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“I won’t tell anyone,” she whispered. “Pinkie swear.”
Her pinkie made an appearance in front of me—so close that it almost went up my nose. I lowered it a little, hiding a smile, then curled mine around hers.
“I didn’t think he’d believe me.” I hesitated. “No, that’s not true. I knew he wouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because the man who hurt me was a man he trusted implicitly.”
“What does implicitly mean?”
“In this instance, it means Da trusted him one hundred percent.”
“He was wrong to, wasn’t he?”
I choked out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, he was.”
Ren, supremely unconcerned by our distress, started washing himself on her pillow.
“Conor?”
“Yes, Kat.”
“I’m glad your brothers hurt the man,” she whispered in a rush, petting Stimpy when she jumped onto her bed and snuggled into her side.
“Me too.”
“I like them more than the others now.”
That had me snorting. “You can have favorite uncles, but you can’t make them your favorite because of something they did for me. It should be because of something they did for you.”
“You’re my family now, aren’t you? And if they’d do that for you, then maybe if anyone hurt me too, they’d do the same for me.”
“That isn’t a question you need to ask yourself, Kat. If anyone dared hurt you, and trust me, they won’t because you’re an O’Donnelly now, every single one of us would make that person wish they’d never been born.”
She shivered. “I like knowing that.”
“Good. When you have bad dreams, you should remember that. You have a family that even the boogeyman is frightened of.”
“I do?”
“You do,” I confirmed, leaning over to brush a kiss on the crown of her head. “Are you ready to get some sleep?”
“Conor?”
Unexpectedly ragged from this conversation, I sighed. “Yes, Kat.”
“I want to call Star ‘Mom.’ Do you think she’d let me?”
“I don’t see why she wouldn’t love that.”
“If she’s my mom, does that mean, eventually, you’ll be my dad?”
My eyes flared in surprise but with an ease I wasn’t feeling, I said, “It does.”
She hummed happily. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to call you that, okay?”
“You do that, kiddo. Get some good sleep and remember that no one is allowed to hurt you. Not even your dreams.”
