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“Thank you, Star.”
I smirked at her. “For being sick?”
Her nose crinkled. “You can’t call yourself that.”
“Sure, I can. I’m the sickest thing in New York.”
Her laughter warmed my heart but it was only compounded when she said, “Sometimes, you can be.”
Chucking her under the chin, I headed over to the door, feeling a little better after last night’s nightmares, and tugged it open to reveal the washed-up version of Aidan Sr.
“Padraig,” I greeted smoothly.
He frowned. “Did I get the wrong apartment?”
“You’re not on the top floor,” I said blandly. “This is Aidan’s and Savannah’s apartment. You’re here by my invitation though.”
“By your invitation? Savannah—”
“Savannah asked you for me,” I lied.
“She did? Why?”
I hitched a shoulder. “Wanted to get to know you. You’re close to Conor, aren’t you?”
“Getting there,” he agreed. “We were closer before I left.”
“A nearly three-decade-long absence doesn’t make for enduring friendships,” I pointed out.
“Is this going to be about you getting in my face?”
“About abandoning him? Nah.” My lips curved, though, as I thought about the shit he was going to get dealt from Jennifer Valentini.
I stepped back so he could enter the apartment, and he glanced around the space then asked, “Where’s Savannah?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Savvie! I swear she just said her first word!” Jennifer shrieked from the other side of the apartment.
Savannah came skidding out of the kitchen. “No way! Was it ‘Savvie?’”
“No. Just because you’ve been training her to say that didn’t mean she was going to say it,” Jennifer retorted, but she was laughing as she swept out of the hall into the open-plan space.
Her happy gaze darted around the room, then it faded as she saw the guy standing at my side.
She clutched at the baby in her arms who was propped against a burgeoning stomach that told me Luciu Valentini, her husband, had a breeding kink, then like a wall had come down between her and the rest of us, she tipped up her chin. “I have to go and tell Luc. He’ll be pissed that he missed her first word.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Savannah warbled.
“Did you arrange this?” she hissed at the woman who was practically my sister.
“He’s here for me,” I said calmly.
“For you?” Jennifer frowned. “Who are you?”
“She’s Conor’s girlfriend, Jen,” Savannah rasped, her hands pleating together.
God, didn’t she know that was a dead giveaway?
