“Well it’ll be our little secret,” Mack tells him. “Don’t forget I have plenty of dirt on you.”
“Don’t you ever get sick of that?” I ask. “Having these guys around all the time?”
“Nah.” Mack glances back at Conor and smiles. “It was kind of annoying at first. But I like it now. An extra pair of hands and eyes is pure gold when you have a baby.”
We sit down at Dunkies and eat our donuts while Conor texts on his phone.
“He’s got a girlfriend,” Mack whispers. “He just doesn’t know it yet. It’s so frigging cute.”
“He doesn’t know he has a girlfriend?”
“I can hear you,” Conor says dryly.
“Conor and Ivy sitting in a tree,” Mack sings. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
Conor rolls his eyes, but there’s a goofy smile on his face. And I remember him telling me how Rory saved him from himself. Even though he’s been a little shit to me, I know he did it out of love for his brother and his family.
The syndicate.
It really is a family, I realize, as I watch the two of them banter back and forth like brother and sister.
“She’s a dancer,” Mack says.
“Was a dancer,” Conor corrects.
“Right. Until you pulled a Ronan.”
“I didn’t pull a Ronan.”
“Tomato, Tomahto,” Mack says.
After another hour of relentlessly teasing Conor about his new girlfriend, we head back to the house.
I’m smiling, and I feel lighter, and Mack can see it too.
“You should come around more often,” she says.
There is real emotion in her voice. Not a lot, but just enough to let me know she cares. It seems motherhood has softened Mack a little too, but oddly enough, it suits her.
“I will,” I tell her, and I mean it.
“And bring Rory too,” she says.
“Speaking of,” Conor cuts in. “He’s having a fit because he didn’t know where you were. He’ll be here to pick you up in a few.”
Mack rolls her eyes and hugs me.
And true to Conor’s word, I’m back in Rory’s car a few minutes later.
Forty-Three
Scarlett
Doubtthou the stars are fire; Doubt the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar: but never doubt I love- Shakespeare
“Ye can’t just runoff without telling me where ye’re going,” Rory says.
“What difference does it make?” I ask. “You haven’t been around.”
