coat over my shoulders. “If you drop me, who’s going to—”
“My car broke,” my brother said, cutting me off. He glanced at Mari before he met my eyes again.
She must’ve noticed, because she said that she was going to wait out front for us.
“Just take a seat on the sofa,” I told her. “Don’t go outside and wait.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but she finally nodded. She was never comfortable around Sierra. The girl was intimidating to some people, but Mari acted exceptionally guarded around her.
“Keely,” Harrison said, bringing my attention back to him. “My car broke, and I don’t have the fucking funds to fix it. It died in your driveway. I need to borrow your car for a while.”
My brother looked so tired. He had graduated law school with honors, but with this market, he couldn’t find a job. He was in the same position as me. We were barely making our bills. We weren’t as bad as Mari, but we were not far from her, either. The difference between Mari and us, though, was that she was always getting fired.
However, the reason I struggled and refused to go to college was, I had something to accomplish. I’d always dreamed of being on Broadway.
In some odd way, I always thought it was payback from Roisin. I could find a million jobs, but the one I wanted, I could never get. It was the reason I’d held my breath that night. I’d wanted what she had.
“Why didn’t you ask Lachlan?” I said.
“He has work.”
“Who’s going to—”
“I’ll pick you up,” Harrison said. “What time?”
I threw the keys at him and he caught them with one hand. “Don’t worry about picking me up. I’ll have a friend from work drop me off at home. You can pick me up tomorrow morning. I took a shift at Home Run.”
The real reason he wanted to borrow my car was written all over his face. He wanted to keep his plans with Mari. Any other day, I would’ve given him shit, but it’d been a long day.
“Keely,” he said, grabbing my arm before I walked out of my room. “She comes looking for you on this day every year.”
I turned to look at him. “I know,” I said. “So let’s get going—”
“No. Not Mari. Roisin. I feel her around you. It’s…heavy.” His eyes searched mine. “She’s worried about you. Maybe about all of us. But I have my sights on an opportunity that might pay off, Kee. I’m going to see a man about a job day after tomorrow. He got in touch with me. Said he’s been looking for a lawyer with my credentials. It seems promising. Maybe she’ll rest in peace once she knows we’re all okay.”
I couldn’t speak, so I nodded, wondering how much peace I was going to find in Scott tonight, when I met him at the restaurant for our date. Since I really didn’t have to work.
I blamed my entire predicament on my Mam’s tea leaf predictions. She’d always claimed to be able to read them, and months ago, when she told me that she’d seen something big in my future, a huge change, I thought she meant that I’d be getting a huge part on Broadway.
Broadway didn’t come calling, but the guy sitting in front of me did.
I was working at an indoor archery range in Brooklyn when a group of cops came in to take classes. None of them could shoot an arrow worth a shit, and I’d told them so.
One of the most confident ones had spoken up. “If you can do any better, by all means…” He gestured to the target.
“Your name, sharpshooter?” I’d said.
“Scott Stone,” he’d said. “Detective Scott Stone.”
Scott and I stood about the same height, even though he was wider, and after giving him a narrow-eyed glare as I passed, I shot the hat off his friend’s head and nailed it to the board. After Scott had stopped laughing, he told me he owed me a drink. The free drink was a reward for a long week, so I went. Shameful as it was to admit, sometimes I’d go on dates with guys just for the good food and drink, because I couldn’t afford it.
I had a decent time with Scott, though. He’d laughed the entire time, and when he had excused himself to use the bathroom, the girl serving drinks told me that he was like one of those cartoon characters who had hearts for eyes when he