“Don’t encourage him, Da. His ego’s out-of-control as it is.”
“A baby on the way has a way of doing that, daughter. And two? I’d say you’re lucky he isn’t walking around with a sperm count screen printed on his shirt.”
He and Paddy slapped the table and laughed at the irreverent comment while Meghan smiled sweetly and sipped her beverage.
“I’m sure this isn’t a social call so what’s up? Am I in trouble? It’s Dev’s fault, whatever it is,” she snicker-laughed.
Over coffee and coconut water, they sat and talked for the next hour. At some point, a plate of scones magically appeared. Carmen diligently applied herself to pinning down the O’Brien family recipe so he probably shouldn’t be that surprised.
Paddy went into emotional detail about the falling out with Finn. He felt for the man as he explained what he worried were his failings as a father where his youngest son was concerned.
He displayed fatherly horror when Meghan described the horrible accusations and recriminations Finn dumped on her.
All of it was hard for Alex to listen to but his own family wasn’t perfect. Far from it. There were difficult times with Sophie when she’d gone through a breakdown and then of course him nearly getting blown to chunks. Awful realities affect people differently.
Mostly he hoped that Meghan, her father and Finn would find a way to clear the family air and re-establish the bonds of love and support that still existed despite being strained.
“Da,” Meghan asked in a hushed voice. “I’m so worried about Dev. I can’t believe Mary Kate left him. And the kids. What’s going to happen?”
Paddy covered her hands with his and patted. “Easy, honey. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to. Divorce is a difficult thing but Mary Kate made decisions that didn’t include a family. The kids are living with Deval. He’s even found a great twin near us so we can help out. The kids have to change schools but that’s turned out to be a good thing. Fresh start for everybody.”
It was testament to how blown away she was that his wife sat back heavily in her chair and croaked, “Are you fucking serious?”
“Learned those filthy words from yer Ma,” he teased. “Boston PD never uses profanity.”
Meghan howled with laughter. “Oh! Is that why you referred to the station house as a shit hole ripped from Satan’s ass? Because the police department never engaged in profanity?”
He grinned at the easy way these two had with each other. His wife’s unabashed love for her parents and deep appreciation for the meaning of family were strong traits. And the O’Briens’ unconditional support for their extraordinary daughter touched him. He was glad she had that as her backstory. These were things she’d pass on to their children.
Not long after that, Paddy looked at both of them and smiled happily. “You’re in the best of hands, Meggie love. Your Major Zorro shows all the signs of a true gentleman.”
“Da!” Meghan scolded. “Come on. Not you too?”
Paddy shrugged at his daughter and smirked at Alex. “Sorry, not sorry. Ya’ have to admit that it’s one of Finn’s better snidely labels. Will give him an atta’ boy if he hears his old Da using it.”
She muttered and fussed with her shirt. “What’s a girl gotta do to get some freakin’ respect around here?”
Alex chuckled and leaned in for a kiss. “Well, first off, I think it’s me who doesn’t get any fucking respect and for seconds, your dad’s right. Even I think the Major Zorro moniker is share worthy. Hell! I think it’s already pretty freely used at my expense on Facebook.”
She giggled and rolled her eyes. “Speaking of monikers…Da. Did you hear? Finn got the snot kicked out of him in some stupid fight club incident. Couple of local cowboys decided to test their luck. So he shows up at a costume party in a boxing outfit. Here’s the best part. The name on the back of the robe? Brisket, and no I’m not joking. Heather told me one of the ladies around here who has Finn’s number calls him cocky brisket. How’s that for a bitchin’ nickname?”
“Cocky brisket,” Paddy sniggered. “Somehow it fits him, eh, daughter?”
The carefree banter was something of a revelation for Alex. He’d been surprised when the news of Finn’s ass kicking and subsequent trip to the emergency room for stitches hadn’t earned more than an eye roll and a snicker from the guy’s sister. Judging by Paddy’s reaction and Meghan’s dry explanation of her brother’s antics, all the joking around about some legendary first responder’s fight club had some merit.
