Saving a Legend: A Kavanagh Legends Novel (3 page)

The first thing he saw when he walked into the dining room was a second vase centered on the table, with a significantly bigger and more expensive-looking bouquet. Frowning, he pushed them to the side slightly and placed his vase next to it.

“Looks like Rory one-upped you.” Jimmy walked into the dining room and seemed to be sizing Kieran up. He looked less daunted than Quinn had, but his face carried a look of judgment. Or maybe disappointment. Either way, Kieran didn’t like it. Jimmy continued, “That’s why I don’t even bother buying Ma flowers anymore. None of us can compete with the famous Rory Kavanagh.”

Jimmy’s voice was lilted with exaggeration as he came over and hugged him stiffly. The redheaded man was stereotypical Irish, with a broad chest and a stoic stance that screamed law enforcement. Barely an inch or two shorter than Kieran, but significantly taller than the average guy, Jimmy had a clean-shaven, boyish face that contrasted in a powerful way with his sculpted, mature frame.

“Good to see you, Jimmy.” Kieran hugged him back, genuinely happy to see his baby brother.

“Word of advice, try a box of chocolates or something next Sunday,” Jimmy teased as they pulled apart.

“I might do that, but I kind of want an excuse to see that hot florist again,” Kieran said, only half joking.

“Which florist did you go to?”

“Fiona’s Flowers, a couple blocks over.”

“Not a good idea, bro.” Jimmy shook his head.

“Why not? I’ve been in prison for two years, I’m not exactly picky.”

“Fine, but not that girl—leave her alone. She’s got baggage you don’t need to be picking up and carrying right now.”

Kieran frowned and was about to ask what he meant when Casey walked into the dining room.

“Kieran!” Casey squealed in delight, rushing over to him and throwing her arms around his neck. Her long, bright red hair fell over his face as she squeezed him tightly.

“Hey, Case Face.” Kieran wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back before she pulled away to look at him. Her piercing blue eyes matched his, but she also had cute freckles over her nose and was as petite as he remembered.

“Have you gotten bigger? I didn’t think that was possible. God, you’re like Rory now, maybe larger.” Casey looked him over with sisterly pride. She may technically be his first cousin, but they’d grown up together in the same house, and so to him, she’d always be his little sister.

“Bullshit, I could snap him like a twig.” Rory’s deep voice boomed as he walked into the dining room, eyeing Kieran with caution and yet purposefully provoking him at the same time.

“The hell you could.” Kieran snorted.

Rory nodded down at the hulking black-and-white dog by his side. “You remember Ace?”

Ace looked much livelier than Kieran remembered. When he’d first met Rory’s dog, he had been underweight and mangled. Now he was healthy, and most of his fur had grown back. There was a thick scar down his side that looked new, but all the previous nicks he’d first seen on the dog were faded or covered with new, thicker fur.

Kieran placed his hand in front of the dog to sniff before scratching his head. “Hey, Ace.”

“I’m gonna go help Ma, but I’m so glad you’re back, K,” Casey said, using his nickname as she left to let the brothers talk.

“Same here.” Jimmy followed her.

“So, Kieran,” Rory said with an awkward pause, extending a hand as soon as they were alone. Kieran gripped it, shaking firmly with polite disinterest.

“Rory.”

“How was prison?” Rory asked, an uncomfortable heaviness in his voice.

“Fine, no thanks to you. How’s the bottom of a bottle?” He squeezed Rory’s hand tighter.

Regret washed over him as he wished he hadn’t stooped so low and mentioned Rory’s alcoholism. Kieran had left prison resolving to become a new person, a better person. A person who was once again close to his entire family, including the one brother who had betrayed him.

“Five months sober, asshole.” Rory dropped his hand just as a pretty young girl with blond ringlets falling down her shoulders walked up to them, wrapping an arm around Rory’s waist. Ace’s ears perked up as he, too, leaned into the woman, definitely happy to see her.

“Hey, Kane, how are you?” she asked him, her smile kind and inviting.

“Babe, that’s not Kane.” Rory laughed, the tension seeming to melt off him from her touch. He kissed the top of her head.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Kieran, right? Wow, you and Kane sure do look alike, although I can definitely see the differences.” She blushed deeply, her pale skin turning crimson.

