Together, we entered the kitchen and got to work on our dinner. After we got everything prepared and ready to cook, I removed the meat and covered it with foil until it was time to slice it up. I always listened to music as I cooked the dinner, so I instinctively reached into my back pocket of my jeans, feeling for my phone. When I realised it wasn’t on my person, I checked each room of the apartment.
“What are you looking for?”
“Me phone,” I answered then groaned. “I think I left it in me car. I’m always doin’ that!”
“I’ll go and get it.”
“No.” I sighed. “I’ll do it; you just keep an eye on Barbara.”
I left my apartment and took the elevator down to the lobby. I jogged out of the building and to my car, where I scowled at my phone sitting in one of the cup holders.
“Stupid thing.”
After I got my phone, locked my car, and briskly walked back into my building, I entered the elevator but had to hold it open when someone hollered for me to. I nodded in greeting to Kane as he jogged into the elevator and said, “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
He flashed his personal fob over the scannered then he hit the button for his floor.
“Aideen called me.”
I glanced at him. “Yeah?”
“Hmm.”
“Is there a reason you’re tellin’ me this?”
“She mentioned what you did to Alec’s cup.”
I felt heat climb up my neck.
“It was an accident,” I stressed. “A complete and total accident.”
“I also heard he tried to murder you.”
“He did.” I bobbed my head. “You should have seen ’im; he was like a ravin’ lunatic.”
Kane looked down at me, and it was obvious he was fighting off a smile.
“It’s not funny!” I scowled as the elevators doors closed. “I nearly had a heart attack when he cornered me on that trampoline.”
“I wish I was there to see it.”
I shook my head, fighting off a grin as Kane’s shoulders lightly shook. Myself and Kane rarely spoke, so I felt bloody proud of myself whenever we did because I always seemed to make him grin, smile, or laugh, and anyone who knew him knew how difficult a task that was. I looked at him and noted he had no bags or anything that he could have picked up on the errands he was running.
“What?’ he asked when he noticed my eyes on him.
I shrugged. “Do anythin’ fun today?”
“Errands,” he answered flatly.
I narrowed my eyes a little before I looked forward.
“What was that look for?”
“Damien and Aideen looked away when they told me you were runnin’ errands, and I wanted to see if you’d do the same.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to see if you were going to lie to me like they did.”
I felt Kane’s eyes drill a hole into the side of my face.
“What do you think they lied to you about?”
“I’ve no clue, and I’m not gonna press the issue because what you do is none of me business.”
Silence.
“I’ll tell you if you want to know.”
“It’s okay,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’m not supposed to know; Damien and Aideen wouldn’t have lied to me otherwise.”
“You aren’t starting off your relationship with my brother with a stupid lie lingering in the back of your mind. My lie.”
“Me relationship with your brother is with him,” I said, feeling a little irritated. “As I said, what you do isn’t me business. Forget I said anythin’.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Suit yourself.”
More silence.
“None of the girls have ever been this closed off with me.”
I swallowed. “None of the other girls were interrogated by you when they were just shy of eighteen and had no backbone.”
I didn’t mention that I still didn’t have much of a backbone, but Kane didn’t need to know that I was sweating having this confrontation with him.
“No backbone, my ass,” he quipped. “You put me in my place and don’t think I’ve forgotten it, because I haven’t.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I remained mute.
“You’re good for my brother, and you’re as good an addition to our family as when you were eighteen,” Kane said after a long pause. “I’m not social, I know that, but please don’t think that because I’m reserved it means that I don’t care about you.”
I felt my lips part with shock.
“I’m not sure what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” Kane said. “This is the most we’ve talked since that first conversation, and I feel like I’ve overwhelmed you because this space is starting to close in on me for sure.”
I surprised us both when I chuckled.
“Your apartment will close in on you when you speak to Aideen.”
“And why is that?”
“Because when she laughed at me when Alec was chasin’ me, I told ’er I was never babysittin’ again.”
Kane appeared to almost choke on air as the elevator stopped on my floor. The doors opened, and I stepped out into the corridor and turned to face Kane.