Page 25 of Stolen Mafia Vows
She must’ve come up with a plausible story to cover for me. There’s no way Kyle would’ve let me stay away this long without tracking me across the country and dragging me back home in a straitjacket, each individual buckle padlocked for extra security. And now, she’s blaming herself for letting me get away with it.
What the fuck was I thinking?
The answer is: I wasn’t thinking. I was feeling. For the first time, I was feeling everything I’ve ever read about in steamy romance novels and finding myself at the same time. And don’t forget falling. Straight into the arms of the most gorgeous man on the planet sent down to me from Heaven.
Do I regret staying away for so long without considering the consequences for me or Sienna?
Fuck no!
But I have to stop Sienna from worrying about me before she develops a solid nugget of mistrust for Eoghan somewhere deep inside, so deep that it will take years to soften.
“No!” I blurt out, fresh tears welling and spilling. Like, seriously? I haven’t cried since I was fifteen and I found a nest filled with dead baby chicks in our back garden in New York. “Eoghan didn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t.”
She tilts her head. She’s still studying me like I just started speaking a whole new language, but at least her eyes are back to full trusting size.
Then she reaches out a hand and brushes my hair away from my face. “You love him, don’t you?”
“Is it that noticeable?” I choke out between more tears.
“Just a bit.” She smiles. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“You knew?” I grab a dry tissue and press it to the delicate skin under my eyes.
“Emily, you’ve been gone for nine days. I tried calling you every day and then lied to my husband’s face when I told him that you and your friendCharlottewere having the time of your lives driving around Ireland with a tent on the roof of her car.”
“Nine days?” I thought it was seven. Where the fuck did the other two days go? “Am I in trouble?” I glance at the door, expecting Kyle to appear at any moment and tell me that the jet is waiting to take me back to the States.
“Kyle isn’t here if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Where is he? You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.”
Her expression softens, her eyes growing dark at the reminder that she and Kyle had the place all to themselves while I was with Eoghan. Is that how I look when I’m with him? Is that how she guessed my feelings for him?
“He had to go back to the city. Urgent meeting. It’s fine.”
“He left you on your own?” My eyes slide to the paintbrush on the table. “Is it… I mean, what if you…” I leave the questions hanging, remembering how I promised my mom that I would be here for Sienna.
“Emily, I’m surrounded by a team of bodyguards, even if they do try their hardest to blend in with the woodwork. And I have you, don’t forget.”
The tug of guilt is stronger than ever. “Sienna, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Look at me.” She peers down at her belly and strokes it through the oversized shirt that she’s wearing. “I’d have done exactly the same given the chance.”
“You would?”
Sienna is only a few years older than me, but it has always felt as if there are decades of experience separating us. Now though, sitting opposite her in the warm kitchen with the rain pitter-pattering against the windows, and the smell of wet grass drifting in from outside, I feel closer to her than ever.
“Sure.” She shrugs. “Only it was different for me when I met Kyle. I didn’t have a family to worry about me.”
Her eyes grow distant, and it hits me like a downpour in winter when I’ve got no umbrella: her mom died when she was a teenager, and her dad hadn’t been a part of her life since she was a little girl.
“I’m so sorry, Sienna. I didn’t think. I should’ve called more, I realize that now, but I was so wrapped up in Eoghan that … no one else existed.”
“Hey, this is me you’re talking to. I get it, Em. I do. But you should speak to your mom and dad about how you feel before you go running back to him, okay?”
I chew my bottom lip.…before you go running back to him… She isn’t trying to talk me out of it. If anything, she’s trying to help, and it feels like a tremendous weight lifted from my shoulders knowing that she’s on my side.
“I will.” I nod. “What do you think they’ll say?”
