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His quiet breathing scares the hell out of me.
“She’s gone,” he says gruffly, but spins around. “To Ireland. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
The heartbreak in his eyes tightens my chest. “Eoghan O’Rourke. Now, you listen to me.”
The hardened confidence returns. “I’m listening, sparkles.”
“I want you to get your gorgeous ass on a plane to Ireland as soon as my mother is settled.”
Smiling, he pulls me close to him. “Will you come with me?”
Meeting a man’s mother is tantamount to getting a ring. Especially a man like Eoghan. It speaks to how serious he is about me. But he also wanted to bring me home with him when his niece was born.
“I’d like that,” I whisper.
“It’s a date. We can visit Whitechurch.” He winks.
The surgeon returns and with a full report on how the operation went, I call my brother since I have concrete info to convey and not whiney worrying. Yet, Eoghan doesn’t seem to mind that side of me.
At all.
“What?” Daniel answers on the last ring right before his voicemail.
I step out into the hall. “Mom is out of surgery. That’s what.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Daniel, what the hell is wrong with you? Our mother…” I stop, seeing Eoghan walk toward me.
“I’m busy, Jillian. That’s why you’re there. I gave you time off to deal with this.” He muffles the phone for a second and then says, “I have to go.”
The line goes dead, and I’m left to stare at it.
“What’s wrong? Who was that?” Eoghan asks calmly.
“My brother. He’s in the middle of a meeting,” I lie.
I remind myself, Eoghan is only playing Daniel’s game because of me. He’s a dangerous man who would think nothing of offing a director in the D.A.’s office.
That would kill my mother.
Seeing it’s noon, I say, “You don’t have to stay here all day with me.”
“Aye, I do.”
“Really, you—”
He grips my face with a little more force than I like. “Really. You’re here. I’m staying. There’s nowhere else I want to be, Jillian. How can I make it any clearer to you?”
He’s breaking down my walls, making me question who I should be loyal to. But I still don’t see how we can have a future that doesn’t end up with me being a mafia trophy wife, pushing out babies. When I give in to the idea that I’ve fallen for him, that’s the image I see. Me squeezed into some prom dress at galas looking so out of place among the thin, beautiful women in his world.
“I’m trying to process everything,” I whisper.
“So am I, believe me.” He puts his arm around me and leads me back into Mom’s room.
We have a peaceful day with her, sitting nearby as she rests and watches her favorite shows. Mom and Eoghan trade stories about Ireland. I hadn’t realized how much my mother missed her homeland. She never talked about it with me but can’t shut the fuck up around Eoghan.
I swear both their brogues are getting thicker. Like it’s a contest.
