Blackness Takes Over & Blackness Awaits (9 page)

“Fuck,” I hear Finn moan. “How do you three still live with her and keep your wits about you? I have a fuckin’ semi here.” I’m so listening in on this conversation.

“Dude that’s fucked up,” Cally chides his brother. “Kid’s our sister. Yeah she’s blazin
’
 hot and is constantly refilling my spank bank but that’s for private, not when she’s in the damn room.” That logic is baffling. I hear Sully and Kavy snicker at the brothers.

“It was one thing when she was seventeen, in undergrad and we were all so fucked up over that night. But have you looked at her in, I don’t know, the last nine of the thirteen years she’s been with us? She just keeps gettin’ better! Have any of you dicks ever found anyone that can compare to her?” Finn is serious. I start to feel like I’m intruding here, but they’re talking about me so it’s okay, right? There’s no response to his question, just quiet. I start to think they left when I hear Sully.

“Finn, look. We all know she’s God’s gift. Whoever gets to spend his life with her is gonna have to be some kind of fuckin’ saint to try and keep up with her. Are you sayin’ you want that job? You wanna cross that line with Kid?” My jaw is lying in my lap.

“I didn’t say that, O’Sullivan. But just imagine her walkin
’
 down the aisle with some dude we don’t know, tellin
’
 you three to move out of her house, fillin
’
 this house with his babies, holidays with her new family here. No more Chicago family with us.” I can feel a lump in my throat.

“Thanks for that future therapy bill, Finn,” Kavy snarks. “Kid would never do half the shit you just said. We’re her family. She wouldn’t just stop a life with us to start one with someone else.”

“You think her husband is gonna let your sorry ass sneak into bed with them at night,
Kavanagh?” Finn is trying to make his point but he’s getting agitated.

“If you knew Kid like we do, you’d know she doesn’t want to get married,” Kavy says pointedly. “She wants kids and says she’ll start adopting when she’s ready to pull back from the practice. I’m sure as shit not gettin’ married and I don’t think your brother, who can’t make it past three dates, is goin’ anywhere toward an altar. If O’Sullivan gets married he’ll be divorced in a week after he fucks the bridal party. So we’ll live here with her forever and raise her kids with her. I’d be lucky to live that life, Finn. So don’t knock it down like some trashy life she’s settling for.” I hear footsteps and a door slam. If I cried, I’d be sobbing like a baby right now.

“You two know what I’m gettin’ at, don’t you? What Kav said is a nice dream but you know it’s not reality,” Finn pleads with Sully and Cally. No one answers him and I hear them all walk off.

Holy shit that was intense. I get in the shower that’s been steaming up my bathroom for the last ten minutes. As I soak under the rain shower-head, I think back on the conversation I just heard. Kavy was right. I don’t want to get married. I have never been the girl to fantasize about the white dress and the perfect man. When I was in first grade we were asked to draw a picture of ourselves as grownups. All the girls drew pictures of themselves, a husband and kids. Some of the boys drew the same thing as the girls; others drew themselves as firemen and doctors. I drew myself bigger (grownup) and alone. This freaked my teacher out and she sent me to the counselor’s office. They called my mother who assured them that I must not have understood the assignment (bitch). I haven’t changed much since then. I don’t want a husband, but I do want kids now. With my work in foster care and adoption I’ve come to be incredibly passionate about children, and would love to adopt or foster in a few years. Getting pregnant on my own…not so much.

What the fuck was with Finn? I’ve known him for thirteen years and it’s never been anything but platonic with us. I woke up on our couch while some chick was going down on him in our townhouse during undergrad. I lived with him for three years, one of which he was in a serious relationship. Maybe the chicken I fed them at lunch was rotten because Kavy and Finn are both acting like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
. I decide to shake it off and get out of the shower.

I’m dressed in a cowl neck royal purple sweater with a wide tan leather belt around my slim waist. My tits look huge (are huge). I have on my favorite dark wash True Religion super skinny jeans that are like a second skin. My go-to, leather 3-inch heeled boots will finish it off perfectly. I’m bent over diffusing my hair when I see a pair of grey socked feet come into view. I turn off my blow-dryer and flip my head up to see who those feet belong to. Kavy.

“Did you listen to everything earlier?” Kavy smirks at me. I smile coyly in return. These men are my family but we all have separate different relationships. Kavy knows my brain better than the others. I think that’s why he and I used to fight so much. I could play shit off with the other guys that I couldn’t with Kavy…still can’t.

“You know I did. Why?” I flip my head down and return to diffusing. Kavy sits down on the edge of the tub and watches me while I do my hair. I can’t see his face but I know he’s thinking. This should be fun.

Once I’m done, I flip my hair back up, fluffing and smoothing it with my fingers and a little product. It’s a good hair day in the Kelly house. I look at Kavy through his reflection in the mirror and start on my makeup.

“If I knew I was gonna have an audience today I woulda put on a leotard and got out my baton!” I shimmy in the mirror and grin at Kavy. The corner of his mouth rises with a slight snort.

“Finn was outta line earlier, Kid. I don’t know what’s gotten into him but I’ll sort him out. Don’t sweat it okay?”

“I’m not.” I’m not.

“You’re not?! Why the fuck not? I’m sweatin’ it! Are you sure you heard all the shit he said?” He’s freaked out. I smile at him in the mirror and put down my mascara. Face done. I turn and lean my butt against the Carrera marble vanity, crossing my ankles, my hands supporting me grasping the edge.

