Page 39 of Tainted Blood

“Where’s Connor?”

“He’s helping Claudia get ready.”

“Oh, yeah. Helping, all right. He better make it quick,” I say as I roll my eyes and chuckle.

“Come on—you know it will be over quick,” Jack teases.

“They’ll be down fast because she doesn’t want her cake to be ruined.” We nod, and then Cain comes up to me, rubbing his head on my bad leg.

“Whoa, no, Cain,” Jack yells, trying to shoo him away.

I wave my brother off because I’m good. Frankly, it’s a good test of my strength. “Come here, boy.”

“Ian, your suit. Nora is going to finish the job if you show up with dirt on your suit.”

“I need to hurry up and scarf this down because I don’t have a lot of time to get ready,” Jack says, opening the bags like a starved man.

“Where is your suit?”

“It’s in Connor’s office so it’s away from the dog. Can I use your room to change in?”

“Sure, why not?”

“I want to make sure I have everything I need.” He runs his hand through his hair. “Shit, I feel like I forgot something.”

“I’m sure we can get it with no problem at all.” We both eat quickly, avoiding conversation so that we can get a move on.

“Excuse me, but is Claudia around?” Sarah asks.

“We’re coming,” Connor shouts from the stairwell, buttoning up his dress shirt. Claudia scurries behind him in a pretty pink dress that she and Nora picked out.

Jack’s phone rings, and he answers it while chewing on a bite of his breakfast sandwich. “Hey, what’s up? Yeah, come get him. No, better yet, Connor’s going to come get him.”

“What’s going on?” I ask when he hangs up.

“That was her brother. John’s going a little bit stir crazy over there, and Nora’s trying to get dressed but he doesn’t trust anybody else.”

“Is your truck out front? Or did you walk?”

“It’s out front.” Jack tosses him the keys, and he rushes out. John’s car seat is in his truck. We should all have a spare, now that I’m thinking about it.

“Good. We can have a nice picture with all you boys together.” Claudia waves a digital camera around.

“Hopefully,” I mutter, knowing she’s going to have a hard time getting the picture she wants. “We all know that it’s going to be hard for John to sit still and take a photo.”

“Well, we’ll get what we get,” she adds. That’s a great way to look at it. Whatever photo we manage will be worth remembering. A smile comes to my face thinking about it.

“I’ve got to change.” Jack goes into the office and grabs the travel bag with his suit and heads up to the bedroom, while I relax on the sofa waiting for everyone to return.

“So are you okay?” Sarah asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“You look sad.”

I give her a fake smile and say, “No, I’m good.” I’ll be even better tomorrow.

“Please let me know if you need anything.” She turns to Claudia and says, “Mrs. MacNamara, can I have a word with you? The catering company has questions, and I don’t know what to tell them.”

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