“How do you know about her and Carl?”
“I caught them together in the vault one afternoon when I went back to put away a drop the branch manager asked me to take back there. They both almost lost their shit, begged me not to tell. Anyway, she oversees all the tellers, so I’m golden.”
“This town is just full of secrets.”
“Yep. It always has been.”
“It still is.”
Becky nodded, gnawing on a fresh slice of pizza as Maeve sipped a drink of wine and laughed.
“So, what’s the deal with you and Ronan? You gonna patch this up or leave it in the dust?”
“I don’t know. I’m still upset with him for sticking his nose into something he should have left alone. I think he thinks he did it for me, but I think it was more for him.”
“He loves you. He wanted to help you. I get it. He messed up, but was it so bad that you can’t forgive it?”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it some more after more pizza and wine.”
“Fair enough,” Becky said, laughing as she topped up their wine and moved on to a different subject.
Maeve listened to her, trying to keep her thoughts from drifting back toward Ronan again. After a while, they called it a night, and she went back to her room, where she lost the battle and was consumed with longing for him.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Ronan
Ronan was surprised to see his phone ringing with a call from Maeve. He excused himself from the meeting with his brothers and some staff members and went to another room to answer, afraid she wouldn’t call back if he didn’t.
“Ronan?” she said as he picked up but hesitated to say hello.
“Yes. I’m here, Maeve.”
“Do you think we could sit down and talk like two adults soon?”
“I’d like that,” he replied.
“When can you make it out?”
“I can come tonight if that’s good for you.”
“I’ll be home,” she replied.
Ronan felt hopeful since she’d initiated contact. Of course, discussions with Maeve had a habit of going off the rails. No matter how hard he tried, he always said and did the wrong things. Today, he was determined to keep things under control and not sugarcoat anything. He’d tell her everything and just see where having all the cards out on the table left them.
“Thanks for coming,” she said as he arrived at Becky’s farm later than night.
“Yes. I’m sorry that I haven’t already. I’ve been aching to sit here and sort everything out once and for all, so if you’ll let me, I’d like to just tell you everything I think you need to know, and then we can take it from there. Is that okay?”
“Okay.”
He sensed there was something she wanted to add to that but didn’t. So, they sat down on the sofa and he told her everything, from exactly what his family did in Boston to everything that had happened in Ireland from the time he and Niall had originally arrived and helped take down the Maguire clan to what had happened when he had returned to find Martin. She listened quietly, letting him finish.
“Do you remember the night you turned up here after you’d been out drinking?”
“Honestly, not really. I only remember waking up horrified that I’d somehow ended up here, and then I saw your note and knew I had really fucked up. I can’t remember anything past leaving the bar and some guy dropping me off here,” he admitted, embarrassed.
“I was so angry with you for losing control like that and then thinking you could come here to me, like I would take some sort of pity on you and feel guilty for it.”
“That was unfair of me,” he said.
“Anyway, you told me you were sorry, over and over. You never said what you were sorry for, just that you were sorry.”
“I don’t know what I was sorry for. Maybe just everything. Or maybe just about showing up on your doorstep in that condition. It wasn’t exactly my proudest moment.”
“I want us to be together, Ronan. I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone. I just can’t keep going through this situation where we keep secrets from one another and then everything just blows up in our faces. It’s not a healthy relationship.”
“I agree, but that is a two-way street, Maeve.”
“Aye. I know that I’m just as much at fault as you are, and I want us both to do better. There is nothing we should not be able to tell one another.”
“No place to go but up then. So, listen, are we good here then? Because there’s something I really want to ask you,” he said, feeling like a huge bundle of nerves.
“What’s that?”
Ronan stood up from the sofa and knelt beside her, pulling the ring he had bought for her the day before she’d found out about Martin from his pocket and opening it up before he changed his mind. Perhaps just having cleared up their miscommunications wasn’t the ideal time for this, but he didn’t want to put it off any longer.