Maeve snorted. “Socially inept and kind of an asshole? Yeah, checks out.”
“I don’t think you deserve that anymore.” He reached between their Adirondack chairs, but she snatched her bowl away with a little shriek.
“No ice cream takebacks, Kier!” She hugged it to her chest and stuck her tongue out. Drawn by the commotion, Saoirse skipped over to claim a mouthful of chocolate-syrup-laden French vanilla before returning to her very serious task of catching runaway bubbles.
Kieran chuckled and settled back into his seat. “Danny’s not Shauna, though. Every conversation is a fight with him. Most of the time I can ignore it, but…” But today Danny’s words had snagged like thorns, cutting deep. “You were always better with Danny. You sure you don’t want to trade? You take Danny, and I take Saoirse?”
Maeve eyed him. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you saw the disaster Saoirse left in the living room before we came over.”
“Can’t be worse than the disaster Danny leaves in the bathroom every day.”
“I can imagine.” Maeve swirled her spoon around her bowl and readied it for Saoirse’s next flyby. “Danny doesn’t remember much before losing Mom. He doesn’t remember a whole lot of being a kid. I don’t think any of us really do.” She beckonedSaoirse over for her next bite and sent her off again. “I was still at home when you left. I think, on some intrinsic level, he knows I’ll always be around. But he remembers Dad leaving and losing Mom. And you not being there.”
Danny’s accusing words in the park burrowed deeper in his skin. “Picking a fight with Dad was stupid, I know.” He’d thought at the time getting kicked out was the best thing to ever happen, but he’d never been more wrong. He’d left his siblings without their protector. Maeve still had two more years of high school to finish. Shauna was getting into fights in middle school. Danny was just a little kid back then. He’d had no idea what would come in the years to follow. How quickly everything fell apart without him MacGyvering all the pieces together.
Maeve sighed. “The fight was a long time coming, but we survived.”
Most of us.
“Danny needs you, Kier. He doesn’t have Neal like you did. He has you.”
He slumped into his seat. Neal had been a great role model. A family man. Good with his kids. Hard when he needed to be and understanding when he wasn’t. He’d built his business from the ground up, something few could dream of doing in Kieran’s own generation.
Noticing his silence, Maeve set her bowl of ice cream in the grass and turned her full attention toward him. “What happened today?”
He told her about the events leading to their fight at the overlook and the fallout. Danny’s surprise overnight visitor, the volatile silence in the Jeep on the way to pick up Lily, the way Danny warmed to Lily but still sniped at him and the rush of fear when Danny almost got hurt, followed quickly byhis frustration. The way he’d talked down to Danny. Shamed him for fooling around.
He was a kid. Danny was just a fucking kid.
Maeve’s deep blue eyes softened. “You’re not like him, you know.”
But that’s where he’d learned it all from, right? The clenched fists and jaw. The name-calling. The blaming. Brennan abused Kieran and his siblings until the day he left and never returned. “I almost was. I was so pissed, Maeve. If Lily hadn’t been there—”
“If Lily hadn’t been there, neither of you would have been there.” Maeve’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not blaming her for any of this. I’m just, you know, worried. You don’t usually bring women around Danny.”
Kieran puffed out a breath. “It’s a work thing, Maeve.”
She snorted. “Is that what you call it? Damn. I should’ve been paid overtime with Kyle.”
Her worthless ex could drive into a ditch for all he cared. “The only good thing to come out of that was Saoirse.”
Maeve leaned back in her chair and turned her face toward her daughter. The little girl was now plucking late-season dandelions and smooshing the yellow petals between her fingers. “Yeah, she was worth it.” Maeve propped her elbow on the armrest and leaned her chin into her palm. “So, when am I going to see Lily again?”
Kieran rolled his eyes. The last thing he needed right now was Maeve digging around in his personal life. It was bad enough she’d been there for most of it. “You won’t. We have some personal rules to keep it casual. No strings.”
Maeve stood from her seat, grabbed her bowl and arched a brow. “When have rules ever stopped you, Kier?”
They hadn’t. He and Lily had already broken one by talking about their pasts. How many more were well on their way to being shattered beyond repair?
ChapterThirteen
Not even a long shower under hot spray could wash away the tension from the day. Lily sighed and wiped a path in the steam on her mirror. Her tired, blurry reflection stared back. The cool touch of the sink against her palms bled into her skin and up her arms, grounding her.
Trauma.The Sullivans had trauma and lots of it.
The State. Their father. Kieran’s anger and sacrifices. Danny’s pain and resentment. It was all becoming clearer, but what she knew of his past was still just as foggy as her mirror.
Her past, on the other hand… Lily flicked off the bathroom light and padded into the main room of her apartment. She put on a pair of cheekies and a tank top and crawled into bed. Morning would come all too soon, especially after a full day of hiking. She should have been exhausted. Instead, her mind sprinted at a hundred miles a minute.
