Page 22 of My Irish Roommate

I look over at Ricki, knowing that I will never tell her what the chief has said. Her instincts were on point with this one, but she doesn’t need to know the true amount of danger that she was in.

“Thank you for telling me,” I tell the Captain.

“Normally, I frown upon this type of vigilantism and I would recommend calling the police if you're ever in this type of situation again, but you did good, Rowan. Thanks to you, a dangerous criminal is off the streets. If he had moved on from your girl and dug his class into a local lass, we would be chasing our tails trying to solve the case. A foreigner with no ties to his victim? I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Neither do I, Captain.”

“Anyway, thank you, Rowan. Good night.”

As soon as I end the call, Ricki asks, “What was that about?”

I do my best to smile and tell her, “The Captain was just following up. He wanted to scold me for taking matters into my own hands and to let us know that they’ll be extraditing him in a few days.”

I don’t like lying to her, but it’s for her own good. She’s finally begun to calm down after this experience, and I don’t want her filling her head with images of what might have happened if she hadn’t packed up and come here.

12

THE PARENTS

ROWAN

News of the altercation in the alley reached all of the local media outlets, and it didn’t take long for Emma to reach out to Ricki. Her show of concern seems overly dramatic given how easily she dismissed the stalker situation the last time we spoke.

She invites us both to dinner at my father's house. I’m not thrilled with the idea, but Ricki is overjoyed and I’m not going to deny her anything that makes her happy.

Thankfully, the media doesn’t go into great detail about his warrants in New York or Emma would have surely let Ricki know.

I’m dressed and waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. I have a surprise that I’d like to give her before we leave for dinner. She enters the room and spins in a circle, asking, “How do I look?”

“As beautiful as always. Like a dream, baby girl,” I reply.

“You look very handsome,” she says, leaping into my lap.

“Turn around,” I whisper.

“Is my dress not zipped all the way?” she asks, spinning in my lap until her back is facing me.

I reach into my pocket and pull out the necklace I bought for her this morning. I place the gold chain around her neck and the heart-shaped charm dangles between her collarbones. She hops out of my lap and skips to the mirror.

“It’s beautiful. What did I do to deserve a present?”

“You are you, baby. You already have my heart. Now you have something to remind you of that.”

“The way you treat me every day reminds me of that,” she smiles.

I stand up and she races back to me. I catch her in my arms and lift her off her feet. The sound of her laughter makes me happier than I’ve ever been before.

* * *

We arriveat my father’s house, and I realize that Ricki has never seen it before. She opens her window and looks out at the rolling landscape as we enter the gate and traverse the winding driveway.

“This is beautiful,” she exclaims.

“It was all farmland at one time. Now my father owns all four hundred acres.”

“I had no idea it was so nice here.”

“Would you like to live in the countryside? I’ve never been to Boston, but it is a city, right?”

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