes people who make mistakes cause a lot of trouble.”
Reagan looked down at her shoes. “That’s why I’m glad you and Robbie do what you do. Mom said you guys are heroes, but until I met you and Miss Morales, I didn’t know girls could be that kind of hero.”
Lily glanced up at Robbie and winked. “Well, there are only a few of us in the big picture, but we give it everything we’ve got.”
“That’s what Miss Morales told me,” Reagan said, swinging in place. “I’m glad you guys invited her to the party. She’s so funny. Did you know she arrested a man who was riding a green sheep on St. Patrick’s Day? She even showed us a photo. Mom said I should do a report on you guys for school. I’m totally telling that story about the sheep.”
“That would be great!” Lily straightened Reagan’s headband when it slipped in her excitement. “You should talk to my mentor too when she comes to Boston next week! She’s a total rock star when it comes to catching bad guys. She’s got some great stories too.”
Then Lily plunged into singing the praises of women in law enforcement. Robbie caught Billie looking over with his brow furrowed as he watched Sheila talking with Danny while he manned the bar. God knew what those two were cooking up. But from the tension in Billie’s face, did he think Danny was hitting on Sheila? If he did, he was an idiot, but jealousy did that to a man. He hoped his brother would wise up and ask her out.
Robbie flinched as a woman’s nail poked into his side. He grabbed his cousin’s hand as she laughed. “Come on, Tara! You know I hate that.”
She bumped him playfully, holding a grinning Cassidy on her hip, whose drool quotient for the day had been met and then some. “It’s all in good fun. Reagan, remember that question you were going to ask Billie?”
Robbie sensed danger in the air immediately. He shot Tara a warning glance.
Reagan nodded and gave a hesitant smile. “Do you miss Miss Morales being your girlfriend?”
Tim coughed loudly into his mouth.
“Blesh you,” Cassidy called.
Lily bit her lip and nudged Robbie. Like he didn’t know what was going on. He found he didn’t mind much—nudging him in moments like this was what a good partner did. In case he was comatose or something. He cleared his throat when Billie remained silent.
A reproachful eye roll was their answer before Billie bent down to Reagan’s level. “Didn’t your mom tell you that Lily and Miss Morales were working for their job? You know what it means to pretend, right?”
She glanced at her mother before nodding slowly. “But Lily wasn’t pretending.”
The veins on the top of Billie’s head were suddenly visible, and Robbie winced. This was so not good.
“Lily and Robbie had that soul thing going.” He snapped his fingers. “Come on, Shakespeare. This is your area. Love and romance.”
“Actually,” Tim said. “Since Lily and Robbie are going to have their happily ever after, we’ve agreed that the standard Shakespearean tragedy doesn’t really apply to them. We might even say they have a very un-Shakespeare romance. Right, Robbie?”
He thought about all the tragedy that could have happened if things hadn’t gone their way. Sometimes he still had bad dreams about it, including that one with Shakespeare’s head rolling around on the ground. He shuddered. “That’s right. Lily and I have officially laid the whole Shakespeare thing to rest. Haven’t we, babe?”
