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For some reason, I laugh. “You’re confusing me right now.”
She presses her fingers into her eyes. “I’m confusing myself right now. I’m going to blame it on sleep-deprivation, alcohol, and you.”
“I don’t have alcohol to blame it on.”
With a groan, she plumps her pillow. “Get in the bed. I need rest. Or you might really see the ugly side of me. Eva was teaching me some moves.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The door jolts from someone pounding on it. “Kieran McGregor if you don’t open this door—” Ariel’s voice suddenly goes muffled.
Kieran is frowning at the door, his eyes still groggy from sleep. He looks as confused as I am.
I’m not sure I slept much last night, but now I'm wide awake.
“Oh my god, is that Ariel?”
Kieran throws back the blanket and bolts out of the bed. “Fuck. With the shitshow last night, I totally forgot about this.”
I tear into the sitting room, giddy and disbelieving, to find Max holding Ariel off her feet, arms clasped around her from behind. She’s having a fit. “Let go of me, you big pea-brain lug.”
Eva’s standing in the doorway of her own room, hair mussed from sleep, with a perplexed expression on her face.
Max is not happy. Still. And I imagine most of it is boiling over from last night. He booms, “I told her not to bother you.”
“Let her down, man,” Kieran loudly orders from behind me. “My fault anyway. I was supposed to ask Carra to call her yesterday, but...” He shrugs and his voice trails off.
Max grumbles but lowers my best friend to her pin wheeling feet.
Ariel bolts across the room. We crash together and tumble to the floor. Tears are inevitable. Lots and lots of tears.
I’m all sniffles and hiccups. Beneath the pain in my heart, a warm beam of light starts to glow. I know it won’t last, but it’s like air to a drowning woman. “I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
She’s practically choking the life out of me, but it feels like the best hug I’ve ever had. “You can’t get rid of me that easy, I’d have hunted that mobster of yours down and there would have been hell to pay.”
We extract our limbs from the knot we’re in and sit up, but we don’t stop holding one another’s hands. I’m not sure I’ll ever let her go.
Without words, her eyes telegraph a message. Finn’s okay.Thank god.
I melt into sobs again. She hugs me fiercely.
Eva makes an exasperated sound. “Men.” Then she passes me a box of tissues. “I see the barbarians have been at work again.”
Max and Kieran share a combined grunt.
I startle when Kieran’s hand rests on my shoulder. “Ariel has some news to share.”
“What news?” I prod Ariel.
“Your stud there said he’s hiring me for your new digs.”
No. That’s impossible. Only... she’s smiling. And Ariel would never lie to me. But this feels surreal, so I whip my head toward Kieran. “Are you serious, she’s coming with us?”
“I’m serious about everything regarding you.”
My heart squeezes painfully. I can’t look away from his tortured blue gaze. I can’t inhale. He cups my cheek gently in his gigantic hand. “She’s not going back to Coghlan’s. She’ll stay here with us until the house is ready on Thursday. Friday at the latest. I wanted her here last night, but security measures needed to be taken care of first.”
