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10

CONOR

With a tired yawn, I checked my cell phone and grunted when I saw one of the crew I barely used anymore, Craig, had delivered Katina safe and sound to Lily Lancaster’s home in West Orange.

Not that I needed the notification.

Two minutes later, I had a text from her.

Katina: Conor, if I’m REALLY good, do you think Star will let me have a cat?

Me: I’ve heard about kids like you.

Katina: Whaa. Kids like me? What did I do?

Me: Kids that go behind their mom’s backs to get what they want.

Me: ^^ I did that too! Welcome to the club.

Katina: Eeeeeeeeeeeep. I’m so happy to join!

Me: Thought you might BUT I’m not an idiot, Kat. You think I’m going to say yes to you getting a cat when Star would literally take my computers away from me if we didn’t consult her first?

Me: Sorry, little dudette, you’re on your own in that fight.

Katina: No fair! But you like cats.

Me: How do you know that?

Katina: I’ve seen your sparkly one.

Me: Yeah, sparkly one, Kat. It isn’t alive. I can’t keep things alive.

Katina: Luckily for you, Star can! Me too. I’d be soooooo careful with them.

Me: Wait, THEM? You said one.

Katina: See, it’s Amara’s fault. You know her, right? She’s kinda nuts but her Old Man (he isn’t old, but the Sinners call themselves ‘old’ everything. I’ve learned just not to ask. They get offended when I ask how old they

I snickered out loud at that.

Me: They, what?

Katina: Sorry, hit send before I finished.

Katina: Anyways, Quin, Amara’s Old Man (who is totally younger than her and Hawk. Did Star tell you that Amara has two boyfriends? I don’t know how she does it. Boys are so needy, aren’t they? Not Shay, though. Shay’s different. Do you think Shay likes me?)

When she didn’t send a follow-up text, I studied the many questions she’d asked me.

Was I supposed to answer all of them?

Katina: Conor?

Okay, so she was waiting for an answer.

Me: I did know that Amara has two boyfriends.

Me: Boys are very needy. Best to stay away from them.

I thought about Star dealing with teenage boys who tried to go to second base early and tacked on:

Me: Wait until you’re thirty. They tend to get more interesting then.

Katina: Until I’m THIRTY? That’s so long, Conor. They’re needy but they’re pretty!!

Me: You shouldn’t touch things just because they’re pretty.

Okay, that was the pot calling the kettle black seeing as I liked touching Star, but I wasn’t ten years old either.

Me: Trust me. Thirty is your year. You can look but don’t touch.

Katina: No fair.

Me: You’ll thank me when you’re thirty.

If I kept on repeating thirty, it’d act like subliminal programming, right?

Me: I’m sure Shay likes you very much. I’m glad you like him too. He’s a good kid.

Me: So, where were you going with this conversation?

Not that I wanted to talk about cats, but cats were better than boys.

Fuck my life, when had this become a problem I had to handle?

Katina: Amara brought in these kittens. They’re so little, Conor, and they’re like me.

Me: How?

Katina: Their mom left them. But I want to be their Star!

Hearing the elevator buzzer sound, I slapped a hand over my face.

How in the hell was I supposed to say no to that?

Me: Leave it with me. I’ll talk to Star.

Katina: Yaaaaayyyyyyy! Thank you, Conor!!!!

Me: You’re welcome. But don’t get your hopes up. I can’t imagine this is the first time you’ve asked Star for a pet and I’m pretty sure she’s always said no.

Katina: Of course! She wasn’t happy then. She is now. Though I did hear you make her cry. I don’t like it when Star cries, Conor. Please don’t do that again.

Katina: I’m going to play with the kitties! Bye, Conor!!

I stared blindly at the screen.

Had she…? Like Jake?

Jesus.

Explaining Star’s tears to a toddler while Finn had snickered at me was a real low point in my life. Justifying it to a preteen wasn’t something I needed to deal with in the future.

I needed locks.

And soundproofing.

Stat.

As I dropped maintenance an email, I heard Star call out, “You in your office?”

I peered at her through my fingers as she ducked her head around the door to scope out the room.

“Oh, you are!” Her brow furrowed. “What is it? What’s wrong—” Her mouth gaped. “Are those glasses ?”

Moving my hand aside, I let the frames fall onto my face from where they’d been digging into my forehead. “They are.”

“Since when do you wear glasses?”

“When my eyes are tired.” I shot her a serious look. “By this point, I’m thinking the whole house heard us because Kat, like my nephew, thinks I made you cry.”

Star blinked. “You kind of did. In a good way.”

“It’s not as if I could tell her that,” I grumbled.

