Former UN Detective turned Private Eye and body guard. Often called a surly, over-grown leprechaun by his friends.
Ian Kelly pushed the front door open, breathing deep, immersing himself in the scents of home. Food cooking. Clean laundry. Whatever candle of the season his sister was burning.
“Chloe? Delilah? Anyone home?”
He really should knock.
Or call ahead.
But Ryan had yapped the whole damn way from the airport and Ian couldn’t stand another five minutes with his roommate. Ian had put up with a solid seven days of Ryan ribbing him about the woman who’d fled Ian’s bed in the early morning hours a few weeks ago. If Ian didn’t get away from Ryan soon he was going to give the guy a shiner.
Ian shouldn’t let Ryan get under his skin. For some reason that woman had gotten under his skin, and he couldn’t shake the memory of her smile, the way her lips tasted, how they’d fit together—or the sudden fear in her eyes when her mouth ran away from her. Alcohol could do that to a person. He was probably just worried about her. It was his nature to protect—but as his twin sister loved to remind him—not everyone wanted a hero.
Click. Clank. Click. Clank.
Ian dropped his bag in the entry, took two steps and went to a knee just as a pint sized little girl made her way around the corner. Her brilliant, shining face was the stuff that kept him waking up each morning. He forgot anyone but her, the princess of his heart, the one girl that mattered.
“Uncle Ian!” Delilah worked her crutches in double time. The leg braces hampered her speed while giving her the support to stand on her own, but she was a determined little thing.
“There’s my princess.” He spread his arms open and Delilah careened headlong into his chest, squealing and laughing as only a child could.
He folded his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. He needed to put the memories of a dark-eyed woman out of his mind and focus on the ladies already in his life. Delilah and Chloe would always come first.
“Where’s your mum?”
“Talkin’ to Da.” Delilah grinned up at him. Her attempt to mimic her mother and Ian’s accent was pretty spot on. She was an adept little parrot.
“Is that so?” Ian kept his smile firmly in place though his stomach was down around his knees. Nothing good ever came from talking to Delilah’s sperm donor. Robert Neilson was a father to his first born when it suited him.
“Guess what, Uncle Ian? Guess what!”
“What?”
“I’m going to have a princess party.”
“Is that right? You’ll be the prettiest princess at the ball.” He pinched her still chubby cheek, flushed from excitement. “Let me go find your mum.”
And see what devastation the lousy bastard Delilah called Da was making out of their lives.
“She’s in the kitchen.” Delilah gathered herself and turned back to the TV, where an animated woman sang to birds.
Ian glanced up, sensing more than hearing his sister’s presence.
Chloe peered out of the kitchen at him, her eyes and nose red.
What had the bastard done now?
“Delilah, pay close attention, okay? I need you to tell me what happens in the movie. Without your guidance, I’m goin’ to be lost.” He grinned at his niece making herself comfortable in an inflatable chair.
Ian crossed into the kitchen where Chloe waited for him. She didn’t need to say anything. She was his twin. His blood. He always knew when she was hurting and usually who to blame.
“Come ‘ere.” He pulled Chloe in for a tight hug, bracing himself for what came next.
“He’s not coming to her birthday,” Chloe whispered, her words muffled in Ian’s shirt.
Good, we’re better off without the loser.
He closed his eyes. She didn’t have to say who he was, and neither did she need Ian’s anger on her behalf. They both knew how much Ian hated—despised—Chloe’s ex-husband. First, he’d come between Chloe and their family. She’d practically been disowned for following her heart across an ocean and country. Then the man had bailed when things got tough with Delilah’s birth defects and replaced Chloe as his wife within a year.
“What kind of father won’t even come to his own kid’s birthday?” She peered up at Ian, but he didn’t have answers for her. “They’re havin’ the baby’s birthday on the same day. The same day.”
“Let me talk to him.”
“Then he certainly won’t come.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “Not that I want him ‘ere, but...what about D? She’s goin’ to be heart broken.”
“I’ll be at the party. Can I...fill in?” Ian knew he wasn’t the replacement father Delilah needed, but he did his best to be there for them in every way imaginable.
“You know she’ll love havin’ you there.” Chloe smoothed his shirt. She was always doing that. Tidying him up, keeping him neat.
“But I’m not her Da.” Ian wished he could move the sun and stars for the pint-sized princess in the other room. She was so precious, so full of good. She deserved a father who would love her like she deserved instead of the absent bastard. Robert made sure to pick Delilah up and tote her around just enough to appease his conscience, and that was it.
“He’s too busy with his new family. Sometimes it’s like she doesn’t even exist to him anymore, an’ I can’t do anythin’ about it.” Chloe wiped new tears from her cheeks. They’d already gone to court once in an attempt to allow them to move back to Ireland and mend bridges with their family. That had failed miserably.
“I’ll talk to him. Just talk.”
“No, Ian. You’ll make it worse.”
“Well what do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me do somethin’.”
“She’s goin’ to be heartbroken when he doesn’t show up, you know?” Chloe bit her knuckle. “She told all the girls at therapy her Da’s comin’ to her princess party an’ they should all come. I just...oh, Ian, I wanted to crawl under the sofa an’ die. You know he has no intention of comin’, not with his other kid’s birthday.”
