“Oh, no.”
With a smirk, he replied. “It was the whole lot of them. Your mother, Aunt Maria, your other Aunt Maria, your Aunt Agnes, Sophia, your cousin Sophia, and I believe your cousins Angie and Maria were there.”
Blake turned and looked at me. “Do Greeks believe in recycling names or something?”
With a stony expression, I stared at Blake as he replied, “What? It is a legitimate question!”
Putting my attention back on my father, I asked, “Did Mom say or do anything to let Kilyn know she was my mother?”
“That you would have to ask your mother, but if I had to put money on it I’d say she did.”
“Fuck!”
“I’ll wash that fucking mouth of yours out with soap young man if you curse like that again.”
Blake laughed. “But you said—”
Holding up my hand, I cast a warning to Blake. “Don’t. Just leave it.”
Hearing my mother’s voice grow closer, I said a silent prayer she hadn’t messed things up even more with Kilyn.
They walked up and my eyes bounced around looking for Kilyn.
My mother walked up to me and kissed me on both cheeks. “Kilyn slipped out the side door. Said she had to get back into town to meet with another client. Very nice, your Irish girl. Very smart with the colors too.”
I was positive my mother saw the look of pure disappointment on my face.
“Yeah. She is.”
Blake and Claire were the next to excuse themselves. This was it. I had no other excuse to have Kilyn here. I had her right in my reach and I let her slip away.
Again.
THE DOOR TO my office flew open as I let out a scream and slammed the book I was reading shut.
“Whatcha reading?”
Glaring at Claire, I shook my head. “Did you forget how to knock?”
With a smirk, she sat down and propped her feet up on my desk. “You didn’t answer me.”
I leaned back in my chair and inspected her carefully. She was up to something. “Well, you didn’t answer me either.”
“Nope, I asked first.”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, I sat up. “For Christ’s sake, Claire, what do you want?”
“I want to know what you’re reading and then I want to know why you felt like you had to sneak out of Thano’s house yesterday. You left me with Katerina and . . . what was her name? Yeeyaw? Heehaw? Shit, it was something like that.”
With a shocked laugh, I asked, “Are you serious? Why did I sneak out? The whole tour his grandmother kept mentioning Thano having babies. His mother must have mentioned a dozen times about me being Irish and not to mention she knew who I was when she came to the cooking class, Claire! Do you understand that? She came to check out who the evil leprechaun was going after her precious Greek god son!”
Claire sat there with a screwed up face. “Did you just call yourself a leprechaun?”
Adjusting in my seat, I looked out the window. “It was the first thing that came to my mind.”
When she busted out laughing, I couldn’t help but do the same.
We laughed so hard we had tears running down our cheeks. Every time I tried to say something, I laughed harder.
“I’m. Going. To. Pee. My. Pants!” Claire gasped.
The light knock on the door had us both looking up. I jumped up with a start, causing Claire to lose her balance and fall out of the chair.
The guy standing on the other side of my office was drop dead gorgeous. Not as gorgeous as Thano, but he was for sure easy on the eyes.
“Excuse me, Ms. O’Kelly?”
“Yes,” Claire and I said at once. I quickly shot a look over to Claire who let out a nervous chuckle.
“Sorry. She’s Ms. O’Kelly and I’m totally going to excuse myself.”
The guy flashed a smile and a dimple on each cheek appeared. Claire turned to me and dropped her mouth open as she mouthed. Holy shit!
Walking around my desk, I met him half way as he entered my office.
“I’m Kilyn O’Kelly. May I help you?”
“Dale Conner.”
Hmm, even his name was dreamy. Then it hit me. “Oh my God. Mr. Conner’s son! I’m so sorry, Mr. Conner. I totally forgot we had that shopping trip booked. When your father called me yesterday to say you were stepping in, it totally slipped my mind. Please forgive me.”
It was then I noticed he was still holding onto my hand. Lifting it to his lips, he smiled as he kissed the back of my hand. “Trust me, Ms. O’Kelly, you have nothing to apologize for. The fact is, I was dreading this afternoon until I realized that I get to spend an afternoon with the most beautiful woman in Colorado.”
My face heated as he looked at me with hungry eyes. Maybe this was what I needed to put a little more distance between Thano and me.