to meet you.”
I cocked a brow at that. She’d never mentioned her dad or their meeting, and because I knew there was no secret there, I hadn’t pried. It wasn’t in my nature to want to know where she was, who she was seeing, what she was doing, twenty-four seven.
I was possessive and cautious about her safety. I wasn’t an overbearing asshole.
If she didn’t want to tell me something, I could handle it.
“He does?” I reached for the coffee cake she’d plated up for me a moment ago—I swear, I could live in this kitchen for the rest of my life. Trouble was, they’d have to roll me out of here. “I figured he’d want to keep things on the down-low.”
“He does, but I told him I trusted you with his identity.”
She’d never had a choice in the matter . . .
For that reason, I asked, “Do you?”
Her back was to me because she was at the stove, but she turned her head to look at me. “Of course. I figure you’d have told Aidan before now, and he’d have contacted Alan and made his demands if that had been your intention all along.”
True.
Did that mean she did trust me? Had faith in me?
Fuck. That mattered so much to me.
“What’s his deal then?”
She licked her lips. “He said that he’d tell me his schedule. He wants to meet at a party. You know? Keep things quiet and easy.”
I thought about that, figured it made sense. “I’m not exactly the kind of guy who attends charity galas, but to meet him, we can go. Before or after the wedding?”
“When schedules allow, I guess.”
“You told him when we were getting hitched?”
“I texted him and he called me back immediately. He about bust a gut,” she said on a laugh, then she shrugged. “Tough.”
Billy had told me that Jenny and she had argued while they were visiting the bakery yesterday. Aoife hadn’t mentioned that, either.
“What did Jenny say about the date?”
Another shrug. “That it was too fast, but I told her you make me happy.”
“That true?” I was like a broken record, but I wanted to, no, needed to know.
Her smile was warm. “Oh yes, that’s true.”
My throat felt thick as I smiled back at her. Then I forked up some cake, and she went back to humming as she stirred the pot that contained our dinner.
For a second, things seemed to slow down. My heartbeat seemed to settle into a quieter rhythm, and I realized that I, too, was happy.
Bone deep content.
A breath shuddered from me at the realization, and I had to ask myself how long it had been since I’d felt like this.
Conor could accuse me of being pussy-whipped all he wanted, but I’d take it for this feeling.
Shit, it was better than that weed I’d smoked as a kid.
I licked at a crumb that had fallen on my bottom lip, then reached for my cup and swilled down some coffee.
The feeling of contentment swirled inside me to the point where I didn’t actually know what to do with myself. It felt so alien to be happy.
Of course, it couldn’t last. I didn’t even have to think that before the buzzer to the penthouse sounded.
I frowned because I rarely had guests, and the minute the buzzer sounded, I heard the bell that meant the elevator to the penthouse had been activated. Seconds after that, my cell rang.
Each wave of activity came within a second of the other, and I grabbed my cell, aware Aoife was watching me.
Spying Eoghan’s caller ID, I picked it up and demanded, “Tell me you’re the fuckers barging into my penthouse?”
“Yeah. We’ve a man down.”
My nostrils flared. “Since when was this the fucking ER?”
“Don’t be a dick. He was shot. It was clean. Went straight through. I just need to sew him up, and I need somewhere clean to do it.”
I gritted my teeth, hating that, just as my thoughts had been settled, just as peace had stirred within me, chaos was crossing my threshold.
Though it would always have irked me to be disturbed, what pissed me off was the fact Aoife was going to see this.
She wouldn’t stay in the kitchen if I asked her to. And maybe that should have pissed me off even more, but it didn’t.
She wasn’t a dog. She couldn’t be leashed in her own goddamn home.
“Fine,” I bit off, and climbing off the counter seat, I padded out of the kitchen down to the doorway. I was fully aware that