“Reagan,” Amber chided, “you weren’t supposed to mention that.”
Why on earth? Oh, it must’ve been to keep from embarrassing her. Well, she couldn’t get more embarrassed, so she exaggerated her accent, “Ye like how I sound, wee lasses?”
The girls fell into peals of laughter. Moira laughed along at the night she’d had so far.
Danny, with Ace clinging to him, stuck his head in the room. “Keep it down in there. You don’t want to wake the kids.” He ducked back out speaking to the little boy, “I swear those women….”
“I have a swear jar for the men who work for my dad. So, if Uncle Danny cusses, you make sure he puts his money in the jar. I have to pay for college, after all.”
The beauty of a wean’s mind to switch from one topic to the next.
Chapter Ten
The past two weeks with Moira had been more fun than he could recall having in a long time. If he wasn’t so damn scared of another crash, he’d have given her an aerial tour. It was a beautiful way to see the city. Maybe one day.
Declan had told him Diana was put on bedrest, and her situation was still cautious. So the two remained in Boston and asked that Moira stay with Danny, even though she wanted to be at her brother’s side. To help keep her mind off the situation, he’d done what his mom did whenever she had something on her mind—he took Moira shopping.
Around town, she’d purchased the remainder of the supplies she needed for her studio, and he’d taken the time to show her around. They’d laughed, acted all touristy, and chatted about their younger days. As he’d expected, she fell in love with the first Irish pub they visited. They never made it to the other two. Something told him they’d spend a lot of time at this one, which worked out well because the teams also enjoyed hanging out there.
Watching Moira put delectable looking rolls in the oven, he moved to the bar in his kitchen and sat. With her back to the counter, she chopped vegetables with near precision. He reached over to snag a carrot, and she slapped his hand before he reached the vegetable. Chuckling, he held up his hands. “Okay. I won’t,” he lied. It made her look so fierce and protective that he’d have to attempt a steal again.
Pushing all her buttons made him smile. A lightness in his gut only emphasized the joy being around her created. He’d call it lighthearted… comfortable… close. Yes, it’d turned into a friendship that’d gone beyond what they’d experienced in their youth. It didn’t mean he didn’t still want the woman. He craved her with every bone in his body. Speaking of bone, ashamedly, his hard-on was ever present around her. Either she didn’t notice the bulge in his jeans, or she didn’t speak of it. Still, since she was his brother’s girl, he wouldn’t take advantage, but the desire to have her was slowly killing him.
It was coming to the end of the few days he’d had off. “Moira, when I go back to work”—her knife stopped a moment, then began again— “I need to make sure you’ve got everything you need.”
Although she didn’t look up, he saw a brightness to her face before she asked, “The car?”
“No, Moira. I’ve told you that you can’t drive here. That driver’s license won’t make it through a police stop. Then you’d get arrested. Then your real passport would need to be used. Then you’d probably trigger something in the system that showed a trail.” Again, he wished they could do more for her identification, but it’d been quick providing her a driver’s license to match the passport Justin had forged. The license hadn’t been for driving but for easy ID when needed. To ease his mind, he may need to speak with Jesse about helping her technically disappear and getting her documents that would hold up to scrutiny.
The brightness quickly faded, and he wanted to jump over the counter and hold her tight, promising to always take care of her.
He hated to ruin her happiness. To him, she was a breath of fresh air. Everything was new to her in the sense of how the US set their stores up. The sights, which he’d seen before, excited her, and she talked of painting a canvas of the town.
“Let’s talk about money. I’ll give you some cash and my card for whatever you need.”
She shook her head. “I thought I told you that Declan put money into an account for me.”
With his brows taking a deep dive, he wondered if she understood the change in currency. He also wondered why Declan had decided to remain in Boston, leaving his sister to a family friend rather than asking for her to join them. It was nosy, but he needed to know she wouldn’t run out of money. “How much?”
She told him a figure, and his mouth dropped.
“See,” she said confidently, “more than enough, and he plans to keep it full for me.”
He swallowed a couple times, battling the lump lodged in his throat. He’d known the family was well off, but not that much to have coming in regularly. Then again… “Where did your brother get so much money?”
She shrugged. “He said it was from our parents, and soon, I come into my full inheritance.” Her body tightened and that made him want to tickle her to find out the reason. That had been their way when they were kids. Now, he figured it would be inappropriate.
“What is it?” He reached over and snagged a cut potato.
“You shouldn’t eat that raw.”
Grinning—something he kept doing with her, he probed again, “What is it?”
When she slammed down the knife on the cutting board and looked at him with fire in her eyes, he almost wished he hadn’t pushed. This emotion was something he hadn’t seen and wasn’t sure what it meant.
“I also have
