Saving a Legend(101)

Fiona sighed and shook her head. “How can you be so calm about all of this? You have to think I’m the worst person ever, being angry at you for keeping your past from me, while at the same time hiding something worse about myself. I pretty much dumped you for that. I think part of me was even relieved when you went back to prison. It was like a built-in excuse to end things between us, so you’d never have to find out about me.”

“Fi, don’t beat yourself up over that. I was always going to find out. It was just a matter of when. Nothing’s secret for long in this family.” Kieran kissed her cheek again, and they were quiet for a few minutes, holding each other. “And you are part of this family now.”

She clutched her hands tighter in his shirt and tucked her head under his chin. He stroked her hair softly, holding her secured against him as she listened to his heart beating. Slowly, the rhythmic pounding released some of the tension in her muscles, and she settled down.

Fiona finally broke their silence a few minutes later, wiping at the wet streaks on her face. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, Kieran. I’m sorry I got angry at you for holding back, when I was doing the same thing.”

“Yeah, that was kind of shitty.” He grinned at her, then kissed the corner of her mouth.



She laughed despite her tears. “I’m being serious.”

He wrapped an arm around her back and she curled into his chest. “We’ve both been through the hardest lessons in our lives and come out the other side better for it. You are better for it. You always were, Fi. I know who you are, and you’re the woman I want to be with for the rest of my life.”

“Kieran, don’t.” She shook her head, pushing against his chest.

“No, I want you to know this.”

“Kieran, after everything you just heard, you can’t possibly still want to be with me.”

He shook his head before speaking softly, inches from her face. “Fiona, for once, can you please just listen to me?”

His husky voice and close proximity made her shiver, and she closed her mouth, nodding in agreement.

“I want to be with the type of woman who cares so much for another person, an innocent little girl, that she’d literally kill for her. A woman who sacrifices her whole life to raise another. A woman who makes me laugh, and whose smile lights my whole day. A woman whose body is so perfectly made for mine that I can’t imagine touching anyone else ever again.”

He pushed a few stray hairs out of her face and cupped her cheek with his hand. She leaned into him, closing her eyes briefly. She was so completely exhausted from the emotions of the evening that it was all she could do to not fall apart at his touch.

“Fi, you’re it for me. You always have been. From the first day I saw you, I knew that, and no matter what we’ve been through, or what I’ve learned since then, nothing’s changed for me. I love you, Fiona.”



Fiona studied him carefully, seeing nothing but honesty in his eyes. “You love me?”

“I’m so head-over-damn-heels in love with you that it’s not even cute. It’s reaching creepy levels, like crazy-person territory.”

Fiona rolled her eyes and laughed. “That was almost romantic. And then, not so much.”

“I try.” He grinned.

She curled tighter into his chest, allowing him to wrap her in a warm embrace. “Kieran?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too,” she whispered against his skin before he tipped her chin up to him to look at her carefully. He searched her eyes, and she felt a shiver run through her at the intensity of it.

“Then this is it for me, Fi. You’re it.”

“You promise?” Fiona breathed out slowly, as a foreign sense of relief washed over her. She was happy. She was truly happy, and it was like nothing she’d ever felt. She loved this man, and he loved her. She wanted this more than she’d ever thought possible, and there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind for the first time in her entire life.

“I promise.” His lips found hers, brushing softly for only a moment before pressing down. He held her face in his hands, cherishing her, as he kissed her with a seriousness that said he owned her. Her heart pounded in her chest, matching the rhythm of his as if they shared one soul. “You’re mine, flower girl.”

And she was.





Epilogue


SIX MONTHS LATER

“Um, why are we here?” Fiona looked questioningly over at Kieran as he opened the passenger-side door of the new SUV he’d purchased the week before to celebrate the end of his parole.

He helped her out, and they stepped onto the sidewalk in front of Fiona’s Flowers. “It’s a surprise, Fi.”