Page 62 of Feel Me

“Would you mind taking Fiona?” she asks.

“Do you think she’ll let me?”

The mini-version of herself in ponytails lifts her head from her shoulder and kicks out her feet, excitedly. Tess laughs. “She loves being on the porch at night. Curran and I will sit with her outside for hours sometime. It helps us all settle.”

“I’d love to,” I say, reaching for her.

Fiona falls against me. “Aw, sweet girl,” I say, cuddling her close.

Tess wraps her a large blanket around us. “Let me get you your coat.”

“I’ll be all right,” I say.

Tess adjusts the blanket around my shoulders, her focus skipping to where Declan is sitting with my father and his mother. “Melissa, about how Declan is behaving?”

“You mean acting like an asshole,” Wren clarifies.

“Wren,” Tess says quietly, like she doesn’t want me to hear, or for Wren to acknowledge how distant he appears.

She huffs. “Come on, Tess, he hasn’t even checked in on her. If they hadn’t shown up together, I wouldn’t even know they were a thing.”

She’s right, but I don’t want to admit something that will embarrass us both. “He’s distracted,” I tell them. “There’s a lot going on at the office he has to sort through.”

“That doesn’t make it okay to ignore you,” Wren says.

Sofia passes us on her way to the kitchen, shooting me a worried glance. Wonderful, she’s noticed too.

My face warms. “This is all new to him,” I say. I try to act unaffected, but the hurt remains. I adjust my hold around Fiona and motion toward the front of the house. “I’ll be outside if you need me, okay?”

“Of course,” Tess says. “Thank you for looking after the baby.”

“It’s my pleasure,” I assure her.

I skitter around the family room as another touchdown is scored and the O’Briens lose their minds. Sofia steps into the family room and places more food on coffee table. Killian pulls her to him when she tries to walk away, and onto his lap. Declan watches them as she settles comfortably against him, his face absent of any emotion that might tell me what he’s feeling. But when he looks up at me, and he sees me holding the baby, I catch something I’ve never seen in him.

He looks . . .defeated. I’m not sure what’s happening, and I want to talk to him about it, but as he bows his head and rubs his hands, I realize it’s not the right time.

I step out onto the porch, shutting the door behind me. There’s no breeze, but the cold settles around me, chilling my cheeks while little Fiona keeps the rest of me warm.

“Hey, Melissa,” Finn yells, startling me.

He laughs when Fiona grins at him. The light on the porch doesn’t extend to where he’s sitting, swathing him in darkness. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says.

Finn is not someone people would call shy. He’s seemingly just as loud and personable as the rest of his family, but every now and then, he needs a moment alone. If I hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know him, this is a side of him that I wouldn’t have imagined.

I move closer to where he’s sitting on a couch and ease down.

“Too loud for you in there?” he asks, stretching out his fingers.

Fiona instantly grips them in her small hand, shaking them.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” I admit.

He strokes Fiona’s head as she settles against me. “Yeah, I think I’ve heard that about us once or twice.” He puts his bottle of water on the floor. “You should have been there when we met Tess—or better yet, when Evan metus. I’m surprised they didn’t run away screaming.”

“Was it that bad?” I ask, rubbing Fiona’s back.

“Worse,” he says. “Evan wasn’t even dressed.”

---