“You’re all men. You guys have all gone through phases where you looked at me like I was what you wanted. I swear the first year at Stanford on Halloween I thought I was gonna have to tranq Cally. Sully actually drooled at me our first summer here. I mean, I saw him wipe his damn mouth with his sleeve after I got outta the pool. Kavy, two years ago you eye fucked me for half an hour at our Christmas party.” I arch my brow at him waiting for what he could come back with.

“You’re fucking hot, Kid. Those things are gonna happen. We’re men and have moments but that’s all it is. We’re not ever gonna jeopardize our relationships with you over it…none of us would ever cross that line. But thirteen years later and I swear you look better today than you did at seventeen. No bullshit.”

Bullshit!

“What Finn said earlier was beyond teenage wet dreams. He was talkin’ future, serious future.” He shakes his head; obviously he can’t make heads, or tails, of Finn.

“Finn needs to get laid, Kavy. A little pussy on his cock and he’ll forget all about his rant earlier. You know he hasn’t laid any pipe in months. He’s backed up, and it’s makin’ him talk crazy. Either that or you all have food poisoning from lunch, because you both have gone off the reservation today.” I bounce myself up off the vanity and cross the bathroom to him. He wraps his giant arms around my waist and mumbles something indiscernible into my stomach.

“What?”

“I fucked up today. I’m sorry,” he sounds like a fourteen-year-old who got caught with a bong in his room.

“All is forgiven, Kavy.” I slap his back a few times and move away from his grip. He follows me into my bedroom and pauses at my door watching me zip my boots up.

“You’re happy right, Kid?” I look up at him inquisitively. He’s intent upon my answer.

“Yeah Kavy. I’m happy,” I beam at him. I am happy.

After Kavy leaves my room I go back into the bathroom, spray a little perfume on and put my diamond stud earrings in. Good to go. I jog down the stairs into the great room to find all my boys still engrossed in college basketball.

“I’m off,” I announce as I hit the bottom stair. Wolf whistles from Sully and Cally erupt. I roll my eyes and head toward the coat closet in the foyer grabbing my winter white pea coat. I walk back into the kitchen toward the garage door and hear footfalls behind me. I stop and look back to find Finn following me.

“Whatcha doin’?” I ask coyly.

“Goin’ with ya. Lead the way.” He throws his arm forward and bows graciously. I pause for a second and think this through. I’m not sure if being alone together is the best choice at this point. However, if I tell him not to go because being alone isn’t a good idea; that could become huge drama that I don’t want. If I let him come with me and he tries to put his lame moves on me; that could turn into huge drama I don’t want. I’m fucked either way here…and not the good kind. What to do?

“Cally?” His head pops up from the couch. “How often do you refill that spank bank of yours?” Sully spits out his beer in a movie worthy spray and Kavy claps his hand over his mouth to avoid the same mishap. Cally’s jaw is on the floor and Finn is just watching me.

Once Cally scoops his jaw back into place, “Daily, hourly sometimes, Kid,” he wiggles his eyebrows at me suggestively. I smile at him and nod. I look back at Finn and my plan has worked. He knows I heard him talking, and that if he wants to talk to me he can, but that’s it. He’s been put in the friend zone, where he belongs. He smiles his panty dropping smile at me.

“Let’s go. I’ll drive,” he snorts.

“Hello Miss Kelly,” Irene, Mia’s nurse coos at me from behind the nurse’s station.

“Hey Irene, how’s our girl doin’?” I ask, as Finn and I move past the station toward Mia’s room.

“She’s the same today as she was yesterday. That infection is all cleared up.”

This is the same news I heard yesterday from Mia’s doctor. I nod and smile, turning to walk into Mia’s room.

I see Mia lying in her bed, and it’s so quiet you could almost mistake her as a girl sleeping. Then you see the IVs, wires, monitors and that dream fades into the reality of Mia being in a coma for the last six years. Mia was my first case when we moved to Kansas City. I was appointed her Guardian ad Litem the day after she was attacked. Mia’s father, Butch, murdered Mia’s mother, Kathy. We believe that Mia witnessed the murder, and Butch then attacked Mia when he noticed her watching. The neighbors called the police who arrived in time to resuscitate Mia, after Butch had beaten her unconscious. Mia’s been in a coma ever since that night. I have visited her every week for the last six years, and I talk to her nurse daily.

Mia’s like me. She only had her mother and her father and now they’re both gone. Even though she’s never spoken a word to me I feel a kindred connection to her. Now that Butch has won a retrial, due to some fuck up with the forensic evidence, I will protect her like she is my own.

“Mia,” I sing song to her from the door, and notice someone in the chair at the end of her bed jump which makes me stiffen, which makes Finn tense. I snap my head to the chair and take two quick steps in the room, Finn hot on my heels.

“Who are you?” I’m stern in my question. Mia has no one and her father was part of some dirty shit out there in the real world. If this motherfucker is trying to do something to my Mia I’m about to be cellmates with her father.

This guy looks at me with a sweet grin and soft eyes. Golden blond hair buzzed at his neck and tapered up to a longer, swept to the side, style that looks like something a surfer would have. His eyes are a dazzling blue, green, gold flecked combination that makes them look teal. Weird but pretty. A straight nose, high cheek bones, and the strongest jaw line I’ve ever laid eyes on, lead to bright white teeth and fat pink lips. Dude could be a model…no way he’s here for Butch. He stands up and sticks his hand out to me, never breaking eye contact. He’s tall, not Cally tall, but close and his body is kickin’. Even covered in a loose sweater hoodie and jeans I can tell. Hot damn Mia, you have a sexy visitor!

“Dylan Kellerman,” he says. His voice is deep and smooth like caramel off the tongue…yum…focus. I arch my brow at him for further explanation. “I was Mia’s neighbor growin’ up. My dad is the one that called the cops that night.”