From Your Heart by Shannyn Schroeder (4)

Chapter Three

Kevin stared at the e-mail in front of him as he tapped a pen on the desktop. The mayor was contracting with an outside company to handle tourism for the city. Chicago had been outsourcing various things for years. Some of it made sense, other things didn’t. He wasn’t sure which category this fell under, but he knew that with the advent of this kind of push, there would be opportunities for promotions, or at least lateral moves.

The mayor was looking for ways to implement such a program. The details outlined were vague, so Kevin dug into research. He looked at how other major cities attracted tourism. He came up with a handful of companies that were currently doing the types of things the mayor wanted: a single website where business could request proposals for conferences and conventions, a searchable calendar of events, a solid marketing plan. Bottom line, the mayor didn’t want another committee draining city resources without producing positive results.

Kevin wrote up a proposal for the mayor, but he saw the need for an additional player. A position for which he would be the perfect candidate. Within his proposal he included the creation of a liaison position within the mayor’s office so that the mayor could be kept in the loop without having to be hands-on.

With it being July, the timing of such a program seemed odd. But if the right company got into place, they could move quickly to use the winter season to promote Chicago as a vacation spot. The city was great in the winter, especially with outdoor skating downtown and indoor winter festivals at Navy Pier. But nothing could touch summer in the city. From sunup till late at night, everyone could find something to do in the summer.

Kevin clicked over to the calendar of events and it looked bare-boned. It should’ve been packed. July had barely started. Then the pieces clicked into place. He’d remembered hearing some office gossip about the woman who had run the city events website. He’d never gotten the full story because he hadn’t cared, but if she’d been canned—or more likely, forced to resign—that would’ve opened the door for the mayor’s new plan.

Thoughts of summer brought him to his own plans. The highlight of the season would take place later this week, the annual block party at home. His dad’s house, the block where he’d grown up. As far back as he could remember, the block party had been the defining point of his summer. Damn, probably the best part of everyone’s summer. Balloon toss, relay races, and the football game against the O’Learys were staples of his childhood summers.

The block party was a place of many of his firsts. It was during one of those football games that he’d broken his first bone. It was at one of the bonfires that he’d kissed his first girlfriend. It was the place where he’d first gotten drunk.

It was also the place where he’d first met Kathy. He didn’t think she’d attended a block party since. He felt bad about that but didn’t even know why. She hadn’t grown up in his neighborhood. But all of them had brought friends to the block party over the years. He knew without having to ask that she stayed away because of him. One more reason for Moira to hate him.

He pulled out his phone and called Jimmy.

“What do you need?”

“Does it physically hurt you to say hello when you answer the phone?” Kevin asked. “How the hell does Moira put up with you?”

“I have other charms. You only call when you want something and I’m at work, so spit it out.”

“Not true. Sometimes I call to get together for drinks.”

“Yeah, you want to get together.”

Kevin sighed. Jimmy was in a mood. Maybe it would’ve been easier to go to Moira, even with her general pissy attitude toward him. “I want you to get Moira to invite Kathy to the block party.”

Jimmy laughed. It was quiet, maybe more of a chuff, but it was there. “Don’t you think if she were interested, she would’ve called you?”

“I think she wants to keep her distance from me, and I get that. But if I want to convince her that I’m a different man, she needs to see that in a place that’s not threatening.”

Now Jimmy started to laugh in earnest.

“What the hell is so funny? I’m not the same guy I was five years ago.”

Jimmy coughed and then said, “I know that. But I also know that there’s something about the block party that brings out your juvenile side. You fuck with Moira every year. Hell, you fuck with everyone.”

“I can control myself. I promise.” He sighed. “I want Kathy to think about me in a different light. We had dinner a couple of weeks ago to coordinate bachelor/bachelorette parties and we’ve texted since then. But I need an in, and I think the block party could be it.”

He could picture Jimmy shaking his head as he debated. Jimmy came across as an asshole to most people, but what they didn’t see was that if Jimmy cared about someone, he’d do anything, even risk the wrath of his fiancée. “What is it about this woman? When she disappeared years ago, you didn’t seem all that affected. Why now? Why her?”

“I can’t explain it. When I saw her at your engagement party, I was genuinely disappointed that she had a boyfriend. I’ve spent the better part of a year thinking about my time with her, and she’s single. I was young and stupid, but what we had was more than fucking. With every other girl I’d been with back then, it was nothing more than a good time. Kathy was different. I felt it then and I screwed it up.”

Silence met him and he thought Jimmy had hung up. “Jimmy?”

A heavy sigh. “That’s what I get for asking. My damn woman is ruining me.”

Kevin knew that Moira had softened Jimmy, not that Kevin would ever say that out loud to his big brother. Hearing Jimmy admit it, though, made him smile and gave him hope. “Does that mean you’ll get Kathy there?”

“How the hell am I supposed to convince Moira to invite her? She’ll never believe me if I tell her that you want another chance.”

