Page 86 of Taming Irish

Chapter 25

Makena

Tomorrow.It’s more than a word. It’s apromise.

My stomach does a half dozen somersaults and my hands are trembling when Emer and Bree come out of Delaney’s room. I brush away the tears that have fallen down my cheeks and force a shaky smile when I seethem.

“What’s wrong?” Emer asks, rushing to my side, taking my hands. “If Shane did something,I’ll-”

“No.” I laugh. It sounds a bit hysterical, but I’m still processing the things he said to me. “Everything isgood.”

Emer purses her lips like she doesn’t know if she should believe me, but it’s Bree that gives me a knowing smile. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask any questions, because I’m not sure I have any answers for her rightnow.

“Delaney needs to rest,” shesays.

Aiden and Owen meet us in the hallway. “We’re going to head home for a few hours, then pick Agnus up and bring her back here. Did ye want to ride withus?”

“Shane will be right back. I’ll go with him. I’ll just stay in the hall until hedoes.”

“Okay.” Emer gives me a hug, then the two couples disappear down the hall, their laughter and happy chatter floating through the elevator doors even after it’sclosed.

Minutes tick by, the large clock on the wall letting me know that it’s been fifteen minutes since Shaneleft.

I don’t mind the quiet. It gives me time to think. To process everything that’s happened in the past fewweeks.

A pretty redheaded nurse starts to walk down the hall towards me, but she stops suddenly when her gaze lands on me. It’s just a brief hesitation, but it still seems odd. She starts walking toward me again, her gaze glossy and slightly wild, like there’s something not quite right withher.

I hit a deer with my car once. The animal wasn’t dead, just dazed. When I’d gotten out of the car to check on it, it’s eyes had that same look the woman walking toward me hasnow.

A shiver races down myspine.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid, like I had been at the pub. Joey had just been trying to protect me, and my brain had turned him into a crazedstalker.

This woman was just a nurse, doing herjob.

I smile at her when she passes, and I swear the woman hisses under her breath atme.

When she turns into one of the rooms, I let out the breath I’d been holdingin.

Just a nurse, Irepeat.

I glance over at the clock, but only a couple minutes have passed since I last checked. I begin to regret sending him off on a mission to find me a charger. All I want right now is to be with him. To talk about the tomorrows we promised eachother.

Everything will beokay.

Even if the baby does end up being his. I’ll probably never have children of my own, but I can be a part of that child’s life. It might be enough to fill that ache that’s never really gone away since I found out I’d never be amom.

With my head resting on the wall, I close my eyes briefly until I hear the squeak of rubber-soled shoes passing by mequickly.

I open my eyes to see the back of the nurse as she scurries down the hall carrying a blue bundle in her arms. It isn’t until she turns the corner that I realize it’s ababy.

Warning bells go off in my brain. Why the hell was she running with an infant in her arms? If there was an emergency, there would have been alarms or something. It’s then that I realize whose room she’d gone into earlier –Delaney’s.

OhGod.

She’s asleep in the hospital bed when I enter, and Cillian’s sprawled out in a lounge chair beside her, his eyes closed. The bassinette beside him isempty.

“Cillian.” I shake him until his eyes jerkopen.

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