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“I think you can keep these, but thank you.”
“Family is so rare—”
“I’mpainfullyaware of that,” I snap.
Immediately, I feel terrible for lashing out as I watch her face fall.
“I—I’m so sorry, Una,” she blurts, quickly grabbing up the pictures. “I’ve upset you, and spoken way out of turn—”
“It’s fine.”
“It’snot.” She frowns, looking down and quickly pulling out a few photos. “Here. These ones are just your brother and you. I’d like you to have them. I’ll get rid of the rest, I promise.”
I swallow, nodding as I take the pictures of Finn and I. “Thank you.”
Gail smiles. “Please, let me make this up to you?”
“No, Gail, it’s really not necc—”
“Dinner at my place sometime soon?”
“Really?”
She ducks her chin a little. “I—I mean, if you want?”
I grin. “That sounds great, actually.”
She beams. “Wonderful! Here—this is my number. Call me anytime, and let’s really do something soon!” She scrawls a number on one of the café napkins and slides it over to me with a grin. “And bring that adorable kitty!”
Outside, we hug tightly before she pulls away. “I am so thrilled I finally found you, Una. I’ve wanted to see how you were doing for so long.”
I promise to call her soon before I cross the street and get into the passenger seat of Castle’s Range Rover.
“Here, you want trust?” I shrug. “Fine. That was Gail Thompson.”
His brows shoot up. “Wait, as inDoctorGail Thompson?”
“Oh, so you have pried into my private past.”
He rolls his eyes. “Give me a break, it’s part of my job.” He frowns as he glances at me. “Una, she workeddirectlywith your father—”
“Yeah, which means she’s fully aware of what a piece of shit he was,” I spit. “We covered that. Anyway, we’re going to have dinner sometime. So, you can take that off to Cillian for some extra credit. Oh, and she’s not practicing anymore.”
He frowns, nodding slowly. “Dinner…”
“Yes, Castle. Dinner. You know, food. Evening meal. Is that a problem?”
He starts the car. Then he pauses and turns to me with a curious expression. “Why did you tell me?”
“What?”
“You said before it was just an old friend. You could have stuck with that and never once mentioned that was Gail Thompson.”
“Yes, I could have, except—spoiler—I’m not the O’Conor spy you and Hades seem to think I am. So why the fuckwouldn’tI tell you who that was?”
He frowns.
“Trust isEARNED, Una,” I grunt in a deep voice, mimicking him.
