The Collection (Contemporary Reverse Harem 5)

Chapter 14

SHANE

It was finally my turn to spend some time with the lovely Kealy, and I was damn happy about it. In fact, I didn’t even mind that my kids’ basketball team had just been trounced by the community center across town.

Where I’d grown up in Ireland, there wasn’t much for kids to do with their free time. No clubs or organized sports, not for miles. So, I’d always been the one to pull together enough boys—and girls if they wanted to join—for a football game or two. When I came to the States, to say I was surprised to find that football—actually, soccer—was only moderately popular was an understatement. So, I joined a basketball league because that’s what a lot of American guys seemed to like.

Boy, did I suck when I first started playing. But after much ridicule and humiliation, not to mention twisted ankles and elbows to the face, I got the hang of basketball well enough to coach kids in my spare time.

That day’s game had not gone as planned, but I wasn’t going to get down about the loss. You win some and lose some, and besides, these were just ten-year-old kids. I sent them home with their parents after the game and hopped into the locker room shower. I didn’t mind being stinky around the guys—Rand, Marlon, and Cross—and in fact, I loved to torture them with my sweaty stench, but I wasn’t about to foist that on our Kealy. It was hard to date a woman who couldn’t wait to get away from you.

Not fifteen minutes later, I was clean and smelling as sweet as I ever would. My cell beeped, letting me know Kealy was close by, and I went out in front of the center to meet her.

And boy, was I glad I did. I had the immense pleasure of admiring her confident and unassuming stroll as she walked down the street, checking out the neighborhood. She moved with purpose, like everyone in New York learned to do, but she was also taking in her surroundings, which were new to her. No one came to this neighborhood unless they lived here, or had an express reason to be here, like I did for my volunteering. It just wasn’t where you went for a stroll.

I knew that all too well.

“Shane!” she called, unaware I’d been watching her, which was just as well. Not many women I knew liked feeling stalked.

“Well, hello, beautiful,” I said, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Thank you for coming all the way here.”

“My pleasure,” she said, looking around the scruffy neighborhood. “It’s always nice to see a new part of the city.”

She was completed unfazed by the run-down houses and graffiti. There was more to this woman than met the eye, and I looked forward to learning what made her tick.

I nodded, looking around. “Ya know, the most wonderful people live here. They don’t have much, but they’re tight with their families and look out for their neighbors. ‘Course the neighborhood does have its downsides, but I prefer to focus on the positive.”

“So, you think you can teach me to shoot hoops?” she asked with a grin.

“Let’s go find out,” I said, holding the door for her.

We headed straight for the gym, a grand old room, musty and a little tired with a warped floor, but not without its charms. Old-school skylights helped brightened the place, and stained glass artwork spanned the transom spaces over the broad auditorium doors.

“Love this!” Kealy said, twirling three-hundred-sixty-degrees.

“Let’s go up in the bleachers and take in all in.” I extended my hand, which she took without hesitation.

I liked that.

“Just think of all the people who’ve come through this room, and how many sports have been coached, and how many games have been played,” she said wistfully.

I turned to look at her when we were settled into the bleachers’ top row.

“Sounds like you have a place like this in your past,” I said.

She looked at her hands for a moment. “I suppose. I went to a bunch of schools, growing up.”

“A lot of people would not have been comfortable in this neighborhood, but I noticed you were pretty unfazed,” I said.

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, a lot of my youth was in neighborhoods just like this. I guess you could say I’m pretty comfortable in places like this. For a long time, it was all I knew.”

“No kidding. Tell me more.” After several deafening basketball games earlier in the day, the gym was eerily quiet, like a sleeping giant. I loved it when it was crazy, and I loved it when it was quiet.

“I grew up in foster care and was bounced around a lot. I may have gone to a school with a gym like this, but they’ve all run together in my memory over the years.”

“I guess you’re one of the foster system’s success stories,” I said.

She smiled, and I could have sworn, in spite of that, something sad washed over her face. “Not sure I would say that. But I did get a lucky break. Everyone should get at least one lucky break in life. ‘Course some people get lots of them, and some people don’t get a damn one.”

“Isn’t that the truth? What was yours?” I asked.

“I got a nanny job with a family here, and they took a liking to me. Helped me get into college and even paid for part of it. I’d never had anyone in my life like that.”

“Wow. You keep up with them?”

“Oh, my god, yes. Marina—the mom—is like a big sister to me. And a fairy godmother. And a mentor. She always has my back. In fact, when I was recently having some issues at work, she immediately took me to lunch and gave me the best pep-talk ever. I’d be nowhere without those people.”

I looked at the beautiful Kealy. I’d been right. She did have a story. And I loved a woman with a story. Silly, shallow girls, step aside.

And damn if I couldn’t stop staring into those green eyes.

I raked a hand through my hair. “You know, speaking of your work, I overheard something strange at the party at Marlon’s last week, and I think it might have to do with you.”

She crinkled her nose. “Me? What did you hear, Shane?”

“Well, I was in the kitchen making myself a drink—I’m sure you remember how crowded that party was—and I overheard a guy bragging about pulling one over on his boss.”

Shit. Should I have continued? She didn’t need anything to add to her work miseries. But on the other hand, if my eavesdropping could help her, I didn’t want to hold back.

“So, the guy was saying that for Forest’s latest collection, he’d gotten credit for a lot of the work done by the rest of the team. He thought it was funny and was laughing about it.”

My poor girl paled, as if someone had just punched her in the gut, and I guessed the info I shared had done just that. She pressed her lips together in a thin line, and looked out over the auditorium from our high perch. I could see her thought process and knew she had the character to resist the victim claim and move into fighter mode.

“Was the guy wearing a bowtie?” she asked very quietly.

Shit. She knew exactly who I was talking about. I nodded and took her hand.

“I’m sorry to upset you,” I said.