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I knew it was a way of softening her up, and I also knew that if she did soften toward me, Aidan Sr. would stop giving me so much shit whenever we met up.
Sunday dinner could have gone better, what with Seamus calling his grandfather out for being a homophobic prick—
“Aela!”
I smiled at Aoife when I saw her wading through the crowd with one of those baby car seats in hand. She plunked him on a chair, made sure he was stable, then bent down to kiss my cheek. I hadn’t expected that, so I jerked back in surprise, but then stilled when I felt the soft brush of her lips against my cheek.
“Sorry, I didn’t expect that,” I said dryly, leaning over to give her the same treatment.
She beamed at me. “It’s okay. I just—” Her smile was infectious. “Well, I wanted to give you a proper greeting.”
I knew my eyebrows had to be kissing my hairline at that. “Any reason in particular?”
Her smile morphed into a grin. “For daring not to go to confession.”
Ah.
I rolled my eyes. “Aidan Sr. nearly had a conniption, didn’t he?” Things had derailed after the homophobic prick thing, that was for sure.
“You know he’s mad when Lena tells him to walk it off in the garden.” She raised her fist, lifted it over the table, and laughing, I bumped it with mine.
“What’s the fist bump over?” Inessa asked, approaching the table, looking more put together than any eighteen-year-old I knew.
Hell, I’d been a mess at her age. A single mom who’d upended my entire world to protect my kid, but she was so seamlessly elegant I was envious.
She wore a simple black sheath dress, a shearling coat, heavy leather boots, and carried a Gucci bag. She tied it together with a pair of sunglasses in her hair, which she had to be using to keep her blonde locks out of her eyes because it was grim as anything outside.
Aoife, on the other hand, looked a lot more normal. She wore a pair of skinny jeans, a flowing t-shirt with a flamingo on it, a simple brown leather jacket, and some loafers.
Just like me, they wore Kevlar like it was an accessory, but I was definitely underdressed in my gypsy skirt, shitkickers, and tee, but that was purposeful. I was an anarchist, for Christ’s sake. Eating at a place like this was bad for the rep.
And it was totally worth the looks I kept getting from the staff.
I mean, it wasn’t like I was the only person who’d walked through these doors who had blue hair.
Surely rock stars had come and visited?
“I was just saying how she’s brave for telling Aidan Sr. where to stuff it.”
“Confession,” Inessa said sagely, waving at me in greeting before bending down to kiss Jacob’s forehead. As she did, I saw their guards bump knuckles at the back of the bar—Billy and Limerick. Christ, it had been alongtime since I’d last seen them.
“Yeah, confession.” Aoife grimaced. “I swear, it’s like living in a monastery, except with killer monks.”
I laughed at that. “You’re not far off.”
“I don’t know,” Inessa countered. “I can’t see any of the brothers being celibate for long, can you?”
The three of us shared a glance and started snickering.
“Definitely not,” Aoife replied with a cheeky grin.
“Yeah,no,” I added.
“Thank God for manwhores too! Especially when they’re reformed,” Inessa commented.
“Can they ever be reformed?” I mused a little wistfully.
“Depends. According to Lena, she kept Aidan tied to her by always putting out,” Aoife said dryly.