“Hell, no. You can’t tell Moira.”

“I’m not lying to her.”

“I’m not asking you to lie. Just tell her to invite Kathy because the rest of the wedding party will be there. She’ll have fun.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Then he hung up.

Kevin didn’t care that Jimmy couldn’t be bothered to say good-bye any more than he could say hello, because if Jimmy said he’d try, it was as good as done.

He turned back to his computer to address the next press release he had to improve. He spent hours every day cleaning up communication from people in the mayor’s office. He couldn’t say it was from the mayor because he knew the man had other people writing most things, but really, they sucked.

Just as the document opened, one of his coworkers stopped by his desk. Deb plopped in the chair he had in his cubicle for nonexistent guests.

“I owe you a beer,” she announced.

“Yeah?” he asked with one eye still on his screen. Don’t these people use spell-check? “For what?”

“The florist you recommended was amazing. She managed to pull together centerpieces for the banquet in a day’s time. She totally saved my ass.”

Kevin slid back from the desk and spun to look at Deb. When he’d heard one of the interns calling florists to get prices, he’d given her one of Kathy’s cards.

“Instead of buying me a beer, do me a favor and use her again.”

“That’s not doing you a favor. That’s a given. She deserves the work after pulling that off. Plus she didn’t even overcharge.” She leaned an elbow on the desk. “You should probably have a talk with her and let her know how much we usually spend on these things. It wouldn’t look good for me to tell her, but as her friend . . .”

Kevin smiled. “I doubt she’d raise her prices just because she’s doing something for city hall. She’s a straight shooter.”

When Deb left, Kevin looked at his phone. He wanted to call Kathy, at least text her to see how she thought the banquet went. He knew that Deb could sing someone’s praises behind their backs, but rarely to their faces. When he’d given her Kathy’s card, he’d told her to be nice, but he wasn’t sure Deb knew how to be nice. In Deb’s eyes Kathy was a godsend, but Kathy might very well be cursing his name for handing out her card.

He sent a text: I hope Deb was nice to you. I know she was in a pinch, and she just told me you saved her ass.

He went back to fix the messy memo on his computer. His phone sat near the keyboard taunting him. Kathy might be busy with customers and couldn’t text, but the teenage boy in him wanted an immediate response. By the time he rewrote most of the press release and sent it back, Kathy still hadn’t responded.

Just when he’d about given up, the phone buzzed.

His fingers itched to say more. He wanted to ask her out again, spend time with her, but knew he’d get shot down. But he also knew that if he didn’t make some moves soon, he’d probably never see her again after Jimmy’s wedding. Then he decided he would set the groundwork for Moira and Jimmy and plant the seed of the block party.

Her response came immediately. Of course I remember. It’s where we met.

Kevin didn’t know what came over him. He saw an opening and asked even though he’d already asked Jimmy to handle it. Stop by. I’ll be on my best behavior.

He swallowed a groan. Damn Moira was screwing this up without trying. But at least he’d gotten a maybe out of her. He’d prove to Kathy and Moira that he was a better man.

* * *

Kathy stepped back from the cooler and leaned against the case. Five more minutes until closing. She wanted nothing more than to twist the lock early, but she couldn’t. Her hours said she was open until six, so six it was.

When the jingle of the bell above the door alerted her to another customer, she wanted to kick herself for being such a rule follower. Even her own darn rules. Sometimes being the owner sucked. She pushed off the cooler and smiled as she went to the front of the shop.

Her smile widened when she saw it wasn’t a customer, but Moira standing at the counter. “Hey, you. What’s up?”

“I figured since it was closing time, we could catch up.” Moira held up two cups. “I brought chocolate shakes.”

Kathy glanced at the clock, saw that it was six, and locked the door. “If you’d called, I could’ve met you somewhere.”

“I wanted to catch you off guard.”

“Why?” she asked as she reached for a shake. She sipped, or at least tried to, but the drink was too thick to be pulled into the straw easily.

Moira hopped onto the battered but sturdy counter and crossed her legs. “I had an interesting conversation with Jimmy today.”

“Yeah?”

“He asked if I had invited you to the block party. I told him that I hadn’t exactly invited you, but that you know you’re always welcome to join us. I didn’t think I needed to extend a formal invitation. Besides, you’ve begged off ever since the mess with Kevin.”

Kathy waited. While Moira would never run out of energy for talking, she would eventually run out of breath.

When Moira stopped, Kathy waited some more before asking, “And?”

“And the whole conversation was weird because first, Jimmy rarely invites anyone to the party, so why would he think of inviting my friend. Second, the reason Jimmy doesn’t like to invite extra people is because that gives him more people to keep an eye on, and because you’re my friend, he would feel the need to make sure you’re okay. So then I started to wonder more about why Jimmy brought this up.”

Kathy swallowed a lump of chocolate shake. “Why not just ask him?”