Because they both knew that when it came to Delilah, her father would never be worthy of her love.
Ian could show up with cake, a unicorn and a pocket full of faeries, but he’d never be Delilah’s Da. He’d never be the one she wanted to see on her birthday.
Chloe’s phone began to beep and vibrate on the kitchen counter.
“Shit. We have a play date.” She silenced the alarm and sighed. “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have come home to this. Oh, I talked to Aunt Liv the other day. She didn’t know who your mystery woman was either.”
“Christ, you too?” He rolled his eyes, so ready to leave that woman in the past. No, that was a lie. He felt the invisible tug that told him to look for her, find her before something bad happened. But how was he supposed to do that? He wasn’t even certain she’d told him her real name.
Ian should never have asked around. It was his own fault. He just couldn’t forget that flash of fear before she’d dove into his arms.
“I thought I was helping.” Chloe tossed up her hands.
“Hey, come here.” He pulled his twin in for a quick squeeze. She didn’t deserve the rough side of his irritation. “Sorry, I’ve been listenin’ to Ryan all week remindin’ me about it. It’s fine. You, go. I’m headin’ down to the pub, grab a bite to eat and we’ll throw some ideas for the party around later.” Ian might be bone weary after his last gig, but when it came to rescuing his niece’s princess party, it was an all hands on deck situation. But first he needed to blow off some steam and the guys down at Trinity Hall were good for keeping him company.
Ian helped get Delilah’s things together while Chloe managed her daughter. Ever since the surgery that granted Delilah the ability to walk, she’d stopped allowing Mom and Uncle Ian to carry her. She wanted to walk. Even if it took twice as long to get somewhere or was ten times as difficult. She was a fighter. A better person than the rest of them.
And that bastard who called himself her father didn’t even want to put in an appearance at her fucking princess party.
It was despicable.
Horrible.
People like Robert Neilson were what made this Earth a darker place.
Ian waved Chloe and Delilah out of the driveway before locking up the house. Trinity Hall was just a few blocks away and the local stomping grounds for the broken down group of guys he’d come to call his friends since taking up residence on the outskirts of Seattle. It was a nice enough evening that the walk would help to clear his head and sort his thoughts.
Robert Neilson would continue to break Delilah’s heart until she was old enough to understand that just because the man was her father, it didn’t make him a good person. Ian wished Chloe could meet someone who’d treat her right. The kind of guy who’d be the father Delilah deserved. Between Chloe’s work, physical therapy for Delilah and everything Chloe did to try to give Delilah a normal childhood, there wasn’t a lot of time left over.
The best Ian could do was give Chloe a night off whenever he wasn’t off on a gig. Working for Aegis Group, a private security firm, provided him with the means to help his sister and niece with more than money. His flexible schedule meant he could be around at odd hours when he didn’t have a gig. Something he was grateful for. But times like these, it just wasn’t enough. If he could go back in time...he wasn’t sure he’d stop Chloe from making the same mistake. Without Robert Neilson there would be no Delilah.
Ian pushed the heavy, wooden door to Trinity Hall open. A chorus of, “Hey,”s greeted him from the corner of the bar where his rag tag group of friends had posted up at the big table.
“Look what the cat dragged in.” Felix, his friend and co-worker at Aegis, lifted his beer toward Ian.
“What’s wrong?” Owen frowned at him. Ever the perceptive one, leave it up to the cop to pick up on Ian’s shit mood.
“Aunt Liv, what’s a guy got to do to get somethin’ to eat?” Ian slid into an empty chair at the large pub table adjacent to the bar. She wasn’t really his aunt, but she insisted all the regulars call her Aunt Liv. It was a badge of belonging. Acceptance into their midst.
“All you had to do was ask, sugar.” Aunt Liv laughed and tapped the screen under the bar.
Ian wished Owen wasn’t there yet. The detective had a tendency to root out truths Ian didn’t like. He’d prefer to have a moment to talk to Felix alone, sort his thoughts his way, but maybe Owen was exactly the kind of person he needed to bounce ideas off.
Aunt Liv brought a pint over with a basket of fries, her spring green eyes boring into his skull.
Her, too?
“What’s got you in a knot?” she asked.
“Judging from that look, I can hazard a guess.” Felix flicked his fingers toward Ian. “What’s he done now?”
“The sperm donor ain’t comin’ to Delilah’s birthday. It’s going to be some sort of princess party. She’ll be crushed when he doesn’t show.” Ian muttered a string of curses that would have gotten him slapped at Chloe’s. The guys simply nodded and added their own.
“Oh, the poor dear.” Aunt Liv pressed a hand to her heart.
“How could he just ignore his own kid? I don’t get him. Not at all.” Ian stared at the table top, his vision hazing red. “As involved as he is in her life, he could have just let us go home. Instead he’s keepin’ us ‘ere. He’s got us by the balls.”
“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.” Felix shook his head.
“Not all fathers are the good kind, love.” Aunt Liv patted his shoulder.
“But Delilah deserves one.” Ian leaned on the counter and stared at the light glinting off the shiny surface.
“Aye, she does.”
Ian didn’t know what he was going to do, but he would do something. If he had any luck, it would be so big and grand that Delilah wouldn’t miss the presence of one person.
Yeah, right, just how the hell was he going to pull that off?