Page 95 of Tempting Irish

Chapter 29

Owen

I’m emotionallyand physically drained, and all I want is to go back to the hotel, drag Bree into my bed and sleep for fourteen hours straight. But when I hand Aiden a coffee, and see pure exhaustion in his features, I feel guilty for thinkingit.

“Ye doing all right?” Iask.

Aiden drags a palm across the dark scruff that shadows his jaw then across his heavy-lidded eyes, andnods.

The nurse asked everyone to leave the room while she did a check on Emer and the baby over a half hour ago. Aiden fought her on leaving, until Emer gave him one of her littlelectures.

Even half drugged and recovering from surgery, the woman is still a force to be reckonedwith.

There were more complications after the C-section, and even though the doctors say they have everything under control, Aiden looks like he’s been through a war andback.

I don’t blamehim.

I can’t imagine how I’d feel if it’d been Bree. I swallow hard at thethought.

“Ye need some sleep,” I say, leaning against the wall and shoving my hands in my pockets. “Ye’re going to be no good to Emer or the baby if yedon’t.”

“Not leaving them,” hemutters.

I didn’t expect that he would, but it was worth atry.

“You can go back in now,” the nurse says when she comes out of the room. Then, she narrows her eyes at Aiden. “But she needsrest.”

Aiden nods, then starts towards theroom.

I don’t followhim.

It’s his timenow.

Emer and the baby will be fine, and in a few days, Aiden will take them home, and they’ll start their new lifetogether.

From the hallway, I watch Aiden pick his little girl up out of the bassinet, then lean down so that Emer can seeher.

It’s a private moment, one that doesn’t belong tome.

But I want it to.But not with Emer. I realize thatnow.

I love her. Always will. But the emotion isn’t what I thought it was. It’s soft, constant, full of admiration and respect. But it isn’t passion. It isn’t fire. It isn’t what I feel when I look atBree.

Cillian walks down the hall towards me, frowning. “Why the hell aren’t ye answering yer damnphone?”

“Battery’s dead. What’swrong?”

“Did ye know Bree was leavingtoday?”

“Leaving?”

“Back to theStates.”

Something in my chestsinks.

Shit.

With everything happening, I’d lost track of mydays.

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