leave big globs of toothpaste in the bathroom sink.”
Emmy crinkled her nose. “Ew. Gross. That might actually be a deal breaker.” Then she continued, “There will always be at least five empty glasses or water bottles on my nightstand. At least,” she stressed. “Usually it’s way more.”
Padraig was getting into the spirit of the game and hoping he was convincing Emmy that moving in together would be okay. “I’m the messiest coffee maker in the world. Always leave grounds around the pot on the kitchen counter.”
“Luna gets a ridiculous amount of hairballs, so it’s not unusual to wake up to cat puke somewhere in the apartment. And believe me, you’ll step in it barefoot before you’ll ever see it. It’s disgusting.”
“Seamus snores. Loudly.”
“I’ve already discovered that,” she countered. “He also hogs the covers.”
“None of this is bad, Emmy. I like having someone to eat breakfast and dinner with, someone to fight over the remote with at night, someone there keeping the bed warm when I get home after a late night here at the pub. I’ve lived alone the past three years. These past two weeks with you have been…God…really fucking good.”
Her cheeks flushed pink with pleasure. “They’ve been good for me too.”
“So why wait?”
Emmy shrugged, and he could see she wasn’t totally convinced. “Let me think about it?”
He nodded, tempted to push the issue, but Lochlan and Finn’s words drifted back to him, so he held his tongue. “Sure. Take some time,” he said.
Unfortunately, the second he agreed to wait, he felt a pressure on his chest…and he couldn’t shake the feeling that time wasn’t a luxury they had. The sand in the hourglass was flowing too quickly for his peace of mind.
Shit. His cousins were right. Logically, he knew they did have time—all the time in the world—but his head couldn’t convince his heart of that.
No matter how hard he tried.
10
Emmy smiled as Sunnie joined her at a booth in the pub. She’d asked her friend to meet her for a quick chat after her shift at the hospital. The two of them ordered iced teas, since Sunnie was pregnant and margaritas were typically reserved for girls’ night. Emmy needed some medical advice, and Sunnie, who worked as a nurse at Johns Hopkins, felt like the best person to talk to.
She had picked today because Padraig wasn’t manning the bar. His father, Tris, was. Padraig and a bunch of the Collins men were helping Oliver, Erin, and Gavin move some of their furniture back into the renovated apartment above the pub.
She’d wanted to have this conversation in private, her nervousness off the charts at the moment.
“Thanks so much for stopping by, especially after a shift. I’m sure you’re anxious to get home.”
Sunnie waved her off, insisting she was fine. Sunnie was always a bundle of energy and she glowed with her pregnancy. “I’m fine. If I time it right, I’ll be just late enough that Landon has to make dinner. Besides, I’d already told Mom I was stopping by to borrow a book.” Sunnie winked, making it clear she and Riley were swapping Emmy’s romance novels.
Emmy rolled her eyes. “I swear to God I’ve seen a spike in sales, and I’m convinced it’s solely because of your family. You know, I would give you all the books. You don’t have to buy them.”
“Don’t be silly. We love being able to support you, and your books rock. The whole family is hooked. Landon said Miguel has a bunch of guys at the precinct reading them now too.”
“Oh my God.”
Sunnie laughed. “Bubbles bought every single one of them in one fell swoop. She thinks they all need to be made into movies—she actually called Fiona last night to see who she needed to pitch them to in Hollywood—and, of course, she wants to play herself. I swear she’s found herself in at least ten of the books already.”
Emmy sighed. “She’s probably not wrong. Bubbles is just too funny not to include.”
“Yeah, well, be prepared the next time you see her because she’s got all sorts of plans for ‘her book,’ the one where she’s the heroine. Has decided she wants her story to be one of those reverse harem things where she’s got four men worshipping her. She’s actually started jotting down some notes.”
“Shit,” Emmy muttered, prompting Sunnie to laugh even harder.
“So what’s up? You said you needed advice.”
Emmy reached into her purse and pulled out the letter she’d received from the doctor’s office a couple of days earlier. The