Page 29 of Stolen Mafia Vows
She’ll reject my claims that Eoghan is nothing like her first husband. He’s a man, and men do not feature in her image of my glittering successful future, even though she married my dad the second time around and found her happy ever after with four young sons already in the mix.
Double standards. That’s what my family preaches.
It was okay for my brothers to choose their own paths. It was okay when Victoria met Caleb and moved into his apartment with her niece while they played at being fake married. But if I even hinted that I’d fallen in love, they’d call an immediateintervention and discuss all the ways in which they could make sure I endure a lifetime of celibacy.
Instead, I locate Eoghan’s number on my phone and press the call button, my pulse racing like crazy while I wait to hear his voice.
We’ve been apart for less than twenty-four hours, but it already feels way too long.
“Hello, mo chroi.”
My heart flutters, not from what I’m about to do, but at the sound of his warm voice which filters through the phone like honey. “I told them.”
6
EOGHAN
“And?”I hold my breath.
I want Emily to be happy. I know that I can make her happy, but I’m also acutely aware of how important her family is to her. Their blessing for our relationship would be the cherry on the top of the most fabulously frosted cake ever.
She is already mine. But this would seal the deal.
If they haven’t tried to change her mind.
“They’re happy for me, Eo. They said…” She pauses, but I’m mentally swinging her around in my arms and planning our next road trip, and I barely register the brief silence. “My dad said that if you hurt me, he’ll break your legs and toss you into the Irish Sea with an anchor for company.” There’s humor in her voice.
“That’s fair enough. I’d threaten to do the same if you were my daughter.” I’m fizzing with excitement. This is the green light I was hoping for.
I enjoyed driving around my home country with Emily, but I didn’t enjoy the niggling feeling that her family was being deliberately kept in the dark. This is the first relationship I’ve ever had where I care what her family thinks of me. I want to be welcomed into their fold, to spend the holidays together, to not see the dread in Emily’s eyes whenever they call her.
Now, all I need to do is convince my dad and Ruairi to rethink their plans to branch out as far as New York. The Byrnes and the Murrays have an unspoken agreement, and I don’t want them to start a war now. At least, not until Emily knows who I am and what we do. Because while I’ve convinced her to be honest with her family, I’m the one who has been keeping secrets, afraid for the first time in my life that I’ll lose the best thing that has ever happened to me.
No more secrets though.
I feel as if a doorway has opened right in front of us, and we’re about to step through it, holding hands and with big goofy grins on our faces because no one can hold us back.
“What about your mom?” I press because I want to know everything.
“She said that if I’m happy, she’s happy.”
“She wasn’t angry about you dropping out of college?”
Another pause. “She wasn’t exactly ecstatic about it.”
“Emily,” I swallow hard. “If you’ve changed your mind and you want to go back to college, I’ll understand. You know that I won’t stand in your way. I want?—”
“I haven’t changed my mind,” she blurts out, and I picture her with her phone jammed up against her beautiful lips. “I’m not going back.”
I smile at the view of our land and across the sea. “You’re sure about that.”
“I think I was sure from the first moment I saw you.” I can hear the relief in her voice.
“Where are you now?”
“I’m on a beach.” She holds the phone away from her, and I can hear the waves rolling into shore and the cawing of the birds hovering above the water’s surface. “My brother found a little cottage for Sienna. I’m helping her to move her stuff.”
“I want to help.”
