For the next few months my life with the McManus men fell into a certain routine. I cooked for the men and cleaned the apartment. I spent most of my time exploring the city with Connor and or Murphy as my guide. I no longer called Mr. McManus Mr. McManus. I called him Da. And I got a job working in McGuinty's bar. At some point in the evening Murphy and Connor would show up and drink and some how at the end of it all I would get them both home and into their beds.
I had saved up enough money to buy a decent pull out sofa which is where I slept now. Thought some nights after Connor had fallen asleep I would sneak in and join Murphy and we would talk. We had yet to repeat the incident of that first night. Murphy was still certain though that the next time it happened, if it happened at all, I would be the one to initiate it. And he certainly tried to get me too. True to his word he flirted, teased, and complimented me to the point where I didn't blush anymore. In fact most of the time I simply ignored him, but that just made him do it even more.
If Connor had any idea what was going on he didn't let on. He was like an older brother to me, and even though they claimed that they don't know who the older one is I personally believed that it was Connor. He was definitely the more mature one, while Murphy tended to be more crazy and impulsive.
Now there were the nights when they would leave with their father and not come back until the early hours of the day. And on those nights I was afraid. Afraid one them might not be coming back. Because I knew now what they did. It didn't take me to long to figure it out, from new reports on television and newspapers. And they knew I knew. But again, I never asked and they never told. It was a silent agreement. They were the Saints, but I preferred to think of them as guardian angles, more specifically mine.
Now they would come home some nights with bumps, scratches and some blood. Sometimes it was their own blood, and others times, who knew. And I was grateful that it was nothing worse than that. But subconsciously I knew it couldn't last, it never does. It was only a matter of time.