Her lips twitched. “Are you embarrassed? You need to toughen up. She says worse stuff than that. She once asked me where Tiffany, Sin’s Old Lady, got her helium balloons from.”

I frowned. “She has big tits?”

“Nope, even better. She’s pretty high-pitched when she gets going…”

“And Kat thought she was?—”

“Yup. I told her that they had a private stash and that she wasn’t to ask if she could have any of them.”

“How much do you bet she asked?”

She smirked. “I was there when she did. It was a proud, proud moment in my life.”

“I’m sure.” I snorted.

“Does that mean she made it back to the compound in West Orange safely?”

“It does.” Dislodging my glasses, I rubbed my eyes again. “She wants two cats.”

“Two?! How the hell did you manage to up the stakes when I was happy with zero?”

I glowered at her. “She said they were like her—they lost their mom and she wanted to be their Star!” Her expression turned pensive so I wafted a hand at her. “Why do you look constipated?”

“Because I’m calculating the odds of her trying to manipulate us or if that’s just a knee-jerk response after the other day and talking about family.”

“Okay. What are the odds?”

“I’m not sure.” She pulled a face. “We can’t have two cats. I can barely keep her alive.”

See, that was why I loved this woman—we were kindred spirits.

“Maybe it’ll be different if we work on that together.”

A frown settled in her eyes. “You say things like that and it gives me heartburn.”

My brows lifted. “I say nice things and it gives you acid reflux?”

She rubbed her chest. “Right here. I’m not used to this.” I watched as she staggered over to my desk and plunked her ass on the edge. “You need to only say things that you mean.”

“I do.”

“Kat’s special.”

“I know.”

“I don’t… You can’t…” She stopped rubbing. “Could you take off your glasses? They’re distracting.”

With an eyeroll, I dropped them on the desk and rocked back in my chair. “My lap’s more comfortable than the desk. Or did you forget that already?”

Biting her lip, she propelled herself upright and then stumbled over to me. When she settled heavily in my lap and her face instantly burrowed into my throat, I just held her, knowing that I’d inadvertently overwhelmed her and that she needed a moment to process.

I tried to multitask, but without my glasses, the lines on my monitor were blurrier than ever—damn, I needed a nap—so I just rocked back in my seat and closed my eyes, taking the respite where I could grab it.

After at least five minutes of silence, I drawled, “Getting maintenance to install a lock on the bedroom door.”

Her chuckle was low. “You’ve got your priorities straight.”

“I like to think so seeing as I also cleared out that desk over there for you,” I murmured into her hair.

“Which one? There are several in here.”

“You liked the glass one.”

“Maybe I like this one.”

“You’re so fucking contrary. If you like this one, then we’ll get you this one.”

“I was only pulling your leg.”

“You can pull something else. My leg has to remain attached.”

“But your dick doesn’t?”

“Some things are worth the sacrifice.”

“You’re lucky I’m not a cannibal,” she spluttered around a laugh, but I could hear the easing of tension in her voice and that made me smile—job done. A couple minutes later, she whispered, “I need you to mean that, Conor.”

“Mean what? About my legs needing to remain attached?” I teased.

“No.” She shoved my other shoulder. “What you said about working on keeping things alive together.” She sucked in a breath. “I’m used to everyone leaving me, Conor, so to hear you say that is… I, just, I need you to mean it.”

“Some women are too much of everything,” I said slowly. “Too intelligent, too strong, too capable. Some men can’t deal with that. They think they need to compete. To be more intelligent, stronger, and more capable. But my self-esteem isn’t so miserly that I need to put you down to feel like a man.

“You’ve lived in the fakest places on this planet—Hollywood and the CIA—so it makes sense that you don’t understand what I am. Who I am.

"I’m an O’Donnelly, Star. We cherish our women. We protect them. We kill for them. We don’t compete with them because there’s no competition between us. We are on the same team, and you’ve just never experienced that before because for all the crap Da taught us, that was one lesson he rammed home more than any other.

“You are mine , Star.

“Whether you accept that or not, whether you run off tomorrow, whether you try to push me away, I’m not going anywhere. I’m by your side. We’re in this together and we always will be.

“And that means Kat is too. She’s mine as much as you are. We’ll keep her and the cats alive because we’re a team, and what did I tell you the other day?”

A soft laugh escaped her. “That teamwork makes the dream work?”

“Exactly.”

When I felt the tears against my throat, I stopped talking and just continued holding her.

It was a message I knew I’d have to reiterate over the years, but there was joy in that because we had many tomorrows ahead of us.

I closed my eyes again, content to just relax as she settled deeper into my embrace, then when, only God knew how long later, she mumbled, “She can have the damn cats,” I just smiled to myself.

Kat owed me big time, and she didn’t even know it yet.