On Dublin Street (On Dublin Street 1)

Time to divert his attention. “So Hannah, did you read the books I recommended?”

Her eyes lit up as she nodded. “They were amazing. I’ve been looking up more dystopian books since.”

“You’ve got Hannah reading dystopian novels?” Adam asked with surprise, smiling at me.

“Yes.”

“She’s fourteen.”

“Well, these are written for fourteen year olds. Anyway, I was taught 1984 when I was fourteen.”

“George Orwell,” Clark muttered.

I grinned. “Not a fan?”

“Hannah’s reading Animal Farm for English,” he said, as if that explained it.

Hannah was smiling, a little twinkle of devilment in her eyes that reminded me of Ellie. “I’m reading it out loud to mum and dad so they can help me.”

In other words, she was torturing her mum and dad for fun. She and Ellie really were full of surprises. Angels with dirty faces, as they saying goes.

A few minutes later we were sitting around the table, Ellie and Elodie bickering unintelligibly.

“I just said you looked pale.” Elodie eventually sighed as she took her seat with the rest of us.

“Which translates into ‘you look like crap’.”

“I never said that. I asked why you’re pale?”

“I have a headache.” She shrugged, her shoulders tense, her lips and brow pinched.

“Another one?” Adam asked, his eyes narrowed on her.

What did he mean another one? “You’ve had more than one?”

Adam looked angry now, his concern for Ellie bordering on majorly pissed off. “She’s had a few. I’ve told her to get it checked.”

Ellie glowered back at him. “I was at the doctors on Friday. The doctor thinks I need glasses.”

“You should have made an appointment weeks ago.”

“Well, I made it this week!”

“You don’t take care of yourself. You’re running yourself ragged at the university.”

“I do take care of myself. In fact, I was taking care of myself on Friday night but someone ruined my downtime.”

“He was an arse.”

Elodie cleared her throat meaningfully.

Adam held up an apologetic hand. “He was a butt.”

Declan and Hannah giggled. Maybe I did too.

“You don’t even know him. And thanks to you, I never will.”

“Stop changing the subject. I told you to make an appointment with the doctor’s office weeks ago.”

“You’re not my dad.”

“You’re being a child.”

“I’m being a child. Listen to you. He was a butt? What the hell, Adam? You’re making my headache worse.”

He frowned, and lowered his voice. “I’m just worried about you.”

Oh he was worried about her alright. I tilted my head to the side, watching him. God, he was looking at her like James looked at Rhian.

Was Adam in love with Ellie?

I stifled the urge to throw my fork at him and tell him to man up. If he cared about her, he should just be with her. What was so difficult about that?

***

“I would think you of all people would understand what was so difficult about that?” Dr. Pritchard frowned at me.

And I would know this… how? “Um… what?”

“You cared about Kyle Ramsey.”

I felt the knot in my stomach appear as it always did when I thought about him. “He was just a boy.”

“Who you didn’t want to care about because of Dru.”

Shit. She was right. I hung my head in my pain. “Then Adam’s doing the right thing, isn’t he? Braden would just get hurt. Like Dru did.”

“You didn’t kill Dru, Joss.”

I drew in a breath. “I wasn’t the bullet, no. But I was the trigger.” I looked the good doctor in the eye. “It’s still my fault.”

“One day, you’re going to realize that it wasn’t.”

***

After Sunday dinner at Elodie’s where Ellie and Adam acted as our entertainment, I was kind of exhausted watching them by the time we got home. A still not feeling well, and still pissed off, Ellie disappeared into her room and didn’t come out.

I, on the other hand, sat at my computer and started to write.

My phone beeped and I picked it up to find I had a text message from Braden.

I forgot how nice and big my office desk is at the club. I definitely need to f**k you on it.

I shook my head, my lips curled upwards as I text back. Luckily for you, I can work with nice and big.

I got an instant text back. I know ;)

For some reason, Braden texting me a winky face made me grin like an idiot. For someone who was seriously intimidating when he wanted to be, he was also incredibly playful.

So when do you want to schedule me in for office desk sex? Let me know so I can pencil you in. My sex diary is filling up pretty fast here.

When he didn’t reply after five minutes, I bit my lip, remembering how serious he’d been about the whole ‘not sharing me’ thing.

I text him again. It was a joke, Braden. Lighten up.

I didn’t think he was going to reply, and was trying not to worry if I’d said the wrong thing— this whole f**k buddy thing wasn’t quite as stress-free as I’d been led to believe—when my phone beeped five minutes later. Hard to tell with you sometimes. Speaking of hard…

I was caught between laughing and scowling. What did he mean it was hard to tell with me sometimes? Deciding it best to let it go, since he was joking again, I text back … wood floor?