She laughed and then got serious. “You’re planning on showing up unannounced with him too I hope. Not fair to scare the bejesus out of us and let him off the hook.”
“What time does his bar open?”
“He doesn’t go in till noon so he can stay through dinner and help manage the evening crowds. I’d go right to his place and kick down the door.”
The random comment made him ask a question. “Dad. Do you have a bag? You’re staying with us, right?”
“Let’s see how it goes with Finn. As much as I’d like to visit with you two, I think my priority should be patching things up with my boy. Got the next ten days to set things right. And my bag is still sitting outside at the bottom of the porch steps.”
Awhile later they were out front waiting for Ben to roll up in a car to take Paddy out to Finn’s place when Meghan curled into her father’s embrace and sighed.
“I love you, Daddy,” she murmured.
Alex had to fight back an unexpected urge to cry.
“Meghan Elizabeth, the saints blessed your mom and I when you were born. The hardest part of having a daughter is watching her leave home but just as with everything else you’ve ever done, this new life you’re building out here in the middle of goddamn nowhere is something we’re both real proud of, honey.”
Paddy looked Alex straight in the eye. “And you’re going to be an incredible mom.”
He saw Meghan curl in closer and nodded at his father-in-law.
“Now, in defense of the old sod it should also be said that bringing a bit of Irish fire and mystery to Zorro’s Spanish bloodline is no shabby thing, daughter. Maybe a little ginger haired beauty and a dark eyed lad?”
Meghan laughed and kissed her father’s cheek before stepping back. “What the hell, Da? That sounded like you were placing an order. Um, I’ll take two please, and mix ‘em up real good.”
Ben was approaching in an SUV so Alex picked up Paddy’s bag and moved to the walkway.
“Your parents are over-the-moon, Alex,” the big Irish cop said as he lovingly held Meghan’s hand and helped her down the stairs.
Alex blinked. Hmm. Really? When the hell had Paddy found time to chat up his folks? A fast calculation made it abundantly clear that his father-in-law was on a plane to Arizona less than half a day after they’d delivered the twins bombshell. Time for a phone call across an ocean seemed a stretch.
“You talked to Cristián and Ashleigh?” Meghan asked.
“Yup,” her dad replied. “They’re stopping in Boston first before they come back. Your father drives a hard bargain, son. He’s working overtime trying to get all of us under one roof for Christmas.”
This was news to Alex. What the fuck? Is this a joke? How come he was the last to hear this little plan?
“Are you serious?”
Well thank god Meghan sounded as stunned as he felt. Apparently she too was in the dark about their parents’ thriving friendship.
“Actually, yes. Deval is taking the kids to Hawaii for the holiday. Long story not worth picking apart but Mary Kate won’t be around so he figured a once-in-a-lifetime tropical getaway would make the day easier. No need to cry over change. Mike, well who knows what the hell he’s doing—probably working so the married guys can have the day. So why not try on a southwest Christmas?”
He and Meghan exchanged wide-eyed looks.
“We’ll talk more about the holidays later. Right now, I’ve got young Finn in the cross-hairs. Wish me
luck, Meggie darling.” he drawled before getting in the car.
Alex stowed his bag in the back seat, exchanged WTF looks with Ben and then went to stand by Meghan’s side. They waved her dad off and then looked at each other.
“What the hell just happened?” She asked the question before he could.
“Fuck if I know.”
“Your parents are going to Boston before coming here? Am I missing some details?”
The incredulity and amazement in her voice pretty much covered how he felt. The added sensation of quite possibly being a huge dick because there were indeed a whole shit-ton of details she knew nothing about churned inside him. It dawned on him that his annoyance with every situation he was unaware of was a lot like how she was going to react when all the dots he kept her away from started to connect.
Or maybe she’d just be excited by the surprises he had in store and that’d be the end of it.
Slinging an arm around her neck, he yanked her close and shut down all further chatter with a very wet kiss.
