Something About Harry(40)
On her way out the door, she caught Hollis and Keegan at the elevator. Hollis was the spitting image of Marty. Everything about her screamed “girlie” from her wispy blond hair, caught up in two barrettes with streaming ribbons on either side of her head, to the fashionably red and orange jumper dress she wore with complementing black tights and shiny red clogs. Save her smile. Her smile was all Flaherty. Wide, open, generous. “Aunt Mara!” She wiggled her excitement.
Mara bent down and scooped her up, dropping a kiss on the top of her golden head. “You are the prettiest thing I’ve seen since I went to the frog store to look at frogs.”
Hollis giggled, her chubby cheeks rising upward in an angelic grin. “Frogs aren’t pretty because they don’t have lips. And frogs can’t wear lipstick. See?” She puckered her lips. “I have on sparkly lipstick.”
“Okay, fine. You have lips. That means you win the pretty prize!” Mara giggled at their private joke. She would come up with the ugliest thing she could think of to compare Hollis to, and Hollis would respond with something that never failed to make Mara fall more in love with her.
It was their ritual—one Mara cherished. “So, you off to give Daddy some tea and a pretty pink boa? Speaking of, when are you gonna come to Aunt Mara’s and have girls’ night? We’ll watch movies and eat popcorn and stay up really late. Like at least till eight thirty.”
Keegan came up behind her, draping his arm around Mara’s shoulder. “Hollis has been begging to have a girls’ night with you, but we didn’t want to cramp your newfound independence.”
When she’d made the choice to have a child, she’d also decided to move out of the house where Marty and Keegan still lived, along with, until just a few months ago, her brother Sloan. Keegan had offered the estate’s guesthouse after her endless search for a reasonably priced apartment had turned up some questionable properties. While she knew it was due to Keegan’s overprotective, bossy nature and the fact that Marty wanted to keep her close, she’d agreed only after Keegan and Marty agreed to accept monthly rent.
Despite what she was sure other employees thought, she was paid what any other lab tech was paid to work at Pack. Keegan had insisted on it, and it had been that way since she’d gotten her degree and come home from college ten years ago. As a Flaherty, you didn’t piss away your portion of the proceeds from a Fortune 500 company. You worked to make it more successful.
Hollis wrapped her chubby arms around Mara’s neck and squeezed, making Mara sigh contentedly with the scent of cupcakes and little girl. “So can I come over, Aunt Mara?”
Damn. What had she been thinking? No, you can’t come over, Hollis. Aunt Mara’s hiding an angry man she’s wildly attracted to and a half zombie named Carl under her bed. Instantly, she fought her body’s reaction to the lie she was going to tell. Forcing herself to relax, she smiled—an easy thing to do with Hollis. “Soon, pumpkin. I’ve got a lot going on these days while I’m fixing up the cottage. Bunches and bunches of stinky chemicals and paints, and I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime here at work. But I promise to call you soon, and we’ll have a girls’ night. Okay?” She gave her niece a pinch on the cheek, rubbing noses with her before handing her off to Keegan.
Who was frowning down at her.
He set Hollis down, directing her to push the button for the elevator. When he turned to her, his hard face was tight, his lips thin. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean, what’s going on? What could be going on?” Using the Marty tactic, she feigned innocence with wide eyes and an exasperated snort. When being accused of something or asked a question about a situation you were absolutely up to your neck in, behave as though your accuser is crazy.
“I mean, what are you doing with your time these days?”
Also, when your accuser is poking around the accused, use humor. Marty tactic number two. Mara shrugged her shoulders and sighed forlornly. “Oh, the usual. You know, lab tech by day, dominatrix by night.”
Keegan tapped the bridge of her nose with affection, but he wasn’t smiling. “Funny, you.”
Mara rolled her eyes at him and reminded herself to remain calm, but move on to tactic number three: appear irritated with her big brother for behaving, well, like a big brother. “Well, what do you think is going on Keegan? Nothing ever goes on in my life. I work. I go home. I renovate. Wash, rinse, repeat. The most exciting thing I’ve done this week is refinish the kitchen cabinets and clean my refrigerator.”