Page 62 of Skin Deep

“Nonno,” I said.

“Is that what she called him? His name is Pasquale Ranieri. Mari took it hard. She got really close to him while she was there.”

“How am I just finding this out?”

Owen shrugged. “Don’t know, bro. You’ve been…out of it, if it doesn’t pertain to Cash Kelly and everything that’s been going on.”

“You ask me,” Declan said. “You’ve been using avoidance as a tactic.Ladies.” He nodded to a group of women wearing cowgirl hats as they skirted around our table.

“That’s why nobody asked you,” Lachlan said, shaking his head.

“Hey,” Declan said, nodding toward a woman walking up to the bar. She was dressed in scrubs. Seemed like she was picking up a to-go order. “Isn’t that Clara Bow Mulligan? Or— shit. She’s married now. Can’t remember her last time. You still talk to Eddie?”

Clara Bow Mulligan was the little sister of Eddie Mulligan, one of Lachlan’s many friends. Everyone in school used to call her Clara Bow, because they said she was put together like a nice little package. Her clothes were always neat and tidy. And she was always helping everyone. She was a nurse, and I thought it was fitting for someone like her.

Lach shrugged, watching her laugh with the bartender. “Some. He’s in jail.”

“She had it bad for you,” Declan said, “but I used to like her.”

“You lost your chance,” Owen said. “She’s married with a kid. Just a few months old, I think, is what mam told me.”

“She married Mikey Doyle,” Lach said.

“Why’d she marry him?” Declan said.

“He’s a real asshole,” Owen said.

We all seemed to be staring at her. She must have felt it because she turned her face. Her eyes narrowed and then relaxed. She gave a wave. Declan waved back. She took her food and left.

“Who’s going up next?” Lach nodded toward the stage.

“You,” Owen said. “You go up next. It’s your birthday.”

They started arguing about who was going to sing. All I could think about was the old man who’d asked me a question that seemed to change my life.

“If you had a week to live, what would you do with it?”

It was a cliché question, like,if your place caught on fire, what would you take first?But it had put my life into perspective. Maybe not when I was sitting there with him, but after my time with Georgina.

His granddaughter. Something she failed to tell me.

What else had she failed to tell me? I even wondered sometimes about what she told me that night, about us being protected. If I hadn’t wanted to take the chance, I wouldn’t have, but she wasn’t honest with me about much from the start. Though, as odd as it made the situation, she had been honest with me about who she was—when she introduced me to the real person behind the mirror. The woman who loved sunflower fields, chocolate, dogs, and cooking with an older couple. She loved exploring and learning. And that smile?

I lifted in my seat and removed my wallet. I handed the crinkled piece of paper with Pasquale Ranieri’s handwriting on it to Owen.

“Can you translate that?”

“Not without an app,” he said. “But there’s an app for everything. Give me a sec.”

Lachlan started to move toward the stage as Cash Kelly made it to our table. He looked at us, looked at Lach, then took a seat.

“I’m not singin’,” he said, then looked at the waitress. “Whiskey, darlin’.”

“Finally,” Declan said. “We’ve been waiting for you to eat.” He looked at the waitress. “Can you bring the menus now?”

I wasn’t sure why, but Kelly’s face changed after Declan had said that.We’ve been waiting for you to eat.Keely had told me he had this thing about eating dinner with her every night. As much as we put space between us and Kelly, because of his business, he was starting to grow into our family dynamics somehow. And even with business, lines had blurred.

“Sure,” the waitress said. She smiled at me and left.

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