Kennedy In Denver (In Denver Series Book 1) (13 page)

“It's a matter of time.” I heard him say as I walked upstairs to my room. I knew it was a matter of time but no reason not to make him work for it.

“Stacy, why are you on the floor?”

“Because I refuse to sleep in a room with bunk beds! Why do your parents have bunk beds, you're an only child?”

“My parents were foster parents for a long time. I guess they hoped they would be again.”

“It's sad, you should see Rhydian and Michael are on the top bunks; their legs are hanging over the side. I hope it doesn't turn into that scene from step-brothers.”

I'm laughing so hard I have tears coming down my face. “Tristan gave up his room with the queen bed to my parents and Stella, I mean Estelle, gave up her room to Liam and Rose. I think she is coming in here with Isabel. She can share the bed with you and Estelle can crash down here with me. It will be like a sleepover! Killian is on the sofa, and Easton is I don't know where. Tomorrow we will find a hotel. We just all wanted to be together tonight. It's been really hard with you gone.

Estelle came in with Isabel, “Sorry to interrupt.”

“No, it's okay. We were just talking.”

Isabel climbed in bed next to me. “I missed texting you, Kennedy. It's weird to call you that but I like that name better, and your way prettier now. Blonde is not your color!” Estelle and Stacy laughed.

The next morning Elena and my mom were cooking enough food for an army.

During breakfast, we discussed the opening of the conservatory and my pregnancy. Everyone wanted to know what I was having. When I announced twins and that I could be finding out the sex on my next visit, everyone wanted to come to my doctor’s appointment, and everything I had missed in the months I had been home. Elena and mom went to discussing how to divide time between them when the twins arrived. Shamus and my Dad drove out to the bay to go fishing, and the boys were out somewhere on the property riding four-wheelers. The Kerrigan’s took to country living like a fish to water. By dinnertime, everyone was hungry and tired from a full day of activity. Isabel wanted to play something she had been working on since I left and asked my mom if she could please use her piano. The boys raced out to the trucks to get their guitars, they had something to show me also. We all sat in the living room.

Isabel sat at the piano nervously. “The boys and I created this arrangement,” she said.

The boys started strumming. The melody was haunting and familiar, then the piano came in and I recognized the song but when Isabel open her mouth to sing, I was struck dumb. I looked to Liam and Rose and they looked just as baffled as I did.

Isabel's voice is low and husky; she sounds like Nina Simone. It’s unbelievable that voice is coming out of a twelve year old Irish girl. She has her eyes closed, and she hit every key with perfect timing. I had no idea Pure Imagination could be arranged like this, but it's magic. I can't take my eyes off the trio in front of me, but I hope to god someone is recording this. After they are done it takes her a minute to open her eyes, but the room erupts in applause.

“Guys that was amazing! How did you even come up with that arrangement? That was brilliant! And holy cow, Isabel, Why didn't you tell anyone you could sing like that!”

“I tried out for chorus at school and the director told me I didn't have a clear enough singing voice, and that I needed to work on my diction, so I stopped singing.”

“He is full of shit,” Jackson said. “He just wants his daughter to always have the solos. She has two solos every performance.”

“No one else gets a chance because his daughter is the star!” Max says. “The worst part is, she isn't even a great singer! She is always trying to sing these really hard songs, and she can't hit any of the notes. It sounds like a bag of cats in water!”

“Why didn’t you say anything to us?” Rose said. “I didn't want to bother you.”

“Well your teacher is an ass! And Jackson don't say shit anymore!” Jackson just grinned.

“Isabel, are you coming to The Hope?” Isabel looked to her parents.

Liam spoke, “We are dropping all of their electives at Conservatory, and they will only be going to The Hope.

“Can you play something, Kennedy?” Max ask.

“Umm, it's been a long time since I've played, almost four years.” I looked over to Coop; with a nod he knew which song we were doing.

“I'll use Max's acoustic guitar and Coop can use Jackson’s electric. We have a song we used to play all the time.”

We had played this a hundred times in four years. It wasn't ever gonna be forgotten. We played Johns Mayer's version of Free Fallin’. We broke into a duet with me taking the first half. I started singing, then coming to the chorus together and then he would take the second verse and we would continue singing in harmony. I saw images of Coop's and my times together playing this song at the Barton's student lounge on open mic night. We used to think it was his song for Emma. I could feel my tears hitting my hands as they plucked out the cords. Once we both hit the last cord, I opened my eyes to see Coop covering his eyes with his fists. I set my guitar down and he set his down and we embraced and cried. We were ready to move on. This was our new start.

