Page 110 of Skin Deep

Chapter35

Harrison

Aday or two later, Kelly’s kitchen was filled with cigar smoke, and it smelled like a pub. We sat around the table, having a poker game. Georgina and my sister decided to go upstairs—they said we accused each other of cheating too much.

My wife hadn’t heard the news about Miles yet, but she was moving back toward the sun. She’d still have her dark days, but he wouldn’t be the one to cause them. Not anymore. Right or wrong, that sat right in my soul. It freed a weight that I’d been carrying around for her.

“It’ll be fuckin’grand!” Owen said, copying Kelly’s accent to a T. “Just take that card from your sleeve, you cheatin’ bastard!”

Lachlan flung some chips at him, and Kelly messed his hair. It was such a natural thing for a brother to do to another. He didn’t even realize he’d done it. No one noticed but me. I spent a lot of time with Kelly. For the first couple of months, he had me almost shadowing him. With that one move, I could tell he was comfortable around us. He considered us family.

About an hour later, Kelly got a phone call. He barely said a word. He hung up, stood, stretched, and then headed upstairs. He came back a few minutes later with a grin on his face. He bypassed us and went for the door.

“Need some company?” I asked him.

“Nah,” he said. “This won’t take but a lil’ while. Need to be speakin’ with Martin.”

“You sure?” Declan said. “I think we need more beer. We can grab some on the way back.”

“Ask your sister,” Kelly said. “She’s always pulling things out of her magic bag of tricks.”

Declan started laughing.

Before Kelly even got that far out the door, footsteps pounded against the stairs. A second later, Kee came sliding into the kitchen. She had to catch herself on the doorway so she wouldn’t go down.

“Where’s Cash?” she asked us, almost breathless.

I pointed behind me. “Just walked out.”

She hustled to the door. My sister wasn’t the clingy type. I stared at Lachlan until he looked me in the eye. He shrugged, but I could tell it was creeping him out too, her reaction to him leaving.

A few minutes had gone by when she came back in the kitchen, clinging to the pendant around her neck. Something her husband had given her. She was pacing, like she’d had too much caffeine. But I knew it was something else. She was anxious.

An hour passed, and she was only growing more uneasy.

“Keely,” Lachlan said to her, laying a card face down. “You’re going to wear a hole in the floor. Go to sleep.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she snapped.

I came close to taking her by the shoulders and making her take a seat. She was making me fucking anxious. But I knew better than to mess with her. Her skin had red patches, and her mood was somewhere between wanting to hurt someone and crying—both out of worry.

“Keely Kelly,” Owen said. “You out of beer in this New York mansion?”

“Are you gonna play or complain all night?” Declan said.

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. I could tell her indecision was slowly ebbing, and she was close to making a decision. Her feet seemed to have a mind of their own, and they were pointed in the direction of her husband. A second later, she swiped her key from the table by the front door and set her hand on the knob.

“I’m going out for a bit,” she said.

I stood. “I’ll go with you. We need more beer.” I refused to see my sister go out alone. Lachlan and Declan would probably start an argument with her. Owen just wouldn’t go.

“No,” she said as she opened the door. “I’ll—” It almost seemed like she took a deep breath and released it when her eyes fastened on something in the distance.

I walked over to the door, standing behind her, looking out. Cash Kelly was walking down the street. His face was unusually hard. He usually had a certain languid swagger when he walked, but he was almost pounding the pavement.

“I wonder who told him you were in love with Stone and then stole his whiskey?” I said. Stone was my sister’s ex-boyfriend, and he had a long and complicated history with Kelly. It was what had brought us to this point in their story.

She looked at me over her shoulder, like she was glad someone was thinking the same thing. My eyes narrowed. A shape had come together and formed behind him. It was short and soft.

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