Kieran considered her thoughtfully. He’d seen the wheels turning. Sensed when she’d made a decision. Unfortunately, he had no idea exactly what she’d been mentally debating or what the resolution was, but something told him he wouldn’t like it. He knew there could only be one possible outcome where he and Faith were concerned, but that didn’t mean that she did.
His brothers had a hard time of it when they had met their croies. Trials by fire, so to speak. Maybe he would, as well. The thought was not a pleasing one, but there was no other option. He would simply have to tread carefully and try to minimize the damage. If he was careful and gave it some serious thought, he might be able to learn from his brothers’ mistakes and ensure he didn’t make the same ones. Perhaps there were some useful benefits in being the last to find the woman meant for him and him alone.
He fought his natural urge to pull her to him and simply refuse. Taryn had put a name to it, calling it the ‘inner caveman instinct’; apparently it was a trait shared among the men of his family. Instead he said, “I’ll hold you to that. How about I bring Matt home later? That way you don’t have to cross town again when you’re done.”
“I couldn’t ask you to - ”
“You aren’t. I’m offering. Besides, I was going to stop by tonight anyway. I found some more stuff leftover from when we renovated the Pub that you might be able to use.”
Faith bit her lip. Several people were getting rather impatient, clearly unhappy that Faith was consuming so much of Kieran’s attention. Given the way she was practically dancing on the balls of her feet, she was anxious to be out of there as quickly as possible. It worked to his advantage; rather than continue to argue with him, she nodded in concession. “Okay. Thanks.”
Kieran smiled, relieved that she had finally decided to stop fighting him on every little thing. “Cool.” Placing his hand on Matt’s shoulder, he said, “Don’t worry, Faith. I’ll take good care of him.”
Faith nodded, a resigned look on her face that made Kieran want to kiss her senseless, and disappeared toward the exit.
It took a while to work their way toward the café. To his great surprise, Matt would accept nothing more than a smoothie.
“Come on,” Kieran coaxed, seeing the hunger in the boy’s eyes, even hearing the protesting rumble as Matt’s stomach loudly voiced agreement. “Growing boys need to eat.” But no matter what he said, Matt politely refused.
Sensing that he was making Matt uncomfortable, he changed the subject. He would have to pick his battles, he realized, with both mother and son. “So, you liked the demo?”
The tactic worked. Matt’s eyes brightened. “Yeah.”
“Think you might want to sign up?”
The brightness faded just as quickly. “Nah. It was cool to watch, though.”
“Not interested?” Kieran prodded, but he had a feeling lack of interest wasn’t the problem. He’d seen looks like that before, knew when someone wanted something badly. Matt simply shrugged with feigned disinterest.
“If it’s a question of money, don’t worry about it,” Kieran told him. “We’ll work something out.” He had no intention of taking any money. As far as he was concerned, Faith and Matt were already part of his family.
Matt bristled. “It’s not.” He eyed Kieran warily. “And don’t go talking to my mom about it, either,” he said, a warning edge to his voice. Kieran lifted an eyebrow. So. It was like that, was it?
“Okay,” Kieran agreed, drawing the word out slowly, but met Matt’s glare. The boy showing pride was one thing – Kieran could respect that – but there would be no question of who was in charge. Matt held Kieran’s gaze longer than most men – it was a testament to the kid’s character – but eventually he did lower his eyes. Quietly releasing an exhale of relief, Kieran relaxed.
It lasted for all of a minute. “Maybe you and I can work out a deal,” Kieran offered.
“What kind of deal?”
“Well...” Kieran’s mind was whizzing through ideas, discarding them almost as quickly as they came to him. “The kid my brother hired to do mowing and stuff around some of the properties up for sale isn’t working out. You saw the state your place was in. You interested?”
“Maybe,” Matt hedged.
“You proved you know what you’re doing yesterday,” Kieran continued. “You’d be doing us a favor and putting a couple of bucks in your pocket.”
“How much?”
“Minimum,” Kieran said casually, making it up as he went along. “But there are benefits.”
“What benefits?”
“One free class a month.”
“Here?”
“Yeah.”
“Any class?”
“Yeah.”
The kid was thinking about it, he could tell. Kieran kept quiet, let him work it out. “And if I don’t want to take a class?”
Kieran shrugged. “Then don’t. But you’d be missing a great opportunity.”
Matt looked down into the now-empty glass, considering it. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“Good. But if you’re interested, your mom’s got to give her permission.”
Matt nodded in agreement. “I’ll talk to her about it tonight.”
Chapter Seven