Her dad wanted her to check in with him. Funny. She was three thousand miles on the other side of the country and she hadn’t felt this close to him in years. “Yeah, Dad. I’ll check in.”
“Watch your heart and your back with this motherfucker.”
Then he disconnected the call.
“I love you too,” she whispered. It felt good to let herself do that again. Like she was shaking off this veneer of safety she’d worn around herself for so many years. Do the right thing, stay away from trouble, walk the straight path.
Things you do to make you think you have control over life. Sinead learned the lesson early, after her mom died, that there was no control of anything. She could see now that her reaction to that was to tuck herself into a nice safe boring box.
Until Dav—no, Declan had come along and opened the box and let her out.
There was simply no denying it. She was more alive when she was with him. More the person she imagined she should be, and not the person who had been leading such a dry and colorless life.
The tricky part was knowing what that meant going forward.
Shit, he had actually talked about babies. BABIES.
Sinead didn’t think it was likely. She’d just finished her period a few days ago, but still that was some serious stuff. Did she even want to get married or have kids? Did she want to do those things with a lying con man who was secretly some badass contract… hell, she didn’t know what?
What she did know was that she wanted Declan.
Which meant it was a probably a good idea to go find him.
* * *
“Are you sure leaving her alone was a good idea?” Mary asked him as he reached around her for the bottle opener.
“I couldn’t fuck her forever. We had to come up for air at some point.”
“Declan!” Mary scolded as she ripped part of a head of lettuce and put it in a bowl. “Really. Things a sister doesn’t need to hear.”
Declan smiled. Shocking Mary was almost as fun as shocking Sinead. Almost.
“I just meant alone, she’s going to have time to think. She’ll remember what you did to her and it will make her angry all over again.”
Declan leaned against the center island table, where Mary was standing putting together a salad for their dinner.
“Are you comparing what Garrett did to you, to what I did to Sinead?”
Her head jerked up. “No. I know you. You would never harm someone… like that, I mean. But you did lie to her. You did convince her you were one person, when you were another person entirely. It makes a person question their judgment is all.”
Mary had worked hard to lose her Irish brogue when he brought her to the US for school. But there were times he could hear the Irish in her voice, and it was a reminder of where they had come from. What he’d built for her out of nothing. All to protect her innocence.
“I failed you.”
“Declan, don’t…”
“I did,” he snapped. “I thought I had taken care of everything. Made sure you had all the money and clothes and things you needed. A private high school. A college education. A chance at a productive life. A childhood I couldn’t give you, but your adulthood—I wanted that to be filled with happiness. Except I let you down, and now you’ll always have this… scar.”
Mary straightened her shoulders and stiffened her back. “You have to let me accept what my actions caused. It’s not fair for you take that on. That’s mine, and I need to own it. All I’m saying is don’t think a hard fuck and a charming smile are going to fix the fact that you spent weeks lying to her.”
“You go, Mary.”
Declan turned around to see Sinead standing in the entrance of the kitchen. She looked fresh and new. So damn pretty every time he was around her he wanted to whimper, like a satisfied dog whose master had chosen to pet him.
She shifted on her sexy shoes and shoved her hands in her back pockets. “What’s for dinner?”
“Lasagna and salad,” Mary said.
Declan held up the bottle of wine he realized he hadn’t opened. “A glass of red?”
“Sure.”
He poured a glass and walked it over to her. Then he put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to him. “I know I’ve work ahead to make things right with you. I know I do. All I’m asking for is the chance to do that work.”
“My dad called you a cocksucking motherfucker.”
Declan winced. Probably going to be a little awkward around the holidays with family. “I can assure you I’ve never sucked a cock nor fucked anyone’s mother.”
“What happens now?” she asked him as she took the glass of wine.
“We eat.”