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That had him beaming brighter than if I’d told him I’d just deposited thirty million into his accounts. “You doing right by her?” he inquired, tilting his head to stare down into my eyes. “It’s too much to ask that my lads don’t dip their wicks everywhere they go, but are you treating her right?”
“She’s the marrying kind,” I informed him softly, and Aidan stilled at my side before he released a gentle laugh.
“One of my boys has finally been snared, hmm? Then I definitely need to meet her.”
I tensed. “She’s not ready for that.”
Aidan sniffed. “She’ll never be ready for it. She knows what you are, no?”
“Aye, she does, sir,” I replied, and I realized I couldn’t have sounded more Irish if I’d tried.
Sometimes, on Sundays, after service with the very Irish Father, and then with the lilting accents around the place, it was easy to pick up on that if you had a good ear.
I had a very good ear, which meant I sounded like I was being an ass.
Not great when Aidan was around.
“She knows to keep quiet?” he questioned.
That had outrage flooding me. “Of course. You think I’d—”
He laughed. “No, son. No. Just making sure. You ashamed of us?”
Was he purposely trying to piss me off?
Apparently, my expression said it all, and he beamed my way again as he pulled away to clap me on the back. “Good, good. Never be ashamed of your roots, boy.”
“I’m not,” I groused. “I just don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“If she’s the marrying kind, then that’s the only way this will work.” He shrugged, and though it killed me to admit it, he was the only voice of experience I knew.
My father had been a cunt. Handy with his fists and other things. . . . I couldn’t think back to that time.
Wouldn’t.
When I did, the nightmares would start, and I was too fucking old for them now.
But my old man hadn’t exactly taught me the ways of a good marriage, neither had my mother who’d just sat back while her bastard husband had done things to me that no fucker should ever do to a boy.
Be it his son or not.
Aidan wasn’t the best father out there. He was deranged half the time, half-loopy the rest. His moods swung so hard from left to right, it was enough to give everyone in the vicinity whiplash, but the craziest thing of all?
He loved us.
He fucking loved us.
And I was included in that circle.
Aidan was the only one who knew what my father had done to me; was the only one I’d shared that part of my past with. He’d taken my shame and he’d done right by me. Not only had he taken me in, loved me as if I was one of his own flesh and blood, he’d taken the monster that was my sperm donor for a swim among the fishes.
Because of Aidan, I could hold my head up high. I ruled my part of Manhattan. I had millions at my command, and an investment portfolio that would make any entrepreneur envious.
Aidan had given me the world, and he and Magdalena were the only ones who’d given me an example to lead by.
“You’ll be kind to her?” I asked, my tone hesitant.
He scowled at me. “You think I’ll be mean to the first girl one of my boys brings to a roast? Not even Dec brought that Deirdre around,” he grumbled.
