Page 63 of Catch Him
She’d done a heck of a lot with his balls, but nothing that she was going to share with her father. “I clocked him pretty good.”
“Good. You coming home?”
She paused, and it must have been long enough for her father to put two and two together.
“That motherfucker. That cocksucking motherfucker. He got to you again, didn’t he?”
Yep.
To her father she simply said, “It’s complicated. Look, Dad. I need some space, okay? I mean, I’ve never been on the east coast. I thought I might check it out. You okay with that?”
“Where are you?”
Sinead hesitated. She couldn’t imagine telling her father where she was would actually put anyone in jeopardy. Then again, Declan didn’t strike her as the type to take any chances. “Let’s just leave it with the east coast.”
“Can I stop you from doing this?” he asked. His voice was gruffer than normal and she didn’t think it was because he had a cold.
Sinead figured he meant staying with Declan. “Nope.”
“What did I always tell you? You got to watch your heart. When O’Haras fall…”
“They fall hard.” Sinead thought truer words had never been spoken. “I got it.”
“Maybe… just… check in. Once in a while. Maybe. When you get the chance.”
Her dad wanted her to check in with him. Funny. She was three thousand miles on the other side of the country and she hadn’t felt this close to him in years. “Yeah, Dad. I’ll check in.”
“Watch your heart and your back with this motherfucker.”
Then he disconnected the call.
“I love you too,” she whispered. It felt good to let herself do that again. Like she was shaking off this veneer of safety she’d worn around herself for so many years. Do the right thing, stay away from trouble, walk the straight path.
Things you do to make you think you have control over life. Sinead learned the lesson early, after her mom died, that there was no control of anything. She could see now that her reaction to that was to tuck herself into a nice safe boring box.
Until Dav—no, Declan had come along and opened the box and let her out.
There was simply no denying it. She was more alive when she was with him. More the person she imagined she should be, and not the person who had been leading such a dry and colorless life.
The tricky part was knowing what that meant going forward.
Shit, he had actually talked about babies. BABIES.
Sinead didn’t think it was likely. She’d just finished her period a few days ago, but still that was some serious stuff. Did she even want to get married or have kids? Did she want to do those things with a lying con man who was secretly some badass contract… hell, she didn’t know what?
What she did know was that she wanted Declan.
Which meant it was a probably a good idea to go find him.
* * *
“Areyou sure leaving her alone was a good idea?” Mary asked him as he reached around her for the bottle opener.
“I couldn’t fuck her forever. We had to come up for air at some point.”
“Declan!” Mary scolded as she ripped part of a head of lettuce and put it in a bowl. “Really. Things a sister doesn’t need to hear.”
Declan smiled. Shocking Mary was almost as fun as shocking Sinead. Almost.
