“I’ve the accent, the charm, the Fitzpatrick name. Poker comes as naturally to me as breathing. It always has. I was only a little lad when I realized I could read people’s faces the way other lads could read books.” The humor is long gone from Andie’s face as she watches me. “Life has been pretty easy for the most part.”
I fall silent, and Andie doesn’t speak until I’ve finished eating. Once I sit back from the clean plate, picking up my coffee, she finally breaks the silence. Leaning forward, her fingertips rest lightly on the back of my hand lying on the table.
“Do you honestly believe that your life is easy breezy?”
I blink at her, opening my mouth to reiterate what I said, closing it when I remember talking to her about my pa dying. About the fact that watching a man die evokes no emotion in me.
“Maybe not ‘easy breezy’.” I raise my eyebrows at her. “I’ve darkness in me, lass. I know that, but it’s not been a hardship.”
Andie nods, stroking the handle of her coffee mug with one hand while the other still lies on top of mine.
“How do you deal with your darkness?”
I stare at her, nonplussed. I’ve never really thought about it before.
“I suppose my mammy used to keep me grounded. She wasn’t the kind of woman who would take any shite. If she thought I was acting in a way she felt was unacceptable, she wouldn’t hesitate to cut me down to size. She had a way with words, my mammy did.”
Andie nods, tapping the back of my hand. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have a mother who did things like that. It must have been nice.”
“It was a pain in my arse,leannán. The woman thought she was untouchable sometimes, and she often forgot who owned this house.”
“You never kicked her out.”
“Sure, I could never. She’s my mammy. You don’t do that to family.”
I shrug, moving my hand out from underneath hers, shoving it into the pockets of my sweats to hide the fact it’s now clenched into a fist. I hate that Andie doesn’t have nice memories of family. My family isn’t perfect or even normal, but it’s a family. I’d do anything for Mammy, Uncle Sean, and Seamus. Anything. Andie takes the hint and rises to continue cleaning.
Chapter TEN
Andie
Things have fallen into a rather comfortable pattern in the four days since Connor and I first went to bed together. Connor goes to Oracle most evenings after dinner to watch over his gambling operations.
But before he goes, he’s working his way through having sex with me on every surface in the kitchen. Afterward, he showers and leaves. I don’t see him again until mid-morning when he emerges for breakfast.
Honestly, I’m glad we have finally acted on the sexual chemistry between us. I was starting to get a complex that Connor wasn’t feeling the tension the way I was. I’m especially glad of it when my phone beeps. I glance at it, a tightness filling my chest.
HAMISH: Bby were u at?
It takes a whole minute of staring before I swipe the message away, drop my phone like it’s on fire, and move to start dusting the mainly unused sitting room. My mind is racing.
Why on earth is Hamish messaging me? Why is he trying to find out where I am? What on earth could he possibly want from me? He already stomped on my heart and stole my apartment from me. What more do I have for him to take?
Gritting my teeth as my phone beeps andbeeps, I meticulously clean the rest of the living room, returning to where I dropped the phone, picking it up with cold fingers, scrolling through the messages.
HAMISH: miss u
HAMISH: bby were u been?
HAMISH: u still in dot?
HAMISH: nobody seen u in over a month?
HAMISH: u even still alive?
HAMISH: u leave Boston?
HAMISH: Lou said he seen u at the Irish strip club