cheeks burned pink, I gaped at Aoife. She’d known Magdalena less than a few minutes before she’d been bustled into the kitchen with her, and she’d told her we were engaged?
“I asked, child, I asked,” Lena told me, waving her hand as I shot her, then Aoife, disbelieving glances.
“I didn’t think it was a secret,” Aoife mumbled, ducking her head. Whenever she did that, it made me want to tip her head back, so I could bite her bottom lip. If we were anywhere but here, I would have done that, too.
“It isn’t. I just didn’t think the first person you’d tell would be Magdalena!” I wasn’t lying, either.
“Oh crap. Jenny,” she moaned. “She’ll be mad.”
Magdalena hooted. “It can be our little secret, Aoife. She needn’t know she wasn’t the first in on it.” Lena tapped her nose confidently.
Aoife’s smile was shaky but it was a smile nonetheless. “T-Thank you.”
“The way my boy was looking at you? I’d figured it out without you uttering a peep.”
I groaned at that. “Do we have to talk like this around the table?”
“Prefer we talk about it later during the football?” Lena retorted sweetly, and I rolled my eyes.
“Yes. These eejits wouldn’t be listening in like old gossiping hens.”
When my brothers snickered, I knew they knew I was right. They were listening in on all of this shit, and they were going to give me crap later.
I could handle it, and when they fell ass over tit over some broad, I’d make them pay, dole it out twice as hard.
That was brotherly love for you.
Aidan Sr., however, wasn’t to be swayed. “Finn, that isn’t one of ours.”
I huffed out a breath. “I know it isn’t, but it’s the best spot for what Aoife wants.”
“Well, buy it for her then,” Conor said easily, slouching against the comfortable, padded leather seat by hooking his arm over the back.
“Good thinking, my boy,” Aidan stated, beaming at him proudly.
“I-I don’t need you to buy it, though,” Aoife told me, her voice small, and I quickly squeezed her thigh.
“No. You don’t need us to buy it, but buy it we will,” Aidan Sr. told her, his grin wide and happy again, like Conor had just solved the problem that was world peace. “Think of it as our wedding present to you.”
When she gasped, I squeezed her leg harder until I felt her wince. I’d prefer her to wince at that, though, than to outright refuse Aidan’s offer. He was happy as a pig in shit now, but if she rejected the gift?
Fuck knows how the meal would pan out.
I tilted my head to buss her on the cheek, and as I moved away, I whispered, “Let me deal with this.”
Her nod was slight, so minute I knew no one else would have spotted it, and that she read the nuances in here so well came as a great relief to me.
I’d told her, on the way over here, that Aidan was volatile. Not that I needed to hammer that home. The man had a serious reputation, after all. But she’d understood, and had apparently surmised the way of it.
Conor, though he’d looked relaxed, had made the prompt to stop his father from going off the rails.
I tipped my head at him in thanks as I sat back in my seat. His lips curved to the side as he accepted my gratitude. He was a chilled bastard, but that was one of the reasons I loved working with him.
“Conor, you buy it for us,” Aidan ordered him. “Finn has other things to worry about now. Like the wedding.” He rubbed his hands together. “I want to be there when you tell Father Doyle.”
I groaned. “Seriously?” Jesus, I’d never felt like a teenager more than I did now.
Was this why men dreaded bringing their partner to meet their parents?
Having never done it before, having never even contemplated doing it before, I couldn’t say.
Aidan grinned. “Seriously.”
“You’ll need at least three or four weeks, Finn,” Lena informed me.
I frowned. “What? I’m not waiting that long.”
Aoife squeaked. “A month isn’t a long time.”
“It is for me.” Aidan would be pissed if I moved her into my penthouse without us being wed, and I wanted her in my goddamn bed every night. I shot him a look. “After what we talked about earlier, don’t you think it’s wise we get married as soon as possible?”
“And they say romance is dead,” Lena muttered, rolling her eyes and making Aoife laugh.