Page 127 of Broken Blood Ties

She’s back.

And now I have to ask her to leave again.

Chapter38

Summer

My suitcase makes an obnoxiousclick, click, clickacross the cobblestone driveway as I approach the front door. Home. I’m home.

All I could think about was Kieran before I fell asleep in the back seat of the car, only to wake up ten minutes out. No matter how many times I wiped at my mouth, it still feels like drool is crusted to the corner of my mouth—disgusting.

The front door gives way with the personal code Kieran gave me, and I slide in shutting it behind me. Music plays from the living room, and I leave my suitcase right at the entrance to seek it out.

Kieran, all tall and lean muscles, sways to the instrumental music with Aoife hoisted up in his arms. His back is toward me, and I admire him before I notice all the dolls spread across the coffee table and on the floor. It takes a few beats of turning and swaying before Kieran faces my direction, but he’s so focused on Aoife he doesn’t realize I’m standing here.

He looks pained as he grips Aoife tightly. I’m half wondering if she got hurt, and he’s trying to comfort her. The muscles in his biceps twitch as he hugs her, using his solid arms to shield her from all that is life.

I can’t help but smile.

A few doors close somewhere in the house, while quickened footsteps dart up and down the creaky upstairs hallway. I wonder where Allie is.

I turn back to watch Kieran and finally clear my throat, not wanting to catch him so off guard. He looks up, eyes crinkling with a hint of a smile when he sees me. That piercing gaze sweeps over me, and I clutch my sweater closer, trying to block out the toe-curling chill his attention brings.

“Summer!” Aoife’s sweet voice interrupts, and she bucks out of Kieran’s arms to scurry over to me. When she wraps me in a hug, I sigh out a breath full of contentment. Home. I’m home. I missed them both so much.

Kieran strides over, hands stuffed into the pockets of his suit pants, and I can’t help the gnawing in my belly as he approaches.

“Aoife, why don’t ye go up and help Allie pack,” Kieran says, voice low and hesitant.

She nods. “Okay!” Then she takes off behind me.

I laugh, turning back to Kieran, whose hand is outstretched for me. I furrow my brow but take his hand.

Pack? Pack for what?

He yanks me into him, slipping his warm hand around my waist, the other lifting my hand in his. “Dance with me,” he says.

The gentle pressure of his fingertips ground me as we move together. It’s slow and effortless, like we’ve done this before. My heart flutters—and when his eyes hold mine, full of something so severe and passionate, I have to avert my gaze.

His suit pants press into my not-so-elegant leggings, but here in the comfort of the living room, it doesn’t matter I’m not wearing a fancy outfit.

I rest my head against his chest, relishing the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my cheek. The thrum matches the sway of our bodies, slow and sure. His arms engulf me tenderly, so securely, like he can’t imagine ever letting me go.

“How was yer visit with yer sister?” he rasps, his breath caressing my face as he tucks his chin over my head.

“So nice. The boys are spitting images of Nik. Have his attitude, too.”

Kieran’s chest rumbles with low laughter that seeps into my bones and sends a shiver scuttling down my spine.

“We talked about how it might be nice to get everyone together. Aoife would have fun with them since they are around her age.”

With each step, we make tight circles around the open space in the living room, and it’s like I’m falling deeper into him. He tugs me closer, and the way he smiles down at me when I look up at him?—

“They’re six and three, right?” he asks, and I nod. “I think she’d like that.”

It feels so normal, this conversation and the promise of a future. This dance, his arms—all of it worth coming home to, and I know without a doubt I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.

But as those thoughts lull me into him, he pauses, stepping away from me and redirecting his gaze at the front windows.