{Chapter 3}
Her feet were aching and her back was killing her, but Isabella strolled the three blocks to her apartment. As she rounded the corner pulling keys out of her pocket she groaned. “I don’t believe this,” she grumbled. Seated on the front porch to her building was the man from the diner.
Spotting her he stood and smiled. “You work late,” he said noting the time.
“Why are you here and what can I do to change that,” she demanded, not in the mood to deal with some loon.
“You always work this late,” he asked ignoring the question. “Because this is hardly the type of neighborhood to be walking around in at this hour.”
“And yet here you are,” she muttered rolling her eyes. “I had to pull a double,” she added as she brushed past him to unlocking the front door. She groaned when he followed her into the building. “Can I help you with something Mr…?”
“Kennedy. Ken Kennedy. I told you,” Kennedy replied smiling. “You’re my half sister. Is it so wrong that I want to get to know the sister I never knew I had?”
“And you expect us to be one happy family,” she asked clearly annoyed by this stranger. “What’s the matter dear old dad sick?”
“Actually…”
“Tough shit,” she replied glaring at him. “Look the fucker wasn’t a part of my life for twenty seven fucking years. Why should a I give a shit about him now?”
“He’s dead,” Kennedy said softly. “He passed away just a couple of weeks ago. Look, I’m sorry to have bothered you. Clearly you have issues and…I just thought…I don’t know. Sorry for bothering you.”
Isabella sighed watching him walking away sadly. She knew she’d probably wind up regretting what she was about to do, but he just looked so forlorn that it broke her heart. “Wait,” she called. Kennedy stopped and turned back to her. “Come on in,” she said motioning toward the door at the back of the hall. “At least come in and have a drink or something. Seems like you need it.”
He nodded following her into the apartment. The moment the door opened a loud mew greeted them. “Hey kitty,” Kennedy said bending down to pet the black and gray tabby that was twining itself around their feet. It happily nuzzled his hand purring and allowed him to pick it up.
“That’s Meepers,” she said setting her bag aside and kicking off her shoes. “Let me change out of this God awful uniform and we can have a drink and talk. All right?”
“All right,” Kennedy said taking a seat on the couch with Meepers in his arms. The cat was loving the attention and purring up a storm. “Meepers will be keeping me company.” She chuckled and headed into her bedroom to change.
When she returned a few minutes later she had on cut off sweats and an old T-shirt. The logo on it was faded to the point of being illegible, but she loved it because it was comfortable. Now that she was in shorts and barefoot Kennedy could see she had a dragon tattoo around her left ankle. As she took a seat next to him her shirt rose up and he could see a butterfly tattoo on the small of her back.
“You like my ink,” she asked noticing that he was staring at the butterfly. “Or do you always check out your supposed sister’s ass?”
Kennedy flushed. “I was looking at the tattoo,” he replied. “I have a couple myself. He rolled up his sleeve to show her the clown on his arm. “Not real happy with this one though. Didn’t come out the way I wanted it.”
“Why don’t you have it covered up,” she asked. “That’s what I did when I got…the king of all jackasses’ name on my ankle. She showed him the dragon. “Best decision I ever made getting him out of my life.”
“My job really prevents me from getting any new ink done,” he replied. “Doesn’t really allow for healing time.”
“Can’t you take time off,” she asked quirking a brow at him. “You don’t get vacation days?”
“Not unless I’m injured,” he replied. She quirked a brow at him. “I’m a wrestler for the WWE,” he replied proudly. Isabella snickered. “What’s so funny?”
“You parade around in those little undies and get all sweaty with other men,” she giggled.
“That’s not funny,” Kennedy said. “What I do is entertainment.”
“Sure it is,” she said rolling her eyes. “I’ve seen a couple of matches. That shit is so fake!”
Kennedy was trying to hold his temper in check. “Look, I’m here trying to fulfill my father’s dying wish,” he said as calmly as he could muster. “He wanted me to find you. After meeting you…I don’t know what I was thinking. Clearly this was a mistake.” He stood and stormed out of the apartment.
Isabella followed him to the door. “Ken, I’m sorry,” she called. “Ken, please don’t go off all mad.”
