Page 12 of Keeping Kaitlyn

“Jesus Christ.” As soon as the elevator doors open he steps inside, pulling Molly along beside him. I know without a doubt he won’t let go of her until they’re both safely inside their apartment. In the weeks since coming to live with Ryan and Grace, Henry has become almost as protective of Molly as he is of Allison.

“That counts astwo,” Molly exclaims right before the elevator doors slide closed between us and them. As soon as they’re gone, I look at Ryan.

“So… how’s it going?” I ask on a laugh. Despite the withering glare my cheeky question earns me, I know the answer. Ryan is the happiest he’s ever been.

I know because I’ve been with him from almost the beginning. I was his nurse at Sojourn, before Patrick built the veteran center from the ground up, just so Ryan would have a safe place to live. When his sister, Henley, came to me and asked me to consider quitting Sojourn to come work here as Ryan’s private nurse, my first instinct was to tell her no. Not because I didn’t want to but because every time I look at him, I’m reminded of the brother I lost—which, oddly enough, happens to be the reason I said yes.

“He still sneaks into Allison’s room every night and sleeps on the floor next to her crib,” Ryan tells me with a flat, exasperated smile. “And he punched a kid on the playground yesterday for calling him anorphan.Bloodied the kid’s nose. Grace had to go down there and smooth things over.”

“Hmmm…” I make a noise in the back of my throat while I arch an eyebrow at him. “Sounds vaguely familiar,” I tell him—a not so gentle reminder of all the assaults he committed while he was still very messed up and a resident at Sojourn. Unchecked rage was just one of the issues Ryan has spent the last year and a half battling. Before he can tell me to shut my trap or call meNurse Ratchet, I close the subject by changing it completely.“What time do you need me to come over tonight?” Like Molly’s question about Mookie, it’s a dumb one. It’s been the same time every Friday night for the past several months.

When I ask it, Ryan gives me a rare, genuine smile. “Sorry, Nurse Ratchet—you’re on bridesmaid duty tonight, remember?”

The knots that had slowly been loosening in my stomach retie themselves in an instant. How he knows about his sister’s sudden and impending bachelorette party is anyone’s guess. This family is in each other’s business 24/7. “No.” I shake my head emphatically. “You have?—”

“Class.” He gives me another grin. “And an exam I can’t miss… that’s why Mary is going to come stay with the kids tonight while you and Grace go out.”

Mary.

Declan and Conner’s mother.

I forgot about her. She and her husband have been back from Ireland for almost six months now and she’s been chomping at the bit to spend more time with the kids.

“Ry—”

“Mary’s staying with the kids,” Ryan repeats himself firmly. “So if you want to try to ditch out on tonight, you’re going to have to explain it to Tess.” He gives me one of those old Ryan, asshole smirks that make me want to strangle him. “Good luck with that.”

Before I can even think of a reasonable line of argument, he turns away from me and shuffle thumps his way to the elevator, leaving me to silently curse the day I said yes to Henley when she asked me to be a bridesmaid.

SIX

WENTWORTH

After Tess left,I closed up shop for the day. On any other Friday, I’d run home to take a quick shower before I headed across town to pick my nephew, Noah, up from school. Once I had him in tow, I’d spend a few hours with him, running around the city, before finally taking him home and handing him off to Silver, his mother and my sister. After that, I’d head to Gilroy’s and start my shift, spending the next eight hours checking IDs and breaking up bar fights before heading home to fall on my face.

But this isn’t a normal Friday because the F5 tornado that is Tesla Castinetti just rolled through here and fucked me all the way up with four little words.

…and Ryan’s nurse, Kait.

I still don’t completely understand how she got here. How Kait just…appearedright in front of me, after all the years between then and now. How, with a whole fucking continent to choose from, she ended uphere. Just planted herself in my fucking backyard and refused to be uprooted.

She tried explaining it to me once, but I’ll confess I wasn’t really paying attention. I was too busy getting her naked to understand a goddamn thing she was telling me.

I do know that I asked her to leave Boston, and she told me no and that when Itoldher to leave, she laughed in my face.

I don’t want to. I finally have a life that I like and people in it who likeme. I’m not willing to walk away from that.

Since leaving Boston wasn’t an option for me either, we agreed, even though our lives are hopelessly and inexplicably tangled, that it would be best for everyone if we steered clear of each other.

I’ll live my life and you’ll live yours and as far as everyone else is concerned, we’ve never met.

We compromised. She agreed to stay away from Gilroy’s, even on the days that I’m not working, and I agreed to stay away from the center, which is why, when I walk Grace home from work, I leave her at the rear entrance instead of walking her to her apartment door. She agreed to give me Benny’s because it’s where everyone goes for after shift pancakes and I told her she can have Gilroy Sunday dinners because family dinners have always been a foreign concept to me. Aside from the occasional pizza with Silver and Noah or my annual, obligatory dinners at Davino’s with my mother, I haven’t shared a dinner table with anyone in years.

Those are the rules and even though I’ve never been much for rule following, I stick to them because I know what will happen if I don’t.

I’ll slide right back into my obsession with Kaitlyn Barrett and that’s not something I can afford to do.

Slidebackinto your obsession with Kaitlyn Barrett? Take a look around you—Kaitlyn Barrett is one habit you’ve never been able to kick—not since the first moment you saw her and certainly not since the last.

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