“Connolly O’Connell,” I repeated.
“Her mom was too high to come up with something different for her first name.” He shook his head. “Said it sounded poetic. Like, Connolly, O’ my Connell!, after she’d already finalized the papers. Her parents weren’t bad people. Just ended up being servants to drugs. That came first.”
Her attention to my name—Keely Kelly—made sense. We both shared too many of the same letters in our names.
Not really caring about the heels anymore, I told one of the salesgirls to add a gold pair on to my bill. Then I went and stood in front of Connolly, trying to hide the fact that my heart bled for her.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s time to blow this fancy joint and get something to eat. Maybe we’ll even start with dessert first.” I narrowed my eyes some, moving my head from left to right, like I was trying to read something that wasn’t clear on her face. Then I opened my eyes wide and gasped. “Ah! I see you agree! It’s so clear in the clouds today!”
She didn’t want to smile, but a small grin tugged at her lips.
“Sugar it is!” I held my hand up for a high-five. She placed her hand tentatively against mine and I closed mine over hers, squeezing a bit.
“Lunch it is,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
Why did it thrill me so much?
Cash’s hand slipped over my shoulder, squeezing a bit. I looked at him, all dressed up in his gentlemen’s attire. He reminded me of an old gangster from an earlier time. The man wore the suit, not the other way around.
It wasn’t just his clothes, either.
It was the “I don’t give a fuck who you are or what you’re about” attitude that he carried around like a fine cologne. It lingered in the air around him. Subtle but powerful.
I wondered how many men had moved out of his way because they smelled the carnage on him, and how many women had purposely put themselves in his path because of his hypnotizing charm.
He lifted his hand to the salesgirl. “Box everything up. My man outside will take it home for my wife.”
“Right away, Mr. Kelly,” the salesgirl said. She was good. She’d already memorized the name on the credit card.
“Don't worry, darlin’,” he said, when he caught me watching as the salesgirls looked him over. More than one and more than once. “These eyes belong to you, even though they happen to fit my face.”
“Smart,” I said, reaching for Connolly’s hand. “If you want to keep them there.”
I thought I heard Connolly giggle, but I couldn't be sure over the sound of Raff’s uncontrollable laughter.
16
Keely
Kelly left for wherever he was headed after taking us out to lunch. He was quiet during, watching me with Connolly, and I wondered what he was thinking. I couldn’t read the thoughts moving behind his eyes.
I didn’t have much time to figure it out, though. After we made it back to Kelly’s place, I needed to get ready for the event. As I set everything out, I talked to Connolly like she was answering back, hoping that I answered her thoughts. Or got close.
Maureen came to pick her up before I took a shower. The woman looked exhausted, and I understood why. She’d lost her son, the mother of her grandchildren, and now she had two small children to look after. One of the children, an innocent baby, was fighting for his life. When Maureen noticed the look on my face, she nodded, and I nodded back.
No other words were needed. One look sealed our understanding.
Before we’d made it to Kelly’s place, we’d stopped and bought Connolly some new clothes and shoes. Hers weren’t threadbare, but they weren’t the current style either. They’d seen better days. She didn’t pick anything out, but I saw her eyeing a few things and just got them.
I told Maureen that I’d bring them out to her car, but she shook her head and said, “Save them for when she comes here. You do plan on spending time with her?” The look she sent me went straight to my bones, because Connolly echoed it.
Maureen was testing me. So was Connolly. Plans in her world were probably constantly broken, like a painful snap of the bone time and time again, until she was paralyzed and couldn’t speak from the hurt.
“Whenever she wants.” I winked at her. “I’ll put CeeCee’s new things in her room—she can have it for whenever she comes over.” I’d put her things in the room Kelly assigned to me, since I was going to share his space.
“CeeCee?” Connolly’s voice was low and scratchy, maybe from not using it often.
“Your initials.” I paused. “Well, sort of. If you take the ‘O’ from Connell.” Then I went in a different direction. “Sometimes my best friend calls me Kee Kee. That’s sort of like CeeCee, too.”