Alex checked his watch and growled. Shit. The meeting started in a little bit. “I have to head out soon. Have a meeting in the business center. What are you going to get up to young lady?”
Please say nothing, his thoughts chanted over and over.
“I planned on going down the road to Lacey’s. Angie said she’d come over so we could talk about the grand opening.”
He wondered if he could waylay Angie. As far as he was concerned Meghan needed to chill. He knew there were things she had to do but the puking episode worried him.
“But ya’ know what?” she said with an arm around his waist. “I think I’ll curl up on the swing in the courtyard and read a book.”
Hollering, ‘Fuck yeah’ and doing a touchdown dance would end with her employing some stink eye so he kept the reaction to himself.
“Good. Then you can keep an eye on our housekeeper. I’m beginning to suspect there’s some hanky panky going on with her. Did you see what she was wearing? I’m used to that yoga pants shit with you and your ladies but on Carmen? Swear to god, babe. If Duke starts taking salsa lessons, something serious is going down.”
“Aw,” she murmured with a soft laugh. “I think it’s kind of sweet. But I will say, the blushing and constant referring to the world according to Duke Winston is intriguing. To borrow one of my mom’s words, I do believe those two are smitten.”
Contemplating the implications of a romance between his housekeeper and the head of Justice security, he led Meghan inside and drove her crazy until it was time for him to leave.
On the way to the business center he moved mental chess pieces around on a Family Justice game board and tried to make sense out of the cascading changes overtaking his world.
He was married.
He was going to be a father and not just a run-of-the-mill dad. He pulled the twins card.
His parents were retiring and moving back to Arizona.
Cam and Lacey were adding to their family. Same for Tori and Drae.
His AARP card-carrying uncle was about to be a first time father.
Finn was the new owner of Pete’s and not only that; he was Parker’s equal on guitar and was sure to shake things up with Desert Thunder.
His father-in-law appeared out of nowhere and though his reasons were sound and understandable, the only take-away Alex could think about was this revelation about everyone and their fucking brother coming to Arizona for Christmas.
The only people missing from this slice of weirdness were Uncle Eduardo and Sophia and with the way things were going he had little doubt that those two would eventually come out of the woodwork too.
“What’s this stuff, again?” The question had all the seriousness of an interrogation.
Calder looked around and had to laugh. He’d tossed a drawstring bag emblazoned with the Justice logo to each of the guys and like kids on Christmas morning they were pawing through the goodies with boyish enthusiasm.
At the moment, all of them were rubbing shit on their lips with a lot of approving sounds and gestures. His only thought? Stephanie would fucking love this.
“It’s peppermint sugar lip scrub,” he drily informed Brody.
“Fuck,” Cameron grumbled. “Would have killed for some of this stuff when I was brushing my teeth with sand.”
His snarky reference to the war got a round of grunting head nods. Calder tossed a box of tissues to Drae.
“Rub it in. Makes your lips kissably soft according to the ladies. Wipe off with a tissue. And no, I’m not kissing you to see if it works.”
“Good stuff,” Alex mumbled through a wad of tissues. “What else do we have?” He upended the bag into his lap, swiftly retrieved something that tumbled to the floor, and eyed the pile of branded items.
Parker was shuffling a stack of files and papers at a table and doing everything he could to ignore all of them. He wondered what the hell crawled up his shorts and then remembered the poor dude had his hands full. Calder’s niece Angie was setting a new record for how long and hard she could rattle the man’s chain.
“Betty had a big hand in getting all the stuff together. She has a plan for custom-fills based on a client’s profile. This is just a demo. Lanyard, a flash drive, hand sanitizer, lip scrub, a tube of high SPF sunscreen. One of those chapped lipsticks too. Some random office supplies like note pads and pens.”
“I like the branding aspect. Good work.” His nephew snickered slightly. “I knew some nepotism would be good for Justice.”
