Page 45 of Stolen Mafia Vows
Perhaps her sense of foreboding is contagious. Or perhaps my own Irish sixth sense is kicking in, but I’m tempted to run after the car, yank open the door and bring her back inside with me. If I can see her, I know she’s safe. But I’m not so tuned into any psychic abilities I may or may not have that I don’t recognize that we need her family on our side.
Emily needs them now, more than ever, and I’m grateful that she listened to me and told them about us before we got wed.
Imagine rocking up with a wedding ring when they have no clue that I even exist.
Gran is waiting for me in the kitchen when I go back into the house. She places a mug of tea in front of me, comes back to the table with a plate piled high with grilled bacon and fried eggs, and sits heavily in the seat across the table from me.
“Eat,” she says, and then, when I spear a rasher of bacon and start chewing, “I spoke to your pa.”
I look at her and notice the puffy eyes and the dark circles underneath. She’ll be grieving too. This isn’t how the circle oflife is supposed to work. She had already lost her husband and daughter-in-law, and now her grandson.
“I’m sorry, Gran.” I place my fork sideways across my plate, my appetite gone. “I should’ve told you.”
“Hush, boy.” She waves a hand to dismiss the apology and sniffs loudly. “You have enough to deal with.”
I stare at my food. “I should call Pa back. I don’t even know what happened. The call got cut off, and I couldn’t reconnect.”
“Let him come to you, Eoghan.”
She rises, skirts around the table, and pats my hand. Her palm is warm and scratchy, and my eyes sting with the tears that I’ve been holding back. Gran notices, of course she does, and she rests her head on my shoulder wrapping her arms around me the way she did when I was a child, and I scraped my knees falling off my bicycle.
“Let it all out, lad. No point holding it in.”
I sob against her shoulder. I sob for Ruairi, who will never see another Christmas, another birthday, another sunset. He’ll never know that Emily and I are married, that our two feuding families finally have a reason to make peace between us permanent. He’ll never fall in love or get married or have children.
But I’m also sobbing for my father who has lost his heir.
Gran, who has lost a grandson.
And for myself because, not only have I lost my big brother, but until his death is avenged, my life will remain topsy-turvy when what I should be doing is starting a new life with the woman I love.
9
EMILY
I openthe door to the private room in the hospital, holding my breath, and my heart hammering.
So much has happened since I last saw Sienna. I’m married. She had a baby. And Eoghan lost his big brother all in the space of a few hours.
My best friend through high school, Josie, would tell me that these things happen for a reason, that the Universe has it all worked out, and we’ll understand why someday. But right now, it all feels pretty fucked up to me.
I didn’t want to leave Eoghan, but I knew he needed some space. And I can’t hide from my family forever. Time to step up and take responsibility for my actions, one of my brother Bash’s favorite pieces of advice. Only I’ve never had anything quite so serious to take ownership of before, and I’m dreading my family’s reactions. Sienna probably doesn’t even remember what I told her on the phone when I called her from Gretna Green.
“Hey.” I poke my head around the door of the hospital room and take in the scene.
Sienna is in bed, propped up against the pillows, her red hair piled up on top of her head. She’s wearing an oversized shirt, open at the collar, but it’s immediately apparent that her belly is flat, and it takes me a few moments to adjust.
Kyle is seated in the visitor’s chair, a pale-blue baby’s blanket in his arms, a smile on his face as he peers into it.
It isn’t until I close the door behind me softly and step closer that I realize there’s a baby swaddled in the blanket. I can see a blue knitted bonnet and a tiny button-nose. As if he knows that I’m staring, the baby stirs, and a tiny, gloved hand pushes its way out of the bundle like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, and I hear a squeak.
“Oh my God, he’s so beautiful.” I cross the room and touch the tiny hand through the glove, giggling when the baby latches onto my finger.
“Isn’t he the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen?” Kyle’s voice is clogged with emotion.
I crouch beside the seat to get an unobstructed view of the baby’s face. “He’s perfect.”
My gut is a mixing pot of emotions. Love for the new addition to our family; guilt for not being there for Sienna when she needed me and for keeping Eoghan a secret from my family; sadness for the loss of his brother.