Kennedy turned around to face her in the hall, his eyes blazing. “You just insulted my profession, me and all of my colleagues and heroes and you think sorry makes up for that? No, Isabella, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ever attempted to try to get to know you,” with that he turned back toward the front door. “Have a good life, Isabella.”
Isabella shut her door and locked it. Meepers was at her feet, rubbing against her. “Come on, Meepers,” she said scooping up the cat. “Let’s get you fed.”
~*~
The next day Isabella was down in the basement of her building doing laundry. She pulled her uniform out of the basket and the picture Kennedy had given her the night before fell out. She picked it up and looked at it a moment. With a sigh she made up her mind to find Kennedy. If he really was her brother she should at least give him a chance.
She finished off her laundry and brought it upstairs. She pulled out her laptop and tried to find info on the WWE show that was in the area. Finding out the information she quickly dressed and headed over to the arena. The show wouldn’t be starting for a couple of hours, but maybe she would luck out and find someone who knew Kennedy.
~*~
Isabella stood in the lot where a bunch of fans had congregated. No one had gone in or out of the building yet. She was sure the fans would be screaming for autographs if any of the stars came by.
“Oh my God it’s Jeff Hardy,” one girl squealed happily pointing toward a car that had just pulled into the lot.
Isabella turned her attention toward where the girl was pointing and saw a slender man with rainbow colored hair getting out of the car. He grabbed a bag from the trunk of his car before coming over to greet some fans. Taking a deep breath she approached him.
“Excuse me,” she said to him after he had signed a couple of autographs.
“Yeah, you got somethin’ for me to sign,” he asked with a smile.
“This is going to sound so strange,” she said. “Do you happen to know a Ken Kennedy?” He looked at her arching a brow. “Look, he’s…my brother…and we kind of had a spat last night and…”
“Oh man,” Jeff said smiling wide. “You’re Isabella?” She nodded, shocked that he knew her name.
“Can you help me get in to see Ken,” she asked.
“Of course,” Jeff said wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her toward the building. “Man, you’re prettier than your pictures. Ken’ll be so happy to see you.”
“I doubt that,” Isabella replied. “Things didn’t go well last night.”
“Bummer,” Jeff said as they walked through the halls toward the locker room. “Yo, Cody, you seen Ken?”
“Down that way,” the man addressed as Cody replied pointing toward the left.
“Come on,” Jeff said ushering Isabella down the hall. They made it to the locker room marked Mr. Kennedy and Jeff knocked. Kennedy opened the door and took one look at Isabella before slamming it in their faces.
“Ken,” Jeff called, opening the door. “Your sister came to see you, man.”
“I don’t have a sister,” Kennedy replied staring daggers at the doorway where Isabella stood.
“Dude, she’s all you could talk about since you found out about her,” Jeff said. “She came to see you. Don’t you think you should at least see what she has to say?”
Kennedy grumbled something under his breath. “Fine,” he finally said after glaring at Isabella a while longer.
Jeff motioned for her to come in. When she didn’t budge he grabbed her had and dragged her in. “You guys have fun,” he said before heading off to his own locker room.
“Guess we get our temper from our father, huh,” she said trying to make him smile.
“I thought you didn’t believe that we’re related,” he said as he laced up his boots.
“Look, I’m not sure I believe it or not,” she replied taking a seat next to him on the bench. “I guess we’ll have to get one of those tests to determine if we’re related. I came to apologize for insulting you last night. I shouldn’t have said that what you do is fake.”
“Damn right you shouldn’t have,” Kennedy fumed.
“Hey, I’m trying to be nice here. Could you drop the attitude,” she demanded.
Kennedy sighed, his shoulders slumping. “You have to understand…when my dad died…I was alone in the world. Then I found out about you and suddenly I had family again. I was really looking forward to meeting you and getting to know you. It just didn’t go as I had imagined it in my head.”
“I’m sorry,” Isabella said softly, knowing what it was like to feel alone. It had been three years since her mother died. She had never known her father and had no other family that she knew of.
“So, if you really don’t want to be part of my life I’ll understand,” he said softly. “You can just go on with your life and I’ll go on with mine.”
“Let’s find out if we’re really related or not first,” Isabella said. “In the meantime let’s get to know each other. What do you say?”
Kennedy smiled for the first time since Jeff had brought her to him. “I say you have a deal,” he replied.
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