Calder was pleased that Alex seemed impressed. He felt bad for dropping the ball a little with Justice but finding out he and Stephanie had a surprise kid on the way sort of explained why he’d been a tad distracted. Thing was, that left his nephew to juggle way too many balls. And now that Meghan was also expecting, well…
“She’s got a Chinese factory cranking out t-shirts around the clock too.” It was a throwaway comment that Calder didn’t expect would earn more than a chuckle.
Parker proved him wrong. “I hope you’re fucking kidding.”
Jesus. Who peed in his Cheerios? He’d known Parker a long time, his whole life in fact, and rarely had the guy ever been so snarly.
Of course it had to be Sullivan’s nemesis who spoke up with a snide comment. Why the hell not?
“Stand down, counselor,” Drae quipped. “I’m sure he was just being a smart ass, right Calder? We only do Made in America shit.”
“It’s my job to ask, dickhead.”
Though he didn’t look directly at him, Calder sensed Alex’s surprise at the tone Parker used.
Drae and the counselor going at each other wasn’t exactly new. Their skirmishes were well documented in the Family Justice blooper reel. It was Parker’s overall demeanor that got the double take. Something was up.
Thank god at least one person in the room didn’t have time for useless shit and steered them straight back to the business at hand. Their dog guru could generally be counted on to stay on subject.
“I’ll talk to Betty about customizing a bag with canine crap. Be good PR out in the community too. Especially with the service dogs. By the way gentleman, we’re graduating a new class next week. Three pups go directly to the vets’ outreach program. There’s a huge demand for trained service animals. Most will be placed with PTSD sufferers. We can’t keep up with requests. Oh, by the way,” Brody lazily interjected at the end. He was looking at Alex. “Did you know your brother-in-law approached me for a dog?”
Calder grimaced. Finn. Jerk off punk.
“Think I might have found the perfect animal.”
“Is that right?” Alex appeared amused. “Let me guess. He wants some viscous hellhound named Viper.”
Brody didn’t give much away with his expression—he was good that way. But the half shrug was a tell—one Calder sincerely hoped meant that Finn, the little turd, was headed for some comeuppance.
The dog guru explained with a snarky chuckle. “Actually, he driveled on about a
dog that’d make a lot noise. Something he could take to work to scare the customers. And I believe the name choices were Brutus, Cobra or Hulk.”
Calder mentally crossed his fingers and pleaded to the heavens, Oh god, please let this be as funny as I hope it is.
To his amazement, it was Parker who stuck up for Finn. “He’s not all that bad. And fucking-a…the guy can take a punch. Barry has video of Finn cleaning the Morrissey brother’s clocks. I think he’d even get St. John to tap out.”
“I beg your fucking pardon,” Drae sneered. “Taking a punch that you know is coming and Ninja kicking your way through a crowd of bad guys are false equivalencies.”
Cameron, good ol’ Cam who never spoke until he’d spent time observing, chimed in. “Are you in therapy or something, Sullivan, because it’s kind of creepy how easily you’re signing up for Finn’s fan club. I thought him challenging you on stage was balls-out badass. Never figured you for the spotlight sharing type. What gives?”
The whole room went quiet. Great observation.
Like the audience at a tennis match, all eyes swung from Cam to Parker.
Ordinarily, Parker would have engaged. He could talk his way into, out of, around and through anything—that’s what made him an excellent lawyer. But the planets must not have aligned properly this morning because without warning, he gathered up his stuff, crammed it all into a briefcase bag and then eyed them all with a hooded gaze.
“I don’t have time for this shit.” He turned to Alex. “Call me later. There are some papers for you to sign. Property stuff.”
And with that he simply turned on his heel and left.
“What the fuck,” Brody murmured. “Was it something I said?”
They lingered for a few minutes in uncomfortable silence—each of them trying to figure out what crawled up Parker’s shorts—when Alex cleared his throat and stood up.
“Gentlemen. I believe this meeting is adjourned.”
With undue haste, Alex booked after Parker, leaving Calder to deal with a speechless Drae, Cam and Brody.
“Ten bucks says there’s angel dust all over whatever’s fluffing Sully’s tu-tu.”
Unforgettable (Family Justice Book 5) Page 32
