Page 98 of Ruck Me

With a sixth sense, Sophie rolled away from Declan’s embrace and came to my side. Wrapping her arm around my shoulder, she ushered me to the sofa opposite Declan. He leaned forward, his hands hanging between his knees. “What’s wrong, Fi?”

I found my brother’s concerned gaze and our eyes held for two long seconds that felt like an eternity. “I’m pregnant, Dec.”

Declan’s face turned a startling shade of red. He didn’t move a muscle, but his jaw ticked as his chest sawed in and out. “I’ll kill that motherfucker,” he growled. “I will fucking endhim.”

If that’s the way Declan felt now, he really wasn’t going to like what else I had to say. With Sophie’s palm drawing soothing circles over my back, I said, “Please don’t. This isn’t his fault.”

“Like hell, it isn’t. He put his dick in you and now you’ve got a baby in your belly. I’d say it’s entirely his fault.”

“Declan,” Sophie warned, “don’t be crass.”

His eyes shot to hers. “Crass? Crass?” His voice rising, he continued, “Crass is knocking her up when I warned him to stay the fuck away fromher.”

Sophie interrupted him, her tone much sharper than before. “And crass is making this all about you when your sister is sitting here shaking like a leaf while she admits something terrifying to her big brother. Crass is hurling insults at the father of your niece or nephew when you don’t have the first fucking clue what’s going on. Crass is being an asshole when your family needsyou.”

Declan stared at her in shock, his jaw hanging in awe. Hell, I was in awe of her too. In my 21 years on this planet, I’d never heard anyone besides myself put Declan in his place but Sophie had just done it without even raising her voice.

Eventually, Declan closed his mouth and turned back to me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “What can we do tohelp?”

“I wouldn’t here except I didn’t know where else to turn.” My hand landed on my slightly rounded belly. “I’ll start showing soon, which means I need to start preparing for what happensnext.”

Sliding her hand from my back, Sophie turned toward me. “You’re keeping it then?” she asked without malice or judgment.

Maybe I should have gone to her instead of Tanya, I thought regretfully. I’d assumed I could trust my friend, but obviously, I’d been wrong. The story of my life lately, wasn'tit?

“I went to London,” I answered, staring down at my knees. “I showed up for my appointment and everything, but then I got into a fight with another patient was thrownout.”

While Sophie snickered at my side, Declan looked back at me with fury in hiseyes.

“I’m sorry,” she wheezed, fighting back a laugh. “I really am, but you got thrown out of a women’s clinic for fighting? Declan told me you were notorious for getting yourself into the worst situations, but I assumed he was just exaggerating.”

As tears of laughter leaked out the side of her eye, the humor of the situation finally found its way to me. Chuckling right along with my brother’s girlfriend, I answered, “You should have seen me the night I came home. I had a blackeye.”

Together we laughed at the picture I painted, but when we turned in tandem to face my brother, he wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t even smiling. “You went to London by yourself.”

It was a statement, not a question.

I nodded. “Yes, I went alone. My friend Brienne was supposed to go with me, but her mother died that morning and …” I shrugged.

“That fucker let you go to another fucking country to get an abortion by your goddamned self?” Declan slid to the edge of his seat, his fingers digging into the brown leather and turned to Sophie. “Can I kill himnow?”

Sophie looked between us, weighing her response, not wanting to put herself in the middle of a family squabble when she didn’t have all the facts. Eventually, she asked, “Why didn’t Eoin go with you, Aoife?”

I dropped my head forward and played with a snag in the knee of my leggings. “I didn’t tell him,” I mumbled under my breath, my face and neck turning red with shame.

“He doesn't know?” she asked, her tone surprised. “Aoife, you have to tell Eoin you’re still pregnant.”

I raised my face and brought my eyes to hers. “I didn’t have to. Tanya and Aidandid.”

Declan surged out of his chair and prowled the room. “Fuck Aoife! Did you tell Tanya and Aidan, but not Eoin? What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking Tanya was my friend and that if anyone could understand finding themselves in a situation where they didn’t know what to do, it’d be her. I figured she’d go with me, that I could trusther.”

Declan dropped onto the sofa next to me and pulled me into a fierce embrace. “That was your first fucking mistake, Fi,” he said, petting my hair with his large hand. "Never trust someone with something like that who isn't your blood."

Against his chest, I wagged my head back and forth. Our closeness muffling my words, I said, “No, my first mistake was getting pregnant. My second mistake was not telling Eoin about the baby. After that, nothing else matters.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?” he asked, studying me intently.

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