“Swear.” I held up my hand, my fingers splayed.
“I did.”
A breath left me that I had no control over. “You need to tell her, Harrison. Tell her how you feel. Life’s too short to keep waiting. Fuck timing. We only have this second.”
“What about the detective?” He turned the convo on me. “Are you in love with him?”
I’d been avoiding this conversation with him under the pretense that I was still pissed about him not telling me about his feelings for Mari. It was true, but not the real reason I didn’t want to talk about it. Like he said, that situation was complicated.
“Mam told me that my great love was going to come to me.” I shrugged. “Stone came to me.”
Even under the sunglasses I could tell his eyes narrowed. “Tea leaves? Are you kidding me, Kee? You’re going to let Mam decide your fate with tea leaves?”
“It’s complicated, Harrison.”
“Mam told me to stay away from Mari because of the tea leaves. She was only going to cause chaos in my life and those around me. Her exact words were, ‘a ripple effect from a dark blue stone.’ Should I listen to her?”
I whipped my head around. Mam had never told me that, and neither had Harrison. “What did you say?”
He shrugged. “Nothing to her face, but I chose not to listen to her. Not to believe it. I’ve never felt anything like that around Mari. I’ve only felt—” He looked over at me and then turned his eyes back to the road.
“Love,” I said. “You’ve only felt love around her.”
“Something like that.”
I grinned to myself, because my brother was in loooove. Big time. I only hoped Mari felt the same, or would give him a shot. Though, honestly, it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier if Harrison had fallen for Desiree Gibson. She loved him all throughout high school, and she still asked about him whenever I went to her salon for a trim. Desiree had no ties to our family, and I’d never considered her my sister.
Mari being like a sister complicated things a lot, especially if Mari didn’t feel the same about Harrison.
“What’s your deal with Cash, anyway?” Harrison pulled the car to the curb, parking right in front of a massive warehouse that looked like it had been redone.
“Deal?”
“Yeah. You’ve only met him twice, and you’ve made no secret of your hate for him.”
“Those two meetings were enough to last me two lifetimes. And I only have one.”
Harrison took off his glasses, set them on the dash, and then gave me the weight of his stare. “I don’t buy it.”
“I’m not selling anything.”
“I don’tbuythat you hate him for no reason. He scared you at the cemetery? So what. It’s quiet there until it’s not. There’s something else going on that you’re not telling me. I’m not Roisin, and I’m not trying to be, but we’ve always been close, Kee. You’re hiding something.”
I turned my face toward the window, not wanting him to see my eyes. When I was little and refused to talk, Harrison told me it was okay, that clouds were the words in my mind, and he could make out the shapes in my eyes—because they’re blue—and read my thoughts.
It used to make me feel better, like someone out there could understand me without me having to use words, but I didn’t want him to see the truth this time. Out of all of my siblings, when Roisin was killed, Harrison stepped up and took me under his wing. I didn’t want to lie to him. He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t tell me about Mari, but when I asked, he gave me the truth.
“Is it Mam?” he said. “Did she say something else? The tea leaves?”
“Do you believe in them?”
He became quiet for a minute. “In a way, yes. We were brought up to. But I also believe that what we believe brings credence to what other people say is meant for us. I refuse to believe what she told me about Mari. And if I refuse to believe, it has no power over me.”
“Power over you, huh.” I looked at him and then back at the building. A humungous guy, both arms covered in tattoos, even up to his neck, walked into the building like he owned the place. “Cash Kelly. Does he have power over you?”
My brother sighed. “He’s my boss.”
“Like…you-kiss-his ring kind of boss?”
