Page 93 of Ruck Me

Chapter28

EOIN

“Hey man,I’m having a couple of people over for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy, but you should bring Aoife.”

I bent down to tie my shoe. “Aoife’s in London with her friend Brienne shopping for her wedding dress.”

Aidan’s face turned white as chalk. “Aoife’s in London?”

“Yeah, she was supposed to stay another two days, but she’s coming back later tonight. Why?”

Aidan ran his hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t say anything—it’s not my place—but you need to talk to your girl. Like, right now.” His knee bounced up and down as his eyes shiftedaway.

Just like I instinctively knew what was going to happen on the pitch, watching Aidan’s nervous fidgeting, I knew in my gut something was wrong.

“You better start talking,” I said, rising to my feet, my hands fisted at my side to keep me from shaking him. Aidan was solid muscle, but so was I. I also had several inches on him. If he didn’t tell me what the fuck he was talking about, I couldn’t be held responsible for what happenednext.

Aidan pulled his phone out his fingers flew over the screen. “Here, ask Tanya,” he said, passing me the device. As I brought it to my ear, he said, “Fuck man, I’m sorry,” and then turned toward the weight room, leaving me alone in front of my locker.

It was late—well past when most people had gone home for the day—but we’d both stuck around after practice to get in some additional conditioning. Suddenly, the empty locker room seemed eerily ominous.

As I watched him retreat, I told myself that he was bent out of shape for no reason, just overreacting. I’d spoken with Aoife earlier that afternoon and nothing had been off. She’d sounded tired, but she’d chalked that up to Brienne dragging her all over London without stopping to eat. When we’d hung up, she’d assured me everything was fine, so I told myself that’s how things had remained.

“Aidan?” Tanya answered.

“No, it’s Eoin. Yer man’s freaking me out though. He said you and I needed totalk.”

There was a long pause. “Aboutwhat?”

“I don’t know,” I growled. “He asked if Aoife and I wanted to come over for dinner and I told him she couldn’t because she’s in Londonand—”

“She’s been in London?” she interrupted, her voice urgent.

“Yeah,” I bit out, frustrated at having to answer the question for the second time, and then my blood ran cold. “There wasn’t another terrorist attack?” I asked, suddenly terrified Aoife had been killed by some fucking lunatic with a bomb strapped to his chest or run over by a speedingvan.

No, I would have known before Aidan and Tanya. Declan might be an asshole, but he’d have come to me first. Wouldn’the?

“Oh Eoin, I’m sorry,” Tanya said, her words laced with sorrow. In the moment before she next spoke, I knew my world had changed dramatically, and possibly forever.

“Aoife went to London to have an abortion.”

Without saying goodbye—without another fucking word—I threw Aidan’s phone against the wall and watched, mute, as it shattered at my feet. Hefting my bag over my shoulder, I stalked toward the double doors that led to the parkinglot.

How the fuck was Aoife pregnant? And why hadn’t she toldme?

Maybe she tried, my subconscious answered as I remembered our earlier conversation. I’d been drunk on tequila, but I distinctly recalled her saying something about the pill having a 10 percent failure rate. And there I’d been telling her I loved her and wanted to put a baby in her belly—but not for a long, long time. What was it I’d said? Oh right. “I can’t imagine anything worse than knocking you upnow.”

Even dying? her small voice echoed in my memory.

“Pretty damn close,” I’d answered.

Fuck.

Fuck.

FUCK!

She’d been trying to tell me she was pregnant and I’d handed her every goddamned reason she needed to get an abortion.

---