“I’m so glad,” she breathed. This was good news. Maybe she’d feel better than she had the last few days knowing that Maeve was okay. She wouldn’t have to feel so guilty.
Although she knew deep inside it wasn’t just guilt that made her feel so spiritless and sluggish.
“He told me a few things I can try to help,” Maeve said. “I need to exercise my brain more. He told me to get one of those things…what’s it called? A Game Boy?”
“What!” Keara laughed. “Really?”
“There are games you can buy that work your brain, apparently. I told him I just need more sex.”
“Maeve!”
“Well, it’s true. Those sex hormones also help cognitive function. But Glen won’t take that Viagra and it’s putting a damper on our relationship.”
“Oh no. You’re not seeing him anymore?”
“We are. But if he’s not as interested in sex as I am, it’s not going to last long. Let’s be honest here.”
Her forthright, amazingly blunt tale made Keara smile and her heart soften. Damn, she missed her!
“Have you seen Shane?” she asked.
“Um. No.” Maeve’s voice changed tone. “He called me a little while ago, to find out when my doctor appointment was. He wanted to take me. When I told him it was today and I’d already gone, he sounded…upset.”
“Oh.” Keara wanted to know if they’d talked about her, but couldn’t bring herself to ask.
“He sounded a bit down,” Maeve continued. “I think you broke his heart, Keara.”
Keara’s own heart seized. “I did not.”
She was such a crybaby lately. She was supposed to be a tough, cool businesswoman, but thinking of Shane’s heart made her tear up again. Because she knew his heart wasn’t the only one affected.
Maeve sighed. “I don’t know what to do about you two. I thought maybe if you spent your last night with him, you’d realize your feelings for him, but I guess that didn’t work.”
“You planned that, didn’t you? Shane showing up that night and you taking off. You probably didn’t even have a date with Glen that night.”
Keara heard a muffled laugh. “Why would I make a date with Glen on your last night?”
“I knew it!” Keara shook her head, but smiled. “You are so bad.”
“Well, I thought it worked when you stayed out all night with him, but it was all for nothing, apparently.” Maeve paused. “How did things go at work?”
“Fine,” Keara said. Lying just a little. After the first shaky day, she was getting back into things, but so far had found little of the joy and excitement she used to get. “I’m getting caught up.”
After their chat, Keara hung up and the dense silence in her apartment closed in on her.
She felt sorry for herself. She needed to call her friends. So she did. First she called Essie.
“Keara! Are you back?”
“I’m back.” She leaned into the couch cushions and tucked her feet under her. “How are you? How’s that baby of yours?”
“Oh God, he’s growing like crazy.” Essie yacked on for twenty minutes about her progeny, his eating, sleeping and pooping habits. Keara was happy to hear they were doing well, but a little lost in that conversation. Then, after a promise to get together soon, she called Monica.
No answer.
Fine. She called Paige. She too was happy to hear from Keara, but sounded…cautious. Like maybe she was a nut case or something. “How are you doing?” she asked hesitantly. “How are the nightmares?”
“I haven’t had one for a while,” Keara replied. Maybe because so many nights had been spent with Shane. She had no fears with him, other than the fear of…well, him. Or maybe it was her feelings for him. “I’m doing much better. Really. Some strange things happened in Kilkenny, but all coincidence, and I’m back at work now.”
“That’s so good! But hey, I have to jet—I’m meeting Monica at a new club on Wilshire.”
“Oh. Okay.” She blinked. Waited for an invitation.
“So call me, okay? We’ll get together.”
She hung up the phone, dejected and even more lonely. She’d only been gone a few weeks. How could they have forgotten her that fast? Abandoned her?
Why hadn’t she just told Paige, hey, I’m coming with you guys.
Because she didn’t really want to go clubbing.
She leaned forward and picked up the smooth piece of pink and gold marble sitting on her coffee table, fingertips rubbing over the sleek, cool surface, and her heart contracted as she thought of everything she had left in Kilkenny.
Chapter Nineteen
The next night when she got home from work, she decided after she’d parked her car she’d walk to the ice-cream store on the corner and get ice cream for dinner. When you lived alone, that was completely acceptable.
She made her purchase of a carton of dulce de leche, her absolute fav, and started strolling back toward her apartment building. It was dark already, because she’d stayed late at work to review some reports that she needed to be up to speed on for a meeting tomorrow.
Footsteps crunched behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder, because a girl on her own in a big city couldn’t be too careful, not because she was paranoid. Well, maybe just a tiny bit. Maybe it would take a long time to get over some of the aspects of the post-traumatic stress. Maybe she’d never get over them.
She sighed and shifted her purse over her shoulder, reaching for her keys as she neared the entrance to the building, her heart speeding up just a bit. Once inside the security system of the building, she’d be fine.
She unlocked the door and shifted her ice cream to pull it open but the door swung wide as if it had blown open. She almost stumbled at the unexpected loss of weight in her hand, and then a body pressed up close behind her.
Her heart jerked in her chest, then thudded. What the hell? She whirled around, ready to give someone hell for bashing into her, but froze when she saw who it was.
Shane ambled into his parents’ house and headed to the refrigerator. He hoped they had beer. They always had whiskey, but not always beer. But then again, maybe he was in a whiskey mood.
Yeah. He turned from the fridge and sought out a glass. The bottle of Jameson’s sat on the counter.
“Shane, what are you doing here?” His mom walked into the kitchen.
He shrugged. “Thought you might need some things done around the house.”
“Oh.” She tipped her head. “Well. I don’t think so. Not at the moment.”
‘How’s Da?”
“He’s fine. He’s sitting out back. Enjoying the last of the evening.”
Huh. Shane took his glass of whiskey and wandered out the patio doors. An image of him and Keara out here flirting blinded him. He shook his head. “Hey, Da. How’s it going?”
His dad looked up in surprise from the book he was reading. “Shane, me boy. What are you doing here?”
Shane grunted. They’d both asked him that. Nice greeting. “Jesus. I can’t just drop by?”
“Well, sure and you can, we love to have you.”
“I thought you might have some things for me to do. Something to fix. What about that lawnmower? Wasn’t it acting up?”
“I took it to Precision Motors and they fixed it.”
“Oh.” Shane frowned. “I could have done that.”
“I know. But you were busy last weekend with Keara, so I just took it in.”
“How’d you get it there?”
“Your mother and Jeff across the street helped me. It was easy.”