From Your Heart

Chapter 2-1

Chapter Two

Present Day

Kathy walked through her apartment, gathering torn wrapping paper and empty cups. How the heck had a group of women made such a mess? If they were this bad for Moira’s bridal shower, she’d hate to see what would happen at the bachelorette party. Jimmy and Moira stacked presents near the door to prepare to leave.

In a moment of sweet bliss, Jimmy pulled Moira into his embrace and kissed her. Kathy almost sighed. Envy was such an ugly thing. But she wanted that. She was glad Moira found it, even if it was with Jimmy. Kathy would never quite understand the attraction to a guy who was little more than a caveman, but somehow they made it work.

She shoved another handful of paper into the industrial-sized trash bag. Moira pushed Jimmy toward the door with a stack of presents. Then to Kathy, she said, “Let me help.”

Kathy shook her head. “This was your shower. As the bride, you don’t do any work.” She eyed the pile by the door. “Plus, you’ll need your energy to unpack all of that.”

Moira laughed. “That’s Jimmy’s job. He has some kind of organization in his head for everything.”

“How are you going to get all of that back to your house?”

Moira’s gaze bounced around the room. “Don’t kill me.” She took a deep breath and then added, “If anyone deserves to be killed for this, it’s Jimmy, but since I love him and I want to spend my life with him, don’t kill him either, okay?”

Kathy ignored the bad feeling Moira’s words conjured because when Moira got into full-on rambling mode, she was hilarious. “Just spill.”

“Kevin’s coming to help bring everything to our house.” Moira closed her eyes as if to brace for impact.

Kathy froze. She’d expected this. At some point, they would have to interact. Of course, she didn’t really want him in her house. She’d wanted to keep any interaction with him impersonal. Having him in her apartment was anything but impersonal. Inhaling deeply, she said, “It’s fine. He’s doing a good thing, best man and brotherly duty all rolled into one. Besides, if Jimmy listened to Kevin, he wouldn’t think about whether this would bother me. He probably just believed what Kevin said about us.”

“What’s that?”

She let the trash bag slide to the floor and she plopped on the couch. She’d never mentioned her conversation with Kevin to Moira. Kathy always avoided any situation where he might show up, and Moira treated Kevin like Voldemort—he who must not be named. Plus, Kathy never wanted to cause a problem between Moira and Jimmy. “At your engagement party, he told me that you said he broke my heart—thanks for that, by the way—and he was confused. He thought I broke it off because I just slipped away.”

“What? God, he’s such an a*s. How could he not know that you were done with him because he cheated?”

Kathy gave a half-hearted shrug. She’d asked herself that often enough, but never quite arrived at an answer. “We were young and weren’t very good at communicating. He was keeping it casual, and I’ve never done casual. So, some blame was on me.” After all, she’d never even confronted him.

Moira sat next to her. “I still want to throat punch him.”

Kathy laughed. She loved having such a close friend. She’d always wanted a sister, and Moira was as close as she got. “Thanks, but that might cause a rift with your new family.”

“Ugh.” Moira performed her best eye roll.

A thump at the door caught their attention. Jimmy came back in with his brother trailing behind. Kathy was struck by their differences. Where Jimmy was broad and muscular, Kevin was lean. They both shared the same dark hair and blue eyes, so there was no mistaking them as siblings.

Making eye contact, Kevin smiled at her and said, “Hi.”

The smile still got to her. God, how she hated that it did. His smile was part wicked, part boy-next-door charm. Such a lethal mix. She nodded and pushed up from the couch to resume cleanup.

“Moira, baby, you had a party and didn’t invite me?” Kevin boomed from the doorway.

“It was a bridal shower. Women only.”

“Jimmy was here.”

“Believe me, I wish I hadn’t been.” Jimmy hefted a stack of boxes and pushed them into Kevin’s arms. For all his complaining, Jimmy had been a great sport. He played all the silly games and even posed with Moira’s ribbon bouquet.

When the guys were gone, Moira said, “I’ll stay and help.”

Kathy nudged her. “Thanks for the offer, but you go home and handle things there.”

“You sure?”

She nodded.

“You’re the best.” She threw her arms around Kathy and squeezed. “I’m glad Maggie begged off being maid of honor. I love her, but this would’ve been a mess with her in charge.”

“Speaking of which, how did she manage to scoot out of here without doing cleanup?”

Moira shrugged. “That’s Maggie for you. She drove my mom home, but as baby of the family, she’s excelled at getting out of work her whole life.”

“At least Norah and Carmen have wrangled the kitchen. They’re dishwashers extraordinaire,” Kathy said, speaking about Jimmy’s sister and Liam’s girlfriend. “I didn’t want to be rude and ask Carmen, but did Liam pop the question yet?”

“No, the big dork. We all know he wants to. I have no idea what he’s waiting for.”

“Is your mom any better with Carmen?” When Liam and Carmen first started dating, Mrs. O’Leary was rude and distant to Carmen because she wasn’t a “nice Irish girl.”

“Yeah. I think that once she got to know her and realized how much Liam loves her, she knew she needed to get with the program. Carmen is awesome. It’s like having another sister.”

“It looks like your whole life is gonna be one wedding after another, huh? Everyone’s falling in love and getting hitched.” She cleared off another table and tied the bag. One more load and she should be done.

