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“I’m sorry, my little princess. I missed you too.”
I’m not his princess tonight, because she is. I relax just a fraction and smile at the gorgeous little girl in his arms.
A woman comes down the hall, followed by Ronan, and I literally feel myself shrink. He terrifies me. I know Finn said he had a heart of gold, but I’m not so sure, not after everything Da told me about him growing up.
Subconsciously, I take a step closer to Finn. I hadn’t even realised I was doing it until Finn glares at me, and he looks a little pissed. I look away, facing Ronan and Liv. He shows no emotion, Liv just smiles, and I’m worried she’ll be mad, but she reaches out and places her hands on my shoulders.
“I’m Liv, and you must be Cara.” She gives my arm a gentle squeeze, reassuring me.
“Uncle Finn… who is she?”
“She’s my fiancée, princess.”
“What’s a fina, fan…”
“Fiancée. It means Cara and I are getting married… in ten days.”
Maddie’s face lights up and she wriggles out of Finn’s arms and straight into mine, wrapping her arms around me. “You be my aunt Cara. Do you love my uncle Finn?”
“Erm…”
“Mads, baby, why don’t you, Uncle Finn and I go up and grab your things and your Ma and Cara can chat?”
Ronan nods his head once and goes to grab Maddie but Finn pushes his hand away and grabs her. “Come on, princess, I want to see your new room too.”
Liv grabs my hand and leads me to the kitchen, and I can feel Finn’s eyes on my back as I follow her.
“Would you like a drink? Water, coffee?” Liv busies herself in the kitchen while waiting for me to answer.
“Just water, please. Thank you. Liv, I’m sorry, I––”
“Stop.” She hands me a glass of water and we take a seat at the table. “You don’t have to apologise for being afraid of Ronan. The man looks like a brute, but I can assure you that he is okay. You are safe around him.”
I take a large of drink of water, suddenly feeling very dehydrated. Surely, my Da had to be wrong? Ronan can’t be that bad, not if Liv is with him and her daughter is around him.
“I, erm… I don’t know Ronan, but I have heard some pretty scary things about him. I sort of panicked when I saw him, and I’m sorry, it was rude of me.”
She places her hand on my arm. “Cara, I promise you that you don’t have to apologise, and you don’t need to be afraid of Ronan. Can I ask what you have heard about him?”
I lower my head and keep my eyes fixed on the tabletop. I don’t know how much I should say or how honest I should be about what Da used to say. I twirl the glass around in my hands, my head in a spin when I hear the guys and Maddie come back down.
I glance over at Liv and smile.
“Let’s have a chat soon, okay?” She watches me, waiting for a response, knowing it wasn’t really a question. I give a slight nod, hoping that she’ll forget about this conversation.
“Let’s go, baby.” Finn stands in the doorway, waiting for me to go to him. As I get up from the chair, I watch as Maddie gives Liv and Ronan both a hug and kisses them on the cheek.
“Bye, Momma. Bye, Ronan. Love you,” she declares, then turns and grabs my hand, pulling me towards Finn. A smile is plastered across his face, his beautiful bright green eyes fixed on mine, a look I can’t quite decipher displayed in them.
The moment I reach him, his hand wraps around my waist and he pulls me to him as he places a gentle kiss on my cheek.
“Okay, ladies, let’s go eat ice cream and stay up all night.”
“Finn,” Ronan yells at his brother as he just laughs and guides us outside.
* * *
Back at Finn’s, I get changed into some jogging bottoms, and I almost change my top to Finn’s T, but I don’t know how he’ll feel about me stealing his clothes, so I opt to stay in my vest.