Watching Kennedy sing with Tristan live was much harder than watching them on video. He shared something with her that I would never understand. Their love for music; their grief in missing their friends, each one was an amazing talent but watching them together was life changing. They have an ease while together. I could tell Tristan didn't look at her with lust, he looked at her in awe.

Once the song was over, there wasn't a dry face in the house. I'm not sure if it was because the song was delivered with such emotion and sorrow, or because by the end Tristan and Kennedy couldn't hold it in anymore. We left them in the living room and moved to the kitchen. About twenty minutes later Kennedy came in and asked to speak to me. I was nervous as hell when we walked outside. The weather had cooled and it was a nice evening.

Standing at the fence, she turned to me and said, "I just talked to Coop. He told me I don't have to see the whole staircase, I just have to see the first step. You coming here was the first step, so I'm going to stand on this one step that I can see."

The way she is looking at me breaks my heart. She is unsure if she can trust me with her heart again.

"Coop said he's only had one regret in life. He never told Emma he loved her. When he built up the nerve, it was too late. He was only able to whisper it to a closed casket. I don't want to waste any more time. I know better than anyone life is so short. I got a second chance, and I'm wasting it not being with you, the person I love."

My heart is beating fast, I want to wrap my arms around her so bad, but I don't want to push my luck.

"What happened in Denver: you pushing me away, yelling at me like that, humiliating me in front of a room full of people, and worst of all, putting your hands on me in anger; that can never happen again. I won't stand for it. In addition, I certainly won't have it around my kids. I understand why you did it. I know you were trying to keep me safe, but not telling me I was the target put me in a lot more danger. I'm not helpless! If you would have just explained I would have come home to my parents. I wouldn't put myself or my babies in danger."

I put my hand on her belly, "You and these babies are the most important things to me. I made a mistake, and I will make a lot more, but I will never, ever push you away from me again, and I will never leave you out of important decisions."

"That's all I want! I love that you're a strong man, I love that you’re aggressive and know exactly what you want, but I don't want to ever shrink myself to make you bigger. Does that make sense?" I wrapped my arms around her.

"Baby, I promise you I will make everything up to you. You won't ever be sorry you gave us another chance.”

“I've spent the day with our dads fishing and talking about the day I met you. I told my dad I was going to marry you. He told me I had a better chance of fucking a mermaid. I asked your dad for permission to ask for your hand. He told me he had to see the ring first because he wasn't letting his daughter marry some cheap asshole. Since he already knew I was an asshole, he just wanted to make sure I wasn't cheap on top of that. I saw you on Monday, and I bought this ring Tuesday. Before I ask, I want to tell you a story about the ring.”

“At the time, I thought the people were crazy, but I need you to listen. Okay, baby?”

I start my story about going to a few large luxury jewelry stores and after hours of not finding anything, I came across a small jeweler I didn't even know existed. I told her how I went inside and was about to leave when I saw a sparkle out of the corner of my eye. When I asked about the ring, he told me it dates back to the early eighteen hundreds. The royal family originally owned it. It was given to a young woman named Martha Bowing. She had fallen in love with a Duke. He proposed marriage, and they planned to run off to America together to start a new life. On the day they were to set sail, he never showed up at the dock. The Duke sent his young servant, Thomas Green, to inform the young woman that he was currently at the church marrying a titled woman. He gave the woman what is today's equivalent of five hundred thousand dollars and requested the ring back. She refused and explained that she was pregnant and didn't want to go to America alone. She was only Fifteen at the time. The servant who was only Seventeen himself, left his entire life and family behind, boarding the boat with nothing but the clothes on his back. Once on board, they were married by the captain and came to America. They then spent the first four years in New York before traveling west. They grew their family, never telling the oldest child of his true parentage. The couple went on to have a daughter, Margaret Green, who moved to New York to be an actress. Martha and Thomas lived a full life together, happy and in love until the day, they died.

Charles Green remained in Denver where he met a young woman by the name of Hope Caldwell. They fell very much in love, and he gave her this ring. The woman was a lover of  the arts, so he built her The Hope Theatre. They owned it until they died peacefully in their sleep. They never had any children, but the sister had a son. He came to help get his uncle's estate in order. He found the  journal that went to the ring. He brought it to my family in the late nineteen-twenties as instructed by the late Greens, but after reading the journals my grandparents decided not to sell the ring, only to display it. You see, inside the journal are very specific instructions and my grandparents being superstitious, always believed.

"What does the journal say?"

