Page 5 of Only You

“True.”

“And he has been infatuated with her since she first walked in here. And the fact that she comes here a lot means she likes him too.”

“You don’t know that.”

“This,” she said, waving her hands around, “is a fireman bar. She’s a cop. They usually go to Houlihan’s Bar and Grill, a few streets over. She doesn’t.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that.”

“We just need to figure out how to get these two together.”

Wendy’s eyes widened. “You need to stay out of his business.”

Kaitlin said nothing, just nodded, even though she wasn’t really agreeing. Wendy should know better because she’d been around the family for a decade. Fitzpatricks believed in family, and by that, she meant meddling was just a way of life for them.

Two

Eileen O’Reilly heard a murmur move through the office, pulling her attention from the report she was working on. Her brother Zach strode through the office. It took him a while to make it to her because he kept getting stopped by her co-workers. The O’Reillys were well known in this precinct since it had been her father’s when he was a cop. They were related to a lot of the people in this office either by blood or marriage. The fact that Zach was former FBI and had a lot of contacts only added to the number of people stopping him.

He was dressed in a suit, which wasn’t odd for him, even on a Saturday. Since he and his twin Zane had left the FBI, they ran their security firm and charged a pretty penny for their services. Their suits probably cost more than her monthly salary.

“What are you doing here?” she asked after he finally reached her desk.

“Hi, Eileen. How are you?” Zach asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

She rolled her eyes. Both of her brothers gave her crap for being too abrupt. She didn’t understand why people had to do small talk—not with family.

“Sorry, I forgot how sensitive you are. How are you today?”

He sighed and sat down in the chair next to her desk. “Irritated.”

Inwardly, she groaned. Out of the three siblings, Zach was the most emotional. Or, as Zane called him: ALOW—a lot of work. If he was in the mood to vent, there was no getting around it. She had a pile of work to get done before running home to prepare for an anniversary party for the Fitzpatricks.

Then it hit her. She narrowed her eyes as she studied him. “No, you promised to go with me.”

He couldn’t back out on her this late in the game. She needed him there. He and Zane were her buffer against…Eileen didn’t want to even think his name. And she knew that Zane was in DC on a case. Before he could respond to her comment, they were interrupted.

“Hey, Zach,” a voice said behind her, and she managed not to roll her eyes, but it was close. She knew that voice, unfortunately. Working in the same precinct as your ex was difficult, but she didn’t have a choice. “What are you doing here?”

Zach kept eye contact with her for a long moment before looking up at Bryan Comstock. “Talking with my sister,Bryan.”

Zach had never liked her ex. Actually, neither of her brothers liked him. They tended to leave her alone about who she dated, but Bryan…they both had a distaste for him from the moment they’d met him. Mainly because they deemed him lazy and arrogant, which Eileen refused to admit at the time. Now, she had to deal with him almost daily.

It might be that he was a legacy like her. Bryan and Eileen came from a long line of cops, but Bryan always seemed to think he deserved more. Hell, half the station house were legacies. Most of them had something to prove, and they worked twice as hard. Bryan was the one who expected something because of his last name, and he rarely had a good reputation, no matter whatdepartment he worked. The only solace she had was that she’d beat him out at the academy on every level, which was why they didn’t last. She also made detective a whole year ahead of him and was now working in homicide. He had just made detective and was working in Vice.

Knowing she had no choice, she turned and looked at him. He was dressed down for the day in jeans and a Ravens sweatshirt. His hair was short, cut meticulously, and probably by someone who charged more than she would pay. He had chocolate brown eyes that had once been her downfall. She now understood he could fake empathy.

When she said nothing, her brother decided to poke Bryan. “I guess we could ask the same thing, Bryan. You’re not dressed for work.”

“I forgot my gym bag here yesterday. Didn’t want it to be ripe by Monday. Plus, I had to get out to pick up some flowers for my date tonight.”

Neither Zach nor Eileen said anything to that. With Bryan, it was better to just cut him off. If not, you were going to be stuck talking to him forever.

“Okay, well, I’ll see you later.”

When he finally left, she released a breath. Eileen hadn’t realized how the muscles in her back had tensed during the very short interaction.

“I still have no idea why you dated him.”

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