Page 9 of Intimately Faithful

“Please…”

“Tomorrow. I want to know everything.”

God, please help him to wait that long.

Inside his house, he led her up the stairs. At the bedroom door he had to set aside the heart-hurting that he’d once loved this woman more than all the stars in the sky, in order to do what was right. And the most pressing matter was getting her some rest as well as food and warmth for the baby.

“Is your baby on formula?” He asked, flipping on the two bedside lamps.

It was a simply decorated room, in blue and white, used more for function than design.

It did him just fine since he didn’t have overnight guests.

A flame ringed in blue, flickered to life within the furnace of his body when he watched her detach from the baby carrier on her chest, laying her on the bed before she turned, with her almond shaped eyes focused on him.

Danny stayed in the doorway. It was best to have as much space between him and insanity.

He wasn’t an animal, no matter the words of depravity swirling through his mind as he looked back at her.

“Misha. This is Misha,” she told him. The baby now she was free of the harness looked to be between four to five months old, though he wasn’t an expert. One baby pretty much looked the same as the next. She was dressed in a sleep suit, and when Aoife pulled off the little white hat it was to showcase dark, dark hair.

Not ginger then. The father must have dark hair.

He always thought Aoife’s kids would be little ginger-nuts just like her with a forest of freckles to hate just like their ma.

“She does drink formula. I don’t have any,” she frowned and sagged down to the bed before she picked up the baby again and cuddled her in. “I should have—dammit, so stupid. I need to go and buy some… but… I don’t have any money.” It was clear to Danny how she even hated saying those words. Being prideful had never changed at least.

He moved then. This was something he could do. “I’ve got it.”

“I can’t take your money.”

“For your baby, you can, Aoife, but don’t be worrying, I have things for bairns here, including food and little clothes that should fit Misha.”

Her head came up, eyes round as saucers. Had it been any other circumstance he would have laughed at her comical shock. “Do you … do you have kids, Danny? I never thought to ask.”

Was that shock or jealousy on her freckled face? He couldn’t tell anymore, and she used to wear her jealous emotion on her face like a second skin, flying into awful…delicioustempers at the slightest provocation. He refused to look closer.

“No,” he answered. “No kids, but we get a lot of them coming by, so I like to have a few things on hand just in case. I won’t be long.”

Turning, he retraced his steps down the stairs and into the storage room off the kitchen. Only then did Danny rest both fists to the wall, his head bent over his body, letting himself take a long breath finally.

She was here.

How was she even here?

“You can’t do this to me now,” he spoke quietly to his boss. “This is cruel.”

It didn’t seem possible and yet his galloping heart went full steam ahead and he needed to know why … after all this time.

The last time he’d spoken with one of her brothers .. what was it … three years now? She’d still been in Galway. He hadn’t asked after her, he couldn’t, he didn’t want the details of her marriage. At the time it would have killed him.

It was only the sudden shriek of an infant from upstairs that got him moving.

He made up a bottle, grabbed some baby cookies, collected leggings, a T-shirt and a sweater for Aoife, along with socks from the charity box and then he rooted around for a few items of clothing she could use for the baby. Diapers included.

With his loot in his arms he took the stairs two at a time, eagerness dogging his steps as he made his way back to her.

He found her exactly where he’d left her, as if she’d been too afraid to rumple the bed or even turn down the covers. Frowning, he dropped the clothes on an armchair next to a bureau and offered her the bottle. “I cooled it down, I hope this will do for the little one. She sounds hungry. And there’s a few things there for her to wear. We can get everything you need tomorrow.”

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