"It says the ring is only visible to the man that is going to  propose to the ring's intended.

“Mr. Kerrigan, this ring has been sitting in this display case for over seventy-five years. You are the first man to ever ask about it."

"Are you pulling my chain?" I ask him. He walks to the back and returns with a book and a very elderly woman.

He hands me the book and the ring. "Ahhh, wonderful!" the old women says. "The ring has found its next owner. Her eyes will be the color of the emerald on the ring. She will have fiery red hair and personality."

"No, the woman I want to marry has blonde hair and light brown eyes."

The woman walks forward, "Listen to me, and listen well, Easton Kerrigan. This ring belongs to your intended; she will have green eyes and red hair as has every woman who has owned this ring before her. Read the book, it's all in there. You will have a happy life together. Heed the book!"

“I turn to the jeweler and asked to purchase the ring. After getting home, I have a good laugh at the whole story. What theatrics just to sell a ring. I would have paid any price for the ring. The minute I saw it, I knew it belonged on your finger. I kept this ring in my jacket pocket every day.  I just never got brave enough to ask until now."

Getting down on one knee I said, "Kennedy Brennan, will you please marry me, be the mother of my children, and my best friend?"

I slipped the ring on her finger as she said “yes”. I kissed her belly, then kissed her. We made our way back to the house. We walked through the door hand in hand. Everyone was waiting in the living room.

"I've asked Kennedy to marry me, and she said yes!"

The room erupted in cheers, the women all gathered around to inspect the ring. It was a vintage, four-carat, flawless cushion diamond set with a one-carat emerald on each side. At the time, I didn't know it but they match her eyes. Along with her red hair and fiery personality. I knew the ring had found its new owner.

I whisper to Kennedy that I needed to speak to Estelle and asked if she wanted me to wait for her. She said no, that she believed she was in the barn with Rhydian. Walking to the barn, I saw Rhydian and Estelle sitting in two Adirondack chairs playing chess, of all things. When Kennedy said they were in the barn together, this is not what I had expected to find. Even more interesting was the fact that Estelle just check mated the best chess player I know.

“Oh hell no,” he said. “You cheated! I know you did!”

“You’re an awful chess player! I didn't have to cheat!”  Estelle replied.

“I want a rematch!”

I finally spoke, “Mind if I play the winner?” Rhydian got up.

Estelle spoke, “Rhydian, can you please stay?” He nodded his head and sat on some hay bales. I took his place across from Estelle while she set up her side of the board.

“I want to apologize to you, Estelle. I want to say sorry for so many things, but I don't even know where to start.” I moved my first piece and waited, Estelle moved her first piece.

“Do you love Kennedy?”

“With all my heart. I've never loved anyone but her.”

“Would you give your life for her and the babies?”

“Without any hesitation,” I answered.

I moved my second piece.

“Easton, I don't know how I got so lucky with having Kennedy in my life but Kennedy has become the single most important person in my life. She saved my life, but more importantly, she saved my soul and mind and my spirit. I know exactly what you see in Kennedy because I see the same thing, but not in a girl on girl way.

“That would be hot!” Rhydian added.

Both Estelle and I said, “Shut up!” at the same time.

“Do you find it odd that in the six months we were each other's plus one that we never so much as kissed with tongue? I knew you were using me to look into my father, but I was using you too. See, as long as my father thought I warmed your bed I escaped his fist. Without even knowing it, you kept me alive for those six months. I hated being nasty to your family, but I also couldn't take the chance that anyone got too close to me. My father exploits every connection, he looks for a way to hurt you by hurting the people you love. I thank the stars every day that Kennedy came into your life. I didn't know then, but I know now. She was put in place so I could escape, get healthy and find out who the hell I am, really am, so I don't need any apology. I just need your guarantee that you will love and protect her till your dying day.”

Estelle made her second move. “Checkmate!”

“How the fuck did you just check mate me in two moves?”

“You suck, that's how!” Rhydian was laughing.

“Damn, it took her five moves to beat me at least!”

“I was taking it easy on you because you're cute! Easton doesn't have that luxury.” Rhydian blushes, Hmmm, I thought to myself, very interesting. I watched Rhydian get checkmated four more times before we packed it up and headed to the house.

“Everything okay with Estelle?” Kennedy asked.

I kissed her, “I don't even know how Stella and Estelle are the same person, not only do they look completely different but Estelle is, like, the most easy going person on earth. She's wearing Converse, cutoff shorts and a Doctor Who t-shirt.”

Kennedy chuckled, “Estelle is finally who she is supposed to be.”