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My father and Hawk turned to me at the same time.
Dad’s face turned into a smile—the same anguished smile he’d given me ever since I’d come back. “A thaisce.”—My treasure, the Irish endearment he called all three of us.
Hawk offered me his hand, but instead, I stepped up and gave Hawk a kiss on the cheek.
That was my personal way of getting over what I’d experienced.
Exposure therapy.
Get up close and personal with people even though I’d much prefer to keep my distance and not touch or be touched. “How’s Birdie doing?”
Birdie, Hawks’ badass counterpart, had been incredibly awkward on the flight back—a woman who clearly wasn’t used to being sweet and showing affection had done that for me. She’d held me when I cried. She’d told me everything would be okay again.
And she did all that while trying not to show how utterly uncomfortable she was while doing so.
Hawk sighed. “Birdie will be the death of me any day now.”
I chuckled. That was his standard answer every time I asked about her.
Hawk and Birdie had chemistry—enough for me to notice despite my devastated state on the flight home.
But for some reason, Hawk seemed to be hell-bent on not succumbing to the attraction clearly visible every time his eyes fell on Birdie.
“Give her a kiss for me.” I fought my smile.
Hawk nodded but looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar at the same time.
Fighting your attraction to someone inappropriate was hard work.
“And FYI, I’m doing okay, Dad.” I turned to my father. “I’m just feeling a little low. I feel claustrophobic, I miss Fiona, and I wish I could spend the rest of the summer in Ireland with her—as we planned.”
I could see the big fat no written all over my father’s face.
He wouldn’t let me out of his sight.
* * *
Four weeks later
My pulse pounding, I dashed into the bathroom of the diner I’d selected to have lunch with my sisters, opened the box, and read the instructions.
Doing this at home would be way more comfortable. But there was always the chance someone would find the pregnancy test and report it back to my dad.
Something I did not need.
Even doing this was difficult—though easier when using Cara and Jemma to block my security detail from looking at my purchases.
When I missed my first period, I thought it was because of all that’d been going on.
But after I missed the second one, I added two and two together.
Fatigue, missed periods, unprotected sex.
You needed to be an idiot to miss the signs.
I peed on the stick, set my timer, then waited.
I didn’t have to wait long before the plus sign appeared.
