Killian: A West Bend Saints Romance Read online

  45

  Killian

  A year later

  "Hurry, Killian!" Chloe whispers. "I heard her car! Hide it, hide it!"

  I squeeze red frosting out of the bag that Lily always uses to get the frosting on the cupcakes in these perfect little swirls. This doesn't remotely look like her handiwork. Glancing through the cabin window that overlooks the driveway, I see Lily opening her car door. "How does it look?"

  Chloe looks back and forth between me and the cupcakes, her face screwed up into a grimace. "Not so good."

  "Oh, yeah? We'll tell her you decorated them, then."

  "No, way, Killian!"

  "You're telling me these are so bad that you don't even want to take credit for them?" I ask, sliding the tray into the fridge to hide them.

  "Mine wouldn't be red. They'd have glitter on them, too."

  "Red velvet is her favorite. The red frosting goes with them."

  Chloe cocks her head to the side when she looks at me. "The ones at the bakery have white frosting. Cream cheese."

  "Hey now, I was trying something different!" I protest, just as Lily comes to the door. "Okay, look innocent."

  Chloe adopts an expression that looks guiltier than sin, crossing her arms over her chest and humming while looking around the room as she stands on her stepstool by the kitchen island. I have to stifle a laugh.

  The front door closes and Lily pauses inside the entrance to the kitchen, sighing loudly. "What a week. I'm so glad it's Saturday. Can we Why are you two standing there like that?"

  "Like what?" I ask innocently.

  "Staring at me like you just broke my favorite dish and glued the pieces back together."

  "I didn't break anything!" Chloe squeals.

  Lily narrows her eyes. "I told you, no birthday surprises."

  "But it's your birthday!" Chloe yells, running up to her mother and wrapping her arms around her waist. The kid has gotten so damn tall over the past year, I swear that by the time she's ten, she's going to be as tall as Lily. She's also the spitting image of her mother, especially when they're standing side by side.

  Lily kisses the top of Chloe's head. "I know. And if I have no birthday parties, I'll stay my very young age of twenty-nine forever. Just like I have every other year."

  "You have to have a birthday cake!" Chloe squeals. "Or cupcakes."

  I give Chloe my best don’t-spill-the-secret glare.

  "Have you been eating cupcakes? You're bouncing off the walls."

  "Nope, nope, nope!"

  "Don't look at me," I protest, my hands raised. "You know I took her to soccer practice this morning. I wish I had her energy."

  Chloe bounces – literally, she hops across the room – to the island and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. "Don't forget what else we did!"

  "Chloe…" I warn.

  "We went fishing. And I caught two trout! Killian only caught one and it was small."

  "Yeah?" Lily asks. "You're getting good."

  "I know. Are we going to eat soon? I'm starving!" Chloe munches on her apple.

  "Out of the kitchen, kid. Both of you." I wave them out. "Go bug your mom for a while so I can make dinner."

  I listen to their voices from the living room as Chloe tells her mother about soccer practice this morning and how Jordan doesn't like Celia because Celia scored a goal and told Jordan to "suck it – can you believe that? She actually said that. That's really bad, mom!" I already got the full play-by-play of the soccer drama on the way back to the cabin after practice.

  Holy shit, I had no idea the drama that having an eight-year-old girl in my life would entail. The kids go from best friends to enemies and then back to best friends in a matter of an afternoon, and Lily and I get the full rundown from Chloe every day. Sometimes when Chloe is relaying it to us over dinner, I look across the table at Lily and I have to hide my smile with my hand because some of it is truly the most ridiculous stuff I've ever heard.

  It's also the best. For the past year, this cabin (where we stay on weekends, except during winters when we can't get up the mountain) has been filled with noise and laughter and total chaos. It's the exact opposite of the quiet life I thought I'd have when I came back to West Bend, determined to hide out here by myself.

  Instead, my life is a whirlwind of nonstop soccer practice and swim lessons and camp and "I don't want to go school today!" and "She said she hates me!" and science projects and pointing out constellations in the sky and building our own rocket and laughter. A lot of laughter. And kid's movies so many kid's movies that I can't remember the last time I watched a movie that didn't involve a plucky girl and her pet horse. Or a plucky girl and her pet deer. Or a plucky girl solving mysteries.

  Now my life involves sitting out on the back deck of the cabin after Chloe is asleep with Lily on my lap while she drinks a glass of wine and talks about plans for the store. It involves carrying Lily into her bedroom in our house in town – without the ten thousand fluffy pillows on the bed anymore, because they were so damn annoying – and throwing her down on the bed and burying my face between her legs. It involves waking up beside her and hearing her breathe deeply – okay, it's more like a little snore, but I keep that part to myself – while she snuggles up next to me and hits the snooze button on the alarm for the sixth time.

  Lily has been mine since the moment I spilled coffee on her shirt in the general store. Tonight, I'm going to make that official.

  Lily

  "Killian! Let me get it! Let me get it!" Chloe pushes her chair back from the table on the cabin deck and stands up, racing to the door and into the house.

  "She's excited," I note.

  "She's not the only one." Killian grins at me.

  "What are you up to?" I ask. "You're really trying to get in my pants tonight, aren't you?" Killian has gone above and beyond already, recreating our first date for my birthday dinner – the exact meal he cooked me then, and the deck all lit up with lights just like he did before.

  "God, I hope I get in your pants." Killian grins.

  Chloe bursts back through the open door with a pan of cupcakes. "Happy birthday!" she screams, setting them down on the table.

  "Did you make these?" I ask.

  "No way, mom. I know how to do frosting right. Killian did!"

  "You're going to really sell me out like that when I took you fishing this morning?" Killian asks.

  "I can't lie!" Chloe squeals, clasping her hands together. "Take a cupcake! Wait, no. I'll do it. I can do it, right, Killian?"

  "Sure."

  Chloe puts a cupcake on my plate and looks at me expectantly. "Eat it."

  I look back and forth between the two of them. "What did you guys do to this? Is this a jalapeño cupcake or something?"

  "No, but you know, that's a good cupcake flavor idea," Killian points out.

  I narrow my eyes at them as I bring the cupcake to my mouth.

  "No, WAIT!" Chloe yells loudly, and I nearly have a heart attack, dropping the cupcake on the plate.

  "What?"

  "I just don't want you to choke on the ring!"

  "What?"

  Killian groans. "Chloe!"

  "If she bites it, she's going to swallow the ring!"

  "There's a ring?" I ask, laughing. "What are you guys talking about?"

  Chloe sticks her finger in the middle of the cupcake before I register what she's doing and pulls out a glob of red velvet cake with something shiny glinting in it. "Here, Killian!" she squeals, handing it to him. "Do it, do it!"

  "You guys are insane," I note as Killian takes the cupcake-covered ring in his hand and puts it in his mouth, cleaning off the cupcake before pulling it back out. He gets down on his knee and turns my chair to the side to face him as my heart beats a million times a minute.

  "Well, get on over here and help me, Chloe," Killian orders. "You can't leave me in the lurch now."

  Chloe whoops and climbs down from her chair, squealing as she kneels down beside Killian. "Can I say it