“That tends to happen when you share a womb for nine months.” Kieran grinned back at her. “You must be Clare?”

When his mother visited him over the last two years, they never talked about Rory much, especially after everything that had happened between them. However, she had mentioned that he had moved in with his girlfriend, Clare.

“Yep! It’s so great to meet you. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you.” Her words seemed to bounce in the air between them, and when he offered his hand to her, she swept right past it and hugged him instead.

He decided then and there that he liked Clare, and that maybe she was his best chance of rebuilding a relationship with Rory. He also decided that Rory probably wasn’t the one who had been saying nice things about him.

“I don’t know who told you wonderful things, but we Kavanaghs tend to have a tenuous grasp on the truth.” Kieran laughed as he hugged her.

“I never lie!” Dee waltzed into the room behind them and wrapped an arm around his waist, confirming she had been the one to chat him up. “All of my sons are the absolute best. And
mo neacht,
my niece, of course.” Dee winked at Casey, who had followed her into the dining room.

“Can’t argue with you there.” Clare glanced over at Rory, who took it as an invitation to cover her lips with his in a very public, very affectionate display. It was both too much and perfect at the same time. Kieran had to avert his gaze not to feel like he was imposing on a private moment.

A pang of jealousy sliced through him as he wondered if he would have that with someone one day. It had been a long and lonely two years without women, which he’d thought would make him just want a woman to take the edge off. However, seeing what his brother had made him want an actual relationship instead. He wanted someone to be there for him, to look at him the way Clare looked at Rory, and that meant a random hookup wouldn’t do.

An image of the pretty florist darted through his mind, but he pushed it away.

“There they go again.” Casey giggled. “Kieran, help me bring everything to the table. You don’t want to be around those lovebirds long or you won’t be able to eat.”

He followed her, grabbing a basket of rolls and a dish of butter from the kitchen to bring back to the dining room. Even the dog seemed uninterested in watching his owner’s affections and followed Kieran instead.

“Kieran.” His father’s tone as he approached was gruff and unforgiving. Seamus Kavanagh was now sporting more salt-and-pepper than his once jet-black hair. Like his mother, his father had definitely aged in the last two years while Kieran had been away. Another wave of guilt hit him, because he’d spent so many years wrapped up in his own life that he hadn’t paid attention to the grief he’d caused his family.

“Dad.” The men stared at each other for a moment before moving into a stiff embrace. “It’s good to see you.”

His father grunted in response, and Kieran dropped his eyes to the floor, feeling self-conscious. He knew his father was disappointed in him, angry at what he had made of his life. Or what he hadn’t made of his life. It seemed neither one of them knew what to say.

“Hey, bro!” Quinn stepped around their father and was the next to hug him. Their exchange was much more natural than the stagnant awkwardness between him and his father.

A few minutes later, every dish was on the dining room table, and the place settings were perfectly arranged. The entire family filtered in, and Kieran took a seat on the left side, smack dab in the middle.

Casey, Kane, and Jimmy took the seats next to him, and Rory and Clare sat opposite with Quinn; their parents took either end. Ace lay sprawled out under the table.

“Kieran, can you say grace?” Dee reached her hands out to Casey and Quinn, who were on either side of her.

He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Uh, maybe someone else should?”

“I’ll do it,” Rory spoke up. Kieran glared at his brother for a second before taking a deep breath and bowing his head, wishing he’d just said the prayer rather than giving his brother the honors.

When Rory finished praying, everyone piled plates high and dug into the food. Kieran loved his mom’s cooking, and as a kid his friends couldn’t wait to stop by his house because they knew she always had some tasty treat waiting for them. The meal was even better than he’d remembered.

“Ma, this is delicious.” Kieran scooped another forkful of lasagna into his mouth.

“I’m so glad you like it,” she responded with a relieved smile. He wondered if she’d felt nervous cooking for him for the first time since he’d been away. He hadn’t really considered that others might be feeling just as nervous as he was about the family reunion.

“Didn’t have food like this in prison, huh?” Quinn asked, always the instigator.

Kieran shook his head, ignoring the provocation.

