Page 124 of Healing the Heart

She hesitated, bit her lip in uncertainty, then blurted out, “Tony made me swear not to tell you, but I think this is need-to-know information.” Reaching across the table, she clasped Fiona’s hands. “Noah bugged out because he got scared, Fi. Your thing with Jordano whoever triggered him.”

“How so?” Fiona asked.

“It reminded him of losing his wife—”

“He’s married?” Mara and Joanna exclaimed simultaneously.

“He was. They died five years ago, and he can’t let them go.”

If her sorrow at the tragedy was this intense, she couldn’t begin to imagine Noah’s. “How do I compete with a ghost? Much less two.”

“They?”

“What do you mean by two?”

Regan frowned impatiently at Mara and Joanna, who were behind. “If you came to LBD night more often, you’d be up to speed on all of this.”

Joanna gave her a dismissive wave and looked at Lexie for clarification.

“He lost his two-year-old daughter at the same time.”

Both women gasped in horror.

Still confused at what had changed from ten minutes ago, Fiona’s attention homed in on Megan. “Like Lexie said, none of this is news.”

“No, but according to Cap, it’s not so much that they died, but how.”

“You know? But he never talks about it.”

“Until he’s had about half a quart of Jack Daniels. That evidently gets his gums flapping because he poured his heart out to the guys.”

“Tell me, Megan, please. I need to know.”

“I can’t.”

“You’ve got to!” Regan exclaimed. “For the sisterhood.”

“It’s not that I won’t say,” Megan explained. “I can’t. Tony refused to tell me. He said it was Doc’s story and no one else’s. And that, even if he was okay with it, no way in hell would he risk starting the nightmares back, so it must have been horrible.”

“Fiona.”

She couldn’t imagine anything worse than Claire and Leah dying. But his nightmares started after Jordan kidnapped her. Could it be they went through something similar?

“Fiona,” Mara repeated, tapping on the table to get her attention.

“What?”

She pointed behind her. Seated on either side of her, Lexie and Regan turned before she did. The latter muttered, “Oh boy. Hang on to your hats.” Her best friend merely stiffened, getting as straight and rigid as a signpost.

Curiosity made her look.

She sucked in a breath, nearly choking on it because Noah stood only ten feet away in a circle cleared by the members who knew something was about to go down. The music stopped as the show shifted from the stage to him, and, by extension, to her.

“You got my letter?” he asked.

Fiona, her heart pounding, found herself on her feet, unsure of how she had even arrived there. She nodded. “I did, but, Noah—”

“I left out something vital. I love you, Fiona.” His declaration elicited a collective gasp from the rapt onlookers, interspersed with a chorus ofawws. Unfazed by their reaction, Noah moved closer, cutting the distance in half, and continued with unwavering determination, “I’ll be damned if I lose you out of fear.”

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