KILLIAN: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

concerned she might stab me in the back or something. It wasn’t like Stacy to be generous, especially to me, but she actually smiled when our eyes met.
    “I only have chicken,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
    “Mom used to make that baked chicken with the potato chips on it. Remember? It was always my favorite.”
    “Mine, too.”
    She grabbed a big bag of potato chips and tossed it at me. “Get to work.”
    I raised my eyebrows, wondering why she was suddenly being so kind. But I got to work, crushing the potato chips while she got the thawed chicken from the refrigerator. We worked side by side almost like we once did when Mom was still alive. She’d be proud if she could see us now.
    “I miss her,” Stacy said a while later as we sat at the kitchen table, digging into the food.
    “Me, too.”
    “Do you think things would have been different if we’d known sooner? If we could have had a say in her care?”
    “She had pancreatic cancer, Stace. She was going to die no matter what we did.”
    She nodded, as she dragged her fork over her mashed potatoes. “If he’d told us sooner—”
    “It wasn’t his decision. Mom didn’t want us sitting around, watching her get sicker and sicker. She wanted us to suffer as little as possible.” I put down my fork and lifted the bottle of beer she’d provided for me. Just before I put it to my lips, I looked over at her. “Do you think it was easy for him, dealing with all that alone? Do you think he didn’t want us there, that he didn’t want the support of having his family around to help him make choices? It was all her, not him.”
    She shook her head and I could feel the heat of her anger burning just under the surface. I knew she’d understand some day, but right now, the grief was still a little too fresh—even though it’d been five years since Mom died. She was close to Mom, maybe closer than the rest of us. I thought maybe she was angrier with Mom for shutting her out when she could have used her support the most—rather than at Pops for keeping her away. But I wasn’t going to say that to her. She’d probably cut my balls off if I did.
    “What kind of woman do you find attractive?”
    Once again, she threw me for a loop. I stared at her, stared at her body language—she did not look like a woman who was in the frame of mind to have a casual discussion about romance—wondering where the hell this was coming from.
    “Why?”
    “Do you think Sara is pretty?”
    “Sara who?”
    “My supervisor. From the ad agency.”
    I shrugged, downing half the bottle of beer before I set it down and took a generous bite of chicken. “She’s attractive,” I said around the food.
    Stacy looked disgusted as she glanced at me. I wasn’t quite sure if it was because of my opinion or the whole talking with food in my mouth thing. All I knew was that I didn’t like it when she looked at me like that.
    I set my fork down and studied her a moment longer. “Why?”
    She shrugged. “It occurred to me that if you had a girlfriend, you might leave me the hell alone. And Sara expressed an interest.”
    “Pops wants me here. As long as he does—”
    “Yeah, yeah, we all know what a loyal son you are.”
    “Why are you so averse to me being around? You used to like me.”
    “That was before you took his side in all this.”
    “In all what?”
    “Mom. That new wife of his. The secret baby.”
    “She’s hardly a baby. She’s only three years younger than me.”
    “Yeah, well, she was still a secret. What do you think Mom would have done if she’d known?”
    “Probably the same things she did for you and Ian and Kyle and Kevin. She would have welcomed her into the family with open arms.”
    I knew she knew I was right. She pushed away her plate of food and stood, marching into the kitchen. I followed, catching her arm as she reached for a bottle of wine on the counter. The bottle fell and spilled across the counter, making her cry out.
    “Asshole! Do