Page 50 of Lucky In Love

“I’ll buy you coffee and an omelet after you talk to Frankie.”

“Excuse me?” That bomb gives me a jolt of a dozen cups of coffee. “Did you just say ‘Frankie’? Like the woman-whose-name-shall-not-said-in-my-bar? That Frankie?”

“Well,” Kiera crosses her arms and starts tapping one foot, “it’s a good thing we’re not in your bar, now are we?”

“Kiera,” I growl as I stalk toward her, “why do I need to talk to Frankie?”

“Because I said so. She’ll explain everything. I hope.” And she walks away.

“Come back here, you brat,” I snap between gritted teeth as I follow her around a corner and into a room. “I need answers.”

“So do we,” a voice I haven’t heard in two months calls out from behind a closed curtain. It slides open in a flash revealing the very angry face of Toni, standing just like Kiera was, arms folded, foot tapping, but she has an extra surprise behind her… Frankie in a hospital bed.

I. See. Red.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” I start going off the rails. “Did the three of you concoct some evil plan to prank me? Sorry ladies, it may be April but I’m far from being fooled… again.” One time was enough for me and I’m not falling for this again. I just can’t believe they roped Kiera into their sick joke this time too.

“It’s real, Dec,” Kiera grabs hold of my forearm as I turn to march out. “Please listen. You’ll want to hear this. I swear on Uncle Paddy’s grave.”

“That’s a low blow.” I glare at my sister before turning to the two conniving troublemakers, zeroing in on the worst offender. “You think you can just blow me off and I’ll come running whenever you need something? I finally think I've found someone worth my time, have what I thought was a great time connecting, and then what does she do? Gives me a bogus number and disappears. I don’t think so.”

Frankie starts crying and my bullshit meter taps out.

“Oh, come on,” I groan and roll my eyes. “Don't play that with bullshit with me. I won't fall for your fake arse tears. Save it for some other dumbarse who gives a damn.”

“How dare you!” Toni stomps forward and stabs her sharp-ass fingernail into my chest. “This mix up wasn't her fault. Do you think she's in the hospital for no reason? I don’t think so, asshole. She's here, sick after vomiting for two days straight, pregnant with your baby.”

The world stops spinning.

“What?” And it all goes black.

Chapter 7

Frankie

Two Years Later

“Mamamamama mamamamama.”

“That’s you, my bean ádh.”

“It’s too early.” I roll over and bury my face into the hard chest of my annoyingly, chuckling husband. “Why are they awake?”

Declan digs his magic fingers into my shoulders and the relief is instantaneous. It’s like he has a road map of all my tension spots memorized. “It’s ‘cause they love their ma.”

“They just want to be fed.” My head rolls back and I pucker my lips for a quick kiss before I roll back over and haul my ass out of bed.

“They get that from me!” Declan exclaims, super proud of himself. He burrows back down in his pillow, but I put a stop to his attempt at sneaking a few more minutes of sleep. I pull the comforter and top sheet off the end of the bed and walk away with my loot. “Hey!” he calls out. “Bring that back, bean olc.”

“I’ll show you ‘evil woman’ if you don’t get your happy arse out of that bed and help me change and feed your daughters, Declan Michael Kelly.”

When Declan and I reconnected two years ago, after he woke up from his fainting spell, our lives did a complete one-eighty. Once I was able to explain to him the confusion I had when I saw him ‘kiss’ another woman, who I didn’t know was his sister, he gave me the run-down of his equally crap-tastic waste of a day.

What started as a misunderstanding on both our sides has turned into our greatest blessings.

Twins.

Two babies.

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