“At the rate all the O’Learys and O’Malleys are dropping, we could open our own wedding planning business. When are you joining the ranks?”

“Need a man first. The dating scene is dismal.” She hadn’t had a steady boyfriend since Ray, and they’d broken up not long after Moira’s engagement party.

Jimmy and Kevin came back in. Jimmy said, “Hey, sweetheart, we’re set. Are you ready?”

Moira looked over her shoulder, “One minute.” Then she turned back to Kathy. “Jimmy knows some guys. I could—”

“No. The last time you introduced me to someone . . .” She looked pointedly at Kevin.

“First, that wasn’t an introduction. You happened to be in the same place. Plus, that’s all the more reason to let me set you up. I owe you.”

“No, thanks. Now go before Jimmy gets cranky.”

Moira walked to her fiancé and said, “Jimmy’s always cranky. It’s part of his charm.”

The couple walked out the door and Kathy went to the kitchen to get another trash bag. On her way back to the living room, she almost crashed into Kevin.

“What are you still doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

She skirted around him. “So talk.” She picked up more paper plates so her hands had something to do and her eyes had a focus.

“I wanted to make plans to talk to you about the bachelor and bachelorette parties.”

She straightened. “By definition, they’re different parties. What’s there to talk about?”

“I think we should coordinate dates.”

“Why?”

He strode closer and helped clean the mess. “I love my brother, but I also know him. If we don’t plan the parties for the same night, there’s no way Moira will enjoy herself. Jimmy won’t be able to sit at home waiting, knowing Moira is running around the city getting drunk.”

“Oh.” He surprised her by caring about whether Moira had a good time. That was different. Not the usual selfish attitude she’d come to associate with Kevin O’Malley.

Kathy continued to pick up cups, but her focus waned with Kevin standing so near. She despised that he could still affect her.

He shoved more trash into the bag, completely unaffected by her. The story of her life.

“I was thinking we could meet for dinner one day this week to talk about it.”

Kathy yanked the bag and looked at him.

He held up his arms in defense. “You can bring your boyfriend. No funny business.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said and turned away to clear the coffee table.

“Oh, uh . . . the last time I saw you, you were with a guy, so I thought . . .”

“It didn’t work out.” Ray had turned out to be a bit of a dud. The spark between them, what little of it there was, had fizzled fast.

“Well, then, I don’t have to feel bad about stealing you away for dinner one night.”

She rolled her eyes. Always the player.

Carmen and Norah came into the room.

“The kitchen is back to normal,” Carmen said. “Anything else you need?”

To Kevin, Norah said, “What’re you doing here?”

Kevin turned and said, “I’m trying to convince Kathy that the bachelor and bachelorette parties need to happen simultaneously, or Moira won’t have any peace.”

Tucking her hands into her back pockets, Norah said, “As much as I hate to admit it, Kevin’s right. Jimmy will pop a vein just thinking about how reckless Moira might be.”

“Fine. I get it.” Realizing how snippy she sounded, she took a deep breath. “Sorry. Thank you for washing everything. I really appreciate it. I can handle the rest.”

“You sure?” Carmen asked as she let her long black hair down from her ponytail.

“Yeah, I got this.”

Norah grabbed her purse and said, “Give me a call if you need help planning.”

They said their goodbyes and let themselves out of her apartment, leaving her completely alone with Kevin. He took the bag from her and emptied his hands of the garbage he held.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. “I don’t want this to be weird, but it’s going to be, isn’t it?”

He stood silently for so long, she began to question if she actually said it aloud. The rise and fall of his chest in a sigh was the only signal she had that he was paying attention. He had that in common with Jimmy: the sigh of resignation. She’d witnessed Jimmy do it in regard to Moira on more than one occasion.

Kathy looked up into Kevin’s blue eyes and prayed her face wouldn’t reveal the effect he had on her.

“I don’t want this to be weird either. It’s up to us to not make it weird. What do you say? Let me buy you dinner. We’ll talk about party plans.” His smile was warm and friendly.

She’d forgotten he had the ability to do that. To just be friendly without flirting. “Any night except for Friday.”

“Got a big date planned for Friday?” he asked with a tilt of an eyebrow.

She wished. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I have a big wedding order to finish putting together and I’ll be working late.”

He looked almost relieved at her response. His intense gaze held her captive. When he spoke, his voice was low and seductive. “Thursday good for you?”

She nodded and gulped. To break the spell, she bent to grab the trash bag.

“Can I have your number? I’ll text you details. Unless you’d like me to pick you up?”

“No.” That would feel far too much like a date. For all his joking and crassness, one thing she remembered about Kevin was that he always picked her up and walked her to the door. In that respect, he was a consummate gentleman. Not like when he was sticking his d**k in another woman.

Ugh. She had to keep her mind off things like that. She pulled her phone from her pocket and handed it to him. “Call yourself.”

She tied a knot in the bag and set it near the door. When she turned, Kevin was in front of her again. What was with this guy invading her space?

He handed her the phone. “I added myself as a contact. I’ll call you on Thursday to make sure we’re still on and figure out a time and place.”

“Okay.”

He slipped out the door without another word, but he’d taken the trash bags with him. She sank to the couch and propped her exhausted feet on the coffee table. Then she scrolled through her phone. Sure enough, he had programmed himself in. He was listed as “Sorry-a*s Kevin.”