Page 24 of Midnight Escape

“Oh yeah, well, Uncle Jesse said you can’t date until you’re twenty-five. So there.” Amber stuck out her tongue.

Reagan groaned and fell back in the cushions. “Twenty-five. Ancient.”

Moira grinned and guessed that did seem ancient to a nine-year-old, but since Moira was twenty-eight, she was beginning to feel as prehistoric as the girls made her age sound.

“Are your brother and his girlfriend getting married? Because if not, they shouldn’t be living here together either,” Amber said.

As she’d expected, her explanation had gone in one ear and out the other. What the child’s parents taught her stood firm in her mind. “They do plan to get married. They’re having a wean.” Too late she realized she might’ve opened up a whole other conversation.

Amber scrunched up her nose. “What’s a wean?”

Moira tried to keep her Irish from her vocabulary, so she’d fit in better, but sometimes, it slipped out. “A baby.”

“And they’re not married?” Amber asked and truth be told, the child looked scandalized.

“Not yet. Her daddy didn’t approve of my brother, so they couldn’t get married before.”

“But he approves now?” Reagan asked.

“Let’s just say that he’s not standing in the way any longer.”

“Oh boy,” Reagan said with a dramatic eye roll.

“What?” She couldn’t imagine what she’d said to evoke that response.

“Anytime our parents start a sentence with ‘let’s just say,’ it means they think we won’t understand.”

Well, she couldn’t tell them Diana’s father wanted them both dead instead of blessing their union. “Nay.Nothing like that for me.”

Reagan nodded. “You’ve got a funny accent.”

“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?”

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