“Went well,” I tell him. Several of the local townspeople had nothing but good things to say about the McCarthys. My campaign to vindicate their name’s gone so well, better than I could have hoped. “Article will come over the weekend, and my boss wants me to return to work the following week.”
He nods. “Good,” he says, but it’s again a distant sort of comment. He isn’t really here, but somewhere else.
And then he drops a bomb.
“It’s time we move them off the property, Sheena,” he says.
I don’t respond at first.
Did he just say what I think he did?
I swallow hard. “Who?” I ask stupidly.
He sighs and jerks his chin to the children before us. “Things have changed. We’re going to have to move them somewhere else.”
His voice is tight, and he won’t meet my eyes when he says it.
Even though logically I know what he says is true, my head goes to a place it shouldn’t. I should trust him more, but I’m immediately rejected, cast out, and it hurts so badly I can’t breathe at first.
I knew this, that we can’t stay here forever… I know it still… and yet I can’t bear to think about it.
“I know they can’t,” I say, my voice taking on the hardened edge I can’t help when I’m hurt. “But I’m not sure where to take them.”
And the question that plagues me… if I take them away…will that be the end for the two of us?
I never even let myself give voice to my fears. That I’m not good enough. That he can’t possibly love someone who’s treated him the way I have. That no man in his right mind would want anything to do with a woman saddled with three children, no less. And that even if none of those factors were at play… he’s the pillar of the Irish mob.
We can’t be together. The logical part of my brain knows this, even as my heart breaks.
I nod, because I can’t trust my voice.
I step away from him, because I don’t want him to touch me right now. I can’t. I won’t.
“Sheena—”
He’s calling me, but I ignore him. I don’t want him to see me cry. I don’t want any of them to. Maeve looks up as I walk by, and her eyes meet mine. I look away too quickly. She’s too empathic, too sensitive… I don’t want to see my pain mirrored in her eyes.
Wordlessly, I reach for Sam, who’s now toddling on the ground beside her. I lift him and bring him to my chest, holding him as tightly as I can without hurting him.
“Sheena?”
Fiona stands a bit away. When I don’t respond, she jogs up to me.
“We have to go,” I say to her.
Nolan comes up on my left.
“Sheena, would you stop a minute. Honest to God,” he mutters. “Stop.”
My heartbeat spikes. I’ve learned to obey that tone of voice. With a sigh, I stop, take in a deep breath, and look to him. His green eyes flash beneath drawn brows, and his hands are anchored on his hips.
“Where are you going to?”
I stare at him dumbly. I don’t answer, because I don’t know what to say. I have no answer, because I don’t know where I’m going.
“What do you mean? Where are we going?” Fiona asks. She looks from me to him, and her lower lip quivers. I can’t look at her.
“We can’t stay here,” I tell her. “The McCarthys were nice enough to take us in, to make us feel welcome, but we can’t stay here, Fiona.”
“We’re going back to your home in Stone City until we can find a place to stay,” Nolan says.
Wait. We?
I turn to him. “Ah, no. I have no interest in going back to that place. You know it isn’t safe there, Nolan. And anyway, they can stay with me.”
He said we.
He raises a brow. “We need to talk privately, Sheena. You didn’t give me a chance to tell you everything.”
I’m still fired up, still nervous about where all this is going, so I almost tell him no. That we’ve got this, thank you very much. But instead, I nod. I’ll at least let him talk to me. We walk ahead to a clump of trees, shading us from the overhead sun.
“First of all, calm down,” he says, which does literally nothing to calm me down. “Second of all, listen.”
“Why do you think I came over here? Of course I’m listening.”
His eyes narrow on me before he leans in and growls in my ear. “I’ve got half a mind to toss you over my knee right here in the garden to make you hear reason. You’re infuriating sometimes, you know that?”
“Takes one to know one,” I mutter. “You’re no walk in the park, Nolan McCarthy!”
“Impossible woman!” Baby Sam clings to me, and Nolan looks instantly remorseful.