Page 73 of Only You

She looked up at him. “I don’t want to go.”

“Too bad.” Then, he kissed her nose.

“I can’t believe you threw a party and didn’t invite me, brother,” Emmet said. She looked over at him and saw nothing but concern in his eyes.

“I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

“You will go if Emmet says you have to. But I’ll be with you.”

She didn’t like it, but if Declan would be there, she decided she could deal with it. She figured she could deal with just about anything with him beside her. She just hoped that this insanity didn’t chase him off.

Fifteen

By the time Declan made it up to Eileen’s room, it felt like hours had passed. He’d ridden with her to the hospital, but she had insisted he get his knuckles looked at. They’d been bloody from hitting Comstock, and it had been worth it. While she had to have an MRI and be examined by the doctor, along with having evidentiary pictures taken of her injuries, he hurried to get his stuff done.

On his way up the first time, Eddie had stopped him because Declan had to make a statement about the attack. Now, he was more than a little irritated because he had told Eileen he would be with her. When he reached her floor, he found the twins outside her room talking to Wendy. When they showed up, Wendy had been on staff in the trauma center.

“Hey,” Wendy said, hugging him. “So glad you’re safe.”

He returned her hug, then stepped back. The twins were dressed in jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts. They both looked worried and pale.

“We heard you kicked his ass,” Zane said. His hair was shorter than Zac’s, which was the only way he could tell them apart.

He shrugged. “I punched him a few times.”

“I always hated that guy,” Zac said.

“Yeah. Always thought he was a douche. Definitely something off there. I should have realized it.”

The door opened, and an older man frowned out at them. “Boys, you’re making too much noise.”

They weren’t, but he saw the worry weighing on the man’s shoulders. The moment he made eye contact with Declan. Without a doubt, this was Eileen’s father. Just under six feet, he had a ton of salt and pepper hair, and he had her eyes.

“Is this him?” he asked his sons.

“Yeah,” Zane said.

He held out his hand. “I’m Declan Fitzoomph?—”

Mr. O’Reilly was hugging him so hard he thought he might lose consciousness. “Thank you for saving my girl. She’s tough, but I’m glad she had you there.”

“John, you’re smothering him,” someone said. When her dad finally released Declan, he could see the woman who had spoken. Small in stature, she wore her hair short no-nonsense, just like her daughter, and she smiled at Declan. Oh, damn. That was Eileen’s smile.

“Declan, Eileen has been worried about you. She didn’t understand what was taking you so long. I also believe she sent her partner a rather bad text that involved profanity. She’s agitated and won’t be happy until you get in there.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

“No. Thank you for being there for her. Just a warning, she is quite cranky about having to stay overnight. She even tried to get Wendy to help her escape.”

He looked at his sister-in-law. “I reminded her that she wouldn’t help me when I had a concussion.”

“Thanks, sis,” he said. She had been like a sister to all of them, with the exception of Aeden, for years. Before he could finally get in the room, there was a bit of commotion down thehall near the nurse’s station. He turned and found his family. From the look of the grouping, the only people missing were Kaitlin and little Mike.

“There he is,” Emmet said, not using his indoor voice. Declan cringed.

“I hope you still think good things about me after you meet my family,” he murmured to Eileen’s mother.

They moved en masse down the hall, the buzz of their voices filling the once-quiet space. The moment she stepped in front of him, his mother grabbed him.

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