Moira snorted. “Getting information out of Jimmy is harder than getting my mom to talk about her feelings.” She swirled her straw through her shake. “I think Kevin put him up to it.”

Kathy absorbed the statement, knowing in her gut that Moira would get to this point. But she didn’t have anything to say. She hadn’t talked to Kevin. Not since his text yesterday.

Although Kevin’s text had surprised her, it had also made her smile. She’d worked her ass off most of the night to make the centerpieces for Deb Hanover. It wasn’t until the flowers were out the door that Kathy had the time to find out who the woman actually was. When Deb placed the order, she’d only told Kathy that it was a banquet for city officials. After the delivery, Kathy found that Deb was pretty high up in the city’s food chain. Her name was attached to almost every high-profile event sponsored by the mayor’s office.

“That! That look!” Moira yelled, and pointed at her. “What’s going on with Kevin?”

“What do you mean?”

Moira’s mouth tightened and she arched a brow.

“We’ve been in touch to plan the bachelor/bachelorette parties on the same night. Then he gave my card to some woman he works with and got me a huge order.”

Moira slid from the counter and stood in front of her. She was so short that she barely passed Kathy’s shoulders. Moira tilted her face up. “So you’re talking to him.”

Kathy couldn’t tell if Moira felt betrayed or intrigued.

“Kind of. Mostly we text.” She set her cup down. “We had dinner together to talk wedding parties.”

“I knew it. I knew he’d try to weasel his way back into your life.”

“What?”

“When he got a glimpse of you at the engagement party last year, he looked like a wolf homing in on his prey. I cut him off, but I honestly didn’t think he’d listen. Seems like I was right.”

“I don’t think that’s it. He’s been friendly and laid back. He hasn’t done anything nefarious.” Kathy knew better than to lay any of her suspicions out for Moira to grab on to. What she said was the truth; Kevin had been nothing but nice.

“That’s not like Kevin. What could he be up to?”

“Don’t you have anything better to obsess about? Like your wedding?”

“My wedding is planned. Kevin is the only wild card. I have no idea what to expect from him as best man. I’m afraid he’ll take Jimmy to Vegas for the bachelor party and marry him off to some stripper.”

Kathy laughed. Obsessed was too kind a word for this. “Even if Kevin had some evil plan, there is no way in hell Jimmy would fall for it. Jimmy would never marry someone else, no matter how drunk he was.”

“Yeah,” Moira acquiesced, “but what about the toast at the wedding? Kevin has known me his whole life. What if he gets up in front of everyone and tells embarrassing stories?”

“He probably will tell stories. About Jimmy. Why do you let Kevin make you crazy?”

Moira slumped. “I don’t know. He’s made me nuts for as long as I can remember. It’s like his sole purpose in life is to make me miserable.”

Kathy put her arm around Moira’s shoulders. “Kevin isn’t going to do anything to ruin your wedding. Even if he thought he was being funny, I’m pretty sure Jimmy would kick his ass.” As she spoke, she knew that Moira’s fears were really shaking her up. She sighed and added, “Do you want me to talk to him?”

“I can’t ask you to do that. Jimmy said the same thing. Kevin won’t do anything bad. I just don’t trust him. He made me so miserable as a kid.”

“This is going to sound stupid, but have you ever said this to him?”

Moira pulled away and reclaimed her seat on the counter. “He does it intentionally. What good would it do me to point out how effective it is?”

Kathy saw where Moira was coming from but something made her think that Kevin didn’t truly realize the effect his teasing had on Moira. “Maybe if you explained it to him like you are to me. He is a guy after all. They’re not too bright when it comes to understanding women.”

Moira slurped her shake. “Wouldn’t matter to Kevin.” Another loud slurp. “I’m probably being melodramatic. You’re right. Jimmy will keep him in line.”

She spoke without her usual enthusiasm or conviction. Kathy hated seeing her friend like this. It was too out of character.

Moira abruptly changed the subject. “So tell me what’s going on with you.”

“I’ve been working, getting ready for my best friend’s wedding. That’s it.” She sank onto the stool she kept behind the register. She rarely used it because once she sat down, she usually didn’t want to get back up. Right now her feet were screaming.

“Come on, Kath, give me something. A distraction from my stress.”

“Sorry to disappoint. You’re the one with the glamorous life. You should tell me about all the fancy parties you’re going to.”

For the next hour, Kathy listened to Moira chatter, and it was like old times. By the time their cups were drained, Kathy was rejuvenated. Her body was still tired, but her mind had spun around thinking about Kevin. For a man who had been out of her life for years, he’d certainly been taking up quite a bit of space as of late, and she didn’t know what to do about that.

But seeing Moira so stressed about the possibility of Kevin wreaking havoc at the wedding, Kathy decided it was her duty as maid of honor to prevent that from happening. She just needed a plan.

The neighborhood block party seemed like the perfect venue.