“So you find a job yet?” Seamus asked gruffly from the top of the table, casting sidelong glances at Kieran.

“Not yet. Filled out a few applications yesterday, made a few calls. I still have plenty of savings, so it’s not really an emergency. Just need something to tell my parole officer.”

“Rory, why not have Kieran help you down at the clinic? Don’t you need help with the construction?” Dee interjected.

Rory began in protest, “Ma, I don’t think—”

“I can find a job, Ma. I meet with my PO in the morning, and I’m sure he’ll know where to point me.”

“But in the meantime, you need something. Even if the guy gives you some leads, it might be a while before one of them actually comes through.” Dee turned back to Rory. “What’s the harm in hiring your brother for a few days, Rory?”

“We could use the extra hands, babe,” Clare intervened, giving Kieran a sympathetic smile.

Part of him wanted to hate her pity, but in truth, he was grateful this total stranger was so accepting of him. He couldn’t understand why she was; she didn’t know him, and she undoubtedly hadn’t heard good things about him from his brother.

“Fine, but just until you find something else.” Rory glared at him for a moment before his eyes softened and he turned back to Clare. “Since when do you and my mom team up against me,
mhuirnín
?”

“Since she is right, and you’re a stubborn ass.” Clare shared a conspiring wink with Dee.

“You picked a good one there, Rory.” Dee reached over the table and squeezed Clare’s hand before turning to Kane. “What about you, Kane? Dating anyone I might like this time? I want grandchildren soon, you know.”

Kieran snorted and ducked away from his twin brother, not wanting the questions to deviate from Kane to him.

“What? Why me? You’ve got three other sons here who are all single, Ma. Plus Casey,” Kane said, in an attempt to deflect her attention.

“Not really. Casey needs to focus on finishing school. Jimmy’s only twenty-two; he’s too young to settle down. Quinn’s only a year older than Jim, and he’s stuck on the Finley girl.” Dee rattled on as she passed scraps of food under the table to Ace.

“I am not stuck on her!” Quinn protested, but she ignored him.

“So that leaves you, Kane.”

“What about Kieran? He was all over the pretty florist today.” Kane threw him to the wolves. Jimmy shook his head at the comment, reminding Kieran that he wanted to ask what Jimmy had meant earlier about Fiona having baggage.

“Don’t drag me into this.” Kieran put his hands up in defense, but inside he was happier than he had been in a long time. He had missed his family and these Sunday dinners. Despite their bickering, he knew that in this room, no matter what he had done in the past, he was loved.

—

“Kavanagh.” A short, bald man holding a clipboard stepped out of one of the rooms that lined the hallway Kieran was sitting in.

“Here.” Kieran stood from his chair and followed the man into a small windowless office, filled with entirely too many filing cabinets. The whole place reeked of mildew and stale coffee.

“Kieran Murphy Kavanagh. Age twenty-six. Two years upstate for aggravated assault, let out for good behavior. Now serving six months parole plus three hundred hours of community service. That you?” The man rattled off the information from the file in front of him.

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m Officer Kirk Huppert.” The man shook his hand before motioning to a chair facing a desk. Kieran was at least a hundred pounds bulkier than the stocky, short man, and yet the officer seemed completely unfazed by their size difference. “I’ll be your parole officer for the next six months, and hopefully not a day longer. If it is longer, it’s because you fucked up, and I have no qualms about throwing your ass back in prison. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. I’ve got no plans to go back there. Ever,” Kieran said, taking a seat as the officer rounded the desk and sat, spreading Kieran’s file out in front of him.

“Good, then don’t violate your parole. I find anything, I mean
anything,
that even smells the tiniest bit like shit and you’re doing another thirty days. Depending on how bad it is, possibly the rest of your sentence,” Officer Huppert said.

Kieran nodded. “I understand.”

Officer Huppert flipped through his file again. “So you got a job yet, Kavanagh?”

“Yes, sir. Doing construction down at Woodlawn Rescue. My brother bought the place, and they’re fixing it up.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve driven past that. It’s called Ace’s Dogs now, right? My kid’s been hassling me to get her a dog. Maybe when the place is up and running,” the officer mused out loud, not really talking to Kieran as he scanned his file. “And says here you’re living with your brother, too?”